Page 8 of Last Chance Seduction (Montgomery Ink Legacy #9)

Chapter Four

Lexington

Me:

You must have typed incorrectly. What do you mean I’m driving Mercy to the family party?

Mom:

That’s exactly what it sounds like. I invited your neighbor to the Montgomery Christmas party because all are welcome, and I’ve missed seeing her. Now drive her so that way she doesn’t have to deal with parking. It’s only nice.

I crossed my eyes and had to wonder exactly what my mother was getting at.

Because I should have been the one to invite Mercy to the party.

Frankly, the only reason I hadn’t was that every time she saw me these days, she got grumpy over the noise.

And I didn’t blame her one bit for that.

However, inviting her to the family party felt odd for some reason.

She had been to a few back in the day of course.

This wouldn’t be the first time she had hung out with the family, but it would be the first time since everything had changed.

And I wasn’t quite sure what I felt about that.

Mom:

I am not trying to set you up with her. I do realize that some mothers constantly want their children to fall in love, make a family, and be happy, but I just want you to be happy. I promise never to set you up on a date. In fact, I think I’ve made this promise before.

Me:

I don’t know if I believe you.

My phone rang in that instance, and I laughed, seeing my mom’s face on the screen.

“Hello dear Mom.”

A familiar deep growl of a voice came on the line. “It’s your father. Don’t call your mother a liar. Because I’m going to have to beat you, and I never beat you as a kid, so maybe it’s time that I did.”

“Oh, thanks. Threatening your favorite child.”

“I can hear you, you know,” my younger brother, Silas called out from the other side of the line.

I laughed full out. I loved this damn family. “Silas, what are you doing there?”

Silas chuckled. “Because I am the good son, and I’m prepping the house. You just have to bring a girl with you. I wonder if you actually know what to do when it comes to girls.”

Dad snorted over the speaker phone. “Boys, don’t make me reach through the phone and strangle this one, and don’t forget, you’re closer to me.”

“You know, that’s the holiday spirit, my boys. Threatening each other and doing it out of love.” Mom laughed, but I knew she was most likely glaring at my father and brother.

Considering my mom had six brothers of her own, as well as four male cousins that all had grown up together, she could handle any one of us with her pinky. And pretty much had when we were growing up.

“Okay, I’ll bring her. And I do trust you not to try to set me up on a date, Mom. I’m okay not dating,” I lied.

Because I was the perpetual last man standing.

Not exactly with my family and friends, but close to.

My best friend in the world was engaged to my cousin, and my other closest friends, who happened to be my cousins, were each married to the loves of their lives.

Many of my cousins who were at my age within the generation were married and having children and moving on.

Yes, some weren’t, but many were in serious relationships.

And I had been in two serious relationships in my life. And both of them I had ended up being the perfect man to date before you found your forever.

I was going to put that on a business card.

Want to meet the love of your life? Date me, and you’ll find him. Then you can dump me along the way, leaving me all alone, and move on.

It was hard not to feel bitter at that, considering both women that I thought I had loved had not only cheated on me, but had immediately found themselves engaged to the person that they thought they could be with forever.

No, no, I wasn’t ready to date. Wasn’t ready to be set up.

Because once I did, Mercy would just find the love of her life. And she had already thought she found that once with my former friend. It was way too complicated.

“I will see you in a couple of hours then, and you do not have to bring anything. Seriously, you don’t need to bring wine or cheese or anything else. The rest of the Montgomerys have brought so much food, we will have too much for even us.”

“How many people are you expecting?” I asked, a little worried.

My parents had a big house, especially since it had only been the four of us growing up.

But my family was in construction, and liked building homes, it caused a vast quantity of Montgomerys in our lives.

And they had gotten lucky with the land that they had been able to purchase, because they could just add on buildings over time.

You couldn’t find that type of land these days for any reasonable cost.

“I think about a hundred. Fewer than last year.”

I shuddered at the sheer number. “You know, we have a problem.”

“Yes, we do, but it’s not like I invited all of your cousins from Texas. Just imagine if the Wilders and the Montgomerys showed.”

“Don’t put that out in the air, we’d start a war or something. They’d see so many people congregating in one area, they’d be afraid.”

“As they should,” Silas put in, and then my brother let out a grunt, and I knew he and my father were most likely wrestling.

I rolled my eyes, even though I heard the humor in my mom’s voice as she said goodbye, and I went to get ready. I had already packed the wine and cupcakes that I had purchased from a local bakery earlier.

It wasn’t from Latte on the Rocks, but I knew that my family who owned that cafe would be there as well. This was from another local bakery, a small mom-and-pop shop that was just starting. And me buying fifty cupcakes had really made their day.

So of course I was bringing desserts, and wine because I liked wine. It wasn’t Wilder wine like my mother’s family made, but it was decent enough. Colorado people knew what they were doing.

At least I thought so.

So I’d be going against my mother in one aspect, meaning I couldn’t when it came to bringing Mercy.

I rubbed my temple and pulled out my phone again.

Me:

What time should I be over to pick you up?

Mercy:

I can just walk to your car next door. And I can be ready in twenty minutes. Did you want to get there early?

Me:

No, that’s perfect. And I’m sorry my mom most likely cornered you into this.

Mercy:

I like your mom. And I like Montgomery parties. And I guess she’s right, I do need to get out of the house.

I frowned at that, wondering exactly who she had to speak to these days.

Who she hung out with now that she was back in town.

Most of her friends had been Justin’s friends, and the Montgomerys.

And when she had moved away, she had cut all ties from us.

I had tried not to take that personally, because I had understood it.

Between needing to get away from everything that Justin had done, and taking care of her sister, reaching out to us after ignoring us for so long probably wasn’t high on her list.

I did not blame her for it, but now that she was back, I was going to show her that she didn’t need to be alone.

But not in an awkward way.

Because that made so much sense.

I finished getting ready, and made my way out to my SUV, and blinked when I saw Mercy was already there.

“Oh. You’re fast.”

She shrugged, and I smiled at the bags in her hands.

“I’ve been pacing all day, wondering exactly what I was supposed to bring or wear to this. I’m sort of out of habit when it comes to Montgomery parties. But my friend’s going to be there, so I’m not going to feel too badly or out of place.”

I set my things in the back seat and took the two bags from her. “You know, we’re friends. At least we were.”

“I guess so.” She shook her head. “Sorry. I feel awkward all the time these days.”

“Same here. But if you’re not talking about the Montgomerys, which friends are you talking about?

” I asked as I got into the driver’s seat.

She got into the passenger seat, and I started the car, wondering if I was going to be able to make it through this hour-long drive.

It didn’t usually take that long, but with slightly icy roads and traffic, it might take even longer.

“So wait, who do you know going to this other than Montgomerys?”

“My friend, Posy. She’s friends with Cullen, and I think a few of your cousins.”

I nodded and turned on my turn signal so I could merge onto the highway.

“I know Posy. She’s nice. I didn’t know you knew her. Or did I?”

“We’re in the same profession and live near each other, and we’ve become friends since I’ve moved back. She’s wonderful. She keeps to herself more than I do, however.”

“I’ve met her a couple of times, though I don’t know her well. I thought she was dating Cullen, turns out I was wrong.”

“I thought they were too, but they’re just friends. It’s nice, you know, having friends. And that made me sound sad and depressed.”

I shook my head and got into the middle lane as people going ninety passed me, and people going thirty stayed in the right lane.

“I think the only time I leave the house these days is with family, mostly because we’re all friends.

I’ve been working overtime in order to get a few projects done and out of the way, including my own house. ”

“Why is that?” she asked and sounded honestly interested.

I kept my fingers against the steering wheel and nodded. “There’s a contract for a large project coming up that I really want. We’ve all been working double time to get our proposal ready, it just comes with a complication.”

“What kind of complication?”

“It’s the Arnault estate.”

When she didn’t say anything, I realized that we had been out of each other’s lives for a little while now.

“It’s the largest estate on the north side of the city, beautiful views of the Rockies, and one of the most historic areas that we have. It’s also owned by my ex’s family.”

I caught her wince even as I moved around a slow SUV in front of me. “Do you think it’s going to be a hindrance?”