Inked Obsession (Montgomery Ink Fort Collins #2) - Carrie Ann Ryan Page 0,67
hip, keeping her in place, and she smiled up at him. “I mean, if you want to come into the building. If it’s not too much.”
Benjamin cleared his throat. “There’s a couple of things you might want to look at. Just to see. We’re pretty proud of it.”
My dad looked at me then, and then at Archer. Archer shrugged. “We’d love to have you.”
I looked at my dad. “Seriously. We love you guys. We’re figuring this all out, but you’re our parents. You built this company. And now it’s ours, but we don’t hate you guys. We don’t want to push you out completely to the point where you’re never part of anything we do.”
“And I’ll do my best not to barrel through like a bull in a china shop and fuck things over.”
“Language,” my mom said, and my dad rolled his eyes.
“I’m pretty sure you’re the one who taught the girls to say ‘fuck’ before I did.”
“It’s true,” Annabelle said, as my mom blushed.
“Okay, okay. We can talk about coming into the office later. Speaking of, I’m sorry that Clay couldn’t come tonight. I sent him some soup though for the little one.”
I frowned. “Clay couldn’t come?” I asked, just now realizing that my assistant and his brood weren’t here.
Benjamin leaned forward. “The littlest one has an ear infection, and he didn’t want to leave the baby with a babysitter. Mom sent over food, and I’ll send some more over tomorrow.”
“Thanks. I’m sorry I didn’t know about that.”
“You were just getting back when everything happened, and I know you’ve been a little busy,” Annabelle said pointedly, her gaze going over to Eliza.
“Well, if there’s anything I can do, let me know. I mean, I should call him anyway and see if I can help. Out of all of us, my schedule is a little freer.”
“I love all of you so much,” my mom said as she looked around. “You are so helpful and sweet and wonderful, and our family keeps growing.” She looked at Colton and Marc and Jacob. And then at Lee and Brenna and even Eliza. “I know you guys aren’t technically Montgomerys, but in my heart, you are. I love that we can joke about cheeses, and the fact that our dear Annabelle can’t have any.”
“Way to rub it in, Mom,” Annabelle grumbled.
“I love that we can be together, even if it isn’t always easy.” My mother gave me a pointed look, and I cringed.
“I love you.”
“I love you, too. And we will talk about what happened later. Right now, we’re going to enjoy ourselves. We’re going to eat food, be merry, and celebrate my birthday. This day is all about me and that is what I want. That is my gift.”
“That, we can do,” Benjamin said softly. “Love you, Mom.”
“Suck-up.” Archer coughed into his hand, and my mom just rolled her eyes.
“I love all of you. Now, let’s eat, talk about baby plans and names, and whatever else has been going on.” She looked between me and Eliza. “Anything else I might’ve missed.”
I looked down at Eliza, who blushed. “Well, then,” she said.
There were no secrets in the Montgomerys, even if we pretended there were.
We sat down, ate, and I did my best not to lean into Eliza too much. But when our hands brushed under the table, I didn’t let go.
Once more, I wondered just what the hell I was doing.
Chapter 19
Eliza
I frowned at the email from my in-laws and quickly shut down my browser. They wanted to talk to me. Not to apologize for springing life-altering ramifications on me out of the blue in public, but because they wanted money. They wanted to help the woman they had desired as their daughter—not the one they’d gotten.
I couldn’t deal with any of that right now. I had no idea what I was doing and what I would do when it came to Natasha and her daughter. I’d deal with it later.
Something I kept telling myself.
Instead of dwelling on my unfaithful—and apparently, doomed—marriage, I had spent the morning working on designs for a client and was now getting ready for my date.
A date with Beckett Montgomery.
I still wasn’t sure how that had happened, but I couldn’t go back now. In many respects, there was no going back to the way things were, or even the new normal I’d created.
Now, there was a new-new normal that looked as if I’d fallen off a cliff, but I might as well figure out what I wanted.