Chapter 21
Fact or Fiction?
You may now kiss your wife.
Luke
It’s nearing eight o’clock at night when I pull up to Sundown Saloon to find Cozy, Trista, Dakota, and my wife all sitting
on the curb outside the bar eating slices of pizza. They look like crew members on one of our building sites, not women who
were out shopping for a wedding dress earlier today.
I pull over and slide out of my truck, shaking my head at the sight of them. “What the hell happened to you four?” I ask,
my eyes holding on Addison as she winces and continues nibbling on her pizza.
She looks cute. She’s dressed in a pair of cropped black jeans, sneakers, and a fitted sweater that shows off her sculpted
arms. Her dark hair is tousled over her shoulders like she’s been dancing and she wears a smile that seems genuine. That’s
a good sign after spending the day with my mother.
“Luke!” my sister-in-law squeals around a mouthful of pepperoni. “Luke is here, you guys!” Cozy’s face falls. “But you’re
not my husband. My husband is coming to get me.”
“Your husband has been waiting for you for the past fifteen minutes.” Max drawls from across the street.
I jerk my head to see my oldest brother standing there, leaning against his vehicle.
“Max is here!” Cozy cheers like this is new information.
“You already knew that,” Dakota drawls, hitting her friend on the arm. “He called to say he was outside and you said you needed five more minutes.”
“Oh no, that was a long time ago.” Cozy’s eyes are wide with horror as she struggles to get up off the curb. I make a move
to help but Max beats me to it, jogging across the street to assist his wife. She cringes up at him. “That was before we got
pizza. I’m sorry, honey.”
Max sighs and shakes his head. “Are you ready now, sugar tits? Ethan is in the car playing Roblox and you know how he gets if he plays video games after nine.”
“My kid can’t see me like this.” Cozy groans and presses her head into Max’s chest. “I’m a bad mom.”
“No you’re not.” He chuckles and shoots me a pleading look. I just hold my hands up, having no clue how to help him with his
situation.
“Can I bring this in the car?” she asks, looking at her half-eaten slice of pizza.
“Whatever you want.” Cozy turns on her heel and runs away from her husband to hug all the ladies goodbye, holding extra tight
to Addison. “Luke! I love your wife.”
“Yeah?”
“I love you too, Cozy.”
Addison giggles in her arms before Cozy squeals loudly, “She said yes to the dress!”
I give Max a “better you than me, sucker” look as he finally gets Cozy into the car, and they take off back to their house.
“Hey, Luke?” Addison’s voice is coy as she stands up, walking over to me with a strut to her step.
“Yes, babe?” I reply, trying my hardest not to eye-fuck the shit out of her, but I’m having a hard time because I like seeing
her so relaxed and happy like this.
She glances over her shoulder and says, “Me and Dakota and Trista want to ride in the bed of the truck home.”
My face falls. “No fucking way.”
“Come on,” she says, tossing her pizza in the nearby trash can as she walks to the back of the truck to open the tailgate.
She begins hoisting herself into the back end and says, “It’s not that cold out tonight and it’ll be so fun.”
“No, it won’t because you’re not doing it,” I say firmly as I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her down from the bed.
She fights me a little and the way her ass rubs against my groin is making me seriously uncomfortable.
“Luke!” she huffs, propping her hands on her hips to glower at me.
“Yeah, come on, Luke,” I hear Trista whine as well from her place on the curb with her pizza.
“Please?” Addison sticks her lower lip out at me and I swear I’d do anything for her when she looks at me with those hazel
round eyes and those lush pouty lips.
I sigh heavily. “I’ll go around the block one time.”
“Woo-hoo!” She jumps into my arms, yanking me down to her level for a hug.
She yells for the other ladies to join her and the two of them amble themselves up off the curb and scurry over to the back
of the truck.
I help all three of them into the bed, rolling my eyes at the ridiculousness of them sitting side by side, legs stretched
out like they’re going on some sort of amusement ride instead of a quick drive in the back of my truck.
I point a finger at my wife. “I’m not going over fifteen miles an hour.”
She purses her lips and nods. “Got it, Grandpa.”
Trista and Dakota are both passed out in my back seat as I pull up in front of Wyatt’s cabin to drop Trista off first. Addison laughs at the sight of my brother carrying Trista into his cabin and Trista waking up to groan, “My boobs hurt. I need to pump.”
Wyatt chuckles and looks down at his wife. “I can definitely help you with that, Lucky.”
My nose wrinkles as I drive up the lane a little farther to Calder, who’s standing on his front porch waiting for his delivery.
“Was my woman well-behaved today?” he asks Addison as he opens the back door and unbuckles a passed-out Dakota.
“Not at all.”
“That’s how I like her,” he gruffs before picking her up and hip checking the door to shut it behind him. “Thanks for bringing
her back home.”
“No problem.” I offer him a wave and pull ahead to my own cabin, slanting a sideways look to the woman seated beside me. “That’s
a first for both of them, I’ll have you know.”
“What? Them getting drunk?” Addison eyes me skeptically. “That’s not true. I saw them in Mexico.”
“You must bring it out of them.” I wink playfully.
“It was their idea to go barhopping, I’ll have you know. And I’m not even drunk. They’re just lightweights.”
“Oh please,” I state, rolling my eyes as I park my vehicle and rush over to get Addison’s door.
“I’m not!” she argues as we make our way into the house. She pauses on the porch and glances to the corner of the deck where
Rufus is sleeping. “Does this guy have a snooze button for Sundays?”
“I’m afraid not.”
She makes a little noise as she follows me inside, kicking off her shoes and clutching a white bag in her hands as she walks
down the hall to her room. She reemerges from her bedroom, stopping me in my tracks in the hallway. “I can’t believe you think
I’m drunk.”
“Why else would you want to ride in the bed of my truck?” I ask, propping myself on the wall.
She shrugs. “Sounded good at the time.”
I yank at the bill of my hat, eyeing her skeptically as she pads into the bathroom, leaving the door open as she brushes her
teeth.
I lean on the doorway and ask, “So what was in the bag? I can’t imagine a wedding dress fits in there.”
“Definitely not the wedding dress,” she murmurs around her toothbrush before stopping to spit into the sink. She glances at
me in the mirror, looking shy for maybe the first time in her entire life. “It’s for the wedding night.”
My brows lift but she avoids my reaction as she resumes brushing her teeth, bending over the sink to rinse her mouth out.
When she stands back up and wipes the foam off her lips, I watch her carefully as I ask, “Did you buy lingerie, Roe?”
“I didn’t buy it,” she tuts defensively, her cheeks flaming red as she turns to face me. “It was a gift from our lovely neighbors.”
“How thoughtful of them,” I murmur, my body humming to life with just the idea of Addison wearing something sexy. Sexy isn’t
really her style. Don’t get me wrong, she always looks sexy, but she doesn’t dress sexy.
However, I get hard seeing her in her basic oversize T-shirts she wears to bed, so I fear my bar is pretty low when it comes
to this woman.
Addison rolls her eyes at the expression on my face as we both make our way down the hall, lingering outside of each other’s
prospective rooms. “Obviously they don’t know that we’ve only ever just kissed.”
“We haven’t kissed,” I reply with a self-deprecating huff.
Her jaw drops and she turns on her heel to look at me with righteous indignation. “The hell we didn’t!”
“When did we kiss?”
“On our wedding day, you asshole,” she snaps, whacking me in the chest before crossing her arms to glower up at me. “How could you forget?”
I roll my eyes. “That doesn’t count as a kiss.”
“Why not?” The lines between Addison’s brows deepen as she chews her lip.
I grip the bill of my hat, pulling it down as I step closer to her. Her back flattens against the wall as I lower my voice
and say, “Because it wasn’t intentional.”
“Oh, so you would have done something different?”
“Hell yes I would have.”
“Like what?”
“Trust me, Addison Monroe, when I kiss you with intention, you’ll know it.”
Her eyes flash with something resembling the look she gave me last night when she was trying to show me how to make her fucking
bread. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she wants me to kiss her.
Imagine that.
She inhales a shaky breath as her tongue slides across her ruddy lips. I watch her collarbone as her chest rises and falls,
her breaths coming out more labored than before.
Her throat moves as she swallows and her voice is a whisper when she says, “So do it.”
My eyes lift to hers. Pupils dilated. Lips parted. Cheeks flushed. I shake my head slowly from side to side, my body screaming
at me for my reply. “No way, you’ve been drinking.”
“I’m not drunk,” she snaps, arousal being changed to rage as she eyes me with a defiant look. “I have the tolerance of a lumberyard
worker.”
“You sure about that?” I take a step back and rake my eyes over her whole body. “Hold your hands out to your sides.”
A cute smile spreads across her face as she does what I say.
“Touch your nose with your right hand.”
She moves her left hand and then quickly shakes her head as she moves her right, giggling when she realizes she almost fucked
up the first exercise.
I purse my lips and glare at her. “Stand on one foot.”
She does, quirking a brow at me and waiting for the next command.
“Now hop three times.”
She hops three times, stumbling only slightly.
“Now say the alphabet backward.”
Her face falls. “I couldn’t do that drunk or sober!”