Because I Said So by Karin Kallmaker

Love at first sight absolutely, positively doesn’t exist…

Kesa Sapiro had to grow up fast. With her parents gone and a little sister to protect, Kesa has spent over a decade of her life trying to keep a roof over their heads. She’s learned the hard way that love is a luxury and that the price is way too high. When her sister Josie announces she wants to marry a boy she’s known for less than a month, Kesa immediately forbids it.

Shannon Dealan is floored when her son-by-choice says he wants to get married to a girl he’s just met. Shannon has real reason to scrutinize any strangers who come into Paz’s life. She’s not about to let him do anything stupid — and that includes believing in love at first sight. She knows too well there’s no such thing.

Hoping to soften the objections of their jaded, overbearing elders, Josie and Paz arrange for them to meet and discuss the future like civilized adults … but absolutely nothing goes as planned.

Author's Notes
It’s probably a good thing readers can’t hear me cackle with delight when I am puppet-mastering the characters through their story. For this book I cackled. A lot. Jennifer Lamont makes an appearance – more than one appearance. The woman just won’t leave me alone, and it’s a good thing.