Chapter 45
Fact or Fiction?
This reception is lit with LED.
Addison
“Fact or fiction, this hot cocoa is amazing,” I say, bending over next to Ethan, who’s currently slurping down what has to
be his third cup of the night. He has a chocolate mustache and hot chocolate splatters all over his crisp white shirt.
“Total fact.” He slurps down more, and I tear up when I see a glimpse of my little brother in him.
“Hey, Ethan.” I drop down into the seat next to him. “Do you want to have a sleepover at our house sometime?”
“Are you kidding me? Duh! Yes. I am available tonight.”
I laugh and shake my head. “Um, tonight maybe doesn’t work the best but like maybe next weekend?”
“Okay, sure. Just ask my mom, she knows my schedule.”
“I like your style, kid.” I ruffle his hair, and he frowns and straightens it out.
“I don’t like your dress.”
“No?” I look down at it and frown. “What don’t you like about it?”
“White is boring. You should have tie-dyed it.”
I purse my lips thoughtfully. “You know, I think you’re right.”
“You want me to spill hot cocoa on it to give it some color?” He looks at me dead-ass serious.
“I’m gonna say no to that one.”
“You sure?” He holds the cup up toward me and I quickly grab his wrist and push him gently away.
“Yeah, I’m good. Thanks though.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Ethan,” Max barks, staring daggers at his son. “That is your second shirt of the night. We only have one more left.”
Ethan shrugs. “I’m just going to ruin that one too.”
Max sighs and shakes his head before looking at me. “You feeling good?”
I smile and find my husband across the room staring at me. “I’m feeling great.”
Max squints his eyes and nods. “It’s always harder for one person.”
I gaze up at him. “What do you mean?”
“It always takes one person a bit longer to come to their senses than the other.”
I tilt my head curiously. “Who held out between you and Cozy?”
“Oh, that’s a very long story.” He waggles his brows and then turns to glance at Luke. “Take care of my baby brother, alright?”
I lick my lips and feel butterflies in my belly. “I intend to.”
Max gestures for Ethan to follow him to go change. Ethan takes off in a sprint in the opposite direction with his dad hot
on his heels.
I can’t help but laugh at the older brother speech because Jo said something similar earlier.
“He’s all yours, beautiful girl. Thank you for saying yes to him today,” Jo says, holding me close. Today’s hug is the best
one yet, and I love that she’s holding me as if I’m precious to her. “If I may, I want to share some wisdom on marriage as
I learned a thing or two in the thirty-eight years Steven and I were married. Love isn’t always easy, but life can be even
harder. It’s about saying yes to the man you married. Yes, to the hard things when it would be easier to walk away. Yes, to
forgiving him when he screws up, because he will.” I laugh. “And it’s a yes that you say every day to loving him with everything
you have.”
And for the first time, I initiated a Jo Fletcher hug, and it was me who held on tighter and longer than her for once. “Thank you for showing me the most beautiful kind of motherhood.”
I smile through my tears, hoping I can be just like her to one of my own children someday, and the fact that that thought
alone doesn’t scare the absolute shit out of me just shows how far I’ve come up here on Fletcher Mountain.
“Addison, can I talk to you for a second?” Everly asks, walking over to me and ripping me out of my family building fantasy.
“Of course, Evs. What’s up?”
“I just have to say I’m so sorry for the part I played in the fight you guys had last night. I only wanted the best for my
uncle, and I knew you were the best, but it was wrong of us to lie to you. And it was wrong of me to pressure Luke into all
of this and I really hope you can forgive me.”
I pin the adorable blonde with a “get the fuck out of here” look before I wrap her in my arms and hug the shit out of her,
murmuring into her shoulder, “Everly Fletcher, look around here.”
Everly’s blue eyes scan the room that looks like a winter wonderland fairy tale. The dance floor is hopping with lumberyard
friends and Edith has barely let my dad sit down all night. It’s the best surprise of my life . . . other than finding out
my best friend was in love with me, of course.
“You make magic happen,” I state firmly to my new niece. “Please don’t ever change.”
“You really mean it?”
“Yes.” I reach over and hold her face in my hands. “Keep pushing, keep micromanaging, keep not taking no for an answer. And
don’t ever let anyone dull your shine. Got it?”
She gets a funny look on her face before she nods, and when the music shifts to a girlie pop anthem, I jump up to my feet and pull my niece onto the dance floor to twirl the night away.
By the end of the night, I find myself in my husband’s arms swaying on the dance floor.
“Can we get married a third time?” Luke murmurs into my neck before lifting his head to look down at me. “I’d like to know
what a wedding would feel like without being miserable for every moment leading up to it. Maybe we could get married every
year.”
I stand up on my toes to kiss his lips. “I think we can just celebrate an anniversary, can’t we?”
“I guess so.” He pulls me in close. “As long as we get to have a wedding night each year.”
“I’m hoping for a lot more than once a year, fella.” I poke him in the chest.
“Oh, you can count on it, wife. Just let me know whenever I need to fulfill my husbandly duties.”
“You were doing a pretty good job of it the last couple of weeks, so just . . . more of that.”
“Done.”
I giggle and sigh, realizing the future isn’t all that scary anymore because we’ve lived it together already. It’s just going
to be more of what we already know works, except this time I get to tell him I love him anytime I want.
“Mind if I cut in?” a deep voice interrupts our dance, and Luke and I turn to see my father standing there in all his tall,
mustache-wearing, overbearing glory.
Luke smiles and glances down at me for approval and I nod before he holds my hand out to my dad and respectfully steps away,
shooting me an encouraging wink as he goes.
My dad smells like that familiar scent in the bathroom after he’d shower growing up. Clean bar soap and shaving cream. It’s comforting in an odd way. As dysfunctional as he is as a father, I still love him. He’s my dad.
“Nice to see you looking happy, kiddo,” he rumbles, looking around the dance floor. “Hoping when I tell you I just made a
call and turned down the offer from the Whitakers, it’ll make you even more happy.”
My lips part as I look up at him in shock. “Seriously?”
He nods, looking somber. “They were a bit too fancy to take over the yard. Bullhead would have been so uncomfortable.”
“Oh well, we can’t have Bullhead being uncomfortable.” I glance over where Bullhead is sitting at a table with Chuck and some
yard guys and there are piles of beer cans stacked up all around them.
Dad harrumphs. “Really smart of you to line up sober drivers for everyone tonight.”
I shrug and smile. “I’m a smart girl, Dad.”
He nods and exhales heavily. “I know that, Ads.” He tilts his head and looks down at me. “Which is why I’m going to let you
take over the yard, on one condition.”
“If you tell me there’s another stipulation in this trust that says I need to give you a certain number of grandchildren,
I am going to scream.”
His head jerks back. “That’s not in the will, but it’s maybe not a bad idea to add something—”
“Dad!” I exclaim, ready to pounce on him, but his face twists up into a devilish grin.
“I’m messing with you, Addie May.” He sighs, the crinkles in his eyes appearing thoughtful. “I just want you to promise that
if the yard gets to be too much, you bring Chuck up to manage more of it. Even if it means you take a pay cut.”
“I don’t care about the money, Dad.”
“I know but I just need to hear you say it.”
I stare up at him with a serious expression. “I promise that if it starts to become too much, I will ask for help.”
He offers me a wobbly smile. “Chuck says you run it better than I ever did anyhow.”
“Obviously,” I snort, and my dad just scowls down at me.
His gaze turns to find Luke, who’s now dancing with his mom. “I guess he isn’t the worst guy you could have picked.”
“I’m afraid he’s a keeper.” And I fear he will make an excellent father if we decide that’s what we want someday.
My dad eyes me warily. “I take it those vows mean you will be keeping him, then? That was all a fact?”
“It was a fact.”
He nods. “Aaron would have liked him too, I think.”
My eyes sting with that and I feel myself sniffing. “Hey, Dad. Would you . . . maybe want to bring some of these wedding flowers
to the cemetery with me tomorrow?”
His lips turn down as he nods. “I could do that, kid.”
And with that, I lay my cheek on my dad’s chest and let him spin me around the dance floor, feeling more like a daddy’s girl
than I have in a very long time.