Page 1 of Inked Devotion

Chapter 1

Brenna

Idon’t know when it happened. One day I was surrounded by family, more than my share of family, to be honest. The next, I had been adopted by the Montgomerys.

I grew up with a wonderful family. The Garretts took care of me. They loved me. They were slightly overbearing sometimes, but so were the Montgomerys, for that matter. The Garretts were funny, sweet, and loved me. My parents had helped me through college. I had paid for half, and they had paid for the other. My family and I talked weekly, sometimes daily. We had a group chat that sometimes went off so much that I had to learn how to turn off the vibrate on my phone to focus during work. My family was amazing.

And yet, I was still a Montgomery. I wasn’t quite sure how it had happened, but I wasn’t the only one. I looked over the barbecue area in the backyard where Lee stood, and he raised his beer at me before he leaned down to listen to what Paige and her boyfriend Colton were talking about.

Lee was another adoptee into the Montgomerys, though his family wasn’t exactly like mine. However, Lee was one of my best friends, as were Beckett and Benjamin. The twin Montgomerys had taken me into their family, where I had met Annabelle and Paige and Archer, and suddenly I had such a group of friends that I was invited to Montgomery family dinners, because tonight was a family dinner. Not a party, not a barbecue, just a family dinner. With five children, each with friends of their own that had somehow become family, and spouses and significant others, the group had gotten larger.

Annabelle sat in a lawn chair, her feet on her husband’s lap as he rubbed her ankles. She was pregnant and probably didn’t even have ankle pain at that point, but Jacob just needed to get his hands on her, and in front of her parents, this was pretty much the only way to do it.

Beckett operated the grill, with Eliza standing next to him, rolling her eyes as he most likely was mansplaining how to use the grill. Beckett was terrific, my best friend for a reason, and the one I shared most of my secrets with, but as soon as he stood in front of a grill, he became the Neanderthal who needed to show precisely how man made fire. Of course, his father stood on the other side of him, explaining to Beckett and Eliza how to use the grill.

As Eliza had been living on her own long before she’d lost her husband, thanks to constant deployments, I knew Eliza knew how to use a grill, we all knew, but she was in love, and it was a new and sappy sweet love, so she was going to let Beckett explain to her.

And I wasn’t jealous. Not with Beckett, not at all.

Okay. So I was a little jealous, but not because of Beckett. Despite what everybody in the world thought, I was not in love with Beckett Montgomery. I had never been. I’d suffered a minor crush on him that had turned into nothing, and yet everyone thought I had been pining for him. I had no idea where the rumor had started, and no matter how many times I tried to deny it, or even not talk about it so it would go away, it only intensified their knowingness of my deep love for that man.

Now that he was getting married and he and Eliza were ready to spend the rest of their lives together, hopefully that whole crush thing and unrequited love thing would die down.

Maybe.

Archer and his boyfriend were talking to Mrs. Montgomery. Marc had a scowl on his face, confusing me since the man didn’t usually show emotion at the Montgomery house. I liked Archer’s boyfriend, though I didn’t know a lot about him.

“Why are you over here frowning at the rest of the party and not part of it?” Clay asked, as I looked over at the newest adopted person into the Montgomerys. Of course, Clay had been adopted into another set of Montgomerys before he’d even come here. Beckett’s cousins had been the ones to introduce Clay to this part of the family and were why Clay was now working for Montgomery Builders.

“I’m not frowning,” I said as I relaxed my face.

“Totally frowning. And I don’t hear screaming, so the kids must be in the house with Benjamin?” Clay asked as he rubbed his jaw. “Hell. I had that phone call with the bank, and now I’ve misplaced three kids.”

I knew Clay was his cousins’ legal guardian, but I didn’t know the whole story behind it. I knew it was complicated and far from an easy topic, so I didn’t ask. Beckett knew why, but I didn’t think anyone else did. And that was fine. When Clay was ready to tell us, if he ever was, we’d be here. We all had our issues.

“Yes,” I answered, shaking my head. “They wanted to look at a video game that Benjamin had over here.”

Clay laughed. “Benjamin has a video game set here?”

“I do,” Archer said as he walked over and put his arms around my shoulders. He kissed the top of my head, and I grinned up at him.

“Really?”

“Yes,” Archer said, grinning. “One of my old sets is over here, but Benjamin keeps a few of his old games too. I guess the kids were bored out in the backyard, or just being kids,” Archer said.

“Mariah is nearly five now. She is not a baby, according to her. Ryan is nearly five now, so you would think I would be used to the fact that all of these kids are getting older and we are no longer able to put them in a playpen and call it a day.”

I laugh. “There’s no way that you ever were that guardian just to stick them in a playpen and call it a day.”

“No, and I think they’d probably just learn how to crawl out of it anyway.”

“Do you want some help?” Clay shook his head as Benjamin walked out, Mariah on Benjamin’s back, and Holden and Jackson laughing as Benjamin said something. Benjamin was the quiet Montgomery. He scowled more and growled more, though I always figured that his twin Beckett growled the most. That’s because Beckett tended to get angrier more often.

Benjamin was a quiet angry that simmered. I called him my friend too. After all, I hung out with him as much as I did Lee these days. I didn’t hang out with Beckett as much anymore, but that was because we had our issues.

My issues.

Clay went to take Mariah off of Benjamin’s back, shook his head, and the little girl laughed. She started chasing Holden, who therefore chased Jackson, and Clay rubbed his temples.

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