Inked Persuasion (Montgomery Ink Fort Collins #1) - Carrie Ann Ryan Page 0,1

as he walked toward us. Beckett flipped him off.

Benjamin was the mirror image of Beckett. Why my parents decided to give both sets of twins similar names, I would never know.

Beckett and Benjamin had been born first, and then Archer and I came next. If anything, they should have given the older brothers names starting with A, and then Archer and I should have gotten B names. But wanting to go alphabetical had not been in the cards, apparently.

Our baby sister Paige was the only one of us without a twin. And, sadly, she did not have a name that started with a C, much to her consternation. She’d even tried to go as a Chloe or Christine for a while when we were younger, but she always ended up as Paige.

When Beckett and I didn’t answer him in time, Benjamin cleared his throat. “What are you guys talking about?”

Beckett shrugged. “Nothing, just Dad being a jerk. And now I am getting ready to be by Annabelle’s side when we grill the two new people who’ve joined us tonight.”

Benjamin shook his head and raised his brow at his older brother. “You know, you said the word beau, and that’s not a word I think has ever left your mouth before.”

Beckett’s lips twitched, and I grinned. The two of them usually took turns being the broodiest. Generally, they had scowls under those beards and rarely smiled or laughed. I wasn’t sure why they were always so serious. Maybe they’d been a little less severe as babies. And then Archer and I had shown up and probably terrorized the twins. I might not be as wild as Archer, or as carefree—I couldn’t be, not after everything that had happened—but I still smiled a lot more than Benjamin and Beckett did.

Paige was a unique delight. Which was exactly how she liked and wanted it, even if she had said at one point that she wished she had a twin. She was the brightest one of us all, the happiest, and the sweetest. At least that’s what I thought. Paige called me sweet, though usually when she was making fun of me for being weird. Because I was weird. I couldn’t help it. I was a Montgomery.

“Okay, there’s Archer and his boyfriend, Marc. Now we have the two youngest and their new beaus,” Benjamin said, and Beckett flipped him off again.

“We’re not actually going to terrorize them, are we?” I asked. “Because I kind of want our siblings to be happy.”

Beckett raised a brow and shook his head. “Oh, they can be happy—once they pass our test.”

“We’re still learning how to do this whole big brother and sister thing when it comes to our siblings’ relationships,” Beckett explained and then held up three fingers, getting the bartender’s attention. Riggs gave Benjamin a wink before pouring three shots of tequila.

I shook my head. “I swear, everywhere you go, everyone loves you.”

Benjamin didn’t smile, but he did snort. “No, that would be Archer. I just learned how to give that come-hither look to bartenders from our baby brother.”

Beckett and I burst out laughing.

“And if you ever tell anyone I said that, I will hunt you down,” Benjamin warned.

I shook my head, picked up my shot, and downed it. I closed my eyes and winced but didn’t reach for salt or lime. Doing a tequila shot with the type of tequila Benjamin liked did not usually require salt or lime. And the twins would make fun of me if I asked for them. Of course, it was all out of love. But still, I wasn’t about to open myself for teasing.

I looked across the crowd at the bar to our two siblings and their significant others. “I think we should start with Paige and Colton. They seem to be more serious.”

Beckett nodded. “I agree. They’ve also had at least three weeks longer than Archer and Marc.”

Benjamin sighed. “I swear we should have started taking notes or something so we knew exactly how to interrogate them to make sure they’re good enough for our baby siblings.”

I smiled and listened as my brothers went through their plans. I might be Archer’s twin, but I always felt a little more protective of him, a little older than the five minutes that separated us. Though he likely thought the same of me.

“You think that’s too much?” Benjamin asked, frowning.

Beckett shook his head. “No, we need to get this right. After all, we’ve never had to deal with serious relationships before. While