Listen to Your Heart
Sydney Logan
For my parents, who bought me records and cassettes and let me cover my walls with everyone from Michael Jackson to Randy Travis.
And for my husband, who loves music as much as I do.
Wedding planner Skye Douglas makes a career out of bringing fairytales to life—even if she’s given up on her own happily ever after. Instead of dating, she devotes time to her nephew, a guitar prodigy who shares her love for 80s hair bands. When she encounters Caleb Lynch, the new guitar teacher, everything changes. Caleb's passion for music—not to mention his Def Leppard T-shirt—makes Skye wonder if she might get her storybook ending after all.
Caleb would do anything for those he loves—including a fake engagement as a gift to his best friend's dying mother. But after meeting Skye, he regrets the promise he made.
When Skye realizes she’s fallen for the groom, will she listen to her head . . . or her heart?
“I hate weddings.”
I glance up from my laptop and grin. “Then you’re in the wrong business.”
Lynsey falls dramatically onto my love seat. “Brides suck the fun out of wedding planning. Why do they have to be so difficult? Don’t they understand I know what I’m doing? That I’m actually doing them a favor when I say ‘that shade of yellow will look like baby poop against your skin.’ I mean, seriously Skye, the customer isn’t always right.”
I smile sympathetically at my best friend and business partner. She’s really been struggling with this account.
“I know, Lyns, but at the end of the day, it’s her wedding. You can suggest all you want, but the final decision is hers. Our job is to turn those decisions—as wrong as they may be—into the wedding of her dreams.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Lynsey and I opened our wedding planning business two years ago. With my degree in business and hers in interior design, we secured a small business loan and opened our shop just eight months after graduation. We gave it a cute name—Wedding Belles, a nod to our Southern roots—and booked two accounts our first week. Today, we’re owners of the most profitable wedding planning business in Nashville. Lynsey handles the finer details of the bride’s big day—fittings, dress colors, cake samples, china patterns—while I deal with vendors, book locations, and direct the actual ceremony. Along with our team of three part-time associates and Robyn, our receptionist, we’ve built a fantastic business, despite the fact that wedding planning wasn’t exactly what we’d had in mind for our professional lives. It was only after Lynsey’s own disastrous nuptials that we decided the brides of Nashville desperately needed our help.
Lynsey’s ceremony was a huge affair with three hundred guests and a wedding planner named Blaze who turned her dream day into a three-ring circus. The band didn’t show, the caterer skipped town, and the photographer’s camera malfunctioned in the middle of the ceremony. All was not lost, however. At the end of the day, Lynsey married the man of her dreams, and the two of them are still living happily ever after. But her experience made us both determined that no bride should suffer the same fate. That’s how my best friend, with the help of two bottles of wine, convinced me to become her business partner. Today, we’re wildly successful and insanely booked, and we’re loving every minute of it.
Well, almost every minute. Lynsey has very little patience with Bridezillas.
I try to lighten the mood. “In happier news, the Martinez-Lynch account seems to be running smoothly.”
Lynsey twirls a lock of her curly blonde hair while scrolling through her phone. “That’s because Juliana Martinez is a dream bride. No complaints. No bitching whatsoever. All she says is, ‘Whatever you want, Lynsey. Just make it pretty.’ Admit it, Skye, it’s the most fun we’ve ever had planning a wedding.”
I can’t deny it. Juliana’s definitely a rare breed when it comes to brides. I met her during the consultation. She was kind, soft-spoken, and by the end of that first meeting, had given us a huge check and told us to go nuts. At first, Lynsey and I had concerns about the bride’s lack of input, but Juliana’s loved everything we’ve suggested so far, so we’re trying to relax and enjoy it.
Suddenly, my phone pings with a calendar reminder. I glance at the screen and sigh with relief.
“Thank God for technology. I totally forgot I’m supposed to pick up Eli after his music lesson today.”
“Ooh, I forgot about guitar! How’s that going?”
I smile proudly. “He played me the opening bars of Every Rose Has Its Thorn last night.”
“80s heavy metal? The kid’s definitely related to you.”
“I know. Isn’t it great?”
Lynsey grins. She loves Eli almost as much as I do.
“He’s taking lessons at school?”
“Yeah, it’s some kind of enrichment class for talented and gifted students. It’s scary how good he is.”
Lynsey’s voice grows soft. “You’re a good aunt, Skye. They’re lucky to have you.”
I shrug. It’s not like I’m looking for accolades. Nick’s my brother. Eli’s my nephew. You take care of family. And they’ve needed a lot of taking care of over the past year.