Chapter 6

Xander

I love social media. My bandmates weren’t that into it, so we hired people to monitor our accounts and post information about our shows. I still posted and responded to comments. I searched for #RecklessRelease and kept track of when we were trending. Usually, I was the first to know when there was gossip circulating about any of us.

Not surprisingly, I found quite a bit about Cami and me the morning after the Mitch incident. It was nothing new. No one from the band or the label would even call to talk to me about it. Cami also didn’t care. It made sense that there was speculation. Everyone who followed the band knew I thought of Harley as a sister, so there was no chance of us hooking up. Cami was often seen with Reckless Release, and a lot of people had seen me flirt with her. The night before, I’d even convinced her to dance with me. The dancing had been innocent, very little touching involved, but people had still seen us together. Between that and me intervening with Mitch, it was no surprise people were calling Cami my girlfriend.

I looked at the time and grinned, knowing my phone would be ringing soon. As expected, it began buzzing. I let it go to voicemail twice before answering.

“Hello,” I answered in a pleasant voice.

“Didn’t I warn you about sending my calls to voicemail?”

“Who is this?” I asked.

“Very funny,” my sister snapped.

“What’s up, Lacey?”

I always messed with Lacey. I considered it my responsibility as her younger brother. My sister was seven years older than me, and she was great. After my dad got sick when I was twelve, my mom had to work long hours to support us and pay his medical bills. When he died, Lacey moved back home to help my mom take care of me. I’d argued that I didn’t need her help. At fourteen, I’d thought I was grown up enough to take care of myself. I’d been wrong, and I now realized I owed a lot to my sister.

“So, what’s this I hear about a new girlfriend?” she asked.

“Are you trolling me online again?” I was only half-joking. Lacey often followed the gossip about me. It was a little embarrassing since some talk involved things I didn’t want my sister hearing about.

“Don’t even think about changing the subject,” she warned. “Please, tell me it’s true this time. I keep hearing about you and this Cami woman. I did a little digging, and she’s not a bimbo. You need to marry her and have kids. I deserve nieces and nephews.”

“Why is it that you’re the one nagging me about settling down instead of Mom?” I asked.

“Since when do I nag you about settling down?” She didn’t give me a chance to answer. “I never mention that you’re not getting any younger or that Mom would like you to bring a nice girl to Christmas dinner.”

“Mom came to my place for Christmas dinner,” I reminded her. “She also never mentioned anything about wanting more grandkids. It hasn’t been that long since you gave her another grandchild. That’s why you didn’t come for Christmas dinner. Dana was too knocked up. I think Mom is happy with the three grandkids she has. Tony’s grandkids also call her Grandma, so she’s set.”

My step-dad, Tony, did his best to make my mom happy, so I had no complaints.

“That doesn’t mean she doesn’t want you to have children,” Lacey argued. “I’m also worried about you. I keep seeing these stories about you and Cami. Why aren’t you dating her? Why aren’t they more than rumors?”

“Because we’re only friends,” I replied. “Last night, the story got blown totally out of proportion.”

My mom never pushed me the way Lacey did. She accepted my explanation and believed I was just friends with Cami. Lacey had never entirely bought it. She could be a real pain in the ass.

“I know all that,” Lacey told me. “It makes sense that she’d hang out with the band. I might even be able to believe that she’s not interested in being more than friends with you.”

“But you know I’m totally into her,” I finished for my annoyingly nosy sister.

“Why don’t you ask her out?” To Lacey, it was that simple. I’d ask Cami out, she’d say yes, we’d get married, and then we’d have kids. It was the perfect happily-ever-after scenario. “Maybe you’re wrong about her wanting to be just friends with you.”

“Cami told me she doesn’t want to date me,” I admitted. While I hadn’t asked her out, Cami had made it clear from the beginning that we weren’t going to date. Since then, she’d given me reminders whenever I flirted with her. I flirted with her often, so I got a lot of reminders.

“She doesn’t know what she’s missing out on.” I grinned when I heard how angry my sister sounded on my behalf.

“You don’t need to get pissed at her,” I insisted. “She’s my friend, and I’ll be fine if that’s all I ever have with her. Sure, I think she’s hot as fuck. You can’t even imagine what I’d like to do to her.”

As I’ve already mentioned, I love messing with my sister.

“Don’t go into any more details,” she warned.

“All I’m saying is, she’s a sexy little blonde,” I added.

“Now, I see why she won’t date you. Can you please be serious for a minute?”

“No,” was my simple reply. “I’ve been serious enough. I was serious when Dad got sick and then when we lost him. When I was working full-time and trying to succeed in the music business, I was a lot more serious. Fuck being serious. It’s time to have some fun.”

My sister laughed at my rant. “You’re right, Xan. Fuck being serious. You’ve earned some fun time, even if I do know you just said all that stuff to distract me from talking about Cami. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I replied. “When are you coming up to see me?”

“In a few weeks,” she replied. “I have an interview in San Jose.”

“You do?” I asked. “You’re going to move up here?”

“We might,” she replied. “I’ll message you with the details since I already know you’ll forget if I tell you over the phone. I’ll only be up there for the day, but I’d like to meet for dinner.”

“Sounds good. I really miss you. Talk to you later.”

“Bye,” she said before ending the call.

I grinned because, if my sister moved up north, my mom was likely to follow. It also meant I’d get a lot more time with my nephews. I loved being an uncle.

I decided to take a quick shower and get dressed for the day. When I got back to the social media frenzy, all I could think to say was, “What the fuck?” I continued reading, dismissing the first response as a fluke. It wasn’t.

Someone had hacked Cami’s account. I was about to call her when my doorbell rang. After a brief hesitation, I decided to deal with the person at the door before calling Cami to warn her about what had happened.