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
“It’s fucking exhausting to live with the what-ifs.”
“That’s my future wife you’re gaping at, so I’d appreciate it if you look the fuck away.”
“Like I mean nothing. Like it’s just another day. Like I’m forgettable and meaningless and just a friend and that our marriage isn’t fucking real.”
“For better or worse, Addison Monroe . . . I got you.”
“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.”
“The fact that you even have to ask just proves how big of a fucking wall you still have up between us.”
“You’re worried because you love her. Not like a friend. Like a wife.”
“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.”
“Looking at me like that will only get you fucked.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.
“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.”
“The truth is, Addison, I love you so much I would have just been your friend through all of this if that’s truly all you ever wanted from me. But the past couple weeks have proven we are more. We can be everything to each other if you just allow yourself to love me back.”
“We’re better together. You’re in this with me and it’s going to hurt if you lose me now or if you lose me fifty years from now when we’re old and gray and sitting on my front porch looking at our grandkids and marveling over the life we made. And if it’s all the same to you, I’d like option two.”
“You’re my husband and I want to feel all of you.”
“Because you don’t have the opportunity to fight. This is for you, little bro.”
“I’m fucking terrified of losing you all the time.”
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