Inked Persuasion (Montgomery Ink Fort Collins #1) - Carrie Ann Ryan Page 0,8

understand it, but there was a whole scene about it, and now I’ll never be able to sleep again.” She shuddered, and I took another gulp of my coffee, wondering where I went wrong.

“You’re scaring me. Archer always scares me, but now you’re starting to scare me, too.”

“I can’t help it. It was a double date.” She gave me a slow smile.

“I guess Marc and Colton are doing well?” I asked, wanting to know a little bit more about my siblings’ boyfriends.

“Well, I can’t speak for Archer and Marc, but Colton and I are doing well. Okay, enough about me,” Paige said, rolling her shoulders back. “Who do we hate?”

“Jacob Queen moved into the house next door.”

Paige blinked before plopping down in the chair in front of my desk. “Jacob? That Jacob?”

“Yes, that Jacob.”

“Please tell me he’s at least gotten ugly and gross and has lost all of that beautiful hair of his or something. Maybe developed smoking and now has yellow teeth?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know why that matters, but none of those. And because the gods hate me, he’s broader than before, all muscle. And I think he’s taller. Or maybe I’ve shrunk, I’m not sure. But his hair is just as thick as before, wavy at the ends. And he still has that damn jawline. It’s the same Jacob Queen. The only man in the world who hates me.”

“That was a lot of descriptions for a man you want me to help you castrate,” Paige said nonchalantly.

I narrowed my eyes at her. “First off, we’re not going to castrate Jacob Queen.”

“That’s not something I expected to hear today,” Archer said as he walked in, eyebrows raised. “I mean, I don’t know if I should help with that, considering it’d be a horrible thing, but I could. Paige and I recently watched a movie that included it.”

“Please stop talking about castration,” I snapped.

“Okay then, it seems I’ve come at a bad time,” Benjamin said, Beckett behind him. I set my coffee down on my desk and put my hands over my face so I could silently scream into them.

“Annabelle is having a bad day, and we need her to finish that cup of coffee.”

“How many cups has she had?” Beckett asked.

“This is her first.”

“Dear God, get more caffeine into her,” Archer said.

I narrowed my eyes at all of them as I lowered my hands. “I hate you. All of you.”

“Not as much as you hate Jacob Queen,” Beckett corrected.

“Please, stop it. All of you.”

Another person walked into the room, and I narrowed my eyes at Beckett’s new assistant project manager, Clay.

“I thought we had a meeting about the upcoming project, but if we’re going to talk about castration, I think I’m going to head out,” Clay said cautiously.

I shook my head, rolled my shoulders back, and did my best to become Annabelle Montgomery, Lead Architect of Montgomery Builders. Not broken, weary, and confused Annabelle of Jacob’s past. “No, this is a work environment, and we are not going to discuss…that. Instead, we’re going to go through the major projects we have coming up.”

“First, I want to hear about the fact that Jacob Queen moved into the house next door,” Paige said, and I could’ve thrown my coffee at her. It wasn’t scorching, and it wouldn’t hurt her. But it would startle her and make me feel better. Yes, startling would be nice.

“Jacob, who?” Clay asked.

“That Jacob?” Archer inquired. “Oh, God. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” I said.

“You know, I’m going to get some coffee. I’ll be right back,” Clay said, turning on his heel and practically running out of the office.

“Great, we scared the new guy.” I sighed.

“He’s tough. Storm introduced us. If he can handle the Denver Montgomerys, he can handle us,” Beckett said.

I threw my hands up into the air. “Okay, we’re going to put this out there into the world, and then we’re not going to talk about it again.”

“Why don’t I believe that?” Beckett asked.

I pointed my finger at him and narrowed my eyes. “No. Stop it. No sarcasm.”

“That’s just not going to happen in this family,” Archer said, sarcasm dripping from his tone.

“Anyway,” I said, ignoring my twin, “Jacob Queen moved into the house next door. And he still hates me. Told me to my face. And almost said no to donuts.”

“From the pink box place?” Paige asked, her eyes wide.

I gave a tight nod. “From the pink box place.”

“That’s sacrilege,” Archer whispered.

“I know. He took them, but I’m pretty sure he probably