Page 28 of Inked Temptation
ChapterSeven
Archer
“I can hate him if you want,” Brenna said as she put her head on my shoulder.
The music was blasting. People were laughing, drinking, eating good food, and just enjoying themselves. That’s what happened when you went to Riggs’. Our friend knew how to cater to his clientele and made this bar perfect. You felt safe here, and you could have fun here. Or at least you could if you weren’t slowly falling into a fit of depression because your ex-husband was getting married seemingly out of nowhere.
I looked around the bar at the gleaming black wooden and metallic surfaces and tried to put on a smile. We had rebuilt a lot of this after it had been damaged by vandalism over a year ago.
Riggs had to deal with his ex-husband and a past he hadn’t wanted to reclaim. I hadn’t blamed him at all, and now he and Clay were happily married, raising those three kids, and enjoying themselves—even though I didn’t know how they had time to breathe, let alone have a happy marriage. And theylookedhappy.
And here I was, feeling like I was losing my mind because I was jealous over a woman I didn’t know, and not because she was marrying my ex-husband. No, because somehow, I wasn’t good enough.
I had never been good enough for Marc, and he had made it clear to me, even though I had tried.
I just didn’t know how I could fix it.
“Seriously. I know people are day-drinking right now since it’s the middle of an afternoon for an event at this bar, but you can pay attention to me.”
I looked down at my friend and sister-in-law and sighed. “I’m sorry, Brenna. What were you saying?”
She crossed her eyes and blew out a breath. “That I can beat up your ex? If you want. I promise I’ll be gentle. Or not.”
I snorted and then took a sip of my club soda. I wasn’t in the mood to drink today, mostly because if I did, I wouldn’t stop, because I just wanted to forget about the annoyance of that stupid wedding invitation. And how I reacted around Killian. I was such a bumbling idiot when it came to him. Why? Well, probably because the first time I had met him, I had literally thrown myself on top of him by falling off a roof. That was not the greatest meet-cute, not that there needed to be a meet-cute because there wasn’t anything cute about it. Yes, he was cute, but I didn’t want him. I didn’t want to date at all, and I just needed to get the fuck over myself.
And why was I even thinking about Killian when I was supposed to be thinking about fucking Marc?
“I don’t need you to beat up my ex-husband. We don’t even need to think about him.”
“He sent you a wedding invitation. Why the hell would he do that?”
“Are we discussing the fact that you got a wedding invitation from Marc?” Benjamin asked as he slid his arm around his wife’s shoulders.
They leaned into each other without even thinking, and once again I ignored the slight pain in my heart.
They were just so perfect for each other even though they had spent years just being friends. I hadn’t even realized there had been an attraction between them, and frankly, I didn’t think they had either. If anything, I had thought Brenna had once had a thing for Beckett. Instead, it had been for his twin. I was not firing on all cylinders when it came to romance and finding your one true love. Everyone else seemed to be doing it, but I was behind. Again.
“I didn’t even realize he was dating again,” Benjamin said as he slid his hand over his beard. He was letting it grow out longer than he had in the past, and now you could tell the difference between him and Beckett. Not that I had ever struggled to tell them apart. I always knew which brother was which.
Benjamin used to be the quieter one, the one deeper in his thoughts, but Brenna had opened him up, so now I saw the happiness and peacefulness in his gaze. While Beckett had been the growlier one, the one who thought he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, since he was the eldest. It was only by a few minutes, but Beckett took that role of oldest brother seriously.
Now, thanks to Eliza, he laughed more.
Annabelle smiled more, took more time for herself, and believed in herself more because of Jacob. And Paige, well, Paige brought new life to who she was and bubbled just as effusively as ever because of Lee.
Each of them was already amazing, profoundly talented, and layered, and falling in love with the right person had only shined a light on who they could be, instead of changing them into something that they weren’t.
“You guys, this is a party, an event where we’re supposed to enjoy ourselves, have a beer, and not think about the fact that I got a little envelope that I’m not going to worry about.”
“You’re not going to the wedding, are you?” Annabelle asked as she stomped towards me.
My twin and I didn’t have the twin intuition that others did. I wasn’t even sure Beckett or Benjamin did. But no matter what happened, I knew I could always go to her. When I had left Marc, and I had nowhere else to go, I had gone to her. Yes, I could have gone to any one of my siblings, even my parents. Hell, my cousins would have taken me in, in an instant. Some of them even had multiple homes I could have gone to and just stayed hidden.
I hadn’t done any of that. I had gone to Annabelle. Because she was my twin, part of my heart, and held a sliver of my soul. She had taken it from me when we were born, just like I held hers.
And when she went through her own hell before, I had been at her side. I wouldn’t push her away or get angry about the fact that I wasn’t doing the greatest job at the moment remaining sane or acting as if I wasn’t wallowing in my own sadness. I hated that about me, and I didn’t want that to be part of my life. I didn’t like being this person, so I needed to stop and get over myself. Only, it was easier to think than to actually do it.
“I’m not going to the wedding. I will RSVP no, though, because I’m not a rude asshole.”
