Luke
Present Day
My brothers are lying assholes. Sellouts. Traitorous jerks. You know those people who say one thing and do another? That’s those three fuckers.
Ten years ago, we stood on this mountain and made a pact to be she-man woman haters until we were old and gray. But the image I’m looking at right now is the exact opposite of that. I’m staring at disgusting rural mountain suburbia. It’s like our rustic mountain setting is being gentrified. This scene of my brothers and their new lady friends looks like it could be out of Alternative Amish Life magazine or some bullshit.
How the mighty have fallen.
Wyatt walks over to his wife of five months, Trista, and holds his hands out to take their eight-month-old baby, Stevie. They’re on the front porch of Calder’s cabin while Calder stands there in all his tattooed, bearded, obnoxious glory. He has his fucking pet cat strapped to his chest in a baby carrier while his hand is stuffed down his girlfriend Dakota’s back pocket, groping her ass as they all sip on lemonade and cool down after they’ve just moved Dakota permanently onto Fletcher Mountain.
Sellouts.
Then there’s Max standing up there with his wife, Cozy. They’ve been married for years now and Cozy and Dakota are best friends, so they were all too happy to drive the thirty-odd minutes up from Boulder and help Dakota get settled in. Their two kids are loving all this too. Even though Everly’s at college, she’s still smiling and slurping down refreshments with Ethan like this is the best day of her life because Dakota’s auntie status is more official now.
All three of my brothers are coupled up even though a decade ago, we stood right on this lookout point and made a pact. A pact that we held strong but they somehow forgot about the moment these three women came into their lives.
Heavy sigh.
Max gets a free pass since he wasn’t a part of this pact. He’s Mr. Corporate and lives a very different life in Boulder, but I thought after his divorce, he’d be anti-woman as well.
Though I can’t deny that Cozy was perfect for both Max and Everly. She fit right into that family, even getting along with Max’s ex and her wife. One big happy modern family. And we’ve had eight years enjoying their wild son, Ethan, too because of that love. Ethan is a menace you can’t help but love.
And I guess Wyatt gets a free pass also because his situation with Trista last year was complicated. Hired surrogate turned lover? That was never going to end well. That miserable fucker needed Trista or he was going to brood himself into an early grave.
But Calder falling for Dakota? That seems intentional. Like he was pointing at me and saying the last one in love is a rotten egg. That’s Calder’s style too. Probably didn’t even want to fall in love but since Wyatt did, he just followed suit so he wouldn’t be left behind.
Now there’s just me. The baby of the family left to fend for myself on this mountain all on my own. Our brotherly late-night drinking sessions have turned into late-night diaper runs or Calder making sex eyes at Dakota so blatantly that I have to leave his cabin mid-beer.
It’s depressing.
And the worst part is . . . I’ve sacrificed a lot for the pact. More than my entire family even realizes.
Everly bounds over to me, her blond ponytail swinging with the backdrop of the giant U-Haul parked behind her. “What are you doing over here all by yourself, Uncle Luke? Don’t you want some lemonade? We moved a shitload of boxes today.”
I roll my eyes and turn away from the mountain breeders to drop down onto the bench Calder made after our dad died a few years ago. It has his infamous saying etched on it, “We’re not here for a long time, we’re here for a good time,” and I can’t help but think the shit happening behind me doesn’t look like a good time.
“I hate being a third wheel,” I mumble under my breath. “Or seventh wheel I should say.”
Everly huffs out a laugh as she joins me on the bench. She tucks her long legs under her chin and eyes me thoughtfully. “I was thinking it’s high time we change that. I’m a pretty decent matchmaker you know.”
“Yeah right.” I tug my baseball cap low on my face to conceal my brooding.
“I’m serious.” She pokes my shoulder and scoots closer to me. “You know it was me who finagled the single room in Mexico for Uncle Calder and Dakota, right?”
My eyes bug out of my head as I turn to look at my niece, who looks far less innocent than she did moments ago. “He was pissed about that.”
“Oh please.” Everly waves me off. “He wasn’t pissed. He was in love. He just needed enough one-on-one time with Dakota to realize it.”
I twist my hat around so it’s backward, tucking back my shaggy hair behind my ears with it. I want to be sure I can see my niece clearly right now because I’m having trouble believing the words tumbling out of her mouth.
She hits me with a lascivious smirk. “And you know I was the one who found Trista, right?”
I frown and shake my head. “Yeah, but just to be a surrogate for Wyatt,” I argue, turning to face my evil-looking niece head-on. “You can’t take credit for them falling in love.”
“I knew she’d be perfect for him. Why else do you think he rejected all the other surrogate applicants he spoke to at that agency? He was looking for love, not a surrogate. He just couldn’t admit that to himself. The lies we tell ourselves are so obvious sometimes.”
“Bullshit,” I laugh and look out at the mountain view, my eyes narrowing as I replay the last year of our lives when I watched both of my brothers fall in love in rapid succession. “You’re not that powerful.”
“Need I remind you of Dad and Cozy?” she asks coyly. “That was my matchmaker origin story.”
“Holy fuck,” I deadpan as I recall Everly’s wild plot to get me, Calder, and Wyatt to help her with Max and Cozy after they got in an epic fight all those years ago. Everly was like eleven at the time and she parent-trapped them like a boss. My nephew, Ethan, is living proof of how well that worked.
As if on cue, I hear the squawk of my rooster, Rufus, and turn around to see Ethan sprinting up the hill toward my cabin. Usually roosters are the ones to terrorize humans, but not in this case. Evil Ethan always strikes first. Rufus spots the little terror and flies off my porch rail, running toward the forest for cover.
My poor cock.
And I realize that the rooster technically isn’t “mine” because Trista was the one to adopt him. He’s one of the many random animals that kept appearing in the barn this past year thanks to her ever-growing rescue center.
But Rufus chose me.
A few months back, he decided that my front porch was his home turf instead of the nice chicken coop Wyatt built for them down by the barn. So yeah, me and Ruf-meister are tight. The early morning wake-up calls are brutal, but I’ve found that I like that damn bird. I even bring him inside for treats in the evenings. Rufus loves tortilla wraps and walnuts and sitting on my lap during TV 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.
“I think it’s your turn to find love, Uncle Luke.” Everly’s eyes narrow on me and my skin begins to crawl as she gets that scary look about her that she used to get as a kid right before she got exactly what she wanted. This girl has a freaky way of persuading people to do whatever she tells them. Maybe it’s because she has a rich-ass father who has a private plane and multiple houses and wipes his ass with hundred-dollar bills. Or maybe it’s because she has three uncles who spoil her rotten any chance we get. Or maybe it’s because despite all the privileges she’s received in life, she’s still the purest, kindest, most positive person I’ve ever met and you just can’t help but want to move mountains for someone like that.
One way or another, the end result is that my niece . . . is a force of nature.
I level my eyes at her. “You really are an evil genius, aren’t you?”
“I prefer to call myself a ‘mastermind.’” She waggles her brows and gets a wild look in her gaze. “Now, come on. What’s your type? Give me something to work with. I think I know but I want to hear what you have to say.”
I shake my head firmly, trying to muster up the strength to say no to my niece. “Don’t add me to your matchmaking schemes.”
“Why not?”
My lips thin as my heart thumps with an ache I’ve been trying to ignore for the past several years. “Because it’s pointless.”
“Why?”
Because I’m the greatest hypocrite of them all.
I inhale a heavy breath as I allow myself to say the next words out loud for the first time. “Because the woman I want doesn’t want me back.”
The quiet sounds of nature are deafening during the silence that spreads between me and Everly. My niece’s voice is soft when she asks, “How long have you been in love with Addison Monroe?”
“How do you know it’s her?” I balk defensively.
“Because you brought her to Mexico for Wyatt and Trista’s wedding and stared at her like a lost puppy the entire time.”
I pull my hat forward to cover my face, feeling like a complete schmuck. It’s extremely humbling having your college-aged niece read you with so little effort. And yet, here I sit on a mountain surrounded by pines . . . pining for a girl I can never have. I am pathetic.
“I wasn’t sure of your feelings until the end of the trip, or I would have tried to force you two into the same room as well.” Everly purses her lips like she’s disappointed in herself, which is fucking ridiculous.
I swallow the knot in my throat, attempting to regain control of this conversation. “Let’s talk about when you’re flying back to Ireland for college. I’m going to miss you something fierce again. This summer went way too fast.”
“Stop trying to change the subject.” Everly scowls back at me.
“I don’t want to have this conversation with you,” I groan, feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders.
“Why not?”
“Because Addison is getting married, so none of it matters.” I drop the truth on my niece just to get her to realize this isn’t a conversation that will have a happy ending. Not for me anyways.
Everly sucks a sharp breath as she presses her hand to her chest. “To who?”
“I don’t know. But when Roe puts her mind to something, she gets it done.” I roll out my shoulders, feeling tense over just saying the nickname I pegged her with shortly after we met. I think it was a defense mechanism to put her in the friends-only zone. Addison is too feminine. Too intimate. Roe is tough. Ballsy. It’s a derivative of her last name of Monroe, like what we do with guys Calder and I play intermural hockey with. It helps put her staunchly in the bro category where she belongs, so no one gets hurt.
But the way my body reacts when I think about her is very un-bro-like. And she’s not even standing in front of me right now to inspire such indecent thoughts.
“I need more details, Luke,” Everly snaps, losing patience with my less-than-stellar storytelling.
I exhale heavily. Maybe if I tell someone the full situation, I’ll stop feeling like my head is about to explode. Maybe I’ll stop looking at my brothers in love with murder in my heart. Maybe I’ll stop moping on this bench every night. Maybe I’ll stop stressing out over what one of my closest friends is attempting to do with her life.
“Roe told me when we were in Mexico for Wyatt and Trista’s wedding a few months ago that she has to get married before the end of the year or her father is going to sell the lumberyard.”
“Say what?” Everly exclaims, her voice taking on a raspy tone.
I grip the back of my neck and shrug. “Her dad is old-school and refuses to pass it on to her if she’s on her own. The requirement is built into the trust that her great-grandfather created for the business. No single person can take over the company. So now she’s trying to find some random dude to marry her so she can take full ownership.”
The Cheshire cat smile that spreads across Everly’s face is terrifying. “This is perfect,” she peals, clapping her hands excitedly.
“How is this perfect?” I ask, gaping at my niece, who I consider myself very close to, but she seems far too happy over my less-than-ideal situation.
Everly has always felt more like a little sister than a niece. I’m thirty-three years old, so fourteen years older than her is obviously a big age gap, but Max had Everly when I was barely a teenager myself, so I feel like I grew up with her at the kids table. And we’ve always had this easy way of talking. Regular texts and phone calls even when she went away to Ireland for college. Actually, especially when she went away for college. I was worried sick every day of something happening to her. If she didn’t text me back within an hour, my blood pressure would start to rise with every passing minute. Everly knows that about me too, so she does a good job keeping up with communication. She’s really the only one who knows how much my head races to bad places if the people I care about are unreachable.
It’s why I call my mom all the time too. Calder calls me a momma’s boy for it, but it’s not a bad thing to worry about our widowed mother. She’s all alone now and God knows what could happen to her every day. She used to have my dad looking out for her, but now she has no one. I hate thinking of her in that big house all alone. I can’t help but stress over the people in my life, especially the women.
Luckily Everly tolerates my need for communication fairly well. I miss her. And I’ve missed her words of wisdom. I don’t know how the fuck she does it, but she really does give good advice. She has since she was young. Unexpected answers that feel pure and honest and untainted by the darkness of the world. It’s no wonder she’s a self-proclaimed matchmaker. She’s good at peopling.
Unlike Wyatt, who grunts more than speaks, and Calder, who’s constantly pushing people’s buttons. Or Max, who always wants to control every situation he comes into contact with.
Everly, on the other hand, has this uncanny ability to make people say yes to things they wouldn’t normally say yes to and somehow thank her for it when it’s all said and done. In some ways, I’ve missed her scheming. Being so far away from her this past year while she was abroad for school has sucked, but I’m proud of her for branching out. My niece is braver than all four of us Fletcher brothers put together. Maybe I need to channel some of Everly’s bravery in my own life to help me get over Roe.
“I couldn’t have written this better myself.” Everly rips me out of my inner musings as she begins tapping her fingers on her chin, clearly deep in some sort of plotting mode. “The universe is basically handing you this love story. You can be her husband!”
“No, I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because Roe doesn’t want me. She doesn’t even want to be married. She doesn’t want love. Ever. She’s anti-love. Anti-kids. Anti-anything traditional. Has been since the moment I met her, making it damn near impossible for me to confess even if I wanted to.”
“Why is she anti-love?” Everly asks, her brows pinched together in confusion. Her innocent, naive heart knows no different than love and happily-ever-afters.
“That’s just how she is,” I reply, refusing to give Everly any more because some heavy shit happened to Roe when she was younger, and I would never betray her confidence by blabbing about her trauma to my niece. “I just know that whoever Roe finds to marry, it’s strictly going to be a contractual business arrangement. They’ll stay married for a year until she can fulfill the trust fund’s requirements and then she can take ownership of the lumberyard. After that it’s divorce court and ‘peace out, sucker.’ She’s already got a prenup written up.”
“So, you can be the sucker,” Everly chirps, her body vibrating with urgency. “You two are friends so this makes perfect sense. Volunteer to be her husband.”
“I can’t do that, kid.”
“Why not?”
“Because I already have,” I snap, and my voice echoes down the mountain like a fucking siren call. Holding my breath, I turn around to see if my brothers heard and exhale with relief when they all still seem engrossed in their domestic infatuations. I don’t want to hear my brothers’ take on my situation, especially when they all seem so happy and in love. I don’t need an audience for my failure.
“I wrote her a letter a few months ago and she rejected me. She wants a stranger. She has literally been going on dates with random guys on Tinder to try to find someone. That’s why I got desperate and wrote her that stupid fucking letter that she laughed at. It’s all fucking nonsense, and I told her that but she’s so bullheaded, I can’t get her to listen. I’m worried sick about her.” I yank off my hat and slice my hands through my hair, hating how heavy this subject makes me feel.
“You’re worried because you love her,” Everly says quietly. “Not like a friend. Like a wife.”
My lips thin as my niece pegs me better than even my own brothers have. It’s embarrassing how long I’ve been harboring these feelings. Roe’s made it incredibly clear where she stands when it comes to relationships and I’ve tried to respect that. I’ve tried to let these feelings go.
But I just . . .
I love her.
And I hate myself for it.
It didn’t hit me all at once either. It was a slow, comfortable build. Like a great steady hike in the mountains where the ascent is gradual enough that I earn every step, but easy enough I can maintain my pace for miles. So I climb and I climb and I climb and don’t even realize I reach the top until I look out and see the stunning view that is my friend and realize . . . holy fuck, this is what I’ve been missing.
It’s her.
And when I realized that, I felt both annoyed at myself, for making that pact with my brothers after we all had our hearts broken, and terrified because the woman I loved could never love me back. This was setting up to be even worse than the Robyn situation I found myself in.
I had hoped that inviting Roe to my brother’s wedding in Mexico could be my opportunity to possibly push past her hard outer shell. We’d see each other outside of Boulder. We’d lie by the pool or walk on the beach and dance to some music. I even hoped she’d connect with Trista, who I think is a lot like Roe in the sense that neither of them come from traditional families. I wanted her to see a different type of family. I wanted to show her that some people are worth taking a chance on. I wanted to also break the pact I was in with my brothers because they both have obviously moved on from that. Maybe it was my turn now too.
Then on night two, she dropped the bomb on me.
Told me she’s looking for a marriage of convenience.
Not love. Not soulmates. Not a happily-ever-after.
Just a simple contract.
So, we slept in our separate rooms in the villa, behaving like friends because that’s all we were and that was all we’d ever be. And after we got back, I lost my ever-loving mind and wrote her that letter, trying to save her from her dire circumstances, to which she rejected me like I was a joke.
Now I’m preparing for my friend, who I’m in love with . . .to marry another man.
“If you love her then you have to go for it, Luke,” Everly says, sounding desperate.
“I already tried once.”
“You didn’t try hard enough!” Everly urges, her blue eyes wide and excited. “We have to help her see. We need to spell it out for her. We can go deeper than a letter. Maybe we can write up a pros and cons list of all the reasons a friend would make a perfect fake husband. Things that will make her see that choosing you is so much better than choosing a stranger.”
“What if I have too much pride for that, Evie-girl?”
“Love is stronger than pride.” Everly grabs my arms and forces me to look at her, her blue eyes bright with determination. “Best-case scenario, she falls in love with you back. Worst-case scenario . . . she doesn’t, and you’ve at least helped a friend out and kept her safe. But then you’ll know and can finally move on with your life.”
I pull my hat off and rake my hands through my hair, agonized over this place I find myself in. A few years ago, I never even wanted a girlfriend. Now I’m supposed to try to marry one of my closest friends as a manipulative way to get her to fall in love with me?
Jesus, I’m pathetic.
Then again, watching Roe marry a stranger sounds too painful to watch. Not to mention dangerous as fuck.
Maybe Everly is right. Maybe I could even convince myself that I’m simply encouraging my friend to marry me for her protection. That’s what a friend would do, not stand aside and leave her to face potential danger. I can’t let her do this with just anyone when I’m obviously the safer choice. I can help her with her situation and ensure her happiness and safety at the same time. That’s definitely what a friend would do.
And if in the end, she doesn’t share my feelings, I’ll accept that as her choice and let her do what’s best for her. Even though it will probably kill me.
“Let’s say she agrees to marry me this time. What then?” I ask, pushing the heaviness away from my chest as I pose this question to my college-aged niece.
Everly smiles victoriously. “Then the real fun begins, and we figure out how to make your wife fall in love with you.”
