Be Here Now: A Cedar Creek Novel (6 page)

“Tell me who told you I cheated on you,” he went back to his original topic.

“Nobody told me.”

“Then why—”

“I saw her, Jason. I saw her at your apartment when she opened your front door, wrapped in a towel, still wet from the shower, and I heard her loud and clear when she told me you were still
in
the shower.”

Jason’s body locked at my words. “You came to my apartment and saw her?”

I said nothing as I kept glaring at him.

”Shit. Now it all makes sense.” He whispered as if talking to himself.

Yeah. It did. He got it now. He got it that I caught him, that there was no way he could deny it now. “See, Jason, you can stop playing your game now. There is no way I will ever forgive you for what you’ve done.”

“No. You don’t understand. That girl—”

I couldn’t believe he wouldn’t let it go, that even after he knew I had seen her at his apartment, he was still going to lie to me about it. At the end of my patience, I stepped back from him and shook my head in resignation. Why was I even arguing with him? No matter what I said, there would always be another excuse, another lie.

I was done.

“It doesn’t matter what you’re going to say, Jason. None of it matters,” I said, resigned.

“Of course it matters.”

“It doesn’t. And you know why. So you can stop this cruel game of yours and leave me alone.”

“Loreley—”

“No, Jason,” I said with steel in my voice. He knew that voice. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he remembered.

Good. At least he remembered something.

This time when I turned around and walked away from him, he let me. I didn’t look back at him, so I missed the fact that he kept his eyes locked on me until I turned the corner. Just like I missed the look of complete and honest confusion on his face.

JASON

For the second time in his life, Jason stared after Loreley as she walked away from him without looking back. The difference was that last time he was mad and disappointed.

And scared.

Scared of her moving to L.A. without him, of her chasing her dreams without him, of not seeing her for three months. God, he had been so fucking scared he would lose her and had acted like a dick because of it.

Every day since then, every single day since she walked away, while he was on tour with his band, playing in small bars; the day they were discovered during a gig; the day they signed their record deal; the day they made it big. Every single day since he let her walk away from him, he wished she was with him; every single day he missed her, missed her to the point that he couldn’t think straight, got drunk, and fucked the first available pussy.

And every single day his wounded ego had kept him from following his heart and going after her, of begging her for forgiveness and winning her back.

Until something happened that made him realize that he was tired of all the fakeness he was constantly surrounded with; that apart from his band, being with and loving Loreley had been the only real and true and good thing he had ever had in his life. That day he had made the decision to go after her and get her back.

He hadn’t expected it to be easy. He had hurt her, he knew that, but he hadn’t expected to be faced with hatred coming from Loreley.

There was a hardness to her that hadn’t been there six years ago. A hardness that had blindsided him last night and just now. She had always had a no-bullshit attitude, had never had any patience for games and lies. That combined with her passion and pureness and big dreams had made him fall in love with her almost from the very beginning. Back then, she would always stand her ground, would always stand up for herself and her beliefs; she could get mad and did on occasion, but she would never be bitter or nasty about it. Sassy and spunky? Yes. But never bitter.

The fact that she wouldn’t even let him talk, wouldn’t give him even the slightest chance to explain what had really happened that night, was something that was so very unlike the Loreley he knew.

And what had she meant when she said he knew why it didn’t matter if he cheated on her or not? Of course it mattered! If she believed he didn’t cheat on her, then there was no reason for her hating him. Did she hold him responsible for her dream of being a songwriter not coming true? Jason had been surprised that, as the years passed, he never heard anything about Loreley in the music world. She had been an amazing songwriter when they were together. In fact, she had co-written some of their songs with him back then, songs that were now number one hits.

Was that it?

No, that didn’t make any sense.

He had no idea what she meant. But he could tell by the tone in her voice that she had no intention of talking to him. He was not going to get through to her.

Jason closed his eyes in frustration as he lost sight of Loreley when she turned the corner.

He had promised himself that this time, he would not let her walk away, that he would do whatever was needed to get her back. So far, he had been extremely unsuccessful. But he wouldn’t give up. He would fight for what he wanted, for what he needed.

But in order to do that, he needed answers. And he didn’t care what he had to do. He would move heaven and earth to get them.

He would also need proof he hadn’t cheated on Loreley if he wanted her to give him a chance.

So his first order of business would be to get in touch with Murphy.

Then he’d talk to Chris. Judging by his reaction to seeing him last night, that could be painful. Chris had looked ready to rip his head off. But if he wanted answers, there was no one else who knew more about Loreley than Chris.

Or Cal.

But talking to Loreley’s overprotective big brother would be a last resort.

I was stepping out of the shower when my phone rang. Grabbing a towel and wrapping it around me, I walked into the living room where I had left my phone on the table and put it to my ear.

It was Chris.

“Hey,” I answered the phone.

“Hey back. You forget something?”

“I don’t think so. Why?”

“Because there is a certain someone here ready to measure and discuss your plans for the new stage.”

Oh shit. I had completely forgotten that Cal was coming to the bar. With everything that had happened last night and this morning, that had completely slipped my mind.

He was gonna be pissed I stood him up.

“Shit, Chris. I totally forgot. How mad is he?” I asked while I ran to the bedroom, tripping over my clothes on the way, and headed to the closet to find clean clothes to wear.

“His face hasn’t turned red yet, but he’s seriously unhappy,” Chris said.

“Shit. Do me a favour. Tell him where we want the new stage to go and what we need it to look like. I’ll be there in ten minutes tops.”

“Already on it. He’s measuring as we speak, but he still wants to talk to you, so get your ass in gear,” Chris ordered right before he gave me dead air.

I rushed through brushing my teeth, dried off my hair with a towel half-heartedly, fixed it in a loose bun on top of my head, got dressed in a clean pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and was on the road only minutes after Chris called me.

I pulled into the parking lot behind Cooper’s only five minutes later.

Cooper’s had been in the family for thirty-five years. My dad had opened it when he was only twenty-three years old, had used up all his savings to buy the building that didn’t look much better than a shack back then.

Now, I was running the bar with him—was a co-owner actually— and it felt good to continue the family legacy. Even though I had grown up helping my dad out and had taken over doing the books for him by the time I was sixteen, owning a bar had never been my dream job. But life happened and I was happy here. My dad and I were a good team. He was still the hard worker he always had been and took his shifts, not as often as he used to—which would mean every night—but he was behind the bar probably two to three times a week. He had a great head for business and had expanded the bar and added the stage to have live music at least once a week over the years. He didn’t always stay on top of things with the paperwork, but it didn’t matter since I didn’t mind doing it.

When I opened the back door, I could hear male voices talking and chuckling over rock music softly playing in the background.

A good sign.

Cal couldn’t be too mad if he was chuckling.

I walked through the back hall and turned the corner by the restrooms into the main part of the bar. Cal and Chris were standing at the wall to my right past the bar, looking down at some sheets of paper, Cal drawing and explaining, Chris’ eyes glued to the paper, his head nodding.

“See this side? The stairs can go right here closer to the wall so the bands don’t have to wade through the crowd to get up and down the stage like they have to now. Easier for them, less hassle for you. Put a guy by the stairs if you have some bigger band play and you don’t have to worry about people trying to get up there.” Cal explained.

“Sounds good, man. That would definitely make it easier to handle the crowds when it gets busy,” Chris agreed.

“Hey guys,” I called out when I got closer to them. Both their heads shot up at hearing my voice. Chris took in my appearance and gave me an amused smile while Cal’s eyes took me in and his eyebrows shot up mockingly as he said, “Well, look who is gracing us with her slightly dishevelled appearance. If it isn’t the squirt herself.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “I’m twenty-nine years old, Cal. Long past being anyone’s squirt,” I snapped. His lips twitched slightly before he turned back to Chris and said, “All right, we’ll do it the way we discussed. I’ll order the material today, send two of my guys to start tomorrow morning, you’ll have a new stage by the end of the day. You got a band booked for the weekend?”

“Yeah. Our regulars from Boulder.
Breaking Habit.
Place is always packed when they’re playing. Having the new stage done by then would help a lot. Plus, it’s Lore’s birthday this week, so we’ve got lots to celebrate.”

I rolled my eyes at that, but neither of them noticed. I didn’t like making a big deal out of my birthday and could only imagine what Chris had planned to get me in the mood to celebrate.

“It’ll be done. Talk to you later,” Cal said as he shook Chris’ hand, then he collected all his papers as well as his measuring tape and pencil and headed towards the front door.

“Uh, Cal?” I called.

“Yeah?” He asked, turning his head to look at me over his shoulder but not stopping.

“I thought you wanted to talk to me?”

“No need,” he answered as he reached the front door and opened it.

“Then why did I hustle my ass here?” He looked at me again and gave me his shit-eating grin, telling me without words that that was his revenge for standing him up.

“You’re an ass, Cal,” I snapped at him, mad at myself that I fell for his play. I should have known better. His grin widened.

“Mom and dad are coming over for dinner tonight. Bring Roy and Chris. Ivey is making some fancy chocolate dessert.”

Ivey was making dessert. And it had chocolate in it. Pretty much anything Ivey cooked or baked up in her kitchen was flippin’ fantastic, but Cal knew I wouldn’t be able to say no to the chocolate. Yeah, it was a cliché, but chocolate always got to me, mellowed me out instantly. Cal knew this and had used it frequently over the years when he did something that pissed me off.

“Sure,” I said, shrugging my shoulders, trying to be aloof about it. Cal chuckled.

“All right, squirt, see you at six,” he said as he turned and disappeared out the door.

“I am not a squirt!” I shouted after him and heard another deep chuckle before the door closed behind him.

Ass
, I thought.

“You know he’s only calling you that to get a rise out of you, right? And you play into it every time he does it,” Chris said.

I knew this. Still, I couldn’t
not
react. It was probably childish and immature, but I didn’t care. I hated it when Cal called me a squirt. I wasn’t a squirt. I wasn’t even short. Or small. Yes, I had been a skinny little thing as a child when he had come up with that ridiculous nickname, but I wasn’t a skinny kid or a gangly teenager anymore. I had filled out and had some nice curves in the right places, long legs. I looked the opposite of a squirt. It was annoying.

I scowled at Chris before I changed the subject.

“So you two got the new stage all figured out?”

“Yup. It’s all good.”

“It’s gonna look the way we talked about, right? At this side of the bar, at least double the size, two feet higher up,” I asked him suspiciously. Chris looked at me.

“Yes, boss. It’s gonna look almost exactly like what we discussed. Cal came up with a better idea of where the stairs should be, but that’s it. Don’t worry. What? You don’t trust us to do the job?”

I sighed. Of course I trusted them to do the job right and give the bar exactly what it needed. I was still pissed off from dealing with Jason earlier.

“What’s up, Lore? You’re not usually this grouchy after a run.”