by A. K. Evans
“Sure,” I replied. “This is honestly incredible.”
Cal smiled, nodded, and said, “Great. I’ll send him down.”
“Perfect.”
My cousin walked away, and I spent the few minutes feeling excited about what was happening. There could not have been a better way to start my new job.
A moment later, my mood went to shit.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, my tone clearly indicating my annoyance.
Not the least bit fazed by my irritation, Cash walked into the room and moved toward me as he declared, “And there she is.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” I questioned him.
Making himself comfortable, Cash settled himself in the chair on the opposite side of the desk and explained, “The girl from the hotel is back. You know, the one who claims to despise me. I thought she was gone or, at the very least, softening a bit toward me when I was here on Saturday. I can’t tell you how happy I am to know the spicy side of you is back.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Spicy?” I repeated.
Cash nodded, but he didn’t offer any additional clarification.
“Look, I don’t know what you’re expecting or hoping for here, but I’m at work,” I began. “You can’t just keep showing up everywhere I work expecting to monopolize my time.”
“Oh, well, I mean, I’m more than happy to meet up with you once you’re finished with work,” he offered. “What time are you off?”
Crap. I should have thought that one through.
“Never,” I immediately replied.
“Ouch. You’re brutal,” he said.
I let out a deep sigh. “What do you want me to say, Cash?” I retorted. “Cal might be my cousin, but I’m not going to take advantage of that. I’m at work.”
“But that’s a good thing, Demi,” he assured me. “Because I’m here on official My Violent Heart business.”
“Oh? And what’s that?” I asked.
Cash sat back in the chair, crossed his ankle over his opposite knee, and shared, “We want to play here again.”
My brows shot up in response. “You do?”
He dipped his chin. “Yep.”
“But… but we’re just a small—”
“That’s what we like about this place,” Cash cut me off. “I’ve already talked to everyone in the band, and they’re all down for it.”
Wow.
Wow.
This was huge for Cal, for his employees, and for Granite. Plus, I had no doubt the locals would love to know that this band was going to be back.
“When would you be looking to do this?” I asked.
“Once the tour is over,” he said. “We’ve got another fifteen weeks or so of touring, but this will be a great way to close it out.”
Fifteen weeks.
Fifteen whole weeks before he’d be back.
Maybe I’d given Cash a hard time about being in my space, but at that moment I realized how much I would miss it.
And that made absolutely zero sense to me.
“So, where does that put us?” I asked.
“Us? Like you and me?” he returned.
Shaking my head, I clarified, “I meant for time. When would you be back here?”
The corner of Cash’s mouth tipped up. “Are you asking for scheduling purposes for this performance, or are you asking for yourself? Because I’ll be honest, if you want me to come back again sooner for you, I’ll do it.”
Why?
Why was he doing this to me?
I’d resolved myself to the fact that I’d likely never see him in the flesh again, and for some reason, he just kept popping up.
How was I supposed to forget he existed and move on when every time he was around me I felt as though the fortress I’d put up around me was crumbling?
“Sorry, I was asking for scheduling purposes,” I told him.
“Right,” he mumbled. “We play the last of our shows the last week of October, so it would need to be any time after that. We could do as early as the first week of November.”
It was only the middle of July now.
I held Cash’s gaze as I allowed that information to penetrate. November seemed like a lifetime away.
For a long time, I didn’t respond.
Fifteen weeks of him being on tour. Fifteen weeks of him singing for other women. Fifteen weeks of not seeing him smile at me. Months without being able to have his scent invade my nostrils.
Why did I even care?
“Demi?” Cash called, interrupting my thoughts.
“Yeah?” I replied.
“Is everything okay?” he asked.
Cash’s face was filled with what looked like genuine concern. I didn’t know he had it in him to look at me like that.
Quickly, I did my best to recover. “Yeah. I… I’m fine,” I insisted. “And the beginning of November will work perfectly. We’re not booking anything that far out, so it’s all yours if you want it.”
Cash’s foot went to the floor again and leaned forward, pressing his elbows into his thighs. “I definitely want it,” he said, the tone of his voice conveying so much more than the words.
I ignored the way that made me feel and looked away. “Perfect. I’ll get you guys on the schedule, and then once it gets closer, it’ll probably be a good idea to touch base.”
“So, you’ll be giving me your number then?” he asked.
“Don’t you have someone who is going to take care of the logistics of this for you?” I retorted.
Nodding, Cash confirmed, “Normally, we do. But this is something we decided to add on, and I already told them I’d handle this. So, I’m your point of contact on this one, firecracker.”
Great.
Just what I needed… more contact with Cash that would leave me feeling confused and frustrated.
Well, it was time to make him feel just as frustrated.
“Fine. So, you’ll be able to reach me via email here,” I began. “For now, I’m working here in the bar, but it’s likely I’m going to transition out and work from home. Obviously, my intention is to be here for the live performances we book to make sure everything is running smoothly, but I can do most of what is necessary via email.”
Cash’s lips twitched.
I wanted to kiss him.
Damn it, Demi. Pull yourself together, I thought.
“I can do email,” he said, not seeming the least bit upset that I was doing my best to make it inconvenient for him.
“Great. Did you have any other questions?” I asked.
“Just one.”
“Which is?”
“Would you join me for breakfast tomorrow morning?” he asked.
“I’m sorry. What?”
“Breakfast. You know, the meal you eat in the morning when you wake up,” he clarified.
My eyes narrowed on him. “I know what breakfast is,” I assured him.
“Okay. So, will you have breakfast with me tomorrow morning before I have to leave?” he pressed.
“Why?”
“Because I’d like to see you one more time before I go back on tour,” he answered.
He wanted to see me one more time before he went back on tour. I didn’t know what he was up to, but I didn’t think it was wise to entertain his request.
“Cash, I—”
“It’s just breakfast,” he said, cutting me off. “As tempting as it would be, it’s not like I’m going to kidnap you and take you on tour with me.”
“I don’t know,” I murmured.
Cash shot me a look of disbelief. “Please,” he pleaded. “Just breakfast before I have to go without seeing your beautiful face for nearly four months.”
My heart pounded in my chest as my lips parted. He sounded like he was in anguish.
Could I do this?
It was just breakfast.
Breakfast before he took off for months.
“Okay. We can do breakfast tomorrow morning,” I agreed.
“Really?”
&n
bsp; I nodded.
“Are you going to let me pick you up?” he asked.
I shook my head. “I’ll meet you. Eight o’clock in the morning at the Finch Café.”
Instantly, Cash stood up and moved to the door. Stunned by his response, I called, “Cash?”
He stopped at the door and turned toward me. “Yeah?”
“What is the matter?”
“Eight o’clock at the Finch Café,” he replied. “I’m leaving before you have the chance to change your mind. And I’ve decided I’ll give you my number the moment you meet me there.”
Wow.
He really wanted to have breakfast with me, and it was clear he didn’t trust that I wouldn’t try to find a way to back out. That was presumably why he was going to make me wait until tomorrow to get his number. He was convinced I’d call and cancel.
Feeling a bit bad, I decided not to give him any more reason not to trust me. If there was one thing that could be said about the woman I was, it was that I followed through on my promises. So, my voice dipped low, nearly to a whisper, and I said, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Cash.”
“Tomorrow,” he repeated. “And Demi?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for giving me a chance,” he said.
Before I could respond, he turned and walked out.
I sat there, staring at the space where he’d been standing for a long time after he left.
I was going to be having breakfast with Cash Morris tomorrow. Maybe I showed him I was uninterested and didn’t care what he did. But the somersaults happening inside my belly told me that what he said was true.
I’d been lying to myself this whole time.
Cash
“Back so soon?”
That came from Killian.
“That can’t mean good things,” Beck declared.
I’d just walked into my hotel suite I was sharing with Roscoe. Killian and Beck were both there.
“I know it might seem that way,” I started. “But I’m not sure things could be any better than they are right now.”
“This ought to be good,” Roscoe said. “What happened?”
I walked over to the mini-fridge, pulled out a beer, and sat down on the couch with a grin on my face. After taking a pull of my beer, I announced, “I’ve got a date tomorrow morning.”
“She agreed to that?” Killian asked.
I nodded proudly.
“It was only a matter of time,” I reasoned. “It pays to be patient.”
“How did you manage that?” Beck questioned me. “I thought she wanted nothing to do with you.”
“It’s my charm,” I reasoned. “It was bound to wear her down eventually.”
“Yeah, right,” Roscoe scoffed. “She probably just agreed to it so you’d leave her alone.”
I shrugged. That might have been the case, but I didn’t care. I finally had a date with Demi. I’d wanted her number all this time. Instead of asking for that, I should have asked her out during my first trip here weeks ago.
Granted, I hated that I was going to have that date with her tomorrow only to have to leave hours afterward. But I was going to take the good that I could get and hope I’d be able to convince her to see me just a little bit differently than she did.
“I guess we’ll see what happens tomorrow,” I said. “For now, I’m soaking this feeling up.”
“On the bright side, at least this trip wasn’t a complete waste of time,” Beck muttered.
“No luck with Chasey?” I asked.
He shook his head. Beck had been trying to locate the woman he’d met weeks ago. Despite the fact that he’d been convinced she’d reach out to him, she hadn’t. This was a small town. He came here hoping he’d run into her somewhere. Unfortunately, it seemed that wasn’t happening.
“Sorry, man.”
“It’s not a big deal,” he brushed it off. I could tell he didn’t mean it. This was a very big deal to him. “I only wanted to check in on her and make sure she was doing okay. It is what it is.”
Not wanting to make him feel worse than I was sure he was already feeling, I decided to change topics.
“We should go out tonight,” I declared.
“What?”
“This is essentially the last night we’ve got before we start traveling again. It’ll be a nice way to end the break.”
“Works for me,” Roscoe said.
“Me too,” Killian added.
My eyes slid to Beck. “It’s not like I have any other plans,” he noted.
I nodded my head. “Great. Where’s Walker and Holland?” I asked.
“No idea. Maybe in their own rooms?” Beck suggested.
Roscoe and I had been sharing a room, and Beck and Killian were in another. Since Holland always got her own room, that meant Walker would have had his own as well. In this case, though, his brother was going to be staying with him tonight. Walker’s brother, Raid, was our road manager and had been with us from the very beginning. He’d gone home to Pennsylvania when we left our last show before the break and decided to meet us here in New Hampshire before we would leave tomorrow to continue to the tour.
“You know, I’ve been thinking about them,” I said.
“Who? Holland and Walker? What about them?” Beck asked.
“Did you ever notice that they’re both always so focused on either just the music when we’re all together or whatever is going on with any of us?” I questioned them. “Do you also notice that Walker doesn’t ever hook up with anyone while we’re out? Holland doesn’t either.”
“You think they’re hooking up with each other?” Killian asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t want to start making assumptions, but nothing else makes sense.”
“Shit,” Roscoe hissed. “Would they cross that line?”
“I’m not sure, but if they are, it could be a big problem down the road if things were to get dicey between them,” Beck noted.
Nodding my agreement, I said, “Yeah. I just can’t believe Walker would do that with Holland. I always thought of her like a sister to us.”
“Yeah, same here,” Killian shared.
Roscoe and Beck both wore expressions that indicated the same.
“I don’t think we should give them any shit about it now just in case we’re reading too much into something that isn’t true, but I think we should all prepare ourselves for the fact that something could be going down between them right now and that there could be a fallout from it,” I advised. “We need to be prepared to help them through it if that’s the case.”
“Losing either of them in this band isn’t going to be good for any of us, the two of them included,” Beck said. “Let’s just try to keep our eyes and ears open.”
Just then, a knock came at the door.
I got up, moved to it, and opened it. Walker was standing there.
“Hey, what’s going on?” he asked.
I stepped back and allowed him to come in. “Nothing yet,” I answered. “Just hanging.”
“How’d it go with Demi this afternoon?”
“I’ve got a date with her tomorrow morning.”
A look of approval washed over him. “Nice. Congratulations.”
“Yeah, well, we’ll have to see where it goes,” I said. “In the meantime, the guys and I were just talking about you and Holland.”
“What about us?” Walker asked, something strange moving through his expression.
“We were just thinking about going out tonight and wanted to see if you two were up to it,” I told him.
“I’m down,” he agreed.
I had suspected that much. Walker rarely turned down a night out together with the band, even if he didn’t go to the same lengths we did when we were there.
“Cool. Have you seen Holland?” I pressed.
Walker shook his head. “No.”
Odd.
No sooner did he get the word out when another knock came at the door. I turned and opened it.
“Is everyone in here?” she asked.
“Yeah, come on in,” I said. “Where have you been?”
Her eyes slid to Walker briefly before they returned to me. “Um, I was just hanging in my room,” she said.
Right.
Yep.
There was definitely something going on with them. Time to let it go for now.
“Well, we’re going out tonight. You coming with us?” I asked.
She smiled and answered, “Of course.”
With that, Walker and Holland joined the rest of us in the suite. I gave them both a beer, and they comfortably settled in as they always did. If the rest of us hadn’t just been discussing it, I never would have given it a second thought.
Now, I had to wonder. And I could see the rest of the guys were thinking the same thing.
Luckily, for the time being, we all just let it go.
And I filled what could have potentially been awkward silence by telling Walker and Holland the news about our final performance when the regular tour was finished as well as my breakfast date for tomorrow morning.
As much as I loved performing, there was no comparison. My date with Demi had me feeling a level of excitement that none of the stops on the tour could even come close to. I couldn’t wait.
Ten
Demi
I can’t believe I’m doing this.
Then again, I was talking to myself.
It was early Tuesday morning, I was in my car on the way to the Finch Café, and I was really starting to wonder if I’d officially lost my mind. That notion was only reinforced by the fact that I was completely torn.
On the one hand, I was convinced that this was the worst idea I’d ever had. I’d never done anything this crazy. And while having breakfast with someone wouldn’t normally be considered outrageous, it was in this case. In fact, this was technically my first official date with anyone.
Even calling it a date made me feel antsy.
Because I didn’t do this kind of thing.
I had always done what I needed to do to take care of myself. I didn’t need all the bells and whistles. Dinner dates, flowers, and having the guy pick me up was just unnecessary because it was all bullshit.
I didn’t need someone to put in all the fake effort to win me over when the reality is that he only wanted one thing. If there was a guy I liked enough to want to take that step with him, I did. I did not want all the lies and false promises that came along with the chase.