“Because… for one, she had no idea I’d even be here.”
“But you were,” I stated matter-of-factly.
“How do you know?” he asked, folding his arms across his chest, the seams stretched to breaking point around his impressive biceps.
“Ah. That got your attention,” I teased, sucking the last of my milkshake from the cup with a slurp. “Haven’t you realized it yet, Hayden. I know everything.”
“Define ‘everything,’” he challenged.
“I know that after the shows here in Chicago, despite telling everyone she was tired and racing back to the hotel, Cassidy would get changed and slip out, leaving her security frustrated and completely clueless.”
“Sounds like she needed better security.”
Ignoring his comment about her security, or lack thereof, I pushed on. “I know that on the first night, she was tired. We’d been on the road for what felt like forever and even though it was going well, Cass wasn’t, well, she wasn’t unhappy but she wasn’t happy either if you know what I mean.”“Can’t say I do,” Hayden replied and I wasn’t surprised. He was a guy after all. They weren’t really known for their intuition and empathy.
“She was feeling like a hamster on a wheel. Craving normality, even if it was just for a moment. Most of the time she was surrounded by people telling her what to do, where to be, and what to wear. She didn’t get a chance to be Cass. Until you.”
“What do you mean, until me?”
Hayden’s back stiffened and his jaw locked. He was prepared to fight. If I hadn’t known what was going on, I would’ve been intimidated. But I knew without a shadow of a doubt, the last thing he’d ever do was hurt me.
“She came back to the hotel that night and told me all about you.”
“About what?”
“Instead of going to her own suite, a room much nicer than mine, Cass knocked on my door before falling through the opening. She was bursting to tell someone about the guy she’d just run into and the fact she had tingles.”
“Tingles?”
“Yep. Tingles.”
“We didn’t speak.”
“You didn’t need to. The next night, before she went on stage she told me she was going back again, hoping you’d be here. She was nervous as hell, but she was a professional. She buried her nerves, strutted out on stage and gave the performance of her life. Honestly, it was the best show I think she’d ever done up until that point. After the concert ended, we escaped as quickly as we could back to the hotel. Even though I knew where she was going, Cass begged me to keep it from the security. The last thing she wanted to do was to draw attention to herself…”
“That’s why she wore the baseball cap.”
“Exactly.”
“I had no idea.”
“You didn’t need to. The other thing you didn’t know is, I watched the whole thing.”
“When you say ‘you watched,’ what specifically did you see?”
“I was there, Hayden. Watching you two lovebirds meet for the first time.”
“I don’t know if that’s sweet or creepy,” Hayden admitted with a shake of his head.
I ignored his comment and continued. “It was comical really. You two only had eyes for each other. Even if you didn’t know each other’s names, the world around you could’ve imploded and you wouldn't have even noticed.”
“Yes I would’ve,” Hayden protested weakly.
“Yeah, yeah. Keep telling yourself that. But you didn’t notice me.”
“You? Where were you?”
“I knew what Cass was doing, because the woman couldn’t keep it a damn secret to save her life. I also know about your Batman boxer briefs, but we’ll discuss them another time,” I assured Hayden, loving the way his cheeks turned red at my comment. “And I hadn’t blabbed to security, but I didn’t really want her running all over town in the middle of the night chasing down some guy in uniform because he gave her butterflies.”
