Page 4 of Honeymoon Phase
I shake my head firmly, trying to muster up the strengthto say no to my niece. “Don’t add me to your matchmaking schemes.”
“Why not?”
My lips thin as my heart thumps with an ache I’ve been trying to ignore for the past several years. “Because it’s pointless.”
“Why?”
Because I’m the greatest hypocrite of them all.
I inhale a heavy breath as I allow myself to say the next words out loud for the first time. “Because the woman I want doesn’t want me back.”
The quiet sounds of nature are deafening during the silence that spreads between me and Everly. My niece’s voice is soft when she asks, “How long have you been in love with Addison Monroe?”
“How do you know it’s her?” I balk defensively.
“Because you brought her to Mexico for Wyatt and Trista’s wedding and stared at her like a lost puppy the entire time.”
I pull my hat forward to cover my face, feeling like a complete schmuck. It’s extremely humbling having your college-aged niece read you with so little effort. And yet, here I sit on a mountain surrounded by pines... pining for a girl I can never have. I am pathetic.
“I wasn’t sure of your feelings until the end of the trip, or I would have tried to force you two into the same room as well.” Everly purses her lips like she’s disappointed in herself, which is fucking ridiculous.
I swallow the knot in my throat, attempting to regain control of this conversation. “Let’s talk about when you’re flying back to Ireland for college. I’m going to miss you something fierce again. This summer went way too fast.”
“Stop trying to change the subject.” Everly scowls back at me.
“I don’t want to have this conversation with you,” I groan, feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders.
“Why not?”
“Because Addison is getting married, so none of it matters.” I drop the truth on my niece just to get her to realize this isn’t a conversation that will have a happy ending. Not for me anyways.
Everly sucks a sharp breath as she presses her hand to her chest. “To who?”
“I don’t know. But when Roe puts her mind to something, she gets it done.” I roll out my shoulders, feeling tense over just saying the nickname I pegged her with shortly after we met. I think it was a defense mechanism to put her in the friends-only zone.Addisonis too feminine. Too intimate.Roeis tough. Ballsy. It’s a derivative of her last name of Monroe, like what we do with guys Calder and I play intermural hockey with. It helps put her staunchly in the bro category where she belongs, so no one gets hurt.
But the way my body reacts when I think about her is very un-bro-like. And she’s not even standing in front of me right now to inspire such indecent thoughts.
“I need more details, Luke,” Everly snaps, losing patience with my less-than-stellar storytelling.
I exhale heavily. Maybe if I tell someone the full situation, I’ll stop feeling like my head is about to explode. Maybe I’ll stop looking at my brothers in love with murder in my heart. Maybe I’ll stop moping on this bench every night. Maybe I’ll stop stressing out over what one of my closest friends is attempting to do with her life.
“Roe told me when we were in Mexico for Wyatt and Trista’s wedding a few months ago that she has to get married before the end of the year or her father is going to sell the lumberyard.”
“Say what?” Everly exclaims, her voice taking on a raspy tone.
I grip the back of my neck and shrug. “Her dad is old-school and refuses to pass it on to her if she’s on her own. The requirement is built into the trust that her great-grandfather created for the business. No single person can take over the company. So now she’s trying to find some random dude to marry her so she can take full ownership.”
The Cheshire cat smile that spreads across Everly’s face is terrifying. “This is perfect,” she peals, clapping her hands excitedly.
“How is this perfect?” I ask, gaping at my niece, who I consider myself very close to, but she seems far too happy over my less-than-ideal situation.
Everly has always felt more like a little sister than a niece. I’m thirty-three years old, so fourteen years older than her is obviously a big age gap, but Max had Everly when I was barely a teenager myself, so I feel like I grew up with her at the kids table. And we’ve always had this easy way of talking. Regular texts and phone calls even when she went away to Ireland for college. Actually, especially when she went away for college. I was worried sick every day of something happening to her. If she didn’t text me back within an hour, my blood pressure would start to rise with every passing minute. Everly knows that about me too, so she does a good job keeping up with communication. She’s really the only one who knows how much my head races to bad places if the people I care about are unreachable.
It’s why I call my mom all the time too. Calder calls me a momma’s boy for it, but it’s not a bad thing to worry about our widowed mother. She’s all alone now and God knows what could happen to her every day. She used to have my dad looking out for her, but now she has no one. I hate thinking of her in that big house all alone. I can’t help but stress over the people in my life, especially the women.
Luckily Everly tolerates my need for communication fairly well. I miss her. And I’ve missed her words of wisdom. I don’t know how the fuck she does it, but she really does give good advice. She has since she was young. Unexpected answers thatfeel pure and honest and untainted by the darkness of the world. It’s no wonder she’s a self-proclaimed matchmaker. She’s good at peopling.
Unlike Wyatt, who grunts more than speaks, and Calder, who’s constantly pushing people’s buttons. Or Max, who always wants to control every situation he comes into contact with.
