Page 137 of Honeymoon Phase
And with that, I lay my cheek on my dad’s chest and let him spin me around the dance floor, feeling more like a daddy’s girl than I have in a very long time.
Chapter 46
Fact or Fiction?
Getting down on one knee is overrated.
Luke
I stand on the front porch with my wife as we watch the car service take the last of the guests down the mountain and back to their homes. I move to stand behind my wife, wrapping my hands around her waist, my fingers digging into the satin of her dress as I kiss her neck, which is chilled from the night air.
“You better have that fire going inside, Fletcher,” she says, leaning back and combing her fingers through my hair.
“My fire is always burning for you, babe.”
She laughs and turns to grab my hand and pull me inside, but I plant my feet and stop her movement.
She looks back with a frown. “What are you doing? Let’s go inside. It’s freezing out here.”
“I have one more thing I want to do.” I inhale a deep breath and drop down to one knee. “Addison May Monroe, will you make me the happiest man on Fletcher Mountain and marry me and be my wife for life and not for a year?”
She laughs and props her free hand on her hip. “I think we’ve already done this a couple times, haven’t we?”
I shrug and smile up at her. “I didn’t get to kneel.”
Her eyes soften as she reaches out and caresses my face, her cool fingers warming up my entire soul. “Yes, I’ll marry you, Luke Fletcher. You’re kind of my best friend.”
My brows lift. “I’m a lot more than that now, hot stuff.” I hopup to my feet, tucking my shoulder into her waist as I toss her over my back like a beautiful bridal sack of concrete mix.
“What are you doing?” she asks, pounding her tiny fists into my rear.
“I’m carrying you over the threshold obviously,” I deadpan.
“Um... I think there’s a more elegant way to do that.”
I smack her ass firmly. “Yeah, but I know my wife, and this is much more her style.”
She giggles when I give her bottom a cheeky squeeze and I carry her into our house, which has never felt more like home than it has in this moment right now.
And that... is a fact.
Chapter 47
Fact or Fiction?
Grief can bring people together.
Luke
Addison lays her bridal bouquet in front of the gravestone at her brother’s plot and I stand back to give her space as she traces her fingers over the etching on the stone. She told me on our way out here that all the times she goes for a run in town, this is where she goes.
She runs in the cemetery.
It’s unusual and something I feel like I should have known about the woman I’ve called my friend for many years, but I can understand why she kept it to herself. People process grief in any number of ways. I know my mom visits our dad’s plot quite often, but my brothers and I have the bench on the peak. That’s where we feel closest to him. That’s where we can talk to him or reflect on him. Remember him and thank him for the beautiful life he’s given us. I even sat out there and replayed that voicemail Addison sent me and cried like a damn baby.
I glance up to the sky, having my own sort of moment with my dad. I have a feeling he’d be smiling big-time and not at all surprised that it was Addison I ended up with after all. He probably saw it coming the moment I started volunteering to pick up the lumber orders.
Damn, I miss him.
