Fact or fiction: proposing to your best friend so she can inherit her family business is a great idea.
When Addison “Roe” Monroe tells me she’s going on a husband hunt at the local lumberjack competition so she can inherit her father’s lumberyard, desperate times call for desperate measures.
She’s sworn off romance. Says she’s been through enough tragedy. So I offer myself as an alternative, 'cause that’s what best friends are for.
But my stubborn friend, who would rather drive a forklift than get her nails done, refuses to accept my help, and now I find myself training to become a lumberjack.
I refuse to let Roe hitch her wagon to some hulking ax wielder who might be a serial killer. She means too much to me.
And I swear there are moments where she looks at me like I mean something more to her, too.
On the surface, I’m offering a marriage of convenience to protect her. But the truth is…I’m hopelessly in love with my best friend.
So if I have to marry her and move her up to Fletcher Mountain just to see if she could love me back, so be it.
Because my only regret would be losing her forever, and that’s a fact.
Why You Should Read This Book
Tropes
Trigger Warnings
Honeymoon Phase
“Oh, don’t worry, Roe. You’ll love it up there. Fletcher Mountain . . .It feels like finding a secret that the whole world should know about, but you’re the only lucky one.”
“You’re my husband and I want to feel all of you.”
“Well, the party can’t start until I arrive, so you better be thanking me for gracing you with my presence.”
“For better or worse, Addison Monroe . . . I got you.”
“Friends don’t let friends soap up alone.”
“The next time you leave for a fire without telling me, I will kill you, Luke Fletcher. Do you hear me?” I pound my fist on his chest. “I’m your wife and you have to tell me where you’re going.”
“It’s fucking exhausting to live with the what-ifs.”
“To elope and not even tell me is unforgivable. I’m heartbroken. If your father were here right now, I would make him kick your sorry ass!”
“I don’t know what’s gotten into you today, but you need to chill the fuck out because I’m going to do what I came here to do and no man—well-meaning or not—is going to stop me.”
“I want your answer, Addison. I need to hear you say it, because once you say you want the same thing . . . once I get a taste of you . . .I won’t want to stop.”
“Luckily, you two kids started off as friends, so your hearts opened to each other slowly over time. You always knew it was in safe hands. Which is why none of us were really that shocked to find out you got married on a whim without telling anyone first.”
“I’m not lost at all. I have a growing new business and a girlfriend who tells me she loves me and my cat all the time. I’m in fucking heaven.”
“Oh please, you make bread from scratch and run an entire fucking lumberyard of dudes like it’s nothing. You’re ultimate wifey material.”
“So whether you two are just friends or truly married, this shit is real on some level, she cares about you for some reason I can’t figure out. Which means if you break her heart, I swear to Christ, I will grab my side-by-side shotgun and rain so much buckshot in your ass you won’t be able to shit right for the rest of your life. You got me, boy?”
“It’s climbing a fucking pole. How hard can it be?”
“We’re married and you’re going to stay and work this out with me. You don’t leave. This is real now. No more fact or fiction question. You are my wife. I am your husband. We signed those papers together. And I fucking love you, Addison. I love you so much that I will trap you up on this mountain until you can admit you still love me.”
“Because you don’t have the opportunity to fight. This is for you, little bro.”
“I have a big cock. He roosts on my front porch and sometimes comes inside my cabin. His name is Rufus, and he crows at 6:04 a.m. every day. If he shows any cock-like aggression towards you, I will move him back to the barn. You will be my number one hen.”
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