How to Marry Your Frenemy - London Casey Page 0,62

I said.

I looked at myself in the mirror.

I quickly turned on the cold water and filled my hands.

I splashed the water on my face.

Over and over, desperate to calm myself down.

I dried my face and left the bathroom.

I went to my bedroom and took off the dress, leaving it a heaping mess on the floor.

Just like the rest of my room.

Fine, I was messy, but whatever.

I kept my shit in order when it came to real life and work.

So what did it matter that I had a pile of clean clothes, dirty clothes, and a third pile of clothes that I wasn’t sure if they were clean or dirty?

This was my bedroom in my apartment.

It was my business.

Not Jackson’s.

I completely forgot to ask him how he got into the apartment too.

The entire thing enraged me.

I needed a drink.

But if I had that one more drink I would end up getting sick.

So I stuck to a glass of water and tucked myself in.

When my phone buzzed with a text, I dove for the nightstand.

My mind screamed It’s Jackson! He’s going to ask you to come back over! He’s going to fuck you! You can do it, Callie!

It wasn’t Jackson.

It was my mother.

Hey Callie! I got something in the mail today. Looks official. Maybe serious. We need to talk about it tomorrow. Please. I need your help. Okay?

I sighed.

I put my phone down.

I didn’t bother replying to her.

She was in trouble with someone about something. And the something was always money.

I shut my eyes and grabbed at the sheets.

I wasn’t sure what was worse anymore.

My real life or my fake one.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Jackson

I stepped out of my apartment, dressed for a run, and saw Callie’s mother standing at her apartment door.

Running wasn’t usually my thing.

I enjoyed weights.

Lifting heavy kept me distracted.

But running cleared my head.

And I needed to clear my head.

Big time.

Last night had been a little bit too much. Callie had me so wound up I couldn’t even handle my personal business. I paced the apartment for a good hour, wondering if one million dollars was worth the effort. Realistically, I could just take care of a few more deals on my own, find a replacement for Callie, and then twist Vince’s arm to do the right thing. She’d be gone. I’d get the top spot in the company. Then one million dollars wouldn’t seem like such a large amount of money.

And… there was money for me from my father.

Through the company.

That was another reason why I needed Vince to figure his shit out. If he was going to sit on top of the company and move in the direction he was, then I wanted to cash out. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but that was for lawyers to figure out.

All of those thoughts bothered me from the night into the morning, which was why I needed to go for the run.

Until I saw Callie’s mother…

I grinned and wandered down the hallway.

“Good morning,” I said.

Callie’s mother turned and looked at me. “You.”

“Me. The asshole with the nice eyes.”

“I love a good sense of humor,” Callie’s mother said.

“Your daughter doesn’t,” I said with a wink.

She pointed at me and waved her finger. “You don’t know Callie very well then. Get to know her. She loves a good sense of humor.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said.

I realized I was talking to my mother-in-law. And she didn’t even know that’s what she was to me. Or that I was her son-in-law.

Talk about a juicy as fuck secret to have.

“Say, where’s your crew at?”

“My crew?”

“Those beautiful women you were with the first time I met you,” I said.

“Oh, you stop that talk right now,” Callie’s mother said.

She grabbed my arm.

Callie opened the door.

“Hey Mo-”

She froze and stared at me.

I lifted my left hand and waved.

Showing off my wedding band.

“Come join us for coffee,” Callie’s mother said.

“No,” Callie said.

“I was going to go for a run,” I said.

“You take such good care of yourself,” Callie’s mother said.

“Enjoy the run,” Callie said.

She tried to shut the door and I put my hand out. “Wait a second… coffee sounds good.”

“Jackson,” Callie said. “My mother came to talk about something personal.”

“What about you?” I asked. “Don’t you have something personal to share?”

“What does that mean?” her mother asked.

“He’s being an idiot,” Callie said. “That’s his thing. He thinks it works on people.”

“It worked on you, sweetie,” I said.

Callie’s face turned red.

Her mother gasped. “You two… I knew I felt some energy here. Wait, wait, wait, I have something