Page 41 of Honeymoon Phase
My throat feels like sandpaper as Addison’s father steps close so we’re toe to toe, and he eyes me so hard I feel like I could disappear into the earth right here, right now.
“Fine,” Addison chimes in and both of our heads swerve to look at her.
“Fine?” I ask, my eyes bugging out of my face.
“You’re bluffing,” Addison’s dad responds with a laugh.
“Name the date.” She quirks a brow and eyes him with the fire of a thousand suns.
John’s smile is positively gleeful as he rubs his hands together, deep in plotting mode. “I’ll be back in December. A nice Colorado winter wedding before the New Year sounds perfect.” He crosses his arms with a smug look on his face. “You can plan a wedding in a couple of months, can’t you, princess?”
Addison steps up to her dad, her hands on her hips, her chin jutting upward as she enunciates very clearly, “Looking forward to it, Old Man.”
And with that, my wife grabs my arm and drags me away with her terrifying father shooting daggers at me while we go.
But at least they aren’t buckshot.
Chapter 15
Fact or Fiction?
Fletcher Mountain is doing too much.
Addison
It’s Sunday morning and my stomach swirls with anxiety as we drive Luke’s truck up the winding gravel lane leading to the top of Fletcher Mountain. Autumn is in full effect as it’s nearly the end of October, so it feels like I’m driving straight into a damn Hallmark movie as a kaleidoscope of burgundy, gold, and yellow leaves blanket the ground while we weave through the thick forestry.
The air is cool and carries hints of incoming snow. Snow in Boulder is always a possibility in the fall and the spring, but I expect it’s even worse up here as our elevation climbs with each winding turn.
“So is winter really brutal up here like my dad said?” I ask, biting my lip and glancing up at the large green pines clinging to the hills.
“We have a tractor for snow removal parked in the Morton building behind my place, but when it’s really bad we have to wait until the private plow company we pay for can carve us out.”
My eyes widen with that bit of information. “How long do you usually have to wait it out?”
Luke shrugs. “Depends on the storm. We had four days up here with no power last year.”
“Four days!” My hands tighten on my seat belt. “How did you not freeze?”
“All of our cabins have woodburning fireplaces, so it’s not the heat we worry about. It’s our refrigerators and phones and stuff that are a problem, but we have generators for those.”
“Oh my God,” I groan and pinch the bridge of my nose. “Maybe moving up here is a bad idea.”
“Little late to back out now.” Luke laughs and glances into the bed of his truck where nearly my whole life is packed up.
Okay, obviously not my whole life. I spent all of Friday night and Saturday packing up what I thought I might need for the next year, choosing to leave all of my big furniture behind as Luke has all of those types of things. So really, I just needed my clothes and my kitchen supplies.
Either way, I’m not giving up my apartment just yet. Who knows how this thing with Luke is going to go. It might be nice to have a space that I can get away to if living with him ever becomes... too much.That is if I’m not snowed in with him.
Good God.
The thought of being trapped with Luke didn’t bother me so much until I was a fool and decided it would be a good idea to kiss him on our wedding day. What was I thinking? Friends don’t kiss friends on the lips. Friends give each other shit and bail each other out of jail. They don’t... smooch. They don’t run their fingers through thick, silky hair. They don’t almost lift their leg and wrap it around said friend’s hip... or try to count whether there’s a six- or eight-pack under said best friend’s shirt.
All those muscles under my fingertips.
My body hums with memories of that embrace that I’ve been struggling to forget. It was tender and intimate and managed to light up an arousal in me that even my vibrator couldn’t satiate on Saturday night. And you bet your ass I dedicated plenty of time to “kneading the dough” if you know what I mean. Who knows how easy it will be to have alone time when I’ll be living with my guy best friend for the next twelve months.
Luke and I haven’t exactly talked about what our love lives will be like during this marriage of convenience, but I think it goes without saying, we won’t be sleeping with other people while we’re together. Not if his whole family thinks this marriage is real.
