Page 77 of Inked Temptation
“You are an overachiever.”
“It’s true. I can’t help it.”
She grinned at me and I snorted.
“Well, all the invites are out, and that took forever.”
“Tell me about it. Because we couldn’t just send an invite to each household, we had to invite each Montgomery, as well as those that are married into the family.”
“That’s only a few hundred.”
“You joke, but we will have well over one hundred people at this event.”
I winced, then looked around the immense backyard that my parents had created, that my landscape-architect brother Benjamin had helped build.
“We’re going to fit them all?”
“We will. It won’t even be a tight fit, but it will feel a little ridiculous.”
“Are any of the extra family members coming?”
“The ones that we’ve basically absorbed over the years? A few. For instance, a couple of Eliza’s brothers are going to join, and even help out.”
“Because they have that business in Texas?”
“Yes, so they have the experience. And then a few other larger families are coming. Like your cousin Liam’s wife, Arden? She has a few brothers that live in Boulder, and they are coming with their families. And so on and so on.”
I rolled my eyes. “In other words, we’ll basically have the population of an entire small country for this.”
“Pretty much.”
“Well, it’s going to be amazing.”
“It should be. We have the food all planned, since we are catering it.”
“I know you wanted to do the cooking on your own. Or at least with your sisters-in-law.”
She waved me off. “When it was just the four of us, it was easier to do, and then we got married and had children of our own. Then we could still somewhat work within the confines of cooking for ourselves. Although, the fact that my brother had eight kids really did tilt the curve there.”
I snorted. “And you with a measly five.”
“Well, we can’t help that.” She waved me off. “But when everyone’s children’s children started to arrive, it got a little crazy. Leif is the oldest one now, and he’s what, twenty?” She frowned. “I can’t remember. I’m going to have to look at my calendar. I’ve had to make a spreadsheet of grandbabies, and eventually great-grandbabies, so I don’t miss birthdays or other life events.”
“It gets a little ridiculous.”
“Yes, but I love it.” She reached forward and squeezed my hand. “Thank you for helping me with all of this. I know we have a few things to go over with the caterer and the other event coordinators, but I love that you are helping. And I just want you to know that I didn’t invite you to help me with this because you were the only one that wasn’t married and without kids.”
Ice slid over me. “Oh?”
“Don’t say that. I know you thought that, and I tried to make sure you understood that it wasn’t that way, but I don’t think you believed me.”
“It makes sense though. Everybody has new babies, infants that aren’t sleeping through the night yet.”
“And each one has helped me. Or I could have gotten one of your cousins to help, or my siblings. There were so many other options, but I chose you because I wanted to spend time with my son. Because I love you, and with you working outside the business slightly, and everything with Marc, I just wanted to see you more. Your father and I are trying to spend more time with each of you. Because life is short, and I don’t want to miss out on anything.”
I swallowed hard and pressed my lips together. I didn’t like her talking about time being finite. I didn’t like the idea of losing her. Losing any of them. Our family was big, and that meant we loved hard, but we also grieved harder. I didn’t want to think about what could happen in the next ten, twenty years. I was just now finding my happiness again, and I hadn’t even had a child yet. Something I had always wanted.
But what was I supposed to do? Run from what would make me happy? Run from what could hurt?
