“A younger brother,” I quipped.
Andre snorted. “A brother I would have beat up a lot when we were kids.”
“You could try,” I said with a smirk.
“Fucking hell, I’m trying to be serious here.” He chuckled.
“I know. And thanks. I don’t know what it is about Casey. She makes me smile. She has this strength in her that she doesn’t seem to see but is so obvious when I look at her. She has no idea how sexy she is, and it makes me fucking crazy. I mean, she told me—” I cut myself off before I told him she said I had her favorite dick.
“You already have secrets and inside jokes. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you look like that when talking about a woman.” Andre clapped me on the back. “I get it. I don’t want you to get hurt, but I get it.”
“You get what?” I asked, wondering what the hell he was talking about.
He chuckled and stood. “You’ll figure it out, eventually. I’m going back to the party. You coming?”
“Figure what out?” I asked, trailing behind him. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Andre just laughed and led the way back to the others, knowing I would drop it once we were surrounded.
I was not in love with Casey. It took me far longer to figure it out than I wanted to admit, but it finally hit me that was what Andre assumed.
I barely knew her. Love wasn’t… It wasn’t possible. Maybe one day, but not yet. Not when we were pretending.
But if she was going to continue ignoring me and avoiding me, I wasn’t sure I still had a date to Omar and Natalie’s wedding. And I needed that answer before I said anything to anyone about it.
Five days of silence told me I had no choice but to show up at her apartment, which was why on Monday morning, before I opened the store, I was standing in front of Casey’s building. Lucky for me, it was also Andre’s building, and I wasn’t above using my connections to get access to the woman I was not in love with.
I texted Andre to buzz me in but not to expect me at his door. He sent back a thumbs up and the door in front of me buzzed. I smiled as I yanked it open and let myself into the building.
Taking Casey home from the bachelorette party gave me the advantage of knowing which apartment was hers. The building was almost as quiet as that night, but the stirrings of people getting ready to leave for the day told me it was not the same.
I stood outside her door and raised my hand to knock, stopping when I heard her voice inside. Shit. I forgot she had a kid. A young kid who was still at home. Unless Casey was talking to herself.
Nope. There was a second voice. And both voices were getting closer to the door.
The door opened, but neither of them noticed me as they were talking to each other.
“Rehearsal is done at four, right?” Casey asked.
“Yes. All week.” Her daughter had the same brown hair as Casey but shorter and with more curl in it. She came up to Casey’s chest when they hugged.
They turned as one and both startled when they saw me.
“Landon,” Casey exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”
“Who’s he?” The teenage attitude came through in just two words and almost made me laugh.
“This is my friend, Landon. Landon, this is my daughter, Mikayla. Who is going to miss the bus if she doesn’t get moving.”
Mikayla rolled her eyes and moved past me.
“Nice to meet you,” I said to her.
“You, too,” she said, dutifully, as if she couldn’t bring herself to not reply.
I turned to Casey and watched her as she worried her bottom lip and stared after her daughter until she disappeared down the stairs.
“Why are you here? And how did you get in?”
