Inked Devotion by Carrie Ann Ryan

Chapter 7

Benjamin

We pulled in front of a nice-looking home with decent landscaping. Brenna let out a breath as she put the car into park and looked over at me.

“I don’t want you to look at the garden in the backyard,” she blurted, and I blinked at her. Of all the things she could have said to me at that moment, and there were many things that we were not talking about and shouldn’t talk about, but really should talk about, that hadn’t been it.

“I was just thinking their landscaping looked nice.”

“It is, and they hire the neighborhood boy to mow the lawn, though soon I’m sure they’ll get one of the grandkids to do it.”

“That’s great,” I said sincerely.

“Only, with her garden? Mom likes to tinker. She tinkers, and then she kills things. Often. So then they try to bring it back to life, but they add more plants while they wait. It’s a jungle and a mess and way too much work for them, but they’re trying. Don’t give them help, or hints, or let them try to see what they should be doing to make their garden look like a professional cares about it.”

I shook my head, frowning. “Am I that person?” I asked, and she looked up at me.

“What person?”

“The person that judges random strangers. The person who’s going to judge the strangers that will let me stay in their home without warning. Am I that person?”

She cringed. “No. But I’m stressed out, and my mother is kind of notorious for the jungle that is her garden.”

“That’s fine. If she does ask for help, though, am I allowed to give it? Or should I just say she’s doing great?” I was a little worried and intrigued about what it could look like. I wanted to know. It wasn’t like I completely revamped every lawn I ever walked onto. That would take too much of my time, and I didn’t have time for that. As it was, I had multiple projects waiting for me when I got back, something that I was ignoring for now because we needed to be on the top of our games for this family reunion of hers. I didn’t think either one of us was truly there yet.

“You’re not that person. I’m sorry. I’m just freaking out over little things because I’m bringing a man to a family reunion. That’s not my date. And we haven’t…and I’m not even going to finish that statement.”

“It’s fine. We’re going to work it out.”

“Yes, we are,” she said quickly, as she nodded and looked towards the house. “I’m pretty sure we’re going to park in the back later, but they want us to come through the front door at first. So let’s make that happen.”

“Should I bring the bags now?”

She shook her head. “No, that’ll just hinder us.”

“I’ve got you.”

She looked at me then, and I wasn’t sure I should have said that.

“Let’s get inside,” she said. She gave me a tight nod, and I felt like we were gearing up for battle. Perhaps we were.

“Do you remember everyone’s names?” she asked as we got out of the SUV. She ran her hands over her body, and my mind went to where it shouldn’t. She gave me a look, and I knew she knew exactly where my thoughts had gone, but I did my best to ignore it. I was doing my best to ignore more than a few things today.

“I hope you at least wrote it down, because they’re going to know everything about you.” She frowned. “Or at least about Beckett.” She cringed, and I shook my head.

“You did tell them it was me coming, right?”

“Of course I did, but they get confused. Your family has a lot of twins.”

“We have two. Two sets of twins.”

“That’s a lot to a family that has none, which is a family of seven kids, without any twins. My poor mother.”

“And I thought our family was big.”

“You just have a lot more cousins than we do,” she muttered as we walked towards the front door. My hand brushed hers, and she pulled hers away quickly as if I had burned her. I ignored the feeling because we didn’t have time for it.

The door opened, and a woman that looked like Brenna in twenty years walked out, a big man behind her.

“Brenna, my darling. You’re finally here. We’ve missed you.”

Brenna’s mom came over quickly and kissed her daughter on the cheeks, taking her purse from her and handing it over to Brenna’s father. Brenna’s dad just rolled his eyes, kissed his daughter on the cheek hard before hugging her and glaring at me.

“So this is the new one,” he muttered.

Brenna groaned. “Dad.”

“What? You never bring boys home. You don’t give me chances to act like the big overbearing dad.”

“I’m sure you’ve had that all practiced out.”

“I thought you’d have gotten all of that out when you were dealing with her sisters.” Brenna’s mother turned to me. “Hello, I’m Teresa, this is Sam. We’re Brenna’s parents. And don’t listen to anything he has to tell you. He should have gotten his over-protective dad routine out of the way when Brenna’s three sisters were married. And honestly, when her brothers were married as well. Lots of marriages and babies in this family.” She grinned as she said it, though she did give Brenna a pointed look.

“Thanks, Mom,” she said. “Okay, let’s get inside before you guys start laying it on thick.”

“We would never. We’re just so excited that you’re here. And bringing a boy.”

“It’s nice to meet you both. I’m Benjamin,” I said, grateful I could even get a word in.

“Oh, we know all about you. Your Brenna’s best friend.”

“That’s Beckett, dear,” Sam said. “This is Benjamin. The other one. The twin. Didn’t realize they were so interchangeable.”

Brenna cringed. “Benjamin is also my friend. And he came out here to hang out with me.”

“Whatever you say, dear,” her mom said with a knowing glance.

Brenna narrowed her gaze at the three purses on the entryway table that belonged to her sisters, but quickly schooled her features when her mom looked around.

“I didn’t realize my sisters were here.”

“They wanted to be here with you. Your brothers are here too, but none of the spouses are.” Teresa looked over at me again. “We’re a lot all at once, and we didn’t want to overwhelm you if we started adding spouses and the babies. All of my children are having babies and just growing up, and it’s so wonderful, but the house gets quite full.”

She walked away, heading toward the noise from the living room, and Sam followed her.

I looked over at Brenna, who just shook her head. “Well, this is going to be fun.”

“Is it always like this?”

“Remember how I used to say that the way that your father treated you about work reminded me a lot of my family? Well, it has nothing to do with work, but all about my childbearing years.”

“But you’re planning on having a baby,” I whispered, doing my best to talk as quietly as I could so the others couldn’t hear.

She cringed. “I don’t know if my family is going to get on board with the whole doing that on my own thing, but we’re not going to talk about it with them, okay?”

“Of course not. You can trust me.”

“I know I can. It’s just, things got weird.”

We were standing alone in the hallway, and I didn’t think Teresa had even realized we hadn’t followed them, and it was tough to think when I could feel the heat of Brenna near me, the scent of her.

“Brenna? Benjamin? Where did you go?” Teresa asked.

I shook myself out of whatever I’d wanted to do. This was Brenna. Yes, we had had sex, but it had been a one-night stand, drunken sex. Drunk and consensual sex meant we were never going beyond what we were doing just then. It was never going to happen again, and I was never going to think about having sex with her again. Except all I could do was imagine how she had felt under me and the fact that I knew what that felt like. This trip was going to haunt my dreams forever. Fuck, it was going to haunt my waking memories.

How was I supposed to concentrate when she was just right there looking sexy as hell, and all I wanted to do was lean down and capture her lips with my own?

“Brenna,” Teresa called out, her voice a little harsher.

“Come on, we’re late,” she muttered, and I followed her towards the kitchen area. The house was an open concept, not unlike some of the floor plans that we built with Montgomery Builders, with a Garrett family touch to everything.

The kitchen looked well used, the appliances a little older, but the top of the line when they were bought.

It was a kitchen that people used, and since there was an extensive group of people standing in it, and in the nook beside it, I figured this is where people congregated often.

And here they all were, looking at me—most of them with Brenna’s eyes.

I didn’t realize how disconcerting that could be for others to see so many family members at once—people with their own memories, inside jokes, and connected lives.

How the hell had Brenna so easily melded with the Montgomerys? Because I knew we were probably a thousand times worse.

“Okay, you’re finally here. I’m sure you two just needed some privacy in the hallway,” Teresa said with a wink, and I knew Brenna was once again holding back a groan.

“Everybody, this is Benjamin. Benjamin, this is Joseph, Ellis, Carson, Josie, Connie, and Amelia,” she said quickly, rattling them off as if she had done it a thousand times. And she probably had.

“You’re never going to remember that.” If I remembered correctly, that was Josie. I knew she was the eldest daughter, the second oldest kid since the family primarily alternated boys and girls. She had four kids of her own and was pregnant again. Everyone looked pregnant, and now that I thought about it, Brenna had mentioned that the guys’ wives were also pregnant.

The amount of hormones was going to be ridiculous, but I wasn’t going to think about that.

Brenna also wanted a baby. As did my ex-girlfriend.

The themes of this weekend were babies and pregnancy. And I needed a fucking drink.

“Nice to meet everyone,” I said, not sure what else to say at all.

“You’re Beckett, right?” one of the girls said, and I heard Brenna curse under his breath.

“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.”

“That’s just what you think,” Brenna sing-songed, and I laughed.

“Hey, you do pretty well with us.”

“You’re right, but I’m pretty sure we may just outnumber you.”

“Now that’s a scary thought,” I said with a laugh. I ignored the way that her family looked at us and glanced at each other.

Brenna and I were good at being friends and decent about having conversations. Just because we had sex once didn’t mean we would do it again, and I wouldn’t be a ‘new Garrett,’ as they called the spouses.

We finished up dinner of the fantastic pasta and I got a quick tour of the house.

Brenna’s mother gestured towards the back patio and garden area that was indeed a jungle. She looked proud of it, so that was all that mattered.

“I need to start baking,” Brenna said as she rolled her shoulders back.

“I’m here to help.”

“You don’t have to,” she said as she wrapped an apron around her waist. Why did that apron look hot? What was wrong with me?

“I want to help.”

“Okay, fine. I’m not doing all the little desserts, as one of my aunts is dealing with that because she likes playing with chocolate, and I’m fine with that. I wouldn’t have time for it. However, usually, I would have baked a cake yesterday, because at this point it’s going to take me a few hours in the morning to get it done, but we will.”

“Brenna, a few hours?”

“I know, but it’s what I do. They want this cake, and it’s not an incredibly hard cake or even a checkerboard or tiered cake. As long as I get these in the oven and they cool quickly, we’ve got it.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Do you know how to knead?”

“Yes, my mom likes to bake bread. You know that.”

“Okay, I’m going to be doing this while you are going to bake bread.”

“What if I fuck up?” I said as I went to wash my hands.

“You’re not going to fuck up because I’m going to be looking over your shoulder and annoying you the entire time.”

“Do I annoy you when I’m helping you with the weeds in your garden?” I mumbled, and she rolled her eyes.

“Of course you do. It’s what we do. But it’s fine. We can handle this. It’s just going to take a few hours.”

I looked at her then, at the way that we brushed up against one another as we stood at the kitchen island, and I swallowed hard.

“A few hours.”

“We can do this. We can handle it.”

And I did not think right then as I nodded at her that either one of us were talking about bread or cakes.