Chapter 17
Cassie
I am beyond furious. I can’t believe these two. Carter looks at me with a lazy grin. “What’d you expect?” he says with a shrug.
“Are you serious, you massive manwhore? I hope you thoroughly enjoyed yourself because it won’t be happening again.” I screech.
“Well, yeah actually, thanks for asking,” he says. “I’m extremely satisfied. Why didn’t you tell me she was such a little spitfire? I would have been here weeks ago.”
“WHAT?” I yell at him momentarily stumped. “What?”
He gives me another lazy shrug before heading to the kitchen and coming out with a beer for himself and Jax.
I turn my attention to Bri and give her the look of death. “You. I should have known better,” I accuse as I storm right up to the little minx. “What do you have to say for yourself, you skank whore?”
“Hey,” she laughs. “This is all your fault.”
Jaxon’s laughter in the background has me slipping closer and closer to the edge. “How the hell does this STD fest have anything to do with me?”
“You left your phone here. He called. I answered. It’s simple really,” she explains, falling on the couch beside Carter.
“Oh my god. You two have some serious making up to do to me,” I demand.
“Righto,” Carter scoffs.
“Argh,” I groan as I flop into a chair that is well away from everyone, cross my arms over my chest and sulk.
They all ignore me as they question Jax about what the hell is going on between us and I have the need to tell Carter that Jax just screwed me in the park just to annoy him, but on second thought, I just might keep that detail to myself.
“Oh, hey,” I hear Jax pipe up. “While you’re here, can you give me a hand with something?”
Carter mumbles a 'yeah' and they get up and head out to Jax’s truck. My eyes narrow on their retreating bodies having absolutely no idea what Jax could be up to. I’m not left wondering for long as they march back in, piled high with all my recording things, keyboard, and everything.
“Um, what do you think you’re doing?” I question Jax as Bri stares after him, utterly confused.
“I’m setting this shit up,” he responds. “Where do you want it?”
“I don’t want it,” I snap.
He ignores me and makes the executive decision to set it all up in the dining room.
Bri comes up beside me and looks at me with narrowed, curious eyes. “Why the hell is Jax setting up a recording studio in our dining room?” she asks.
With a sigh, I leave her gaping at the boys and grab my laptop. I take a seat at the table and invite her next to me while the boys continue their work. I power up my laptop and jump straight on the internet to find YouTube. I type in my name and locate my page and silently turn the laptop towards Bri.
She looks at it with her mouth hanging open and I know without a doubt she is taking in the hundreds of videos and probably noticing the three hundred thousand followers.
“You going to start explaining yourself?” she demands as she begins to scroll.
With a sigh, I let it all out. “I’m a bit of a singer, or at least I used to be,” I tell her and get a scoff from each of the boys. I ignore them and continue with my explanation. “Growing up, I was always singing so mum threw me head first into music lessons and I absolutely loved it, it’s one of my few passions. So when I was about fourteen, I started videoing-”
“Fuck,” she screeches cutting me off. “You have half a million followers.”
“Really?” I ask. “Last I checked there was half that.”
She lets out an impressive scoff and I get back to my explanation. “As I was saying, I started videoing some covers and Jax created a YouTube page and started posting them, even though I had absolutely no idea.”
“Ha,” she laughs. “Typical freaking men.”
I grin but continue on with my story. “I sang for me because it made me happy but the boys were always pushing me to make a career out of it. By the time I came across the page, I already had thousands of followers and the boys gave me no choice but to go along with it, so every few days, I’d record another cover and Jax would post it.”
She nods her head a little in shock and hits play on a cover of a Beyoncé song. “Holy shit, Cass. You’re fucking good.”
Once again, the boys scoff at the remark. “She’s a bit better than good, don’t you think?” Jax says.
“Uh, yeah,” she scoffs. “Why’d you stop?”
My eyes flick to Jax who I notice already has his eyes on me. I let out a sad sigh. “I couldn’t sing when I left for New York,” I say, leaving it at that, but just as I knew, she understands me perfectly. With a small smile and quick nod, she pulls up the next video.
“Hey, this one is recent,” she muses as she hits play.
“What the hell?” I ask as the song I sang at the wedding plays through the small speakers of my laptop. I snatch it from her and stare at the screen, knowing from the angle the video was taken this would have been shot by either Carter or Logan. I stare at the screen completely dumbfounded until I notice the caption ‘she’s back ladies and gentleman.’
“Freakin’ Logan” I mutter under my breath remembering those exact words he said to me at the wedding after I had sung, though, at the time, I was too focused on Jax to have really paid attention to anyone else.
“Bloody hell,” Brianna says, watching the screen over my shoulder. “You should have a recording deal by now.”
I press my lips together, really wishing she hadn’t bought this up. “What?” Jax asks, noticing my hesitation.
I look up from the screen and give him a nervous look. “I sort of had two labels seek me out when I was in New York.”
“WHAT?” Brianna screeches as Carter straightens himself out to pay a little more attention to the conversation.
“Calm down. I didn’t accept it,” I tell her.
“What?” This time it’s Carter questioning me. “Are you kidding me?”
“What’s the big deal? I don’t want to be some big celebrity singer with no life. I want to be a physio, you all know this. I sing for me because it makes me happy, not so some fat, balding dude in a suit can make all the decisions and butcher my songs.”
Jax’s eyes narrow on me and I realise he is trying to figure me out. “You sure?” he asks.
I think it over and realise that I honestly don’t know. I want to sing and I want to be a physio, though the whole thought of becoming some big-time celebrity scares the shit out of me. I shrug my shoulders and Jax steps forward. “What’s the matter?” he asks.
“I don’t know. I guess, I want to sing but I want it to be for me. I don’t want some big record label having a say in what I can and can’t do.”
He nods his understanding. “What if we just go back to what we were doing before, maybe you could record some of your own songs and post them too?”
At that, my chin lifts and I look up at him. “I think I like that idea,” I say, wrapping my arms around his waist.
“I thought you might,” he says with a wink before leaning down and pressing his lips to mine.
“Ugh, if you two are going to start that again, I’m out,” Bri declares as she takes my laptop off the counter and disappears into the lounge room.
With a laugh, Jax gets back to helping Carter set up my recording stuff and I leave to shower. Not long later, the door opens and Jax strips off before sliding into the shower with me. “Thank you,” I murmur into his chest as he wraps his arms around me. I don’t have to explain what the thank you is for, he just knows me well enough to know I’m referring to my makeshift recording studio. “Is Carter gone?” I ask.
His eyes become hooded as his hands begin to roam. “You think I’d be in here with you if he was under this roof?” he says.
“Good point.”
With that, Jax turns off the taps, wraps me in a towel and leads me to my bed.
Our alarms go off at the same time the next morning and I groan as I try to get out of bed. “Stay,” Jax mumbles as he puts his arm around my waist and pulls me against him so I feel his morning wood poking me in my ass.
“Mmmm,” I moan as I rub against him and close my eyes.
Jax’s hand snakes down my body and is mid pulling my pants down when an extremely consistent knock blares through my door and practically rattles the frame. “Get your ass out here, Cassandra Waters. We made a pact,” Bri yells as lively as ever. “Jax will have to deal with little Jax himself.”
“Will she eventually go away?” Jax asks quietly.
“Nope,” I chuckle as I turn to face him with a grin. “Come on, the boys will bust your ass if you’re late.”
He ignores me as he begins to nuzzle into my neck when the door flies open and a determined Brianna comes storming in, yanks the blankets off us and grabs my ankle. She gives a massive tug and before I know it, I’m sliding straight off the edge of the bed and falling to the ground.
“Oomph,” I grunt as my ass connects with the hard-wooden floors.
“Oh great,” Bri exclaims, clapping her hands together in fake enthusiasm. “You’re up.”
“Damn it,” I mutter, getting up off the floor and starting to look for my workout clothes. Jax reluctantly does the same but Bri and I stop as Jax goes about my room finding his clothes, his muscles rolling as he bends then flexes as he stands and stretches his shirt up and over that glorious, sculptured back.
“Wow,” Bri mutters next to me.
“Yeah,” I whisper.
Jax stiffens and turns to see what has caught our attention but only manages to give us both a view of the front as his shirt is pulled down into place. He smirks, immediately knowing that we’re both at a loss here. With a wink, he grabs his keys off the bedside table and struts out of my room like King Shit.
Bri and I eventually cool off and manage to make our way out the door for our morning run. I must admit, as much as I hate running, I’m starting to notice my fitness level rising and that feels damn good.
We return an hour later and get ourselves breakfast. The very moment breakfast is finished Brianna is playing with my recording stuff and begging me to show her how it works, so, with us both not needing to be in class until this afternoon, that’s exactly what I do.
It doesn’t take her long to convince me to record a cover. So, I get my laptop and search the music for Taylor Swifts’ Red. Bri gets the camera as I move in front of my microphone and get started. “Hi guys,” I say into the camera. “Sorry for disappearing on you all, I was taking a little break but as my asshole brothers and friends have given me no choice. I’m back. Hope you like it.”
I turn back to the microphone and hit play on the music.
Fifteen minutes later, I’m showing Bri all the ins and outs of how to post the video to my YouTube Page. Another ten minutes later, the notifications start rolling in.
“Holy shit. People really love you,” Brianna grins as she starts going through the comments. “Why don’t you post an original song?”
My stomach drops. “Um, nah,” I say with a shake of my head. “Too soon, besides all my latest stuff is kind of depressing.”
“Well, are you happy now?” she asks.
“Yes…” I grin, knowing where she is going with all this.
“Good, so we throw out your old stuff and get started on new stuff.”
“What? Throw it out?” I shriek. “What kind of monster are you? I couldn’t part with it, I mean, it’s still good stuff, just not the kind of stuff I want to sing about or record.”
“Righto,” she chuckles. “Then why don’t you go add that last notebook to the collection you probably have hiding under your bed, collecting dust.”
I roll my eyes. “It’s in my closet actually,” I admit.
A text message comes through to my phone and I recognise the old number like the back of my hand and decided it’s probably time to program him back into my contact list.
Jax – Nice song selection.
A chuckle rips through me and I roll my eyes as I hit reply.
Cass – Yeah, just something that came to me. Didn’t really put too much thought into it.
He and I both know I’m lying. Every song I have ever posted has had some sort of meaning to me, whether it’s the way the song makes me feel or that the lyrics say something about what’s happening in my life and well, Red by Taylor Swift is just that. The lyrics perfectly sum up how I feel about Jax.
Jax – Liar.
“How long would it take you to write a song?” Brianna asks, stealing my attention away from my phone.
“Honestly, with everything that’s been going on with Jax, I’m pretty sure I’ve already got one completed, I just got to get it down and work out a melody,” I explain. “Though, I’m probably a bit rusty.”
“Shit, well I know what we’re doing today,” she says, dragging me out the door.
We walk the few minutes down to the shop and load up on notebooks, music books, pencils, sharpeners, and erasers. I spend my day, excited about writing for the first time while Brianna searches articles on how to become a top-earning manager.
During the afternoon we both sulk as we have to stop what we’re doing and get ready for classes but the moment we are both home, its right back to work.
By dinner time, I have already recorded the music, now it’s time for the vocals. I nervously hit record as I turn towards the camera and introduce my new song. I let whoever may be watching know that it’s my first original song and that it is pretty rough. I explain that this song is dedicated to the love of my life before my fingers curl around the base of the microphone and I hit play on the music, preparing to pour my heart out.
A tear slips out the corner of my eye but I focus on the lyrics, making sure the one person this song is for can truly understand the message I am trying to convey.
Precisely, four and a half minutes later, Brianna is squealing in delight as she hits ‘post’.
I pour a glass of wine and sit back on the lounge as a sense of accomplishment comes over me. I could really get used to this feeling and I have Jax to thank for it.
A text has my attention drawn and I grab my phone to check it only to find it is a group message from my brothers.
L, C, S - Mum and Dad would be proud of you, sis.