Chapter 8
CASH
Ninety-nine.
One hundred.
I tossed the tennis ball off the wall from the couch in the living room and counted each bounce.
Once I reached one hundred, I’d switch and toss the ball with my opposite arm.
Mindless tasks such as this were good for me right now because if I didn’t have things like this to do, I found myself thinking about the interview and those two guys.
Who is Cash Jameson?
I had no fucking clue.
It had been days since the interview, and I’d been asking myself that same question.
Still I didn’t have an answer to it. I’d once felt confident and comfortable in my own skin, but those two guys completely tossed that out the window.
If I wasn’t careful, my mind would drift off to think about them.
I’d already drawn several pictures of them.
Those six-foot-fuck-me-three Silver Fox Daddies had really messed with my head with just one question.
And it was just one crazy question that had nothing to do with performing a job.
I’d thought there was a good chance they’d ask a question that possibly someone with experience would be able to answer better and to their satisfaction.
But I hadn’t expected the question that would trip me up or keep me awake at night would have been as simple as who is Cash Jameson?
What kind of fucking question was that anyhow?
Because days after the interview, I still had no fucking clue.
I had a hard time believing that I didn’t understand myself as much as I thought I did.
I mean, obviously I didn’t. It was eating at me, and every time I closed my eyes to go to sleep I saw those two guys and their eyes drilling holes into me.
Never before had I been so flustered and quickly stripped of my confidence than I had been with Tristen and Joel.
It was both unnerving and terrifying and yet, it turned me on. How could two guys who didn’t even know me undo me like that with a question unrelated to the job?
Suddenly, a piece of licorice hit me in the face, and that successfully pulled my attention from my thoughts of Joel and Tristen to stare at Braxton. He’d been trying to pull me out of my funk since the interview. “I’m telling you, Cash, going back to law school is what you need to do.”
I shook my head and went back to staring at the wall that I was bouncing the ball off of. “Fuck that.”
“You need to get out, man. You’ve been hiding in here since the interview. Cut your losses and move on. You have a job waiting for you as soon as you get your law degree. Besides, your dad has cut you off from your allowance.”
“You’re sounding more and more like my family.”
I stood up from the couch and tossed the tennis ball at Braxton. I needed to get outside and take in some of this fresh air. I picked up my sketchbook from the coffee table and pulled out a picture I’d drawn of Trudy and Frank’s patio deck.
“I’m going to go for a walk and stop by Frank and Trudy’s,” I said as I headed toward the screen door.
Frank and Trudy were heading back to Scottsdale tomorrow, which was earlier than expected.
Their daughter had gone into labor and had the baby early, so obviously they wanted to get home to see them.
I wanted to stop by to give them the picture that I’d sketched for them.
I took my time and meandered around the lake on the way to Frank and Trudy’s.
I’d grown to really enjoy the peacefulness of the lake and was definitely going to miss it when I leave in a few weeks.
I had no idea what I was going to do when I got back to L.A.
, but I knew it wasn’t going to be law school.
As I approached the cabin, I could see that Trudy and Frank were sitting outside on their deck. Instead of going to the front door and making them get up to answer the door, I walked around to the back deck.
“Hey,” I said as I waved to them. “You guys already done packing?”
“Cash, good to see you,” Frank greeted me. “We’re all packed and will put our bags in the car before we leave first thing in the morning.”
“We were hoping we’d see you before we head back to Arizona,” Trudy added. I climbed the stairs to their deck and sat in an empty chair. “Here’s some pictures of our grandson, Linus. You just have to swipe to the right,” Trudy said as she passed me her phone.
“Linus, huh?” I glanced up from the phone to see if I could tell what they thought of the name.
“Yes, Frank and I are just so happy he’s healthy.”
I could see how you’d just want them to be healthy. Hell, my parents weren’t even creative. My brothers and I were all just named the same fucking thing and a number was attached to the end.
“I’m sure Linus will love you guys,” I said as I handed the phone back to her. “I’ll let you guys get back to enjoying your last night here. I just wanted to stop by and give you this.” I handed Trudy the sketch as Frank inched to the edge of the chair.
“Oh my goodness! You drew this?” Trudy asked.
“Yeah, I draw a lot in my free time and have been drawing most of the summer.”
“This is lovely, Cash. Thank you so much.”
“Well look at that, he even drew your hummingbird,” Frank said.
I glanced over to the red hummingbird feeder that hung from the tree. Trudy could reach it from the deck and all summer long she said they had lots of hummingbird activity. So I had added it to the sketch of them on their deck, with a hummingbird fluttering near the hummingbird feeder.
“Have a safe trip home, and I’ll see you guys next summer,” I said as I stood to leave.
“Thank you, Cash. We’d love to see you next summer,” Trudy said. I hugged Trudy and then extended my hand to Frank.
“You plan on coming up here next summer with your friends? It would be great to see you, if so,” Frank asked as we shook hands.
“I’d love to. My friends come each summer, so I plan to as well.”
Even if I didn’t come back next summer, I sold it to them as if I couldn’t imagine spending my summer anywhere else. Cashman Montgomery Jameson the fifth didn’t do goodbyes. If there was one thing I did know about myself, that was it.