Inked Persuasion (Montgomery Ink Fort Collins #1) - Carrie Ann Ryan Page 0,36
to get any more work done today.”
I stepped away on shaky legs and grinned. “Then I’m going to leave to get my work done. Maybe I’ll see you around.”
“Maybe I’ll see you,” he said. I turned and left, wondering what the hell I was doing. I was not good at this, but I didn’t know if I was terrible at it yet either. It was new, something I’d never done before.
I pulled out my phone as I walked to my house, taking my tools with me.
Me: Girls, I need help—orange alert.
A red alert would mean that I needed them over. Orange alert meant that I needed to talk to them.
Eliza: Are you okay? What happened?
Brenna: Does it have to do with that hottie from the bar?
That made me laugh as I walked into the house, putting everything away.
Me: I had sex with Jacob Queen in his kitchen, and now we’ve decided to do a friends-with-benefits thing.
Eliza: !!!.
Brenna: How was it?
Brenna: Was it big?
Brenna: I’m coming over.
I laughed, sank down into my couch, and looked at my phone.
Me: I have work to do, and so do you. And Eliza is waiting on a call from her hubby. We’ll meet up tomorrow as planned.
Eliza: You’re right, but I will have questions. I’ll even make a checklist about it. But are you okay?
I thought about that and bit my lip.
Me: I think so. It just sort of happened.
Brenna: I hear that’s the best way.
I grinned, shaking my head. Eliza was married, the one who still had a little bit of her wild side but had smoothed out the edges when she got with her husband. She was now the calming one on the texts. I knew Brenna had never been in a serious relationship and was a lot of brashness, all wrapped around a soft, gooey center of innocence.
I loved my best friends, and I was relieved that I hadn’t included Paige in this text chain. Mostly because that was my baby sister, and there were things I did not tell her.
Me: We’ll talk tomorrow. But oh my God, I slept with Jacob.
Brenna: I see you didn’t use his last name.
Eliza: It’s because he’s not just the idea of a man anymore. He’s the real deal.
I groaned.
Me: He’s just a deal. Not the real one. Do your things. I’m going to work.
Eliza: Don’t work too hard. And be safe.
Brenna: And make sure you write down every single detail of exactly how it was so you can tell us and not forget a thing.
I laughed, texted my goodbyes, and set my phone down. I hadn’t meant to sleep with Jacob, though there hadn’t been any sleeping going on.
I’d never had sex on a counter before. Never had sex without even a date prior. And I’d certainly never had sex with Jacob.
And now we were going to pretend that everything was normal and maybe do it again.
Somehow, I needed to make like everything was fine. Like I wasn’t emotionally churning inside. And I promised myself that I wasn’t going to screw it up.
I had a feeling that this promise might be one I would end up breaking.
Chapter 10
Jacob
“Dustin, where is Seressia again?” I asked, rubbing my temples.
“Root canal,” Dustin said, wincing.
I looked up at him and grimaced. “Damn. Is she okay?” I inquired, sympathy pouring through me.
“She’s doing fine, I guess. She texted that she was going to murder someone, but I didn’t know if it was because she had to wait because someone wasn’t competent, or because she was in pain. Probably a mixture of both.”
“We’re running on fumes here,” I said, looking at the piles of papers on my desk as well as the emails adding up, one by one, the dings insistent. I didn’t usually have notifications on, but I was becoming so tunnel-focused on my case, I kept missing important emails. My staff was wonderful, but we were really shorthanded right now, and I knew if I had been able to stay down south for a bit longer, it might not be this bad. But I’d had to come up north when I did and had to bring my crew with me. We were making do, but today was one of those days.
“We’ve got it handled,” Dustin said. “Well, at least I think we do.” The phone rang behind him, and he winced again. “I’ll go take care of that.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “Please. But we’ve got this. It’s almost the end of the day.”