Page 126 of Honeymoon Phase
Trista turns her fury to her husband. “Fine, then we’re going toSeven Brides for Seven Brothersthis shit.”
“What?” Dakota and I both ask, frowning at Trista.
“Seven Brides for Seven Brothers... the 1950s musical about seven brothers who all live on a mountain and go to town and basically human traffic women to be their brides?”
Everyone continues staring back in confusion, but I hear Wyatt murmur something under his breath.
“They abduct them and take them up to their mountain and an avalanche blocks the roadway preventing the townspeople from riding up to save them. Anyways, Milly, the only ridiculous female up there by choice, gets mad at the brothers and kicks them all out to the barn, so yeah... you boys are all sleeping in the barn.”
“Wait a minute,” Calder says, taking a step forward.
“You’re all sleeping in the barn,” Trista screeches, leaving no room for argument.
Wyatt grumbles under his breath as he and Calder both stare back at the girls before turning on their heels and sulking all the way back to the barn.
Luke steps toward me. “Addison, please. Can we just talk?”
“You talked plenty with your brothers,” I croak, my voice raw in my throat. “It’s too late for you to want to talk to me now.”
Luke exhales heavily and when he turns to walk down the hill toward the barn, my chin trembles as tears fill my eyes. Instantly, Trista and Dakota wrap me up in their arms and walk me into the house... that doesn’t feel a bit like home anymore. It feels like a stranger’s house.
Chapter 41
Fact or Fiction?
We didn’t rehearse this.
Addison
It’s three in the morning and I’m at the kitchen island, stretching and folding my sourdough way more than I need to, giving the dough a harsh punch every once in a while, just for good measure.
I’ve not slept a wink, my mind doing what it always does and fixating on everything that’s fucked-up in my life.
It took two hours to get Trista and Dakota to leave. They forced me to sit here and talk through everything with them. They assured me they knew nothing, and they were honored when I asked them to be a part of my wedding. They told me if I wanted to call off the wedding, they would have my back.
But they also asked me if it really was the worst thing in the world for Luke’s biggest lie to be that he loved me.
“I totally understand why you’re angry, Addison. I’m fucking fuming that we were all being lied to,” Trista says. “But I’m struggling with why you’re so angry at Luke. Wasn’t it obvious how much he loved you?”
“We all saw how determined he was to become a lumberjack,” Dakota adds. “That was for you, Ads. Because he loves you. I’ve never seen Luke so passionate about something in the years that I’ve known him. He may have been hiding his feelings, but it clearly wasn’t a game.”
“But the whole Robyn thing?” I ask. “He knew who my dad was selling the lumberyard to—”
“But, Ads, that’s on your dad,” Trista corrects firmly. “It’s your dadwho’s selling you out of your job. Not Luke. The fact that he went to your dad on your behalf shows how much he cares.”
“So, is the main issue that Luke loves you but didn’t tell you?”
And I feel fundamentally broken for feeling like that is the biggest issue. I feel duped, just like I did with my mom. No part of me ever expected her to not come back home. Yes, it was awful what we all went through, but I thought family worked through stuff. I thought family stuck together through hard times.
And the worst part is... just a few hours ago, I was walking around thinking I had found a family that would do that. A husband, a home, a new family who loved me enough to be a part of our special day.
I was ready to make my wedding with Luke real tomorrow and planned on telling him my feelings tonight. I was going to let him hold me in bed and tell him that I loved him. He was going to say it back and we were going to make love whispering it onto each other’s lips.
Tomorrow was set to be the best day of my life.
Now it’s like someone has woken me up from a dream I’ve been stuck in and they’re pointing at all the things I was ignoring in my time here on Fletcher Mountain. Everyone is capable of lying. Everyone is capable of leaving me.
It’s so laughable of me to think I could have a normal relationship with a man. I have an alcoholic, dangerous, absentee mother and an overbearing, narcissistic, misogynistic father. To think I was dreaming about having kids.
