Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Jamie
Arms full of my nephew, I rocked Beau in my arms and smiled down at him.
He proceeded to smile right back at me, and my eyes widened.
“Okay, that’s enough. He’s all yours.” I practically shoved Beau into my brother Colin’s arms, as the stench of whatever had made Beau smile with such intensity hit my nostrils.
Colin gagged and glared at me as I took a few steps back. “I cannot believe you just did that.”
“Finders keepers. I’m out. I do not deal with diapers.”
“Seriously? With all the babies in our lives, you refuse to even touch a diaper?” Leif asked as he took his son from Colin’s arms with the click of his tongue.
“Come on, baby boy. Let’s go change that diaper of yours.
You smell like you made a big poop. Look at what you did!
Good for you. Your system is doing the work! ”
Beau made a squeaking noise, and I rolled my eyes as I met Colin’s gaze. “He sounds so proud of his son’s poop. When did Leif become that type of guy?”
“About the time that he became a father for the first time,” Gideon answered as he walked into the living room with a cringe on his face.
It most likely matched the one mine made since the scent hadn’t quite dissipated.
The youngest Montgomery son came forward and hugged me tightly, before doing the same to Colin.
I was the youngest of four. Technically. After all, Gideon was my twin. And while we weren’t Montgomerys by blood, as Gideon and I had been adopted at birth by our parents, Gideon still looked more like my dad than Leif did sometimes.
My parents, Austin and Sierra Montgomery, were the eldest of the entire Montgomery crew.
And considering there were so many of us, that was saying something.
Leif was the oldest of my generation, and while technically our mom wasn’t his birth mom, she’d been in his life since he was ten years old.
Colin was the only one who technically had the genetics of both of our parents, but in reality, it didn’t matter.
The Montgomerys were all about family, and it didn’t matter how you were blended into them.
Having three older brothers however, made for interesting times. And by interesting, I meant ridiculous.
After all, Leif had been seventeen when Gideon and I were born and had been on his way to Paris after graduation, and everything had changed, slightly cut short when he hadn’t planned on it. We had been the surprise of a lifetime when it came to our parents.
I wanted to pull my hair out sometimes with how overprotective they were. My cousins were worse, because they enjoyed thinking of me as one of the babies, even though I wasn’t the youngest cousin by far.
I was one of the shortest, and for some reason that led them to believe I needed the most help in just living at this point.
I didn’t live with my parents, I had a nice apartment that I enjoyed, and I had full-time job—that happened to be with the Montgomery businesses, but most of us worked for them anyway—and I was doing well for myself.
There was always a worried look when they glanced at me, and I didn’t know what I had done to deserve it.
“I see my grandbaby is being a menace,” my mom said as she wrapped her arm around my shoulder. I leaned into her hold, relaxing at the sight of her.
Sierra Montgomery was one of the most gorgeous women in the world, and I wasn’t even a little biased in that.
She had a little gray at her temples but loved to dye her hair as much as I did, so no one would ever know.
My father’s beard had long gone gray, and he also had a few silver strands in his hair, but according to my friends that just made him look hotter.
And every time they said that it made me want to throw up even more than I nearly did while holding my nephew as he filled his diaper.
There were lines that you did not cross.
“Lief is far too delighted over his kid’s diaper, and I don’t even want to think about that,” Colin said with a shudder.
“If you ever decide to become a father, you’ll be proud too. And disgusted. And wanting to run away. But thankfully Leif has nerves made of steel,” my mom teased.
“I like how Brooke and Dad are out with the other two kids and that leaves Leif alone with the baby. Meaning he came here so we could all help,” Gideon said with a roll of his eyes.
My lips twitched. “I may not like changing diapers, but I love babies.”
“Thinking of babies of your own?” Gideon teased, and I flipped him off, regardless that Mom watched us both.
“Stop teasing your sister, although, I haven’t heard about any dates in a while, should I be worried?”
My cheeks heated as I blushed, and I glared at my twin. “I’ve been busy.”
“I see,” my mom said, and I was afraid she probably did.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to date. It was that I couldn’t find the right person.
I had an amazing family, fantastic brothers, and the best father in the world.
That was a lot to live up to. Plus every time I went on a date, I swear a Montgomery popped out of nowhere, saying they were just milling about, waiting to descend on us and embarrass me.
They might not try to, but it just happened. Naturally.
“You have had a few projects come up all at once, it makes sense that you’ve been busy,” Colin said, saving me. Although Gideon and I were twins and therefore always close, Colin and I were the closest in terms of our personalities, and how he took care of me.
I was the first person he came out to, although the rest of our family had already known.
He had been safe with us, and of course that meant my mother had tried to set him up with men and women, because Mom wanted all of us to find love.
While Colin was divorced, and Gideon was still figuring out if he could date everybody in his sphere, I was on a dating moratorium.
I had to be.
Nobody seemed to be able to push him out of my mind.
Not that I was going to be thinking about Sharp.
And as if my phone knew what I was thinking, it buzzed in my pocket.
A buzz I’d been waiting for since it had been nearly twenty-four hours since the last text.
It could have been anyone else, but I knew it was him.
The others were talking, and I tried to pull up my phone nonchalantly so they wouldn’t notice.
Sharp: Are you ready for the visit to the small town of small towns next week? Don’t forget your boots.
“Who’s that?” Gideon asked, as he reached from my phone.
I snapped it back from him and growled. “Hey. Hands off.”
“What? I’m just curious.”
“You’re being nosy,” my mom said, as she squeezed my shoulder. “I’m sure if it was something important, she would let us know. Like perhaps a certain somebody?” she asked, drawing out the word.
I pressed my lips together and slipped my phone back into my pocket. I would answer later, maybe.
It wasn’t like Sharp and I were anything.
We were just friends. He’d literally been engaged and awkwardly left at the altar.
He and I texted because we were friends, and we had met in a dramatic set of circumstances, but it wasn’t like I wanted him.
Or was ever going to be with him. I lived in Denver.
He lived in Clover Lake. When my cousin Livvy had fallen for Ewan, they had tried to make long distance work, and it had nearly broken them.
So, Livvy had ended up moving to Clover Lake with her daughter, working from there, and starting over.
And while us Montgomerys visited Clover Lake often, she was all alone up there.
I liked being near my family, however claustrophobic it may be at times.
I wasn’t someone who changed my life for a man, a man who was in love with his ex.
Because he had to be. Not that he’d ever told me that when we had the opportunity.
There was no way you could just put in a text that you were broken and in love and feeling poorly.
Instead, we just talked about our days. Like how he worked at the ranch, and the name of his horse.
He would send me photos of my niece Amelia.
Technically Amelia wasn’t my niece because Livvy and I were cousins, but when it came to our generation, we had decided everybody’s kids were our nieces and nephews.
To figure out family trees made our brains hurt and we gave up.
Either way however, there was nothing between me and Sharp. Just a few texts. Every day.
And the fact that I was going to visit Clover Lake again as I could do my job from anywhere in the world usually. And Livvy did need family around her. Family that wasn’t just the McBrides.
At least this trip had to go better than the first trip that had been cut too short.
“Anyway, are you ready for your trip to Clover Lake? I know you’ve been busy trying to make sure that you have everything set up at Montgomery Inc. I just hope you’re not putting too much on your shoulders.”
I relaxed at that, ignoring my brothers’ looks. They were far too curious for their own good, even with our age gaps.
Of course that just reminded me that Sharp and I had around a ten-year age gap. Not that it was a thing. It couldn’t be a thing because he and I were just friends. We texted. And I was going to see him in a week.
I needed to stop thinking about him. “I’m excited to see Livvy and Amelia. I hate that they live so far away, but the McBride Ranch is beautiful.”
“We still need to get out there,” my mother said as she moved us towards the dining room where we had lunch set up. “It’s been two months since your father and I went on a vacation.”
“Didn’t you and Dad just go on a motorcycle ride up to Estes Park? That counts as a vacation,” Gideon said as he took a seat across from me.
“If you think that’s a vacation, no wonder you’re perpetually single,” Colin mocked as he began plating up everybody’s sandwiches.