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Someone was playing with my hair, gently tugging on it, moving it. I kept my eyes closed, trying to figure out who it was. I knew it wasn’t Seth. He never bothered me when I slept. In fact, he seemed more inclined to let me sleep as long as possible. I got why. I rarely got a full night’s sleep.
The bed dipped down and I finally opened my eyes.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
Toby smiled. “Gently waking the sleeping beauty.”
“You don’t tug on her hair to wake her up.”
“Well, I could kiss you, but I wasn’t so sure you’d appreciate it.”
His response pushed away any remaining sleep I felt. I eyed him. He sat innocently on the bed in a thin dark blue sweater and dark jeans. His light brown hair was spiked up and he looked as mischievous as he always did.
“I guess you’ll never know,” I said. “What a missed opportunity.”
His eyes bugged out as they focused on my lips. “You would have let me?”
I sat up and rubbed away the tiredness. “You’ll never know.”
He groaned. “Candy, don’t do this to me.”
“I’m not doing anything.”
“That’s the problem.” He leaned forward until his forehead rested on my shoulder. “Just ask me already. You know what? Screw this.”
His head popped up and his expression was serious enough to sober me. “Cadence Wiles.” He stopped there, swallowing hard.
“Uh, Toby Braden?”
“I know Paxon, Seth, and Justin are now lucky enough to call you their girlfriend. Can I have the pleasure of doing the same?”
Oh. That was not how I thought my day was going to start. Me sitting in bed, a complete mess from flopping around all night as I slept. Morning breath. Definitely not the conversation I expected.
“You’re okay with that? Me having other boyfriends?”
“Yes.” He didn’t say anything else.
I cleared my throat, trying to find my words. I was a big girl. I was more than capable of speaking. “I’d love nothing more than to explore this.”
“Hell yeah. Now can I wake sleepy beauty.”
“She’s awake already.” A surge of anticipation coursed through me and as I licked my dry lips, he followed the movement with a glint of desire in his eyes.
“I don’t know, she still looks a bit dazed.” His voice was a low seductive whisper.
Nervous excitement bubbled within me as he leaned in, closing the gap between us.
This time, he kissed me for real, cupping my face gently.
Time felt like it froze as his lips met mine, a gentle warmth spreading through all of me. For a moment, my head was empty of all thoughts, all my senses focused solely on Toby. All I could feel was his warmth and taste his sweetness. Maple syrup. If anyone tasted sweet, it’d be Toby.
The sweetness of his lips lingered as he pulled away, a mischievous glint in his eyes. I couldn’t help but give him a goofy smile, my heart racing from the brief but intense moment.
“Now that I’m completely awake, why are you here?” I asked, attempting to gain my composure even as I continued to feel overheated.
Toby chuckled, the low, husky sound sending shivers down my spine. “Well, sleepy beauty needed to open her eyes,” he replied. His playful gaze was still filled with a hint of desire. Toby leaned in again, his lips brushing mine in a teasing manner. “And I can’t resist stealing kisses from you. Every chance I get, I’m claiming your lips.”
I couldn’t help but laugh as I gently pushed him away, needing air to breathe and to think and not to give in to him. Kissing Toby all morning wouldn’t be a bad way to spend my time. This was definitely not the wake-up call I had expected to get this morning, but it was one I wouldn’t trade for anything.
“For real, Toby, what’s going on?”
Toby did a fake pout, standing up from the bed. “Paxon mentioned you were going to be part of a stream, and I came to help you out.”
“Help with what?”
“Setting it up. I brought some equipment I’m sure you didn’t think about. A light, really good mic and camera, though you most likely already have a better mic. I have Seth and Bryan setting your computer up with a stronger internet connection.”
“What?”
Toby laughed. “Get dressed then go over to your house, I’ll show you. Thankfully, I was already familiar enough with your current setup so I had Bryan help me bring over what you were missing.”
Curiosity got the best of me so it didn’t take me long to get ready and head to my house.
As soon as I went inside, I felt the difference. It was so noticeable that I froze in the doorway.
What was it? Why did it feel so different? I felt like I had walked into one of those puzzles where one picture wasn’t quite the same and it was my job to find the differences.
A soft thud from upstairs caught my attention. Then there was a low murmur of voices.
Realization hit me.
For the first time, I wasn’t walking into an empty house. People were already here before I was. My house felt alive. It had never felt like this before. Unable to help myself, I smiled and went upstairs.
Bryan and Seth were on the second floor, messing with a thick, black cord.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Your Wi-Fi sucks on the third floor,” Bryan said. “So we’re going to hardwire you in with an ethernet cord. Streaming is sensitive to losing signal, so we want to make sure that doesn’t happen. I already checked your internet, it’s actually really good. Better than Seth’s.”
“Is that your way of asking me to use my internet more often?” I asked.
“Hell yeah.” Bryan smiled. “Between his computer, laptop, phone, iPad, TV, and game consoles, he has so much hooked up. And if we’re all doing a bunch of stuff at once, it likes to slow down. It’s such a pain.”
“Sure,” I said, shrugging.
“Sure?” Bryan looked over at me.
“We all know I don’t use my house. There’s plenty of space. You can take over my living room if you want. I think it should be big enough.”
“Did I hear what I think I heard?” Toby asked, coming in from behind me.
“She’s giving us permission to take over her house,” Bryan said.
“I wouldn’t go that far.” I suddenly felt like I made a really bad mistake with the way they were smiling at each other. Toby’s eyes briefly glazed over and I was a little scared to ask what he was clearly already planning.
Seth was grinning big. “You totally did.”
I grimaced, but I wasn’t going to take what I said back. Hearing how sound traveled in my house with others in it, I don’t know. It did something to me. I wanted to see what this place could become. What kind of home it could grow into with more than just me using it. I had really liked this house when I bought it. The break-in had turned me off it, but seeing everyone here, acting like it was their own home made me feel warm and hopeful. Comfortable.
“Let’s leave them to figure this out,” Toby nudged. “We need to set you up, figure out what works and doesn’t work.”
Once we were in my attic, Toby looked around slowly, standing in different spots in the space, and even holding up his phone and looking at it through a camera. I stayed to the side and just opted to watch him work. He seemed to know what he was doing. Apparently, just turning on a camera and having a mic wasn’t going to be good enough.
“Here should be good,” Toby finally said, facing me. The wall behind him had my guitars mounted on it, along with some of my photos with other musicians. A few signed record albums
“What’s so good about it?” I asked.
“You need a good background,” he mumbled as he brought over a table and positioned it in front of the wall, about seven feet away. “Computer goes here. What systems do you need? Are you going to use your guitar?”
“I was going to DJ for them?”
Toby’s eyes sparked. “For real? Jacey will love it.”
“You know him?”
“Yeah, I’ve been on some of his streams too.”
I did not know that.
Toby saw my surprised expression and chuckled. “I join him every so often from Aunt Laura’s house to jam out on his streams. I’m one of his special guests. I yelled at him for not telling me you were invited to his stream. Good thing we don’t need to download any special systems. Did he send you a link?”
“Yeah, he said once I’m ready, I just click on it and I’ll be brought to a virtual lobby and when it’s time, he’ll switch it over to my video feed on his stream.”
“Good. We do need to set up Bryan’s computer though so that they can hear your music. It won’t be too hard. You can set it up so they’ll hear what you hear through your headphones so it’s just making sure you can properly hear everything. And test the mic. Oh my God, we have too much work to do before you go live. What time?”
I glanced at my phone. It was still mid-morning. “At two.”
“I hope it’s enough time.”
“We have five hours.”
“While tech can be the most reliable thing in the world, it can be finicky. We need to make sure everything is up-to-date, working, and test it all out. Oh, I brought my camera and microphone. They work great for music and sound quality.”
I let Toby ramble on about more than I ever knew as he set up the computer, got everything plugged in and then began messing around with the keyboard. There were even three monitors. What was I supposed to do with three monitors?
Very quickly, I realized why Toby was nervous about only having five hours to set up. First he had to figure out how to get my sound to properly work. Then as I did my DJing stuff, he had to figure out how to get that sound to work properly too. There was a microphone issue. We had to figure out where to position everything so it was all within my reach, but also not awkward. He couldn’t figure out where to place the camera for like thirty minutes. Then Bryan tossed in another camera and promised me they’d handle that little bit. Something about viewers liked to see what I would be pressing on my equipment.
Once we got the ethernet cord hooked to the computer, Seth sat back and watched the chaos. Half the time I was with him too, but the other half the time, Toby wanted me in my spot so he knew everything was where it needed to be.
Then the explanations began and it all went over my head. I wasn’t a streamer and I never watched a streamer before. I only crossed paths with Jacey because he sang at an event I did—also for a fundraiser—and he liked my style.
And he may have attended the club I liked to go to once in a while to DJ.
He said it was an easy choice for him.
“Okay, I think we’re all set.”
“What’s that light for?” I asked, pointing to the circular lighting that was currently off but was set up right in front of me.
“It makes your main light source in front of you so that you don’t have any weird shadows. It’s pretty common to have for any kind of video recording, that way people can see you better.”
I hummed as I double checked to make sure my DJ software was all set and all my settings were as I needed them.
“How are you feeling?” Toby asked.
“Nervous now,” I admitted. “You made this such a bigger deal than I thought it was.”
Toby’s smile slipped a little. “Was it too much? Should we have backed off? Paxon told me about it, and I talked with Bryan. We wanted to make sure it was smooth for you, no issues, and I’ll admit, your setup would have made things a little tough. Did you even have a video camera?”
“Yeah, the one I use when I do virtual meetings.”
Toby shook his head. “I saw that thing. That brand comes out really grainy and doesn’t always focus correctly.”
“Thanks. I really do appreciate the help. Now I just need to freak out about performing in front of people I can’t see. That feels so different.”
Toby grabbed an ottoman and sat next to me. “When I guest star on a stream, I like to pretend it’s just me and the music. I perform more for myself. If I enjoy it and have fun doing it, then the audience will pick up on that sincerity and enjoy themselves too.”
I glanced at the time. “Oh boy. It’s almost time.” I rubbed my hands on my thighs as my nerves settled in.
“Is she panicking now?” Seth asked, coming in with a bottle of water.
“Always,” Toby responded.
“Here, for you.” Seth passed the water to me. “Always stay hydrated.”
“And posture check,” Toby said, chuckling like he made a little joke, but I didn’t really get it.
“Will you let her get settled?” Bryan said, glaring as he came in and handed me another water bottle.
“Are you guys trying to make me have to pee halfway through?” I asked.
They chuckled.
“How long do you get?” Seth asked.
“Thirty minutes.”
“We’ll get to see you rocking out for thirty minutes. This is going to be great,” Toby said. “Let me get you logged in.”
He got me into the waiting room. I glanced at all three screens in front of me. One of them had the stream on. Jacey was on there, currently singing with a guitar. His chat was going so fast, I couldn’t even keep up with what was scrolling by. There was even a warning on the chat part that followers only could send messages.
Every so often, alerts popped up on his screen with subscribers, something called bits, emojis, and donations. The bottom of his screen had the donation bar. He was about sixty percent to his goal.
“He’s doing really well,” Bryan said, looking over Toby’s shoulder.
“He’ll be doing even better once Cadence gets going.” Toby’s confidence was a bit contagious. He sent me a grin and a wink before continuing to set everything up.
The second screen was mine to help me work my magic. It was how I could ensure the music I wanted played when I needed in the way that I wanted.
“All right, chat!” Jacey’s voice came through my headphones, and I jumped slightly. “I have a very special guest to play for us this next half an hour. I met her at a live performance and loved her vibe.” Jacey grinned. “And she thought I was handsome enough to say yes.”
I snorted at that, knowing he was just messing around.
“I’d like to introduce Cadence Wiles, a music goddess. I found her playing at a fundraiser event and thought it’d be a shame not to share her with the world. Give her a warm welcome and fall under her spell, just like I did.”
Suddenly I was on the screen and the chat box filled with welcoming responses and emojis.
I blinked, finding my words. Then I smiled.
“Hi Chat.” I gave them a shy wave. “And thank you, Jayce, for inviting me to such an important fundraising event. You have done such an amazing job. For the next half an hour, I’ll be DJing for you.”
I slowly got a beat going as I talked but kept it low so that they could still hear me. I pretended I was at the club, working up the crowd. I knew how to do that.
I talked a little about my background with music. It seemed some of the people in chat knew who I was, which made me feel even more awkward, especially since I couldn’t see their faces. It was weird to hold a conversation with people who were only typing to me. A little vulnerable, if I had to admit.
A private message popped up on my screen from Jacey. Don’t forget to answer some questions too if you’re comfortable with them.
My gaze flickered back to the chat and picked out an easy question.
Head bobbing, I read the question out loud as I turned some knobs to get the sound that I wanted.
“What systems are you using?”
“I’m using a Pioneer 4 Channel DJ Controller with the Rekordbox software,” I answered smoothly as I transitioned the song into something a little special that I made. It seemed the viewers loved it because suddenly the chat filled with emojis. Jacey made it so that the emojis also bounced around on his stream, filling it with different images from head bobbing creatures to music notes and different styled hearts. There were animated dancing ones too.
Jacey had his camera in the corner of his stream, and he was practically dancing around as he listened. That was probably why he had wireless headphones on.
The reaction only spurred me on to work harder for them, the rush of their excitement filling me. Once that particular mix wore itself down, I smoothly switched to a different set I had created specifically for this event.
The flashing lights around me adjusted. I glanced over at the boys. Toby gave me a thumbs up, holding up the remote. I grinned, giving him a light shake of my head before going back to trying to entice the viewers to donate.
It seemed to be working as I glanced at the screen, remembering to thank them. People were easily dropping twenty to fifty bucks. I even saw a couple donations that were a hundred.
Jacey’s donation bar was steadily filling up. I knew he had more lined up after me, but he was going to reach it way beforehand. People were loving this event, and I was having more fun than I had expected. Toby had been right, I played for me, and it seemed the viewers were picking up on that.
About halfway through, though, I nearly stopped, losing the flow I had built up. The donation alert popped up on the screen. My mouth dropped at the thousand-dollar donation. Then the name came up. It wasn’t the normal weird usernames used by the viewers. It was an actual name.
“Holy crap,” I said. “Thank you for the donation, A. Laurens.” I swallowed hard, coldness seeping into the pit of my stomach. I grabbed the water, letting Jacey take over the thanks. Jacey was obviously psyched about it as that donation allowed him to meet his goal. So he extended his goal to something higher.
Me, I couldn’t be as excited as he was. I hadn’t expected to see a donation from someone I was doing work for. Especially Arden Laurens. I didn’t take him for a man who had time to even watch streamers.
Eventually, I was able to bounce back from that little shock, getting back into the music.
Once we hit the last five minutes, it was time to drop a little surprise on Jacey, something I had set up ahead of time. I nodded at Seth to let him know we were doing it. He grinned back and pulled out his phone.
I lowered the music a little bit, remembering all the tips Jacey had given me about being streamed. Viewers didn’t want pure music, they wanted variety, they wanted interaction. They wanted surprises.
“As we wrapped this up, I wanted to give Jacey a little surprise,” I said, still working the music. “Now, I know my job here was to get you all to donate money, but what is Thanksgiving without a little giving from all parties involved. So, chat, as a thank you for showing up, giving Jacey and me so much love, I wanted to show you my appreciation.”
The first alert popped up on the screen. One hundred gifted subs.
Jacey’s eyes bugged out and his screen went wild from the alert he had set up for large amounts of gifted subs. So did his chat as the gifted subs were assigned to people and everyone was emoting faster than I could understand.
I easily changed the tune of the music to something a bit more mysterious. “But that isn’t all. Because I want to make sure Jacey knows how big this is for me. I want to make sure you walk away feeling love, Jacey. What you’re doing here is absolutely amazing. I respect you more than you realize.”
The second alert popped up. I tipped him five hundred dollars.
“What the heck are you doing?” he finally asked. “Holy shit. Stop this, Cadence.”
I laughed, and again smoothly changed the beat. “And finally, the last gift I can give to you.”
“What the hell did you do?” he asked. “Cadence, fucking stop. This is more than enough.”
I giggled and had a little fun with the music to build up the announcement. “I’m matching your donation to keep with the spirit of this stream.”
The next alert came up, and his donation bar filled up and exploded all over the screen. He had already raised it during my session after I reached his goal. Now he’d reached his new goal.
Jacey was flipping his shit.
I loved every second of it, unable to stop grinning and laughing. He was practically jumping around his entire room, screaming and pulling at his long, blond hair in amazement.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” He practically chanted it as he tried to calm down. “What the hell? This wasn’t why I invited you here.”
I lowered the music even more. “I know, but you more than deserve it. I don’t accept charity events so easily, but this one is definitely worth it.” I gave him a knowing smile, and he returned it. We had talked extensively about the charity he had chosen, both of us understanding the dangers of choosing the wrong ones. “Thank you for the dedication you’re giving this event. And for all the viewers showing their support and love for something so important.”
After stopping the music, Jacey switched his screen so our feeds were side by side.
“Holy shit, if I knew this was going to happen, I would have had you come on later, after we had more donations.”
Laughing at that, I shook my head. “My bank account thanks you for not doing that. Like I said, worth it.”
“You are a fricken goddess,” he said.
Jacey kept flipping his shit for a little bit longer until finally letting me get my goodbyes in. I signed out, still keeping his stream up.
Questions for me popped up in chat despite me being off the screen.
Will you stream?
You should stream.
Jacey even told them to give me a follow to urge me to join the streaming world. As soon as he said that and even shared my profile, I began getting alerts about being followed.
I replied: I think for now, joining as a special guest is about as close to streaming as I get.
That gave me a stream of sad faces and Jacey trying to egg me on, but it wasn’t working. This was too nerve wracking for me.
“That was amazing,” Toby said, practically hopping to my side. He wrapped his arms around me as he leaned into me from behind and looked down at the computer screen. I leaned back slightly, unable to pull away from his warmth.
Bryan laughed. “He’s still freaking out about what you did.”
I laughed, feeling a bit giggly after doing that. “I figured it was the least I could do. By the way, don’t think I didn’t see it. Thank you for your donations. That was really nice of you.”
“Worth it,” Bryan said. “Though now I feel bad for donating so much. I didn’t realize you were going to match. And what was it about that one donation for a thousand.”
My smile slipped as I suppressed a small shudder. “From Arden Laurens. A music producer I’m doing work for. It was on hold for a while because he was overseas or something, but he’s back. I’m supposed to meet him after Thanksgiving.”
“Can’t believe that asshole did that,” Seth said.
“Is there something I’m missing?” Toby asked.
“Not really,” I said.
“Bullshit. Don’t sugar coat it,” Bryan said. “That guy is a creep.”
“He hasn’t done anything.”
“He did enough to make you uncomfortable. That’s enough. Do you really need to work for him?” Bryan asked.
“It’s really good money. After the holidays are over, the jobs drop down through winter. This will be good. And it isn’t often that I get to create all the songs for a musical. It’ll be around twenty-five songs or so, and they’re buying the rights for each song individually. Because of my past experience and some of the hits I’ve written, my songs are worth something. That’s easily a hundred grand I’m looking at. That isn’t money I can turn down.”
“Are you serious?” Toby asked.
“They offered a percentage, but we settled on a flat rate for each song, and then a lower percentage to be deemed as mine off of sales, but it’ll be donated to Hope’s Embrace instead in my name.”
“That’s so insane,” Toby said.
I shrugged. “Worth it.”
The guys helped me take down the setup slowly while we kept Jacey’s stream going in the background for us to listen to.
At one point, a song got Toby going, and he grabbed me as he jumped around dancing. Laughing, I joined him, knowing I looked absolutely ridiculous but it was hard to care when Toby’s dancing was more chaotic. The guy needed hazard lights on. And I was more than happy to dance haphazardly right along with him.
