Page 106 of Forced Proximity
“Perfect,” he said. “Not too far away.”
He gave Calliope a pointed look, but she ignored him and sat back down on the couch.
The rest of the night went great, and by the time we were stuffing ourselves with dessert—cookies that Calliope and Jasper had stopped for on the way—I was well on my way to euphoria.
For the first time in my life, I was well and truly happy.
It was a surreal feeling, and not something that I’d ever had before.
The only thing that could make this better was my brother being here.
Which happened to be the next topic of conversation.
“You’re going to break seven men out of prison,” Calliope said. “Why?”
“Because I don’t think they deserve to be there. Why should the president be the only one who gets the right to choose who does and doesn’t have to stay in prison?” he asked.
“Winning the presidency seems like it would suck. The one and only thing that I feel like wouldn’t suck was being able to pardon who I want,” Calliope admitted.
“Who are you breaking out?” Jasper asked, his gaze flicking toward Calliope as if he didn’t trust her to hear this conversation. “And how?”
I missed what he said next because my phone rang.
I groaned and excused myself to go and answer it.
As much as I wanted to ignore my mom and dad, I couldn’t.
They were my parents.
I loved them.
Even though they clearly had a favorite, and it wasn’t their actual children.
“Hey, Dad,” I said. “What’s up?”
“Your mom said that you kicked her and your sister out of your work yesterday,” he started.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I did.”
“Why?” he asked, sounding angry.
I leaned my hips against the counter in Finnian’s—now also my own—kitchen and said, “Well, for starters, I was working. Second, maybe if they’d accepted my ‘I’m working’ comment, security wouldn’t have had to be called.”
“That was embarrassing for your mother,” Dad grumbled.
“No, what’s embarrassing is being a nurse, and working at your job where you’re in charge of a lot of other nurses, and having your mother come up with your deadbeat sister and have them give you shit because you’re not answering their phone calls,” I said. “You would be so upset if Mom came and berated you at your job. Why are you not upset with her doing that at mine?”
He paused. “Daniella told me she was bringing you lunch and you called security.”
I snorted. “She most certainly did not bring me lunch. She brought me shit. That’s all. And I didn’t call security.”
That wasn’t a lie.
My new man did.
“Shit.” He sighed. “That girl will be the death of me.”
Yeah, she would.
