Page 43 of Honeymoon Phase
“Thank you,” I state, sparing a glance at Luke.
“Which is how I know you deserve so much better than a son who doesn’t tell his own mother when he got married.” She cuts a menacing look back to her son.
Luke grips the back of his neck and stares up at the sky. “Jesus, Mom, it’s been like three days.”
“I don’t give a shit!” she exclaims, stomping her Dr. Scholl’s shoe into the gravel. “I should have been the first one you called. John said you came to the house to see him on Friday. Did you forget where your family home was?”
Luke winces and yanks his hat off, running his fingers through his hair as he murmurs, “No.”
“We were going to surprise you,” I sputter out, my body tense with anxiety as I grab Luke’s palm with one hand and wrap my other around his arm as a sign of unity. “It was my idea,” I continue, my brain wracking itself for what to say next. “We were going to surprise your whole family. Tell you when we were all together.”
Johanna’s rage turns to confusion. “Is that right?”
“Absolutely,” I reply firmly, forcing a toothy smile back at her. “We just had to tell my dad earlier because he was heading back to Florida.”
“I see,” Johanna tuts, crossing her arms over her chest, her chin dropping as her lips curl down.
“This is so exciting, you guys,” Trista exclaims, coming up around the car and standing beside Johanna. She wraps her arm around Luke’s mom and begins rubbing her back in a soothing, comforting motion. “Isn’t this great, Jo? You were just saying how worried you were for Luke to be all alone up here. This is so amazing. Congratulations!”
“Did you guys seriously get married?” Dakota squeals from their deck before grabbing Calder and dragging him up the hill toward us.
Wyatt joins in too and, before I know it, the entire Fletcher family is wrapping me up in a big hug and offering me and Luke their congratulations. Luke receives several pats on hisback from his brothers and I begin to see the reason why Luke wanted to keep this all a secret from them.
They are a lot.
But he’s the one who chose to live up here with them all on the mountain. He’s the one who volunteered his home for us to live in. This was all his idea, as a matter of fact. And it took three proposals to get us here. Did he not realize how hard this might be?
“Calder, go to our cabin and grab that prosecco in the fridge,” Dakota says, whacking her boyfriend’s tattoo-covered arm with a sense of urgency.
“What’s prosecco?”
Dakota rolls her eyes. “The champagne.”
“Oh... what do I bring for cups?”
She winces and then shrugs. “The red Solo cups are fine.”
“So bad for the environment,” Wyatt growls under his breath as Calder turns to do as his lady told him.
Trista comes in close, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “Let’s see the ring!”
“Oh, um...” I hesitate before Luke interjects.
“It’s coming still.” Luke smiles awkwardly at me and glances down at my empty hand. “Like I said before, this was all really impulsive and spur-of-the-moment so there’s a lot we still have to figure out.”
“Impulsive is fun!” Dakota smiles, showing me all her teeth. “I could totally tell you two had the hots for each other in Mexico.”
“Oh, is that right?” I giggle woodenly, my eyes flashing nervously to Luke.
“This boy is smitten with you,” Trista adds, grabbing Luke’s arm playfully. “You snagged a good one here. Heart of gold.”
“Definitely,” I say around a laugh as Calder appears, popping the cork and sending it flying down the mountain.
“You’re going to go find that,” Wyatt drawls and Calder rolls his eyes.
Dakota pours everyone some bubbles and as she tries to pass a cup to Johanna, she holds her hand up to refuse. “None for me, thanks.”
“Are you sure?” Dakota asks with a frown.
