I Wish You Were Mine (Oxford #2)(18)

“I just mean it would be good to know what’s going on with him. To make sure he doesn’t ruin things with me and Alec.”

Mollie rubbed her forehead. “Okay. Fine. So if I make sure Jackson doesn’t sabotage your happy ending with Alec, you’re cool with me moving in?”

“Well, I don’t know about cool,” Madison muttered. “But it would be nice to know what the guy’s up to, since he doesn’t return my calls.”

That got Mollie’s attention. “You’ve been calling him?”

Madison made a little sound, and Mollie got the impression her sister wasn’t thrilled to have let that slip. Maddie liked to be pursued. Not the other way around.

“I just wanted to check in. Make sure he was okay.”

“And he didn’t pick up?” Mollie winced at the eagerness in her own voice. It shouldn’t matter whether or not Jackson had talked to Madison. It didn’t matter…much.

Kim was making siren noises now as she folded one of Mollie’s jackets and set it in a box.

“Ugh. I don’t want to talk about this right now, Molls,” Madison snapped. “I’ve gotta run. Cindy’s ready to rinse the color out of my hair.”

“Okay,” Mollie said resignedly. “Call me later. I love you.”

The phone went dead before she finished speaking.

Mollie pulled it away and stared at it. “Good talk.”

“Babe, what the heck were you expecting? The woman’s a monster.”

“She’s not,” Mollie said automatically.

Kim gave her a look. “She slept with your boyfriend.”

Mollie swallowed. “I don’t know that for sure.”

“Right. I forgot we’re still subscribing to the theory that maybe she invited Shawn to her hotel room to talk.”

Mollie frowned a little as she realized that she didn’t feel so much as a pang at the memory of seeing her grad school boyfriend emerge from Madison’s hotel room. Not so long ago, reliving that moment had been enough to sucker-punch the breath out of her. Now she felt merely…tired.

That was it. Talking to her sister—hell, even thinking about her—made Mollie tired. She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes. “Can we not talk about her? Please?”

Kim came over to the bed, shoving a box to the side so she could sit beside Mollie, looping an arm around her neck. “Sure, babe.” They were silent for a minute before Kim gave a big sigh and said, “You’re not really leaving me, right? For the uppers?”

Mollie smiled. Kim had a great little studio just a few blocks away from Mollie’s place on the Lower East Side. The “uppers” referred to the Upper West Side and Upper East Side of Manhattan, which were more expensive than their current neighborhood. She and Kim had a long-standing joke about what life would be like when they could afford the “uppers.”

Mollie sure as hell hadn’t figured this was how she’d get there, and yet…She had no regrets. A chance to get away from Austin and his spider, a chance to be closer to her work, a heater that actually worked…

“Do you think Madison wants Jackson back?” Mollie blurted out.

“Thought we weren’t talking about her.”

“Kimmy.”

Her friend sighed. “Fine. I don’t know, babe. But if I know anything about your sister, I’m guessing that if she didn’t want him back before, she definitely does after that phone call. Did you really think there was any way she was going to let her hot little sister move in with her ex without some sort of ulterior motive?”

“She’s not like that,” Mollie said automatically, leaning against her friend so that her hair tangled with Kim’s black locks.

Kim kissed the side of her head. “She’s exactly like that.”

Mollie swallowed, knowing she should defend her sister. Once upon a time, she’d exhausted herself trying to make sure people understood Madison. But recently Mollie wasn’t even sure she understood her sister.

“Do you think I’m making a mistake?” Mollie asked her best friend. “Moving in with Jackson?”

Kim was uncharacteristically silent for a long moment. “I think you’re taking a risk.”

“Because he’s my former brother-in-law?”

Kim patted her knee. “That. And the fact that you used to be in love with him.”

There was that. There was definitely that.





Chapter 7


“You seriously didn’t have to hire movers,” Mollie said for the hundredth time as she watched two burly dudes easily maneuver yet another stack of boxes to Jackson’s guest room.

Jackson pointed at a barstool. “Sit. Relax. Want a beer?”

“No, I still need to unpack,” she muttered, reluctantly plopping onto the stool.

“Have a beer, Molls. Unpacking your nightstand contents isn’t like operating heavy machinery,” he said, going to the fridge and pulling out two beers.

“Clearly you don’t know what’s in my nightstand.”

Jackson lifted his eyebrows. “Exactly how big is your vibrator?”

“I meant I have like a zillion books.”

“Which are not breakable,” he said, handing her a beer. “And is that a no on the vibrator?”