Page 22 of Honeymoon Phase
Trista moves to join Dakota, with Stevie propped on her hip. “You ready to watch your Uncle Lukey eat shit?” Trista coos, pointing her daughter’s tiny little hand toward me.
“Just be careful, Luke.” My mom stands beside them holding her phone up to the scene. I know that on the other end of that phone is Everly’s face watching this spectacle from her university in Dublin.
She’s been doing weekly check-in calls with me to make sure I’m sticking to my workout regime. The little shithead is a ballbuster, that’s for sure. She set up my whole family with a strict training schedule where everyone helped me out in their own ways, and I have been run ragged for weeks now.
Wyatt collected piles of fallen wood for me to chop, Calder has been practicing the boom runs with me, even getting himself on the logs to help coach me along. Max found his way up the peak to work on axe throwing with me, though I suspect that was because Ethan thought he could toss some blades as well.
Rufus was nowhere to be seen during those sessions, thank God.
Even my mom got involved by bringing meals up for us to eat between trainings. She never used to like driving up the peak without my dad, but she’s become braver since Stevie wasborn. Not willing to miss a minute of her new granddaughter’s life. Winter will probably be a different story, but it’s been nice seeing her up here more. She’s becoming a part of our day-to-day lives since Dad has passed and I love it.
“I hope he gets wet.” Evil Ethan snickers and covers his mouth like the eight-year-old asshole he is.
Max shoves Ethan so hard, he almost falls over while Cozy just shrugs at her son. “You asked for that.”
“Hurry up, Luke! I have plans tonight,” Everly yells through the phone.
I frown and glance down at my smartwatch. It’s 9 p.m. in Dublin right now. What the fuck kind of plans does Everly have that don’t start until 9 p.m.? “What are your plans tonight?” I yell toward the phone.
“Luke. Focus,” Max barks at me with a frown. “It’s not just Everly that has other shit to do today.”
I cut my oldest brother a look. Maybe he should be more concerned about his daughter’s plans. And besides, it wasn’t my idea for everyone to come up here and watch me make an ass of myself. Everly was the one to start the irritating group chat this morning and now here they all are to watch me do my final practice run for Man of the Mountain.
This is the last obstacle of the day and if I can nail this, maybe I’ll finally be ready for the competition.
Calder stands on the other side of the bank, pointing his phone at me. He’s been threatening to post my failures on his business page because he’s certain they could go viral and help him sell some furniture.
The fucker.
I point to him and yell over the rush of the stream, “If I make it on the first try, you’re buying beers at the Mercantile after this. Got it?”
“Easy money,” Calder huffs, readying his camera.
I take a deep breath in as I stare at the row of three logs anchored into the stream in front of me before twisting my hat backward and tucking my loose hair behind my ears. My shoulders ache from the strenuous workouts. I’ve grown muscles in places I didn’t know I could grow muscles. And other than a couple of videos of me eating shit on the floating logs, the mocking from my brothers has been minimal. Now is the time to show them all this hard work has been worth it.
With a deep breath, I jump onto the first log, moving my feet quickly with short fast steps. My arms fling out, swinging in opposite directions of my legs to help maintain my balance. My pulse quickens as I hit the second log, and it starts spinning under my feet so I adjust my steps to re-center my weight over the booms.
I hear Max’s voice the loudest, cheering me on as I fly over the third and fourth log, almost slipping off right at the end before I take a flying leap and crash directly into Calder who catches me with a loud harrumph.
“Holy fuck you did it!” Calder wraps his arm around me and points me toward my family. “The fucker actually finally did it!”
Everyone cheers except Ethan, who seems strangely committed to my demise. We walk over to join them and I accept several pats on the back and a big thumbs-up from Everly before she hangs up. I slip out of my water shoes and wipe my feet off on a towel before stepping back into my work boots.
“Who’s coming to the Merc with us?” Calder asks, slapping me on the back.
“You boys go on without me. I’m going to go lay Stevie down for a nap,” Trista says, shooting me a warm smile. “Amazing work, Luke. I’m seriously impressed.”
“I’m going to go help Trista.” My mom stretches her hands out to take a drowsy-looking Stevie before glancing over hershoulder at me. “Nice job, Luke. Can’t wait to see how the competition goes for you in a couple weeks.”
“I thoroughly enjoyed that, but I’ll let you boys go do your victory drinks alone,” Dakota says with a wave. Calder steps in front of her and presses an indecent kiss on her in front of all of us. Ethan makes a puking sound, and Max gives him another shove.
“We have to go too, but nice work, Luke,” Max tuts in his business voice. “I don’t know how you’ll fair against the pros, but at least you won’t embarrass the Fletcher name.”
“Thanks, I think?”
Wyatt gives me a hearty shove, offering me a silent congratulations. “I’m going to go kiss my girls goodbye and then I’m in for those drinks.”
“Really?” I reply, my eyes wide. Wyatt rarely has time for drinks anymore, taking his dad role very seriously. Calder looks equally surprised.
