Page 30 of Inked Devotion

“They just said his name was Benjamin. Beckett’s his twin.”

“I didn’t realize you could date twins,” the youngest one said, and if I remembered right, that was Amelia.

“Oh, stop,” Teresa said with a roll of her eyes. “No more teasing our baby Brenna.”

“I thought I was the baby,” Amelia said as she put her hand over the generous swell of her stomach.

“You’re all my babies.”

Teresa leaned down and kissed Amelia’s cheek before she gestured towards the kitchen. “We are going to fix up some dinner. We have pasta with squash, and I bought a few store-bought loaves,” she said as Brenna winced.

“I didn’t know you were doing bread tonight, or I would have tried to bring something.”

“And bring us stale bread since you decided to drive here instead of fly?” one of the brothers said, though I didn’t know which.

“You bake bread?” I asked, surprising myself.

“You don’t know? She’s our favorite baker. How long have you guys been together if you don’t even know what she does for a living?” one of the brothers said.

“We’re not dating. We’re just friends. And I’m the cake decorator. He’s had my baked goods.” One of them snickered, and I did my best not to join them. Well, that would be an understatement, wouldn’t it?

“What I mean is, I bake all the time. I don’t tend to bake bread at home since it’s not my favorite thing.”

“You always make bread for us,” Amelia said.

“Because I enjoy it, but I enjoy other things better. It doesn’t matter. I’ll bake for tomorrow. That is when the family reunion is, right? We haven’t changed it?”

“We haven’t. I know you want to get some done with that, and there was a brioche that you wanted to make, and I wondered if you could make the monkey bread. I know you wanted to make cinnamon rolls for tomorrow, and you have to start that tonight, but I’ve been craving monkey bread,” the eldest sister said quickly, and Brenna rolled back her shoulders.

“I can do that. I thought I was also baking a cake.”

I shook my head, my eyes widening as they continued to all talk about the menu.

“You’re doing all of that? Tonight?”

“I have a few hours tonight and in the morning. I enjoy it.”

“I’ll help,” I said.

“Really? You?”

“I can knead. I’ve got strong hands,” I said, and could’ve groaned aloud as the others snickered.

“We’re eating dinner first, and we can ignore the fact that my daughter’s not boyfriend just said he’s good with his hands,” Sam said, and I needed to find somewhere to hide.

“First, let’s take care of their car, and get their rooms. Separate rooms,” the oldest brother said as he glared at us.

I held up my hands. “No problem.”

I ignored the wince on Brenna’s face as she quickly hid it. We were not doing very well, and I wasn’t sure what our next step needed to be.

Somehow, Brenna’s family overtook everything. I had no choice in what I was doing. I was just there. We ate, talked about all of their family, and it wasn’t awkward that none of their spouses were there.

“The spouses are having a new Garrett dinner,” Amelia said as she smiled. “Everyone that married into the family decided to do a huge dinner tonight just for themselves, since they’re going to be forced to be surrounded by every single Garrett known to existence tomorrow.”

“Sorry we didn’t get you in on that,” the oldest brother said. “You’re going to be surrounded by Garretts for at least the weekend. And that’s a long time when there’s so many of us.”

“It’s fine. If she can deal with the Montgomerys, I’m pretty sure I can handle the Garretts.”

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