“It sounds not real,” Dallas commented, taking another bite of his cupcake.
Derek laughed. “It sounds like sign me the hell up.”
“That’s what I like to hear,’ Benton said with a nod, glancing over at me. “If I can also secure your side project, I think we could make that number go up.”
“How much?” Luca asked.
“Significantly.” Benton’s gaze settled back on me. “But I move fast.”
“I think I could move fast for ten million,” Derek joked.
“We don’t move quite that fast.” Cash’s eyes flickered over to me. This was going unlike any other label meeting we’d had. Benton had barely acknowledged the rest of the guys, focusing most of his attention on me.
“We definitely don’t.” Dallas shot Benton a look.
“And I won’t even consider a label for Jax & Liv without Liv present,” I added firmly.
“When will she be here?” Benton countered, a challenging look in his eye. “I’d love to meet her. I could stick around.”
My fists clenched involuntarily, and I folded my arms across my chest, determined not to let this big-shot asshole get under my skin. “We can set up another time to talk, but Liv and I won’t be making any decisions tonight.”
“In fact, we should probably let you get on with your evening so the guys can get focused for the show tonight.” Cash said, moving to open the door. “If we’re interested, we’ll make sure to give you a call.”
“Hmmm.” Benton nodded and rose to his feet, handing me a business card. “Well, that’s a shame. Here’s my card in case you should change your mind.”
“We won’t,” I said under my breath.
“Thanks for stopping by.” Dallas made a face as Benton straightened his tie and exited the bus without so much as a backward glance. “What the fuck was that about?”
“I don’t know.” Cash returned to his chair. “I think we can all agree we won’t be calling him back. We don’t work with assholes.”
Dallas snorted, a smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth. “We work with Luca.”
“That’s fair.” Luca shrugged.
“What was his deal with you?” Dallas asked, turning toward me. “He seemed zeroed in on you the whole time. It was weird.”
“Tell me about it.” I looked down at the sleek black business card in my hands with the gold typeface.
“Don’t worry about that jerk,” Cash said dismissively with a wave of his hand. “The Benton Wyatts of the world are a dime a dozen. I just got a text from Antoni. He and the girls are on their way over. It’s time for you guys to get ready for the show.”
“Showtime!” Dallas clapped his hands together. “I call dibs on the bathroom.” He disappeared to the far end of the trailer.
“Dallas needs to do his hair,” Luca teased, propping his feet up on the table. “Good thing some of us woke up like this.” He gestured across his body.
I chuckled softly, my eyes still focused on the business card, when I felt Cash’s hand on my shoulder. “Forget about it. Tonight is about you and Liv. Here, let me file that away for you.” With that, he took the card out of my hands and threw it in the garbage.
“Cash, why don’t you start your own label?” I asked, attempting to put Benton Wyatt out of my mind. “You know more about the business than all of these jokers combined.”
“I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about it.” Cash scratched the back of his neck. “Carrie was always telling me I should. She loved the idea of us having our own business and growing it together. I thought about it a lot before Carrie passed, but since then I… I don’t know.”
“It’s never too late,” Derek said, “and you know we’d help you.”
“Fuck yeah, we would,” Luca added.
“I think it’s still worth considering.” I nodded at Cash. “I think she’d want you to carry on.”
Cash’s face grew pensive as he looked over me. Before he could say anything else, Dallas bounded down the hall and struck a pose. “How do I look?”
