Chapter 40
Fact or Fiction?
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is fucked up.
Luke
Snow sparkles over everything as I struggle to focus on the walk-through of the service tomorrow, my mind swimming with thoughts
that I can’t quiet no matter how hard I try. My head tips up as I look at the pergola Addison and I are standing under. It
looks even more beautiful with the fresh flakes clinging to the greenery and a weighted pressure hits me in the chest. I can’t
believe my brother made this. He must have spent hours on it. Days. Weeks. When did he start it? As soon as he heard about
the wedding? Fuck. This is a big thing for him, to dedicate time to a wedding that’s not even real. He already pretty much
works two jobs between his own furniture stuff and the family business. Why did he go to all this trouble?
Addison smiles at me, looking stunning as white flakes cling to her glossy black hair. She looks like a damn princess up here
as she listens to the officiant rambling about the readings she selected for tomorrow. I release Addison’s hands to wipe the
sweat off my palms, my throat feeling tight like I’m having an allergic reaction to something, but I’m not allergic to something.
Except maybe lying.
I glance at my mom, who keeps peeking inside her binder like she’s forgetting something. The lines on her forehead are creased
like she’s stressed. I didn’t want her to be stressed. Everly keeps adjusting the chairs, moving them an inch one way or another
so they’re all in a perfect line.
Max and Cozy are bribing Ethan with candy to get him to pull Stevie down the aisle in a wagon instead of doing snow angels like he wants to.
It’s all . . . a lot.
Earlier today, I loved it. Now it’s like I’ve finally taken off my rose-colored glasses and I’m seeing what I’ve done to lead
up to this moment.
It’s all too much. Too much kindness, too much pressure, too much trust that this thing between me and Addison will work out.
She could still walk away from me at the end of this, especially when she finds out John is going to sell the lumberyard.
She won’t want to stay married to me then. She might not even want to stay in Boulder. She’ll be devastated and rich and can
do whatever the fuck she wants with her life. That is if her dad gives her some of the sale money. Who knows what he might
do?
And fuck, my mom’s toast tonight? Jesus Christ. If I tell her I’m getting a divorce after all of this, it will kill her. She’s
been through enough. What was I thinking?
I was so focused on Addison and how much I wanted her, how much I wanted her to be happy, that I somehow missed the fact that
I’m being a selfish prick to my entire family who have grown attached to this magnificent woman beside me.
My eyes land on John, who’s been giving me looks all night long. Looks I can’t even decipher. He probably thinks I’m a lying
asshole too because I obviously haven’t told his daughter about his plans to sell the yard. I am disgusting. I hid the truth
from my best friend because I wanted to trick her into marrying me and falling in love with me.
It’s like I’m doing CPR but our relationship is DOA . . . dead on arrival.
Blood rushes in my ears as the officiant ends the rehearsal and I say my goodbyes to everyone on some sort of detached autopilot. I watch all the cars leave the mountain, waving cheerily like this is the best weekend ever, but my mind is battling with this overwhelming sense of impending doom.
Addison kisses me on the cheek and says something about going back to our house with Dakota and Trista to discuss plans for
hair and makeup tomorrow. My mom takes Stevie back to Wyatt’s to put her to bed, opting to spend the night in their spare
room so she doesn’t have to make the drive up the mountain roads again tomorrow.
I nod and watch everyone go their separate ways when suddenly I feel my feet carrying me backward, away from my cabin, and
as far away from this wedding setup as I can get. Part of me wants to disappear into the woods, but it’s cold as fuck and
the night air nips at my neck, so I pull my coat collar up and beeline to the barn. I just need a moment to collect my thoughts.
Just a breather. Today was a lot and I need to touch some fucking ground and get my shit together.
Millie bleats as soon as I enter the barn and start pacing down the alleyway, completely ignoring Trista’s pig, Sir Reginald,
and the weird fucking tongue-hanging horse Handsome and the alpacas. Shit, what were their names again? Like band instruments?
Trombone? Fuck knows. Three black-headed sheep are asleep in the corner stall, and I didn’t even know we had sheep. Plus,
the highland cow that looks like a toy is sharing a stall with Millie.
It’s a damn petting zoo in here and it’s overflowing. I need to get Trista’s rescue center estimate sent to her. I’ve been
sitting on it for too long. Distracted by . . . my best friend . . .
Who doesn’t love me.
“Hey, what are you doing out here?” Calder asks, stepping through the Dutch barn doors with Wyatt close behind.
“You good?” Wyatt asks, staring at me with concern that looks just like dad.
Fuck I hate that look. It makes me feel panicky inside.
“This is all too much, you guys. This was a bad idea. The whole thing.”
“What are you talking about?” Wyatt folds his arms over his chest and furrows his brow at me.
“The lying, the manipulating. It’s bad enough that I did it, but I dragged you all down with me and that makes this all ten times worse.”
I rake my hands through my hair and kick Reggie’s stall, stirring him from his sleep under his fucking blanket on his own
personal mattress.
“You need to take a breath,” Calder says, holding his hands out to me like he’s going to corral me into a pen next.
“I need to confess everything to Addison before the wedding. I can’t let her walk down the aisle tomorrow and be faking it
for all of you. This wedding Mom and Everly threw together is beautiful. I don’t want it to be fake. I want it to be real.”
“I think it is real,” Wyatt says, his eyes urgent on me. “She loves you. It’s clear as day.”
“It’s not real if she doesn’t know everything we did,” I exclaim, my heart pounding. “Jesus Christ, Everly roped you guys
into helping me train for weeks for that lumberjack competition just so I could get her to marry me and fall in love with
me. That is so fucked. Then the night out at the Merc when you made us kiss.”
“Luke, I think this is just prewedding nerves,” Calder says with a tense shrug.
“It’s deeper than that, damn it,” I snap back, my tone visceral. “I don’t want her love if the only way I got it was through
lying and manipulating. I want to be enough for her.”
“You are enough, Luke,” Wyatt states, eyeing me harshly. “It’s obvious you’ve just been trying to impress her all this time.
What’s the real harm in that?”
“The harm is that it was all for nothing because her dad is going to sell the yard to Robyn and her husband anyways, which means Addison doesn’t need me and she never did,” I add, my mind flashing back to my conversation with John.
“Her whole life is going to be turned upside down when she finds out, and as her friend, I should be the one person she can lean on through it all, but I’ve been too busy lying to her for weeks just like her father.
This is all too much. I have to come clean. ”
“You just did.” Addison’s voice cuts into my mental warfare and I turn around to see her stepping into the barn, and the expression
on her face . . . is completely devastating.
Addison
“Babe . . . listen,” Luke rushes out, trying to approach me but I hold my hand up, stopping him in his tracks.
“I heard all I needed to hear.” I frown and lick my lips, pulling my coat tight around me, refusing to show a spec of emotion
on my face. I squint over to Luke and his brothers as they stand in the barn with their fucking dicks in their hands talking
about me behind my back. How many times have they all done that? How many times have they plotted and schemed together about
me?
Me.
Like I’m so damn important.
I focus on the most important thing first. “My dad is selling the yard to your ex?”
Luke’s face is hollow and slack as he nods. “I think so.”
“That should be a fun transition.” I bark out a dry laugh as I sniff and stare at the floor, dragging my feet through the
straw scattered beneath my boots. “And on top of that, everyone on this mountain knew our marriage was a lie? Did I hear right?”
“Not everyone knew,” Luke offers, shoving a hand through his hair.
“Who didn’t know, Luke? The fucking goat?” I bite, my tone acidic as I hang on to my sanity by a thread.
As if on cue, Millie bleats and I want to scream.
“I feel like such an idiot.” I laugh and shake my head, my stomach twisted in knots. “I thought this was real between you
and me, but it wasn’t. I thought I was becoming a part of your family, but I’ve been an unknowing participant to some weird
manipulative game you’re all playing to get me.”
My mind reels as I replay the last several weeks with this Fletcher family. All the women in that bridal store with me, gushing
over my gowns, taking me out for drinks. The Fletcher Mountain group chat. The engraved cutting board. Luke’s mom being so
sweet with all the wedding planning. All those kind, tender looks. They were all just . . . playing their part? No wonder
Everly was watching me all night long. She was just waiting to see if their big, grand scheme worked.
I thought these people were my friends, but they were just playing make-believe as well. This is humiliating.
“And Robyn?” I ask, hating to even utter her name. “You knew your ex was trying to buy the lumberyard out from under me and
you didn’t tell me? How fucking easy is it for you to lie to me, Luke?”
“I found out two days ago and went straight to your dad.”
“Oh cool, so you plotted with him about me as well. Wonderful! I’m surrounded by liars.” I blow out a deep breath, feeling