It had been two months since Jason bought Hannah the new car. Things with them had been moving fast—mostly because both of them felt like they never wanted to leave the other's side.
Jason kept his normal office hours, and Hannah stayed on at the coffee shop, but they were virtually inseparable otherwise. At different times, their friends and families made comments about how much time they were spending together, but neither of them really gave a flying flip what anyone else thought. They were happiest when they were together, and neither of them were the type to make apologies.
Hannah was still living at her apartment, but she and Jason split their time between places. When Jason first said he wanted to spend the night at Hannah's, she thought he was joking. She honestly couldn't understand how someone who lived in a house like his would ever seriously want to sleep in a tiny garage apartment. Jason made it clear from the start that he actually liked the idea of staying at her apartment. Hannah was sure he was just doing it because she wasn't ready to move in with him yet and he wanted to be with her to make sure she was safe, but he seemed to genuinely like that little apartment, and usually spent two or three nights a week there.
Jason liked the Culbertson family, and was especially nice to Sam. The two of them played basketball on the driveway sometimes, and Hannah enjoyed watching them together. Sam was trying to pick up the bass, and Jason brought a guitar to Hannah's so he could play with him. Hannah thought that guitar was pretty much the best thing since sliced bread. It was a butter-yellow Telecaster that looked really good on Jason—especially without a shirt on.
Sometimes, when the two of them were just hanging out, she'd sit at the table and draw and Jason would tinker around on the guitar. He'd plug it in, but he couldn't turn it up too loud, because if Sam heard him, he'd knock on the door with his bass in hand. That exact thing had already happened two times, and Jason was so sweet that he just put on a shirt and invited him in for a bit of a jam session.
On a side note, and just in case you were wondering, Sam had forgotten all about the crush he had on Hannah (or at least he acted like it). He liked Jason way too much to continuing bowing up to him over someone who didn't have mutual feelings. Sam would make a great boyfriend to some lucky girl eventually.
Jason wasn't at the apartment at that very moment, but his guitar was, and Hannah was lost in thought, gazing at it when Molly knocked on her door. It was a beautiful, barely brisk fall evening in late September and Molly, who hadn't moved to town just yet, was there for the weekend.
"Aw, you look so cute," Molly said as Hannah opened the door.
"So do you," Hannah said.
Molly reached out for a one-armed hug since she was holding her overnight bag in the other hand.
"Just set it right over there," Hannah said, stepping back to let Molly in.
Molly would be sleeping on the couch for the next two nights. It was something she'd done one other time about a month before. The last time she was visiting, Jason and Hannah had spent the nights apart, and even though Jason complained about it, they'd sort of planned on doing that again this weekend.
"I'm nervous," Molly said honestly.
"Me too," Hannah said. "I've met a few of the people who'll be there, but most of them will be strangers to me." She looked down at her dress. "I hope I look fancy enough."
"You look tres fancy. Molly put her fingertips to her mouth and kissed them."
"You look fancy too," Hannah said.
"So, I guess it's safe to assume that Cam Bishop will be there?" Molly asked.
It was a party for his hit single "You're Dangerous" that had been number one for the last week. The song was officially a hit, and Hannah was caught up in the whirlwind that was Jason's life.
She loved it.
"Cam has to be there," Hannah said. "The party's basically for him."
"For him and Jason," Molly said.
"I know. It's crazy. I feel like I'm on a magic carpet ride or something."
"Well, I, for one, am willing to hang on to your tassels every once in a while." Molly smirked at her. "Is anyone else famous gonna be there?" she asked.
Hannah shrugged. "Probably not. Mostly just record execs and friends of everyone involved. Taylor said they were expecting a hundred and twenty people, and I've only met about five of them, so I'm honestly not sure."
"How does Taylor know?" Molly asked.
"Her other job is with this event planning place," Hannah said. "She eventually wants to start her own business, and Jason hired her to do this event as a way to get some experience on her own and meet some new people."
"Oh, snap. She's doing it by herself? Is she nervous?" Molly met Taylor when she came before and really liked her. She was sure Taylor could do whatever she set her mind to, but it was hard to imagine what kind of balls it took to take on an event of this magnitude on your first try.
"She was really nervous, but she has a lot of experience, and she's really driven. She'll make it happen, no problem."
"That's awesome," Molly said. "At least we're friends with the servers if we don't fit in with the record execs."
The party was being held at a place called The Pit, which looked exactly like you thought it would with a name like that. It was in the basement of one of Nashville's downtown buildings, and was extremely dark and dangerous looking. Jason had someone meet them at the car when they parked so they wouldn't have to walk inside by themselves.
"Nick? Jason sent you out here?" Hannah asked when the girls got out of the car.
"Who were you expecting?"
"I don't know," she said, giving him a sideways hug, "maybe a big bald guy dressed in black and wearing sunglasses."
Nick ran a hand through his thick, black hair. "Sorry to disappoint, but I'll have to do. All the real security guys are used up on Cam." He looked at Molly. "Who's your friend?"
Hannah turned to her childhood friend. "Oh I'm sorry. I forgot you haven't met Molly. Molly this is Nick, he's one of Jason's best friends, slash, son of the great Leroy Logan."
"No crap!" Molly said, looking at Nick. "You don't look like Leroy Logan's son."
Nick looked down at his own appearance. "What'd you expect? Rhinestones?"
Molly smiled. "Sort of."
Nick laughed and turned to head back to the bar.
"You're friend's running around in there like a chicken with her head cut off."
Hannah gasped. "Taylor? Why didn't you tell me?" She looked at Molly. "We may be working instead of mingling tonight." Molly nodded without hesitation, and Hannah immediately started walking faster.
Nick laughed. "I'm just kidding," he said. "I didn't think you'd start sprinting like that."
"Is she having a hard time?" Hannah asked.
"No, I was just messing with you because Jason told me it was her first party or whatever, and you were nervous for her. She's fine."
Hannah backhanded him on the shoulder as a reward for his funny joke.
"Ouch, geez, did you see that?" He looked at Molly, who shrugged as if she hadn't seen a thing. Nick sighed. "Do you live here in Nashville?" he asked.
"I want to, but I'm still in Sparta for now." Nick looked at her, clueless. "It's about an hour and a half from here. That's where Hannah's from. We go way back."
"You're trying to move here?"
Molly rolled her eyes. "For over a year now. I graduated two years before Hannah. We thought our roles would be reversed and I'd be the one scoping out Nashville for when she got here."
"What's the problem?"
"My dad has a hardware store. He says it's a family business, and asked if I'd work there until my brother got out of the Army. That was supposed to be two years ago, but he's doing a second tour. It's okay, though. There's a chance he'll get discharged by the end of the year."
"That's what they said last year," Hannah said. Not only did she hate to see Molly wasting her time restocking shelves in her dad's store, she also thought it'd be cool having her around.
"I
know. I told my dad if it didn't happen this time, he'll have to find someone to take my place. I'm twenty and not getting any younger."
Nick laughed.
"Shut-up," Molly said. "I know I'm young, but I still have lots of work ahead of me to get where I want to be, and I'm just ready to get started." She paused for a second. "I don't know, maybe I'm just ready to get out of Sparta."
Nick raised his hands in surrender. "I shouldn't have laughed, I'm sorry. It's just that twenty is still really young."
"How old are you, oh wise one?" Molly asked.
"I'm not saying I'm old, I'm just saying you're young."
"How old are you?"
"What's it matter?"
"It doesn't. I'm just curious now."
"Twenty-three."
Molly cracked up, but Nick didn't have time to jab back because they were opening the door to the club, and there were simply too many distractions. The stairway that led down to the door was dimly lit, and Hannah felt butterflies knowing Jason was just on the other side of the door. Nick led the way, navigating the entryway and leading them to the far end of the place. The girls were surprised by how many people were already there—especially since they were early.
Jason was talking to someone, but stopped and excused himself when he caught sight of Hannah. She was wearing a little black dress with a lace sweater and boots. Something was in her hair—a flower or a feather or something. Jason really didn't care. She was scrumptious, even from across the room. He looked at Nick as he approached. "Thanks for getting the girls," he said.
"No worries," Nick said.
Jason looked at Molly and acknowledged her by name, but went straight over to Hannah, who reached up to kiss his jaw when he approached.
"You look amazing," he said.
"This is amazing," she said. "I can't believe all this is for that song."
"Your song," he said. "I thought it'd be a hit, but you just never know." He paused, remembering something. "Hey, I forwarded you the contact information for that guy Will who wants you to draw something for him. Did you get it?"
"Yeah, I got it, I'm sorry I didn't respond, I'm just trying to get used to this new phone you got me."
Jason looked at Molly for backup. "Will you please tell her an iPhone is just an iPod you can make calls from? She has no problems with her iPod, but give a girl a phone, and she freezes up."
"Nu-uhh, I've just never emailed on a little screen like that, so I forget you can. Plus, we talk to each other like three times a day, so I figured I'd tell you soon anyway."
Jason laughed. "Oh, I'm glad you brought that up. I know you're planning on staying with Molly at your place, but I was thinking you could just both stay with me. I have plenty of room. I don't care if you guys want to stay up and put clay on your faces or whatever, I'd just like you to crawl in bed with me when you're done, and you can't necessarily do that if you spend the night at your place, now can you?"
Hannah giggled. "Clay on our faces?"
"I'm just saying." He smiled down at her. "Just say you'll come."
Hannah looked at Molly, who shrugged as if to say she was up for whatever. She looked back at Jason. "Okay."
Jason gave her a satisfied smile then glanced over at Molly. "I'm really close to talking her into moving in, so when you're at the house, tell her how much you like everything."
"Sounds like a party." Nick said.
"Don't you dare," Jason warned.
Their conversation was interrupted by Taylor, who was looking like she had everything under control and could even spare a minute to come over and say hi. She hugged Hannah and Molly both, and filled them in quickly on how everything was going. A few of their friends from Common Grounds (including Nothing) were working the event with her that night, and Hannah promised Molly she'd introduce her to the whole lot.
Jason took his phone out of his pocket while they were all standing around. He looked up at everyone. "Cam's on his way," he announced.
Taylor glanced around, making sure everything seemed to be in order. "You guys have fun tonight," she said. "I'm going to make sure everything's good in the back."
Molly looked at Hannah. "I need to use the ladies room," she said. "I'm not sure where it—"
"I'll take you over there," Nick said. "I was planning on hitting the bar anyway."
He and Molly took off and Hannah turned to face Jason.
"I'm really proud of you."
He gave her a sweet grin. "I was born into it," he said. "I didn't get here all on my own."
"Yeah, but you're a genius songwriter, and that's all you. And, I'm equally impressed that you give other people a leg up any chance you get."
"Oh, you mean Taylor? No, I hired her because I knew she'd do a great job," he said.
"Not just Taylor. Me too."
"What? I'm just getting you drawing jobs so you can quit work at that freaking coffee shop and move in with me in Brentwood where you can just make art and be my love slave."
"Oh, is that why you're getting me drawing jobs?" she asked. "And this whole time I've been thinking you were being nice."
"Oh, no. There's nothing nice or selfless about it. I'm totally doing it so you can work from home and do the whole love slave thing."
Hannah wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed. "I am a total weird-o."
"Why?" he asked.
"Because that sounds appealing."
"So do it. Move in with me."
Hannah considered for a second. "I think I might just do that Mr. Lane." She looked up, studying his face, and couldn't resist popping up to put a swift kiss on his mouth.
"I might just have to hold you to that, Miss Garrison."
She buried her face in his solid chest. "I love you," she said.
She knew he was going to answer with I know rather than telling her he loved her back. It was their standard reply, and Hannah loved the fact that she knew what he was going to say before he said it. She smiled with her eyes closed, waiting for his answer.
He held her tightly. "I know."
The End
(till book 2)
Thanks for reading Book 1 of the How to Tame a Heartbreaker series! I hope you enjoyed Jason and Hannah's story.
You're Dangerous Page 20