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I nod. “I’m getting a lot of money to do the show. I’m sure you know that. I’m going to buy my dream house and move in there, but after that… then what?”
He grabs the sheet and pulls me back to him. “Cass, take a breath for a moment, okay? You were doing great with your life before Tony called you and you’re going to be doing great after the show. You can do whatever you want.”
“You make it sound a hell of a lot easier than it is. I have bills to pay. I don’t even know what I want.”
My chest constricts and I feel like I can’t breathe. I try taking deep breaths as Tyler runs a hand up and down my back. After a few seconds, I feel like the vise grip on my chest starts to ease.
“Are you okay?” Tyler asks, his eyebrows knitting together as he looks down at me.
I sigh and glance down at his torso, seeing the tattoo on his ribs clearly for the first time. Just when I think that I can finally breathe again, all the air is knocked from my lungs.
“Why is my name tattooed on you?”
I can’t believe I haven’t noticed it till now. I should have seen the way that my name is branded into his skin, but I never spent much time analyzing every inch of his skin when we’re naked.
There are typically other things on my mind when he’s naked.
Tyler shrugs and runs his fingers over the tattoo. “Figured I should probably have a memory of the only person who has ever really meant something to me.”
I shake my head as another alarm starts going off. “I really do have to get ready to go. There’s going to be a bunch of preteens waiting for their guitar lessons if I don’t hurry up.”
“Now you’re trying to change the subject.” He cups my face in his hands. “Cass, it’s just a tattoo and you already know that I loved you back then. I understand that there isn’t time to talk about everything right now, but we’re going to sit down and talk through this.”
“All right.”
“Mind if I come with you to your lesson?” he asks, guiding both of us into the washroom.
My eyebrows shoot up. “I didn’t think that teaching children would be something you would want to do. They’re a rowdy bunch and they can be a lot to handle, even if they are amazing kids.”
Tyler leaves me in the doorway and goes to start the dual shower heads. “I want to see what you spend your days doing.”
“All right.” I grin as I shed the sheet and step into the steamy shower. “You can come to class with me.”
As the kids slowly filter into my garage a couple hours later, the shrieking starts. Guitar cases hit the ground before the kids runacross the cement floor to where Tyler is sitting with a guitar in his lap. I’m perched at the table, scribbling in my songbook as the preteens stand in front of him.
“Hey guys,” he says, his smile stretching from ear to ear as he looks at them. “How’s your day going?”
“Cassie, youknowTyler Finch?” one of the girls asks, her eyes wide as she spins to look at me. “You have got to be the coolest guitar teacher ever.”
I try not to let the words hurt me. The kids here are too young to know that I was one of the founding members of Gilded Cage. They wouldn’t have a clue that I built the band with Tyler.
“Actually, Cassie is the one who made me a rockstar,” Tyler says, stretching one long leg out in front of him. “Without her, I wouldn’t have ever learned how to play guitar either. She started Gilded Cage with me when we were in college.”
“Really?” One of the boys looks at me, his mouth hanging open. “You taught Tyler Finch how to play? You were in Gilded Cage?”
The edges of my vision blur as I nod. I never expected Tyler to tell the kids that I was the one who started the band with him. This Tyler in front of me isn’t the same one that I last saw eight years ago.
That Tyler never would have put his ego to the side to tell kids he would never see again the truth.
I nod and smile. “Yeah. Me and Tyler used to spend a lot of time eating garlic knots and writing songs together.”
“Why aren’t you with the band anymore?” one of the boys asks as he walks over to me and leans on the table. “Why are you goingto be doing a concert with them? I heard it on the radio when Mom was driving me here.”
I shrug and keep a smile plastered on my face. “I left the band because I had other things I needed to take care of. As for the concert, we all thought it would be fun to perform again.”
Tyler starts strumming again, playing one of the band’s popular songs. The kids leave me and grab their own guitars as he shows them what notes to play. His fingers move along the frets, demonstrating the chorus of the song before having the kids play.
Warmth spreads through me as I watch all of them together. Tyler sets his guitar to the side and starts moving around the room. He leans over some of the kids, adjusting the position of their hands.
