Page 63 of Inked Obsession

“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

Ifrowned 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 Iwoulddo 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.

At least, that was what I told myself. Tonight, I would figure out if going on a date with Beckett Montgomery was what I needed, or a horrible mistake. He was still my friend, and there was something more there. Something I’d been ignoring for a long time.

I didn’t want to ignore it anymore. I wanted to see if the way we were with each other was because of the vacation atmosphere or because of what wecouldbe.

And, at the same time, I would try not to think about any of it too hard. Because, somehow, all of this would work. Or I would stress myself out to the point where I couldn’t focus.

I swallowed hard and pulled myself away from my laptop. And then I told myself that thinking too hard about anything—about Beckett, the Montgomerys, my brothers and their new lives, and Marshall’s issues—needed to be put on the back burner. At least, for now. I could think about the future and what everything meant later.

For now, I’d try not to throw up because I was super stressed about my date with Beckett.

I checked my reflection and touched up my lipstick. I had gone with a flowing black wrap dress, similar to the one I had worn on vacation, but this one was different. It had long sleeves that belled out slightly at the wrists with a slight ruffle that matched the one at mid-thigh. It showed off my breasts, but not too much. I had on strappy, sandal heels and wore very cute underwear. As in the sexiest pieces I now owned because I wasn’t going to wear sexy lingerie that anyone else had seen. I had tossed those, anything that Marshall had ever touched, actually, because I didn’t want to be that person anymore. I was on a new path now. Whatever that meant.

I wore the sexy underwear for myself. And for Beckett. He had already touched and tasted and licked every single inch of me. We might even be having sex tonight. It might be a foregone conclusion, or it may not happen at all. I didn’t know. Regardless, I didn’t want to be stuck in my comfy cotton panties the first time we had sex in Colorado.

Which now that I thought about it, sounded very odd. We’d had sex before. We might have sex again. And if we did, he was going to get a look at my new sexy underwear.

And now I needed a paper bag to hyperventilate into.

I touched up my bold red lipstick and finger-combed my hair. This was all he was going to get. But I looked damn hot.

Even if I was nervous as hell.

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