Honeymoon Phase

Honeymoon Phase, the third installment in the Mountain Men Matchmaker series, follows Luke Fletcher, the youngest of four brothers who live in a compound of cabins atop Fletcher Mountain outside Boulder, Colorado. A decade earlier, Luke, Wyatt, and Calder made a pact to never fall in love after all three secretly slept with Robyn Whitaker, a scandal that nearly destroyed their family. Now the pact lies in ruins: Wyatt has married Trista and has a baby daughter, Stevie; Calder has moved in with his girlfriend, Dakota; and their oldest brother, Max, has married Cozy. Luke is the last single Fletcher, harboring a secret: He is in love with his best friend, Addison "Roe" Monroe.

Luke confides in Everly, Max's college-aged daughter studying in Dublin, who considers herself the family matchmaker. Addison runs Monroe Lumber and Building Center, a family business her father, John Monroe, has left in her hands after retiring to Florida. A trust requirement stipulates that the inheritor must be married and cohabitating with a partner for at least one year, and John refuses to revise it. Addison wants a husband but insists on a stranger so the arrangement stays emotionally uncomplicated. Luke already proposed via letter and was rejected, but Everly urges him to try again.

Addison's resistance to romance runs deep. Her mother was driving drunk when she killed Addison's eight-year-old brother, Aaron, in a car accident. The siblings had shared a close bond: After learning about nonfiction in school, Aaron made a game of asking Addison to classify things as "fact or fiction." After serving a prison sentence, Addison's mother returned only to collect her belongings and drove away without speaking to her daughter. This abandonment left Addison with a profound fear that the people she loves will leave her.

When Addison reveals her plan to find a husband at Man of the Mountain, a local lumberjack competition, Luke presents her with a pros and cons list arguing a friend is safer than a stranger. Addison compromises: If she cannot find a suitable candidate at the competition, she will accept Luke as a last resort. Everly recruits Wyatt and Calder to secretly train Luke over six weeks and swears the brothers to secrecy so that Johanna, Luke's mother, and the other women remain unaware the marriage is one of convenience.

At the competition, Luke surprises Addison by appearing as a contestant. He finishes last in wood chopping and loses the axe-throwing final but insists on completing the last event: a 90-foot speed pole climb. He loses his footing on the descent and falls onto the crash mat, injuring his chin. Addison rushes to him on the stretcher and proposes on the spot. Luke accepts through blood and stitches.

They marry at the county clerk's office, where Colorado's self-solemnizing law means they need no officiant or witnesses. After the clerk pronounces them married, Addison cups Luke's face and leans in; Luke closes the distance, and both feel the kiss as unexpectedly electric. They present the certificate to John, who demands a proper ceremony before year's end.

Addison moves into Luke's guest bedroom on Fletcher Mountain. When Johanna arrives furious at not being told, Addison defuses the tension by asking her to help plan the wedding. Luke gives Addison a Cartier ring designed like a nail to honor her lumberyard career. As they settle into domestic routines, their bond deepens. Over several evenings, they exchange painful confessions: Addison reveals the full story of her mother's abandonment, and Luke describes performing CPR alone on his father, Steven, feeling his sternum break under his hands. Addison plays Luke a voicemail Steven left on her work phone years earlier. Luke weeps hearing his father's voice.

After a passionate hallway kiss that Luke deliberately stops, wanting Addison to come to him fully ready rather than after drinking, the tension becomes unbearable. Addison retreats into polite distance for two weeks, which devastates Luke. They reconcile, and he begins inviting her to sleep in his bed to help with her chronic insomnia. She discovers she sleeps soundly in his arms for the first time in years.

A couples' night at the Mercantile bar brings matters to a crisis. Addison initiates a passionate public kiss, but Robyn appears, reveals she knows the marriage is fake, and propositions Luke. Addison overhears and physically attacks Robyn. Outside, she and Luke have their worst fight: She is furious he hid his history with Robyn, and he accuses her of treating the marriage as meaningless. Luke walks away alone up the mountain.

After a desperate run through snowy trails, Addison returns to find Luke safe on the porch in his firefighter gear, having been called to a barn fire without telling her. They confront each other: Addison admits she wants him as more than a friend, and Luke confesses the same. He carries her inside, and they make love for the first time.

A snowstorm traps them together for days, solidifying their relationship. Addison invites Dakota, Trista, and Cozy to be her bridesmaids and asks Luke's brothers to stand as groomsmen. When Luke asks whether the wedding is fact or fiction, she says she needs more time. He later discovers the buyers for Monroe Lumber are Robyn and her husband, Matt, motivated by a grudge against the Fletchers. He warns John, who dismisses him but quietly tells Luke that Addison loves him.

The night before the wedding, Luke panics in the barn, confessing to his brothers that the scheme has gone too far. Addison overhears from the doorway: that Everly orchestrated the plan, that the brothers knew the marriage was fake, and that Luke hid the Whitaker sale. Devastated, she declares the marriage over. Hours later, she texts Luke with terms: The wedding will proceed only to avoid hurting Johanna, after which they will divorce.

On the wedding morning, John breaks down and confesses that the night of Aaron's accident, Addison's mother called him for a ride and he ignored her because he was at the bar. His guilt has driven his overprotectiveness ever since. Addison recognizes that she and her father share the same pattern of pushing away the people they love. She tells him to get her down the aisle.

At the ceremony, Addison stops the officiant to deliver her own vows. She asks Luke, "Fact or fiction. I love you." When he answers, "Please let it be a fact," she declares it is, apologizes for not saying so the night before, and says she wants to build a life with him. Luke vows to love her forever. They exchange matching Cartier wedding bands and kiss.

At the reception, John tells Addison he has called off the sale and will let her inherit the lumberyard, on the condition she promotes Chuck, a longtime Monroe Lumber employee, to share the management load. Luke proposes one final time on the porch, asking Addison to be his wife for life, not just for a year. She says yes.

An epilogue set a couple of years later shows Fletcher Mountain thriving. Addison sits on Steven's memorial bench at 38 weeks pregnant with a boy. Luke has fitted the pergola with a plaque honoring Aaron that reads, "Fact or Fiction: Little Brothers Make the Best Guardian Angels." The three brothers share a beer and make a new pact: to live as well as their father did. They toast with Steven's saying: "We're not here for a long time, we're here for a good time."