Page 36 of Inked Devotion

Clay rolled his eyes and handed over the cup. “It’s because I owe you, not because you’re my favorite Montgomery.”

“I am your favorite Montgomery. You know this. My precious. Mine, mine, mine.” She started singing to the coffee and went back to her desk. “Meeting in twenty,” she declared, as she answered the phone and took a sip of coffee at the same time. How she did that all at once, I wasn’t sure, but my sister was a genius.

“What did you owe her, and what is in that coffee?”

“She helped babysit the kids last night because my regular babysitter got a head cold, Storm and Everly were out on a date, and I didn’t want to bother them unless I needed to, and I was stuck on the job site with Beckett until late.”

I frown. “Everything okay there? I mean, with everything you just said.”

“Babysitter’s fine, Storm and Everly seemed to have a blast at their date, and I don’t want to think about the details, and Paige did great with the kids. As for the job site? Burst pipe.”

I cursed. “Nobody told me.”

“I think we’re going over it on the notes today. It happened late Friday night, and I guess everybody wanted to let you have some time to yourself on your vacation. We’re not supposed to work on vacations.”

I snorted. “When’s the last time you took a vacation, Clay?”

“Oh, I’m low down on the rungs of the Montgomery ladder. I’ll get a vacation when it’s good and ready.”

“Already slacking off on the job and wanting a vacation?” Beckett asked as he walked in, his gaze going directly to the cup of coffee in Clay’s hand.

Beckett’s assistant project manager shook his head and pulled the coffee back. “This is mine. You can get yours. I’m not yourassistantassistant.”

“You have coffee. And I want coffee.”

“You’re an adult who can pour it yourself,” I added.

Clay grinned at me. “See? Now you are my favorite Montgomery.”

“Hey,” Paige said from her desk. “Not nice.”

“You’re right. You’ll be my favorite next.”

“That’s all I ask.” Paige went back to her notes in front of her, and I shook my head, happy that I had gotten a break from the place, but I still missed it.

“Glad you’re back.” Beckett’s words brought me out of my thoughts, and I shook my head.

“Same here.”

“You have a good time with our girl?” my twin asked.

I held back a frown. I knew that Beckett didn’t have feelings for Brenna. Brenna told me, and I believed her that she didn’t have feelings for him. The possessiveness of his tone because of their friendship rubbed me the wrong way though. I knew that it had nothing to do with me. Beckett wasn’t overbearing or an asshole to any of Brenna’s former boyfriends. Not that I knew of many of them, but there have been a couple, now that I thought about it. However, I just didn’t like the way he said ‘our girl.’ And that was on me. If Brenna ever heard my thoughts? She would kick my ass, and rightly so.

“You’re here,” Annabelle said as she came over to me and hugged me tightly. “I’m so glad that you’re back. We missed you.” She kissed my cheek, and I hugged her close before I looked down.

“You’re looking pretty cute.” It was true. She glowed, and I knew it was only partly due to the pregnancy. Being with Jacob had made her happier, and I was glad for it.

She beamed. “I feel pretty cute. I haven’t thrown up once today.”

“Praise God,” Archer said as he walked into the area too.

I looked around at my family, and my shoulders relaxed. They would understand what I was about to tell them. At least about Laura. Brenna? No, that was a secret I was going to take to my grave.

“We need to go get into the meeting. Come on.” Paige tugged at my hand, and I followed her, feeling more at home than I had for a while. Maybe I needed a break from more than just thinking. Because coming back after time away really did make the heart grow fonder.

We headed into the main conference room, where we met with some clients instead of our individual offices. I knew that my family liked to alternate between all of our offices to give things variety, but I was glad that we would be in this big room. Of course, if I tacked on my announcement at the end of this meeting, Clay would be part of it too, but why the hell not? It would give me practice for when I had to tell my parents. I didn’t want to keep that a secret from them, and I just hoped they were the ones that would understand.

“I heard about the pipe,” I said as I sat down in front of Beckett, and my twin groaned.

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