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
“You keep me at arm’s length, Roe. You let me in but not all the way. I don’t feel safe with you because I don’t ever know that you’re not going to bolt. I mean, hell, I kissed you and you didn’t look at me for two weeks. You’re paying rent at your apartment in Boulder still because you need to make sure if you want to get away from me, you can. It’s plain as fucking day that if I make one wrong move . . . we’re done.”
“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?”
“Trust me, Addison Monroe, when I kiss you with intention, you’ll know it.”
“Now it feels like if I don’t give it everything I’ve got, I could lose her to someone else and will spend the rest of my life regretting it.”
“You’re worried because you love her. Not like a friend. Like a wife.”
“The marriage is real for me, by the way. I don’t want out. It’s real and it always has been for me. I don’t think it’s the same for your daughter, but I’ll be whatever she needs me to be because that’s how much I love her . . . for whatever that’s worth to you.”
“When I forgave you for not showing up and we started hanging out again, I realized that’s what love is. It’s tolerating things you might not like from someone you care about because you know their essence. You know them at their best and their worst and you love them through it.”
“I’m really grateful to you, Jo. I don’t know most of the details of this wedding and I already know it’s going to be one of the best days of my life.”
“I’d rather you saddle yourself with me for a year than put yourself at risk with a stranger, Roe. I will lose my mind worrying about you.”
“We’re going to lie in your bed and we’re not going to touch. We’re just going to sleep. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring yet. I haven’t decided. But I need to sleep and damn you, Fletcher, I can’t do it without you anymore.”
“Casual sex with my husband sounds just crazy enough to work. Bring on the loggers!”
“We can do one-night stands or casual fucks or random hookups. We can satisfy our needs however we need to, but we don’t do girlfriends. Ever. We sure as hell don’t do wives. All relationships do is bring trouble.”
“I’m fucking terrified of losing you all the time.”
“It might be weird to have a pet cock but at least I’m not strapping him to my chest and taking him for walks through the woods like Calder and his cat, Milkshake. Weird fuck.”
“You’re my husband and I want to feel all of you.”
“It’s an accomplishment to fall in love with another person. To open your heart and decide to let someone in. It puts you at great risk of being hurt because, well . . . your heart is open. It’s more vulnerable and that can feel scary.”
“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.”
“Because when a woman has her claws all over you like you’re open territory, it pisses me the fuck off. We’re married, Luke.
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