Fade Into You (Shaken Dirty #3)(82)

“Fell for Wyatt Jennings.”

“How did you know it was Wyatt?”

“I told you, he looks as bad as you do. Besides, who else would it be? Ryder and Quinn are taken, from what I understand, and Jared probably has bigger trust issues than you after what Micah pulled with his fiancée. Plus, I could tell when I was in the teleconference with the band that something had happened between you and Wyatt.”

She turned to frown at him. “So this whole thing was really a fact-finding mission about me and Wyatt?” she asked, gesturing to the coffee.

“Many birds, one stone.”

“Oh yeah, then what are the other birds? I’m done talking about this one.”

“Why? Did he hurt you? Or is this all about the fact that you lied to him?”

“I hurt him,” she said. “He told me stuff almost no one knows and I let him, despite the fact that I was working for the label.”

“So that’s what the fight’s about? You lying to him?”

“It’s about more than that. He was so quick to turn on me, you know? It reminded me of Dad, and instead of trying to explain myself more clearly, I just shut down because…”

“He hurt you.”

“Yeah, but I hurt him first.”

“Like that matters?” he snorted. “I’m still going down to Austin to kick his ass.”

“Don’t. This is my fault, not his.”

“And yet you’re just sitting here, licking your wounds instead of trying to make it right?”

“Some things you can’t make right.”

Caleb snorted. “Yeah, nuclear war. Poverty. Climate change. Those are things we can’t make right. Your relationship with Wyatt…I’m pretty sure that’s not in the same league.”

“I don’t appreciate you belittling my feelings.” She glared at him.

“And I don’t appreciate you wallowing in despair when we have bigger fish to fry.”

“What bigger fish?” she demanded.

For a minute, it looked like he was going to stay on the Wyatt thing for a while longer. But he must have thought better of it, because he said, “Like what we’re going to do now that we’re both unemployed.”

“Both unemployed?” Adrenaline shot through her. “Did Dad fire you, too? I’ll go talk to him, tell him it was all my idea. He can’t do that. He can’t—”

“Relax, Braveheart. You don’t need to go charging into battle quite yet. Dad didn’t fire me. I quit.”

“You quit? Are you crazy? Why would you do that?”

“Because he was completely out of line when he fired you? Because he’s a jackass who doesn’t listen to reason? Because I’m sick of trying to fight his archaic ideas about music and women and the industry?” He shrugged. “Take your pick.”

“So what are you going to do?” she demanded. “You know he’s not going to put up with you going to anyone else. Not with everything you know about the inner workings of the label. He’ll blackball you.”

“Probably.” Caleb shrugged.

“And yet you don’t look upset. Why is that exactly?” She was totally confused. Work was Caleb’s life. This company was his life. How could he be so calm about losing it all at once?

“Because I have a plan.”

“To get your job back?”

“Hell, no. To make a label of our own.”

“A label of our own? What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about starting our own company. With you scouting talent and me running things behind the scenes, we can’t lose.”

“Umm, we can lose. We can lose huge and you know it. We can’t just start a label.”

“Sure we can. I’m thinking…Gemini Records? Because of the—”

“Twin thing. Yeah, I get it.” The initial shock was wearing off and in its place was a cautious excitement. “You know Dad will crush us the first year. No way will he let this happen.”

“There are some things in the world he doesn’t have control over, you know.”

“Yeah, but, there are so many variables in the music industry. What if we try and it doesn’t work?”

“What if we try and it goes huge?”

“Caleb—”

“Soda Pop, we’re not going to know until we try. So I say we try. I know it’s hard for you. I know it’s not easy for you to trust in the unknown. But sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith and believe that you won’t fall.”

“It’s a big leap of faith.”

He shot her a look. “So’s going after Wyatt, but we both know you’re going to do that eventually, too.”

“I’m not—”

“Yeah, you are,” he said as he fired his coffee cup toward the trash can in the corner. It soared in and he whooped. “Nothing but net, baby. Nothing but net.” He grew serious then, and turned back to her. “If you hurt Wyatt, don’t you think it’s up to you to make it better?”

“He probably doesn’t want to hear from me.”

“What if he does?”

“What if he doesn’t?”