The Real Me (How to Tame a Heartbreaker Book 4) (13 page)

Cole's comment about being as handsome as music industry's number two most eligible bachelor barely even crossed her mind when Kate said that, and Jax didn't even come
close
to putting all the pieces together.

Chapter 14

Even with the mystery solved, Jax decided to thumb through the magazine. She was curious about this country singer who bore such a striking resemblance to Cole. She went to the table of contents where she discovered that the cover article about the bachelors began on page eighteen. She turned to page eighteen and saw that number ten was a guy who had an extremely sinister appearance. He had a cute enough face, but Jax wasn't usually attracted to black eye make-up running down the cheeks of her man. Number ten wasn't really her type.

She went through page after page of guys who weren't the right one. She was trying not to be obvious with how quickly she was going through the magazine, but if Kate no
ticed, she didn't say anything.

Jax
saw him before she noticed what number he was. She only allowed herself a few seconds to take in his gorgeous face before glancing to the writing on the upper-left corner of the two-page spread. "Number 2: Cam Bishop. Country boy through and through."

Jax stared at the words Number
2 and something hit her about the text Cole sent the night before. She took her phone out of her pocket and found the previous night's correspondence so she could see for herself what it said.

Her question to him was: "Are you still hot without it?"

Cam: "Hot enough to be the second most eligible bachelor in the music business."

She read it twice, and still, it all seemed like some silly coincidence. She was normally a sharp girl, but
with feelings involved, she struggled to make sense of the facts. Without reading another word of the article, she scanned the photos of Cam Bishop on the spread.

Her eye roamed over t
he images until she randomly chose one to stare at for a second. It was the largest one—maybe that was the reason she decided to stare at it. Either way, she focused intently on the photograph of the country music stud. He was sitting shirtless on a tractor, looking straight at the camera with a huge smile on his face.

Jax brought the magazine closer until she was holding it only inches from her face. She felt a hot rush of blood climb up her neck and into her face as it began to sink in that she might kno
w the guy she was looking at. She stared at the beautiful blue eyes of Cam Bishop, and knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that she'd looked into them before. The guy in the magazine didn't just
resemble
Cole—he
looked exactly like
Cole.

He
was
Cole.

Jax was nauseated with dread. Something was wrong. She tried in those first few seconds to make sense of all the information, but it was extremely difficult. She knew she was being deceived but she didn't know how or to what extent.

"You okay," Kate asked.

"Yeah, why? Of course."

"Because you're breathing weird and gripping the magazine with white knuckles." Kate was whispering in case it was something Jax didn't want the whole car hearing.

"I just thought I uh, I thought I saw this guy come to my work one time, and it surprised me that he's so famous."

Jax wanted to look back at the magazine and at the same time she didn't. Part of her was glad her sister distracted her.

"Oh he's super famous," Kate said, looking at Jax like she was crazy. "I can't believe you don't know who that is. He's the same guy I showed you on the cover."

"I know he's the same guy you showed me, I just didn't realize I
knew
him."

"You know him?"
Kate asked. Her eyes were huge as she waited for Jax's answer.

"No, I mean, I think he might have come into the bar once or twice."

"I
knew
you worked at a bar," Kate said. "I don't know how they don't know it." She gestured to the front of the truck. "You don't get home from working at a restaurant at two o'clock in the morning."

"They probably know," Jax said. She didn't really care who knew about her job at that point. She was just talking out of her ass because she was so distracted. She couldn't wait to look at that article again and was basically not even hearing her sister.

"Next time he comes in there you better get his autograph," Kate said. "It's probably worth like a million dollars."

Jax laughed distractedly
. She opened the magazine to a random page even though her finger was still holding the spot where the article on Cam Bishop was. She planned to read some words, but when she looked down at the paper, her eye instinctually went to the photographs again. She gawked at all of them one by one.

There was one in the lower right corner that was a group shot of him with the people she assumed were his immediate family. She stared at their faces. There were three young men in the photograph with an older couple who looked like their parents. She studied each of their faces before
looking for the nearby little black box that said who they were.

It read: The Bishop Family. Back Row: Parents Brian and Michelle. Front Row: Brothers Cole, Chase, and Cam.

Cole.

Great.

As if this wasn't confusing enough, now there was really a guy named
Cole
in the mix? The Cole in the picture wasn't the one who looked like
her
Cole. She read the article about the number two most eligible bachelor in music business with knots in her stomach and a lump in her throat. By the time she was halfway done with it, silent tears were streaming down her face.

Cam included a story about growing up on the farm
. It was one where he was being cornered by a copperhead snake when his dad scaled the fence and sliced it in half with a shovel. When he told Jax the story in person, he'd given her little details like having the distinct feeling that his dad was a super hero and had actually flown all the way from the house to rescue him. Another detail the article missed was that he was so traumatized by the incident that he dreamt about snakes for almost a year after it happened.

Otherwise, the story (and the
other details of Cam Bishop's life) were just like Cole's—up until the point a little over two years ago when he moved to Nashville and was skyrocketed into super stardom. The only logical assumption for her to make was that she'd been dating Cam Bishop in disguise, but that was so stinkin' ridiculous that she couldn't quite make herself believe it.

She read the words and stared at the photos for an hour straight, and even though she knew
deep down it was true, part of her thought it could still be a big series of unbelievable coincidences.

Kate had been trying to sleep, but finally gave up on it. She sat up, looking at Jax for the first time in over an hour.

"What's the matter?" she asked, concerned.

Jax had obviously been crying, and
Kate's first thought was that she'd fallen asleep and missed something that went down in the truck.

"Nothing," Jax said.

"What happened?" Kate whispered again. She gave Jax an impassive glare.

"I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm trippin' right now."

"About what?"

"I've been talking to this guy Cole."

"I know," Kate said nodding. She was already pissed off at this scumbag for being the reason for her sister's tears. "What'd he do?"

"It's not what he did really. It's just that I think he's been lying to me about who he is, and it's
really freaking me out right now."

Kate sat up. "I'm not following you. Is he a con artist or something?"

"Yes. No, not like what you're thinking." Jax didn't really know how to explain. She thought for a second before deciding to open the magazine to Cam's page. She'd had it stretched open for so long that it parted to the right place without Jax having to search for it. She held the magazine on their laps where they could both see. "I think I've been dating this guy."

"What?" Kate exclaimed.

For that instant, she forgot they were having a private conversation, and she said it loudly. The Gregorys looked behind them to see if the sisters were all right, and the girls smiled up at them reassuringly before going back to their conversation.

"What?" Kate asked again—whispering this time.

"I think he's been coming to the bar with a beard on claiming to be someone named Cole, which is his brother's name." She pointed to the older brother in the photo of the family. "That's the real Cole right there."

"Whoa, whoa, slow down a minute. I'm lost. I know you're dating a guy named Cole, but you're trying to tell me that
your
Cole is actually Cam Bishop with a fake beard?"

"Exactly."

Just like that Kate's face went from confused to so very excited. She looked like she could just burst. Her eyes looked like they might pop right out of her head as she looked at Jax. "Are you being serious right now?"

"Yes," Jax said.

She thought for a second that Kate was freaking out about the whole relationship being a lie, which was
exactly
what Jax was concerned with, but quickly realized Kate was excited, happy, elated, delighted—whatever other word you could use for totally fired up.

"Jax that is the
coolest thing that's ever happened to our family
," she said. "How sure are you about this?"

Jax was so surprised by
Kate's reaction that she didn't speak for a few seconds. "I'm sorry I don't see the
coolness
, Kate." She paused before continuing. "I mean, I've
done stuff
with this guy. I trusted him, and he's been lying to me the whole time."

"Are you sure it's
him
?"

Jax sighed thinking about the last hour she
'd spent denying it even though the proof was right in front of her. She nodded. "Too many things line up," she said. "There are stories in the article that were word-for-word the same stories he told me in person." She paused again, and Kate was silent. "Plus, I can just tell by how he looks. I've been right up next to that face and I
know
what it looks like."

Kate was quiet for a second but then she put her head down and squealed like the teenager she was. The Gregorys looked back again and Jax just shrugged and said, "
YouTube."

"Oh m
y God Jax, You're the luckiest girl on the
face of the planet
," Kate said. She jerked the Magazine from Jax and stared down at it. "You've kissed that?" she asked pointing at one of the photos.

Jax nodded.

"Are you sure?" Kate asked, as if it was a matter of national security.

Jax nodded. She couldn't believe her sister's excitement. "I don’t care if he's the president of the United States, he's been
lying
to me the whole time we've been talking. He wears a freaking mask around me for crying out loud. The funny thing is—people tell him all the time that he looks like Cam Bishop and I was too
stupid
to question it."

"First of all, Cam Bishop is
way
better than the president of United States. Second of all, did he seriously wear a mask? Third, how can you not be
excited
to learn that you've secretly been dating that?" She let her finger fall onto the magazine with a thud.

"No, he didn't wear a mask. He might as well though. He wears this beard that takes up the whole bottom half of his face."

"And you kissed him with that beard?"

She was quiet, thinking about it. "Yes."

"I can't believe you didn't notice you were kissing a fake beard," Kate said, trying to imagine it. "I'd totally notice if Jeremy had a patch of fake hair sticking off his face."

"It wasn't like a Santa beard
, Kate. There wasn't a piece of elastic strapped around his head or anything." She was annoyed but still whispering. "It must be a good one or something, because it looks totally real."

"
Are you sure it's not someone who looks exactly like him?"

"Believe me, I wish that were true, but how would the
childhood stories all be the same?" 

"
I can't believe you're not happy about this," Kate said.

"I can't believe you
are
happy about it. If it were
anybody else
who wore a fake beard to try to get in my pants, you'd tell me to knife him."

Kate thought about the truth of that statement. Sure, it might be different if it turned out to be some average Joe who lied to her about his identity, but surely Cam Bishop could be forgiven, right?

"Do you have his number?" Kate asked. Her eyes lit up when Jax nodded.

"You're not
calling him," Jax warned.

"Aw, come on. How often do you get to talk to—"

"No Kate. I'm not talking to him until I know what I'm gonna say. I just need some time to process everything."