Page 160 of Stuck with my Mountain Daddies

The wind moved through the trees. Her breath shuddered out.

And then Beckett said, quietly but with that steel edge that said he meant it, “We’re not going anywhere.”

She looked up, eyes rimmed in red, lashes wet.

He reached up, thumb brushing her cheek. “No matter how bad it gets. No matter what Ava or the Internet, or anyone else says. This is ours. Not theirs. They don’t get to write our story.”

Garrett nodded. “Let ’em talk. Let ’em twist it all they want. We know the truth. You know the truth. That’s all that matters.”

“Medford knows it, too,” I added, watching the trees sway gently beyond the clearing. “This town? It’s not perfect. But these people aren’t like the ones out there waiting to tear you apart. They’ve got your back, Riley. We have your back.”

She swallowed hard, voice shaking when she spoke. “I don’t know how to fix it. With Lucy. With all of this.”

“We’ll help you,” Garrett said, firm and certain. “With her. With everything.”

“I shouldn’t have lied?—”

“Then be honest now,” Beckett cut in gently. “Start there. She’s angry, sure. Hurt. But she loves you. That doesn’t just disappear.”

“You’re family,” I added. “No matter what it looks like right now.”

Riley stared at the snow, then at us. One by one. As if checking to make sure we were real. Still here. Still hers.

And we were.

Even broken and bruised and half-mad with jealousy or rage or fear, we were still hers.

Always had been. Always would be.

“I don’t deserve you,” she whispered.

“You do,” Beckett said simply. “You do, Riley.”

And this time, when she cried, she didn’t do it alone.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Riley

It tookme three tries to knock on Lucy’s door.

The first time, my knuckles hovered in the air, and I froze, every worst-case scenario crashing through my mind at once.

The second time, I barely tapped once before stepping back as if the wood had burned me.

The third time, Beckett placed his hand gently over mine and gave the door a firm knock.

Then he stepped away.

So did Garrett. So did Asher.

None of them said anything.

They waited behind me, a silent wall of support in boots and flannel, making it clear I didn’t have to do this alone, but they trusted me to take the first step.

I swallowed the nerves clawing at my throat and waited.

The door opened. Lucy stood there, hair scraped into a messy bun, sweatshirt too big for her, arms crossed like armor.

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