Page 10 of Inked Devotion

I gave Annabelle a look.

“I don’t find it unusual, do you?”

Paige walked into the kitchen. “I find it a little weird, but kind of nice. So you and Benjamin?” She wrinkled her brows.

I groaned. “No, we’re not going there. We are just friends. Just like I’m friends with the rest of your family. He wanted to get away, probably from his sisters who never leave him alone,” I said with a laugh.

“Well, that’s not very nice,” Paige said, and Annabelle pouted.

I raised a brow. “Don’t pout. It’s bad for the baby.”

“Oh, I have to try that,” Paige said, grinning.

“Seriously though,” Annabelle added. “He just went up to you and said, ‘Hey, can I go with you on a road trip to go see your family?’”

“He wanted to leave and have time to think. I don’t know why. I’m not going to pressure him into telling me, though, because sometimes it’s okay if we just brood.”

“And yet you got angry when Beckett wasn’t telling you his secrets?” Paige asked, and then put her hands over her mouth. “I didn’t say that. I’m sorry. That was rude.”

I held back a wince since she’d said the words rolling around in my head. “No, it’s fine. And the thing with Beckett and me has nothing to do with this.” Marginally. “And it wasn’t that exactly. I can’t explain it.”

I couldn’t explain to them that I had wanted to share my deepest darkest secrets, but he had kept pushing me away, not able to listen because he had tried to hide himself. While I understood, it didn’t mean I was happy about it. And it didn’t make me a hypocrite for keeping secrets. I had tried to tell him numerous times, and he kept lying to me.

Now, I needed to do this on my own. Not necessarily the road trip, because I wouldn’t be doing that on my own, but everything else.

“Okay, well, if you happen to find out what is wrong with Benjamin, you tell us.”

I laughed as I zipped up my insulated cooler. “If I happen to find out because Benjamin trusts me enough to tell me if anything is going on? I’m not telling you. That is the code. It is what we all explained to ourselves when I became friends with the group of you.”

“I don’t think we wrote that down, though,” Annabelle said, looking over at Paige as she bounced on our toes. “Nope. Not even a little bit. I do believe you should tell us. Because we love you and we love Benjamin, and while we both know that nothing is going to go on there because the two of you are way opposites and you would probably brood at each other enough that it just wouldn’t work out, we still want to know what’s up with our brother.”

“That was one very long sentence,” I said drily. “And thank you for thinking I’m not good enough for your brother.”

“Brenna,” Annabelle snapped. “You just said nothing is going on between you and Benjamin. Paige decided to prod you just a little just then, you don’t have to go straight to ‘we don’t think you’re good enough.’ We think you’re good enough for all of our brothers. Hell, you’re good enough for Paige too, even though she’s taken.”

“And I’m not good enough for you?” I said with a laugh.

“I mean, I guess me too,” Annabelle said, shrugging. “Only I’m taken as well. As you damn well know,” she said, her hands on her stomach.

I shook my head. “Okay, go. I need to leave now so I can pick up Benjamin at his house.”

“And you’re just going to another state in a car without a train or a bus or a plane.”

“Are we waiting for Superman to show up?” I ask drily.

“I just don’t understand what’s going on. A road trip with your new bestie,” Paige said, and this time she was pouting.

I sighed, walked over to her, and held her hard. “Your cupcakes are on the counter. Because I bake when I’m stressed, and I’m always stressed these days, and I love you. I’m going to a family reunion, and you know I like road trips and haven’t been able to take one. It’s been busy at the shop, and I just want to do this. The fact that Benjamin seemed to need it as well caught me off guard, and I said yes before I thought about it, but I still would have said yes if I had. Because he needed it, that’s what we do. We are there for each other.” I said most of that in one breath, and the girls looked at me for a moment before they blinked as one.

“Damn straight. And I need to pee.” Annabelle said, and I laughed.

“Pee and then get out because I need to go pick up Benjamin.”

“Will you keep us up to date with where you are?” Paige asked as Annabelle ran to the bathroom.

“Always. There’ll even be a tracker on my phone, so you can find me. It’s not creepy in the least, but we were going to do it when I was going out alone where all the ax murderers can find me.”

“La la la la la. I can’t hear you,” Paige said, putting her hands over her ears.

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