Ink Enduring (Montgomery Ink #5)(51)

Alex blinked at the three of them before nodding slowly. “Okay, then. You mind if we stop for a burger or something? I’m a little hungry. I think I was too nervous to really eat lunch.”

Border snorted. “We can get you a burger, man.” His stomach rumbled. “And, apparently, I could use one or two, as well.”

He reached down to pick up Alex’s bags, but the other man reached them first. “I’ve got them,” Alex said quickly. “I’ve got them.”

Border met Alex’s gaze and nodded. “Got you,” he said finally. Sometimes, the metaphorical baggage wasn’t so metaphorical. If the other man needed to make his own way and literally carry his own bags, so be it.

They made their way to the SUV and climbed in while Maya spoke to her brother. This time, she got in the back with him while Jake sat up front with Border. Alex would answer back, but he wasn’t as loud as the rest of the Montgomerys were. Border wasn’t sure if that had always been the case, or if this was a new Alex. Either way, the man was out of rehab, and things weren’t going to be easy, but Border had a feeling the Montgomerys would help.

That family knew how to close ranks and aid their own.

And Border wouldn’t be jealous of that.

Not even a little.





ALEX


Alex looked around the home he’d lived in for the past few years and knew he wouldn’t be able to live there much longer. The walls spoke of memories long since burned into his brain. He needed a fresh start, and having to live in the same home he’d shared with his ex-wife, where he’d spiraled out of control to become a shadow of the man he was, one he couldn’t recognize, wouldn’t help with any of that.

His sister and her men had dropped him off after their tense lunch. He’d tried to keep up with conversation, but it was as if he wasn’t firing on all cylinders quite yet. Though with Maya, he always felt a little behind. Considering the fact that she had not one, but two men in her life at the moment, he figured he’d feel a little off-kilter for a while yet.

Maya, Jake, and Border had noticed that he wasn’t all there, but hadn’t said anything about it. They’d let him eat in peace without asking him to add much to the conversation. While he might have been worried about that, they hadn’t looked at him as if they were worried that he’d pick up a drink right then and there either.

The urge was there, and he knew it always would be.

There would forever be a voice in the back of his head that said; just one, one little drink won’t hurt anyone. But one would lead to four, and then mistakes he could never take back.

So, he would learn to live this new life of his.

The one where he was Alex Montgomery: addict, divorcee, broken, and so f*cking lost.

He might be home now, but he didn’t feel it. He’d have to start over, not too far from his family, but not in their pocket either. They didn’t deserve that burden, not after everything they’d been through and everything he’d put them through.

How would he regroup? How could he find a new life that would fit him and not break him?

He needed to apologize to everyone he’d hurt, everyone he’d broken along the way.

He needed to find a way to live with the decisions he’d made, as well as the decisions others had made for him. He’d have to find a way to make sure this was all worth it, because there was no going back to the man he was before his life had fallen out from under him.

It has to be worth it, he repeated.

Because he hadn’t ended everything before, and he couldn’t now.

He had to be stronger than he was before. And during.

He had to be resilient.

He had to be a Montgomery.

If only he remembered what that meant.





Chapter Thirteen


Maya rolled her shoulders and looked down at her sketchpad. She had just finished another small piece for Mrs. Peterman, her seventy-something-year-old client who had started on her ink dreams late in life. She was one of Maya’s favorites, and Maya loved working with her. The older woman had wanted a tiny bumblebee on her ankle so it would show when she wore her capris while doing yard work. It wasn’t easy doing tattoos on older skin, as at that point in life, the skin lost a lot of its elasticity, but Maya always found a way.

If Mrs. Peterman wanted a tattoo, the woman would get a tattoo.

And now Maya had a few minutes to herself to work on a sketch for a client in the morning since her meeting with another new client wouldn’t be for a bit. Autumn, Griffin’s girlfriend, and Montgomery Ink’s receptionist, had scheduled the appointment for Maya so she hadn’t even met the person yet. If things didn’t work out in the first meeting, Maya wouldn’t be doing any tattooing. It didn’t matter if the person truly wanted new ink, if the artist and client didn’t mesh, then it would show in the tattoo.

Maya was f*cking amazing at her work, and because of that, she could easily say no to someone who might want a tattoo but was either an ass about it or only thought they wanted the tattoo. It probably wasn’t the best way to go about business, but in Maya’s opinion, it was the only way. If she didn’t believe in her work, then there wasn’t a reason to continue it. If she’d spent the whole of her days working on random Chinese lettering for sorority girls, she might have hurt herself, but thankfully, she was beyond that in her career.