Fake Boyfriend - Miley Maine Page 0,67

way, including her grandmother. She wrinkled up her cute nose. “So, sorry about your peaceful cabin. But it’s not going to be very peaceful once they arrive. They’ve all reached epic hysteria over the phone. I expect it to be worse in person.”

I smiled down at her. She was freaking adorable, even when she was driving me crazy, which she did on a very regular basis. “I’ll be busy with the law enforcement, so don’t worry about me,” I said.

Then she threw her arms around my neck and held on. “Thank you. You saved my cousin. And you saved me.”

I wrapped my arms around her and held on even tighter. This was right where I wanted her to be. Now I just had to figure out a way to tell her that I wanted our fake relationship to become a real one.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Loren

The rest of the day was a total mind fuck and a shit show, all at once. I was questioned by the sheriff’s deputies, a detective, and several FBI agents, including a violent crimes specialist, and a white collar crime specialist, because of Douglas’s varied crimes.

I had been a party to ten million dollars being transferred for an intended ransom. And sadly, I’d been a witness to the death of five men, all because of Douglas. Those men were far from innocent, but they’d been acting on Douglas’s orders, with the promise of hefty payments for kidnapping me and Jackson.

So yeah, that was mind-numbing, and depressing, and exhausting all at once. And then there was Marie, who I felt really sorry for. No one deserved to find out their husband had only been interested in her for her money. She was going to be feeling that particular humiliation for a long time.

Then there were my parents. My mother alternated between scolding and praising. She praised both me and Jackson, and frequently pointed out all the things he’d done right. I didn’t have the energy to tell her he was not my real boyfriend, and I figured my family couldn’t handle another scandal that day, even a low level one.

My aunt was more subdued than I’d ever seen her, and seemed to be focused on making Marie feel better, which was a nice change from the way she usually focused on herself, and on what her friends would think, and what the upper class of Macon, Georgia would think.

Finally, after about five hours, they all packed up and left, law enforcement, family, everyone. By then it was ten p.m. Before my parents’ driver pulled out, I leaned my head against Jackson’s shoulder. “Would you prefer for me to go back with my parents?” I asked.

“Do you want to leave?”

“Not really. But you’re almost a week into your leave, and you haven’t had one single second alone,” I said.

“No. You stay. If you want to.” He lowered his voice. “But the rest of them need to go.”

I pulled the blinds back. “You don’t even need to whisper. They’re all gone now.”

Jackson flopped backward onto the couch. “Oh thank God. My ears are ringing from that many people being here.”

“Yep. Lots of strong personalities included.” I stretched, feeling my joints pop all over my body. “I’m going to bed. I’m happy to sleep on the couch if you want the bed to yourself.”

He sat up. “No. There’s plenty of room in the bed.”

I took him at his word, and we both brushed our teeth, and collapsed into his queen-sized bed and passed out.

I woke up to the bed shaking. I sat up and looked around. Oh. It was another nightmare. Poor Jackson. It was no wonder, after the two days that we’d had. If he’d had a bad dream the night before, after he killed those five men, then I hadn’t known about it. But maybe it took time for it to all catch up with him.

I still hadn’t had a bad dream yet, but I was waiting on it. I’d been lucky that it had been nighttime, and hard to see when those men died.

I’d been so busy giving Jackson a hard time, that I hadn’t stopped to think about what would have happened to me if he hadn’t been around. If he’d left, like I told him to, I might have been killed by the kidnappers, and my parents wouldn’t have even known to look for me. I’d been a real ass, trying to kick him out of a wedding that he hadn’t even wanted to attend. What had