The Real Me (How to Tame a Heartbreaker Book 4) (9 page)

Jax's senses were awakened
and she found herself wanting to give herself over to taking a chance with this guy. "I hope you miss me too," she said, which was basically monumental flirting to her.

Chapter 10

Jax had a busy night at Bing's, but the next night was even busier. One of the most popular roots-rock bands in Nashville, The Mama's Boys, were playing, and there was always a sold out crowd when that happened. They were really too big for the venue, but they liked it and continue to book shows there. Jax loved it when they played. She loved being busy—thrived on multitasking.

She
spent the evening whizzing around like crazy behind the bar. The band was about halfway through the first set when Jax spotted a girl she recognized. She thought for a second, wondering where she knew her from, and did a double take when she realized it was Cole's friend who'd been sitting with him the other night. She thought her name might be Hannah but couldn't remember for sure. It looked as if she was there with two other girls. They were standing at the edge of Jax's station, and she went over there as soon as she recognized Hannah. She smiled and wiped her wet hands on the bar towel that was tucked into her apron string.

Hannah had already explained the situation to Molly and Taylor. They both knew Cam had met Jax while in disguise and she knew him as Cole. Everyone knew something was going on with Cam and wanted to see the girl that had him going out alone and in disguise.

"Hey, I met you a while back when you were here with your friend Cole," Jax said, making eye contact with Hannah as she approached.

"
Of course I remember," Hannah said, smiling as she leaned over the bar to speak over the noise. "We came because my boyfriend loves The Mama's Boys," she continued, "but I came over here on purpose so you could meet my friends."

Jax gave the two sidekicks a smile
and they both smiled back sweetly.

"I'm Molly," the dark haired one said holding out a hand for Jax to shake.

"Taylor," the blonde said.

Hannah
reintroduced herself just in case Jax didn't remember.

"Can I get you ladies somethi
ng to drink?" Jax asked.

They ordered six drinks in total
, so Jax assumed their boyfriends were out on the floor somewhere. "You guys enjoying the show?" Jax asked, lining up the drinks in front of the girls.

"
Definitely," Hannah said. "This band is my new favorite."

"I like
'em too," Jax said. She leaned over the bar to speak where only the girls could hear. "Sometimes they play on a Tuesday night under a different name. Those shows are really fun. There are a lot less people and it's just got a different vibe. I could give you a heads up if you want."

"That'd be great!
Jason would love that. I'll have to give you my number before we leave." 

"I can get it from Cole since you guys are friends," Jax said.

Hannah knew Jax knew Cam as Cole, but hearing her say that name still gave Hannah a little shock. "Have you talked to him?" Hannah asked. She knew the answer to that because Cam had already told Jason.

"Yeah, I've seen him a couple of times actually. He came by here last night saying he was leaving for Iowa this morning."

Hannah gave her a deer in headlights look because she didn't know how much Cam had told her. It took her off guard that Jax knew he was really in Iowa. 

Molly and Taylor watched the conversation
, offering no help whatsoever.

"I think that's where he's from," Hannah said, hoping to say something vague enough that she wouldn't slip.

"Yeah, he said he goes for planting season every year," Jax said. That was the truth even though he was already done with that trip. Apparently, he told her some real details about his family farm, but failed to mention that he was going there for a photo shoot this time. Hannah hated having to play along with the lie. She approached Jax because she wanted the girls to meet her, but really didn't consider how bad she'd feel about lying.

"Do you ladies need help with these?" a tall, dark, handsome type said from over their shoulders. They all glanced back and then turned toward Jax smiling.

"This is my boyfriend Nick," Molly said. She stood on her tiptoes and placed a kiss on his cheek as if she just couldn't resist.

"Hi Nick," Jax said. Nick
reached out a hand for her to shake as he looked her over with great interest. Jax almost started to feel a little awkward with the attention right in front of his girlfriend until he spoke.

"So you're the one who has Ca—" Just then, Nick broke into a coughing fit that sounded like he'd just gotten something in his windpipe.

"Are you talking about
Cole
?" Hannah asked, saving the freaking day since Nick had totally forgotten what Cam's fake name was.

"Yeah," Nick said,
coughing again to play it off. "He said you work at a women's shelter." Nick hadn't planned on saying anything about that, but felt like he needed to say something to deflect his name-coughing incident.

"He did?" Jax asked, surprised. The three other girls gave him a surprised expression also. "What else did he say?" Jax asked.

"He said you're the coolest person he's ever met," Nick said. "That's why I had to come over here and meet you for myself."

Jax
gave him a unreadable little smirk as if she thought he was just saying that to flatter her, but that was the God's honest truth. Cam said more than once in a conversation with Nick last week that she was the coolest person he'd ever met. He was all torn up about her not calling after they hung out, and vented to Nick one day on the phone.

"I think he's pretty cool too," Jax said. She thought it was a safe enough response since she had no way of telling if he was serious or not. They talked for another minute, but Jax couldn't ignore the
other thirsty customers any longer, and said she had to tend to the bar.

"She's so precious," Taylor said when they were on their way back to the
ir table on the other side of the room.

"I like her too," said Molly. "I think she and Cam would be really cute together."

"Too bad she thinks his name's Cole and the whole things a big, fat lie," Hannah said. She happened to
like
Jax and was aggravated that Cam was putting on this charade in the first place.

"Don't
cross your fingers for a love connection with Cam anyway," Nick said. "It's true he did say she was the coolest person he'd ever met, but I think he just wants her so bad because she won't give it up and he hasn't encountered that in a while."

"I'm going to be
pissed
at him if he breaks her heart," Hannah said. "I like her."

"Well, get ready for that, because it's coming." Nick said.

"What's coming?" Jason asked. They had approached the table and Jason picked up on the last part of Nick's comment.

"Cam's gonna rip that girl's heart to pieces," Nick said. "Especially when she finds out who he is and really falls."

"I don't know," Jason said skeptically. "I think it might be Cam who gets his heart broken on this one."

"I vote no one gets their heart broken," Taylor said. She snuggled up next to her boyfriend
, Ben, as if to secure her own happy ending.

The music was so loud that they
had to yell, so they sort of collectively decided to stop talking in favor of watching the band. Three other times that night, one or more of them made their way back to the bar to order a drink and talk to Jax even though there were cocktail waitresses all over the place and there was no need to go to the bar.

At the end of the night, one of
Jax's fellow bartenders came up to her. It had been so busy that they'd barely said two words to each other, but the band was done playing and the bar was getting ready to close.

"I saw you talking to Nick Logan," Byron said.

"Who's that?" Jax asked, forgetting completely that one of Cole's friends had been named Nick.

"The tall guy with dark hair. It seemed like you knew him.
He was with the girls who kept coming up to the bar to talk to you. I thought you knew that was Nick Logan. You were talking to them like they were your friends."

Jax remembered talking to
Hannah and the crew throughout the night and smiled at the thought of considering them her friends.

"
That was Nick Logan," Byron said. "His dad is Leroy Logan."

"
The
Leroy Logan?"

Leroy Logan was a household name, and Jax took a second to process this and the implications of it.

"Yeah, you don't remember he has a son named Nick? That's the guy you were talking to. I can't believe you didn't know that. I saw him pose for a picture with someone."

Now that he mentioned it, Jax remembered seeing Nick do that as well. At the time she hadn't even wondered why. Part of her thought it was weird that Cole had failed to mention he
happened
to be friends with Leroy Logan's son but they did live in Nashville and she told herself that type of news shouldn't surprise her.

"
I don’t really know them that well. I went out with a friend of his, but he didn't mention anything about it."

Byron came up behind her at the bar. He was crowding her space, something he did all the time to
annoy her. "Did I just hear you say you went
out
with someone?" he asked. "I thought you didn't go out." He positioned himself at her back, trapping her between himself and the bar. "I thought you said I'm the first in line when you decided to go out with someone."

She spun out of his grasp, ending up a foot or two to his left
, and gave him a warning glance. "Byron you can't touch me like that, I already told you that."

"Oh come on. Don't be a prude, I didn't even have my hands on you."

"No, but you know what you did. I told you I need my space back here."

Byron put his hands up in surrender. "You already warned me. You carry a knife." One corner of his mouth raised in a smirk and he
twirled a finger in the air as if he wanted her to turn around. "I could see the outline of it in your back pocket of those skin tight jeans."

"Don't." she said.

"Don't be such a tease, then."

"I'm not a tease, Byron. I never said anything to make you think you had a chance."

One of the other bartenders overheard that comment and made a teasing noise as if Byron should really be embarrassed.

"She's just saying that because she wants to go out with Nick Logan," Byron said to the
other bartender.

"I do
not
," she defended. "I didn't even know he was Nick Logan until you told me that a few seconds ago. I'm not even sure if that's who he was. I'm going to text my friend in a minute to find out for sure."

"That
was
Nick Logan who was here tonight," the other bartender said.

Jax figured they kn
ew what they were talking about, but she'd probably use that as an excuse to text Cole and ask him. She didn't get home until 3AM, so it was noon the next day when she typed out a text to Cole.

Jax: "Your friends came to Bing's last night. Nick Logan, huh? Pretty cool."

It was thirty minutes before Cam responded, but it wasn't with a text, it was with a phone call. And it only took him thirty minutes because he was talking to the photographer and hadn't seen the text come in. Jax was sitting on the couch in her panties and a baggy t-shirt, and she took a deep breath before she picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Who all went into Bing's?" he asked.

She was silent for a second. "Well
, hello to you too."

"I'm not messin
' around, Jax. What'd they say?"

"They just ordered drinks and made small talk. What do you mean, what'd they say?"

"I mean, what's Nick doing at Bing's?"

"He was there to watch The Mama's Boys like everyone else. I didn't think y
ou'd get mad at them for coming or I wouldn't have mentioned it."

Cam could tell by Jax's tone tha
t she was confused as to why he'd be upset, but mother fucker, if Nick said
anything
about Cam's real identity, he was going to kill him. And what was he doing there anyway? "How'd you even know Nick and figure out he knew me?" Cam asked, trying to sound calm.

"Oh, he was with your friend Hannah."

Cam was silent for a long second. "Oh yeah, and who else was there?"

"
Molly, and Taylor, and I think Taylor's boyfriend."

"And they all said they were there to see the band?"

Jax laughed. "Well yeah. Why else would they be there?"

Cam obviously didn't answer that question. Instead,
he thought of everything that could have gone wrong with all of his friends being in the same place as Jax.

"
Did they say where I was this week?"