Hotbox (11 page)

“What’s up, love?” a deep voice said to her.

She opened the do
or further and stepped
into the room
. There was a man sitting on a couch facing a darkened window that looked out into the club.
He had a bunch of papers in his hands, but he set them on the coffee table
and stood
.

“It’s getting really hot downstairs,” she told him.

             
“Is it? I’ll take care of it.” He grabbed the phone and made a
quick call. Then h
e turned back to Jayden and said, “There are a lot of people here. You reall
y bring the crowds.”

             
Jayden smiled but she glanced at me and said, “Ty
,
this is Chuck. He owns this
magnificent
establishment. Chuck, this is
Ty
, my boyfriend
.”

             
He stepped closer to us
and shook my hand
, seeming a bit surprised
.
He even looked me over for a second, almost like he was making an assessment. But he smiled and said,
“
Nice to meet you.” He gestured to Jayden and added,
“
You a
re in the presence of royalty.”

             
“Oh, stop it,” she said to him. “
I’m gonn
a head down
;
I just wanted to avoid
Shawn’s whining.”

             
He
lightly
laughed
and shook his head
. “At least one of us can. Good luck, sweetheart. You’ll do great, as always.”

             
“
Thanks
,” she waved, leading me out of the office.

             
“You’ll do great at what?” I asked as soon as she shut the door.

             
She groaned
and replied, “Don’t remind me.”

             
“Okay.”

             
With a laugh she said, “You’ll see soon enough, I suppose.”

             
I looked at her carefully but decided to let it go. “
Well
,” I said, stepping close to her
as I ran my fingers along her hair
.
“Then
while we’re alone,
you have
to kiss me
to distract me from asking more questions.
”

             
She smiled and looked into my eyes. “That sounds easy enough. I’ve been
dreaming
about it all day.”

Chapter Six

             
At ten o’clock, Jayden’s friend and his band took the stage. I was thinking that he was going to be a little start-up act or something, but I was really surprised at how good they were. Jayden’s
other
friends were pretty rowdy and they supported him like crazy. Shawn was funny and he said a few things to them from the stage, and the rest of the crowd had fun with him
as well
. I recognized the drummer from
the night before at the movies—J
osh
was the one that came with Silvia.

Once Chris stopped being concerned with what Jayden was doing, he actually seemed to be a normal guy with his other friends. I was glad he had moved further away, even sitting at the other table with Stacie and Matt.

After about the fifth or sixth song, I noticed Jayden
becoming
a little restless. She said something to Cali and I heard Cali reply, “Take deep breaths.” Jayden whispered something back to her and Cali patted her on the back and said, “Think about something happy.”

“Jayden, are you okay?” I asked her.

She looked at me and smiled. “I’m not sure. Uh…”

With a huge smile, Cali
said, “Picture Ty naked.”

“Oh, my gosh!” Jayden groaned, dropping her head in
to
her hands.

I was speechless.

“Okay, okay,” Cali said. “H
ow about just thinking about how cute you think
he
is? Huh? How much you like his butt—”

“
Cali
!
” she hissed. She looked at me, completely mortified. “I’m sorry. She gets very…”

“You like my butt?” I asked her with a smile.

She covered her face again and shook her head out of pure embarrassment. I had no idea what was going on, but I liked kn
owing that bit of information.
But b
efore I could find out what
was wrong
, the band finished a song and Shawn said the best part of the show was up next.

“Jayden, you ready,
darlin
’
?”
he said our way.

Cali screamed a response and the rest of her friends
joined in with cheers
.

Jayden turned to me and said, “If I don’t die on stage, I’ll be back in a little bit.” She gave me a quick kiss and stood up.

Shawn was introducing Jayden, but I was busy watching
her
. As she rounded the table, Chris stood up and put his hands on her shoulders. He said something to her and she nodded her head with a smile. He gave her a kiss on the
fore
head and
then
she made her way to the stage.
If I hadn’t been completely shocked that she was going to play with the band, I may have had time to be a little jealous of the interaction
.
Chris even glanced my way as he sat down, but his face held no expression, so I couldn’t tell if it was suppose to mean anything or not.

“She has such bad stage fright,” Cali informed me. “It’s so crazy because she’s totally awesome
.”

“Does she do this a lot?” I asked.

“Well, not
tons
, but enough.
I
t’s the whole crowd-thing. There’re too many people for her tonight. But more than half these people know her and Shawn; it’s not anything new to her. She’s been doing this for a
few
years now, but she still can’t get over the stage fright.”

Shawn was describing the song they were going to
perform
. I watched Jayden grab a guitar and sit on the stool next to him. Stage fright or not, she looked completely relaxed. She talked to Shawn and they laughed about a couple of things. Finally they began a song and I was entranced. Jayden really coul
d play, but she could also sing
and it was amazing. I carefully listened to the entire song and I don’t think I ever took my eyes off of her.

When they were done with that one, they played another. It was a little more upbeat and only Shawn sang, but again, I was so hung up on how tal
ented Jayden was, all I could do was stare at her.

They both swit
ched their guitars
and I heard Cali laugh. When I looked at her, she was looking at
me
.

“Wipe the drool from your mouth,” she snickered.

I shook my head and smiled. “I’m a little surprised, I guess.”

“What do you mean? I thought you
knew she played.
”

“Well, yeah I knew she played, but I didn’t picture… Well, I guess I didn’t know she
performed
.”

“Oh, you have no idea,” she laughed.

A loud force of sound came from the stage and the band began another number. If seeing her do the other two songs was surprising, I was ev
en more blown away to hear Jayden
play an electric guitar. S
he was amazing, hands down
.
I
carefully
watched how she
played
; it
seemed
effortless. You could tell she was having a good time with the band, but her presence onstage was so mellow and relaxed.
And yeah…she was
hot
.

When that song was over I asked Cali,
“Can she sing the National Anthem?”

“Oh, yeah, s
he can nail that puppy
. S
he’s performed it
dozen
s of
times
.
Why?”

I shrugged. “
We do it before our games.”

“Oh. You might have to spring it on her,” she laughed. “She gets too nervous if she has time to think about it. And as long as she doesn’t
have to stand out on the mound
or something,” she added.

After two other songs—including
another
incredible
one that Jayden sang—the performance was at its conclusion. She went off stage with the band
and I finally leaned back in my chair.

“She’s got some skills,” Jesse said from across the table. “She should come sing our ant
hems instead of that one lady—t
he one that belts it out like an opera singer.” He mimicked how she sang and I laughed in agreement.

But m
y happy mood quickly faded when
Aaron appeared.
With a laugh he shook his head. “I’m impressed, Ty. You’ve got yourself
one hell of a girl.
You know, someone told me she was in a band, but I just thought they had the wrong
chick
.
If she ever becomes famous, you’ll be famous just for banging her.”

I
heard Cali gasp. “You’re a pig! Get out of here!”

My heart dropped; I’d been afraid that he was going to do something like this.
I stood up to face him and quietly said, “You’d better leave, Aaron. I don’t think you want to do this here.”

He seemed amused when he scoffed and replied,
“Do what, Ty?”

“These are her friends, you moron. You’re gonna get your ass kicked.”

He looked around the tables and realized there were several eye
s on him.
Matt had even stood up and was eyeing him pretty eagerly.
The moment became even more intense when
Jayden suddenly appeared, carefully watching everyone with confusion.

“What’s going on?” she asked me
as she approached
.

“Go,” I told Aaron, who was standing there
staring
at her.
From the look on his face I just knew he was about to say something to her, and based on how
reckless
he could be
with his mouth, I also knew how much damage he could cause in a matter of seconds.

Chris got up and stood next to Jayden, subtly moving her a step away. He said something to her and tried to lead her away
further
, but she shook her head. Aaron returned his look to me and
scoffed
again
, but
he
turned around and left.

I looked at Jayden
,
but it was Chris that took a step toward me
.

“You let trash like that around her?” he asked in a low voice.

“Hey, you knock it off,” Jayden warned him, pulling him back by his arm. “You are no better than that guy if you’re gonna make this worse.”

“I’m
not gonna put up with it, Jay
,” he said to her.

She sighed and shook her head, moving around the table to grab her purse next to Cali.
“I’m
leaving
,” she told her. “Call me
when you’re heading home
.” She waved at everyone and said
goodbye
. Chris was still
glaring at
me when Jayden took my hand and asked if I would take her home.

“Sure,” I replied, glancing at Jesse. He nodded his head to let me know he’d get a ride.

“
I don’t even know what happened,
but I’m sorry,” she began to say as we walked through the club
and out
the exit
to
the parking lot
.
             
“
What?
Why are you apologizing?
You’re
right;
y
ou do
n’t even know what happened. W
hat are you sorry for? Aaron’s
a
jerk
.”

“This
always happens. Always. I’m so
tired of it. I can’t even have a stupi
d boyfriend without there being
egos and…
Chris
every time…”