Page 64 of Secrets at Seaside
“I’m in no rush, thank you very much. I’m having fun just hanging out.” Sky finished braiding Jenna’s hair and patted Jenna’s back so she knew she was free to move. “When will you guys get married? My friend Lizzie owns a flower shop in P-town. I bet she’d love to handle the bouquets.”
“That would be awesome,” Jenna said. “We need to coordinate dresses, flowers…shoes.”
“Uh oh, here she goes. OCD Central coming through,” Bella teased. “And this one over here can’t stop looking at her engagement ring.” She nodded at Amy.
“Do you blame me?” Amy held her hand out and wiggled her fingers. Tony squeezed her thigh. He was sitting beside her with the same ridiculously happy grin he’d had on his face all morning.
“It is gorgeous.” Sky took a closer look at the ring.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I would really like a simple wedding,” Leanna said. “I have to leave for the flea market, so let me just lodge my vote. Beach wedding, casual dresses, just us.”
“Whoa, babe.” Kurt petted Pepper, who was cuddled up in his lap. “While that sounds more than perfect to me, I think my sister and mother might have an issue with not being there.” He set Pepper on the ground, and Pepper ran directly to Amy and rolled over.
Amy petted his belly and Joey nosed her way into the petting action.
“Oh, right. Well, I guess my family might want to be there, too.” Leanna looked at the others. “And I can’t imagine all of y’all’s families won’t want to be there, too.”
Pete groaned.
Sky laughed. “Yeah, they’ll want to be there. Dad would be mad if he missed it. And trust me, Hunter, Matt, and Grayson will want to witness the first Lacroux to take the plunge.”
“My parents, too,” Caden added.
Tony took a sip of coffee and glanced at Amy. “Babe, your parents will want to be there, too. I think this wedding is getting much bigger than we thought.”
“But…everyone waited for us to get married,” Amy said.
“Jamie and Jessica didn’t,” Bella reminded her.
“Well, Jamie wasn’t really included in the three of you holding out, but I think Jamie was afraid I’d never get engaged, and he was so ready to marry Jessica anyway. I think it was hard for him to wait as long as he did.” Amy thought about what kind of wedding she really wanted. When she thought of marrying Tony, the only image that came to mind was all of the Seaside gang, on the beach, getting married at the same time. She looked around the table, and no matter how hard she tried to skew the wedding in her head to include all the families, it didn’t work.
“I think I have an idea,” she said, and all eyes turned to her. “What about if we have our private beach wedding. Just us, and Theresa, of course. She is part of Seaside. We can wait until Jamie and Jessica come back with Vera, and then we can each have another wedding with our own families.”
Tony put his arm around her shoulder and tugged her in closer. “Brilliant.” He kissed her cheek. “I love that. Our families are important, but you know once we get all the families together, the wedding will become a zoo. Leanna’s brother Dae will want to blow something up. Grayson and Hunter will want to construct a steel sculpture to commemorate the day—”
“And you haven’t met my sister, Siena,” Kurt said. “Siena and my mother will want to be part of the planning, from the dresses to the food.”
“Does anyone not like my plan?” Amy scanned her friends’ faces. Pete raised his brows to Jenna, who smiled and nodded. Bella and Caden whispered among themselves, and Leanna and Kurt nodded in agreement.
Evan came through the cottage door with a chocolate doughnut in one hand and his cell phone in the other. “I’m all for a beach wedding.” He took a bite of his doughnut.
“Well, if Evan’s in agreement, it’s settled.” Tony held his hand up and Evan high-fived him.
“I can handle the music,” Evan offered. “And I can video it if you want.”
“That would be great,” Bella said.
“I have to take off,” Leanna said. “This sounds great to me, if Kurt’s okay with it.”
Kurt patted his leg and Pepper came to his side. He scooped up the pup. “Sounds perfect to me. I get to marry you twice. You guys just let me know what I can do to help, financially or coordinating, whatever. I’m heading over to the bay to write today.”
After Kurt and Leanna left, Jenna went into Bella’s cottage and came back out with a notepad. “Okay. I’m ready. When do we want to do this?”
Pete, Caden, and Tony exchanged aLet’s get the heck outta hereglance and rose to their feet.
“Anyone else feeling the need to go split some wood or wrestle a bear?” Tony asked.
“Please.” Pete kissed the top of Jenna’s head and patted his thigh. Joey bounded to his side. “I can feel my breasts growing from all this girl talk.”
