“So I think we should talk about it more, but I like it.”
She grinned, pleased. She loved when Austin saw things her way. The best way. And even though she normally didn’t take shit and tended to act a little more brash than the others, she wanted her brother’s approval. He was the oldest of the eight Montgomerys on this branch of the family tree. He’d helped raise them, in as much as their parents would allow. Harry and Marie Montgomery had somehow parented all on their own and only let Austin help in small ways.
That was probably why they were all so close, and why when Dad had gotten sick recently, her world had almost crumbled. She closed her eyes and had to take a deep breath. Before she could recover, though, Austin had his arm around her shoulders and brought her to his chest.
“What’s wrong?” He kissed the top of her head. “For real this time.”
“I was thinking about Dad.” She could be completely honest about that. While some men would have shied away from those feelings, Austin was never like that. In fact, Dad’s cancer had hit Austin the hardest out of all of them. Her big brother tended to want to fix everyone’s problems, and when things were too big for him to handle…well, he didn’t handle it well.
Maya wasn’t exactly like that, but she wanted to know everything about their family. She wanted to make sure she knew what was wrong around her so she could maybe help fix it. And if she couldn’t help personally, she could get Austin or her older sister Meghan to do it. The others might call her a gossip—her sister Miranda and brother-in-law Decker in particular following a certain incident—but she just wanted to help in her own way.
And why she was getting all introspective all of a sudden, she didn’t know. Maybe her bra had stabbed some weirdness into her or something.
Austin held her a bit closer before kissing her forehead. “You want to talk about it? I know he’s healthy now, completely in the clear, but that was scary as hell for a while.”
She shook her head even as Callie came up from behind her and hugged her close. Callie wasn’t a Montgomery, but she was family. When Sloane walked into the shop and saw them, he raised a brow and set down his bag before coming up to Callie and hugging her, as well.
The four of them stood like that, holding each other close and not speaking. Maya would have thought it weird—okay it was weird—but she needed this. She hadn’t known how much until right then.
Sloane cleared his throat. “Not that I mind holding you guys, but you want to tell me what we’re doing?”
Austin snorted. “I don’t know, bro. We were just standing here. You’re the one that got all handsy.”
Sloane wiggled his eyebrows before reaching around to grab Austin’s ass—totally not something he’d have done before starting a relationship with their friend Hailey. Maya and Callie ducked out of their reach as the two men started to playfully punch one another. Thankfully, it was early enough that they didn’t have any clients so Maya could enjoy the way their makeshift Montgomery Ink family worked together. She might have a large-ass family to begin with, but there was always room for more. Between Callie, Sloane, their significant others, her siblings’ significant others, her cousins, and Jake, she had so many people in her life it was hard to feel alone.
Hard, but not impossible.
The bell above the door rang, and Maya looked around Callie, only to have to paste on a smile. Damn it. She needed to get over herself and whatever this was because she would be damned if she lost her best friend and any semblance of normal.
“Jake!” Maya called out. “Think you can corral these assholes?”
Jake chuckled, and it was at that point Maya realized he wasn’t alone. He wasn’t alone much anymore.
Holly waved and bit into her lip as if trying to hold back a laugh. If Maya had been any less of a Montgomery, and Holly any less of a decent person, Maya would have hated the perfect woman. All cuteness and blondeness personified without a tattoo in sight. But she made Jake smile, and Maya would just have to get over it.
“I’ll be right back, baby,” Jake said before giving Holly a quick kiss and joining the fray. He ducked a mock punch from Austin and dug his shoulder into Sloane’s gut. The three of them stayed between the stations, thankfully, but if they didn’t knock it off, Maya was going to have to jump in and then it would be on.
Still annoyingly achy over the way he’d called Holly “baby,” Maya moved around the three guys with way too much time on their hands and went to Holly.
“Hey, what’s up?” she asked. See? Casual. Everything was okay. This was her best friend’s girlfriend, and everything was fine. Jake hadn’t been celibate in the years she and he had been friends, and she sure as hell hadn’t either. This wasn’t his first girlfriend or boyfriend.
It was his most serious.