Chapter 8 #2
Both my brothers bristle at the mention of her name.
She is not someone any of us like to talk about.
In fact, it’s our most humiliating memory to date.
I’ve worked really hard to make sure Addison has never heard about that story, because I’m certain she’d look at me different.
How I slept with the same woman my brothers slept with at the same time is beyond me.
I was in some sort of fucking trance. I swear Robyn Whitaker is a witch.
“Wyatt fell for someone first,” Calder says, pointing at him like a child.
Wyatt shrugs. “Falling for the mother of my child was the best thing that ever happened to me.” His eyes soften as he blinks
down into his beer.
“Dakota forced me to fall in love with her, so you can yell at her, not me,” Calder mutters and I cut him an accusing look.
“She did! I’m no match for a woman who hates me. It’s like catnip. I go crazy trying to win them over. We’d been doing foreplay
for seven long years. You and Addison have to be approaching that amount of time, too. But it still seems crazy to jump right
into marriage. Are you sure you’re ready for that?”
They both stare at me expectantly as I wince and quickly bring my beer to my lips. “Isn’t it kind of the dream to marry your
best friend?”
“I suppose so,” Wyatt answers honestly. “But if she doesn’t feel the same way, it’s also a real quick way to getting hurt.”
I nod slowly, absorbing his words. “I resisted her for a long time . . . mostly because of our pact. Told myself I liked our
solo mountain life and I knew sleeping with her once would never be enough. Then I told myself I wasn’t good enough for her
and she deserved better.”
“And now?” Wyatt asks, watching me thoughtfully.
“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.”
I swallow the knot in my throat and look up at the grave, knowing looks they both share with me.
They’re taking me seriously for once, which I appreciate.
As the youngest of four boys, it’s real hard for my brothers to ever look at me like a man and not the annoying little brother who’s always messing everything up.
But I’ve seen them in their darkest hours with Dakota and Trista.
And I know damn well they’d go to any length to win them back if there was a chance of losing them.
Even if it meant becoming a fucking lumberjack.
I lick my lips and add, “And I’m tired of not knowing what we could be. And if that means I have to compete in a competition
I’m completely unqualified for, then so be it. Her hope was to find a husband at Man of the Mountain . . . this is me tossing
my name into the hat. If I need to pretend to be a lumberjack to get her to see me as more than a friend, then so be it.”
The corner of Wyatt’s mouth tugs up into a smile before taking another sip. “And that is why we’re here to help. We see you,
Luke.”
“And if she doesn’t see you after this, then she doesn’t deserve you,” Calder tuts defensively. “And we’ll buy our lumber
supplies elsewhere.”
I smile as Judy brings our food over and we tuck into it like starved animals. It feels good. Like the old days. And as happy
as I am for my brothers who have found the loves of their lives, I’ve missed when it was just the three of us on that mountain.
We’d carpool into Boulder, work all day for our dad, grab drinks after work, and then head back up the peak. Wash, rinse,
repeat. It was a good life. A simple life.
But things keep changing on us ever since Dad passed.
First Wyatt started getting stir-crazy and talking about wanting to become a father.
Then Calder started huffing about not wanting to work for the family business anymore and doing his own thing instead.
Now he only works with me and Wyatt a couple days a week so he can devote more time to the custom furniture line that he works on in his shop behind his cabin.
Wyatt and I had to hire some extra crew which means Wyatt is often on the jobsites managing them while I’m back at the Fletcher Brothers Construction shop sending out proposals and doing the bookwork.
We’re all working separate jobs instead of building shit together side by side. It’s good work and we’re all happy because
we’re doing what we love and what we’re best at, but we’re not as close as we once were. Our annual bonding trip that started
after the whole Robyn thing hasn’t happened in two years now. Ever since Trista moved up onto the mountain, it’s been a thing
of the past. So in many ways, this lumberjack training has brought us back together again, which is a fringe benefit.
Our dad would be proud.
Hard to believe it’s been three years now since he passed.
I feel myself tense up as the memories of the day he died needle to the front of my mind. I regret so many of the decisions
I made that day. What I did wasn’t enough. I wasn’t enough. I failed him and I failed my mother and my brothers, and now he’s gone. And no matter what anyone says, I
will carry that guilt and shame with me until I’m cold in the ground with him.
With that heavy thought, I hold my beer up one more time and eye my brothers seriously. “We’re not here for a long time, we’re
here for a good time.”
“Hell yes,” Calder confirms while Wyatt nods and joins me in a drink.
A sense of pride overwhelms me at the three of us. We’ve come so far in the past decade. We’ve become men, fathers, husbands,
boyfriends, goat daddies, cat daddies, and cock daddies. It’s my turn to step up to the plate and do something that scares
the shit out of me. And apparently that starts with a lumberjack competition.