Cake: A Love Story Read online

  Chapter One

  Casey

  On the morning of May 30th, 2014, I was just a twenty-three-year-old accounting student at Arizona State University enjoying the first weeks of summer break. On the side, I served up Bloomin’ Onions as a waitress at Outback Steakhouse. I was a reasonably attractive twenty-something girl with a quick wit and an easy smile. Really there was nothing special about me…at least nothing special enough to predict that when I woke up that morning my life, as I knew it, would never be the same.

  Raised the youngest, and only girl, of three rowdy kids in a loud, boisterous middle-class family, I was a seriously ‘rough and tumble’ tomboy. As a young girl my best friends were boys and it was not unusual for me to spend hours outside riding bikes, bouncing a basketball or climbing trees. But then, much to my dismay, puberty set in at the age of thirteen. My scrawny little body started changing. I fought it for a while, not ready to give up my happy life as a tomboy. However, as my breasts formed and my legs lengthened and my hips shaped curves into my previously stick thin frame, the boys I hung with started noticing.

  Everything changed. My friends looked at me differently. They whispered behind my back. They tried grabbing me in places I definitely did not want to be grabbed. Gradually I stopped hanging out with the boys and found myself a group of nice, smart girls who were in my honors classes. Yeah, they weren’t as fun as the boys but at least they weren’t acting like horny little perverts.

  Seeing as I hung with the smart kids, it goes without saying that I was not among the popular crowd. Still I had plenty of friends and among the misfits I hung with I was considered pretty hot stuff. I even sometimes caught the eye of boys from the in-crowd. Some of the common ‘compliments’ I would receive from them were, “You’re kind of pretty for a smart girl.” Or “You’d be hot if you didn’t talk so much.” Hey, in high school, you take what you can get.

  It wasn’t until midway through my junior year in high school that the hormones really kicked in and all the sudden I was boy crazy. Once that happened I started dressing nice, wearing makeup, and actually brushing my hair instead of just pulling it into a ponytail. I tried to play it cool when a boy took an interest in me but all I knew about boys came from my two caveman brothers and the boys I played with for years. Unfortunately, I quickly learned that potential suitors were not interested in sitting around shooting the breeze with me, nor did they appreciate me making inappropriate jokes about their private parts. Apparently, boys in high school didn’t want to be buddies with girls in high school. They wanted trophy girls to show off and make out with.

  Only one boy was brave enough to take me on, Tommy Schultz. We started dating midway through my senior year. Like me, he was one of the cooler smart kids. Tommy actually liked my sense of humor and thought I was fun. Together we experienced all the epic senior moments: senior picnic, senior trip, prom…and sex. He was my first, and I was in love. My immature brain really believed we’d be together forever. But the day after graduation he abruptly dumped me, explaining that he didn’t want to be tied down his freshman year in college. I was heartbroken. He never looked back.

  So off I went to college with a freshly broken heart. Even though I grew up only a few miles from ASU, my parents wanted me to have the full experience and allowed me to live in the dorms my freshman year. It turned out to be exactly what I needed to really grow and mature…and, well, have fun. I had the time of my life freshman year. In hindsight, I had to thank my former boyfriend. He’d been right. College was a hell of a lot more fun without him there too.

  Luckily, the enormous student body afforded me the opportunity to start out with a completely clean slate. No one knew me as ‘Tomboy’ Casey or ‘Talks too much’ Casey. In college I was just Casey, a girl with decent curves, cute dimples, a flowing mane of brunette hair and what I have been told is an infectious personality. Yes, there were definitely times when I could turn off a guy’s interest with a simple, ill-placed snort of laughter or a badly timed dick joke, but for the most part I’d managed to reinvent myself into a somewhat polished young woman. Even if I had to reign in my raunchy sense of humor at times to appease the boys, the trade off was usually worth it.

  Although I dated guys here and there, I didn’t have another boyfriend until my sophomore year in college. Logan Adams was the son of a wealthy businessman and the ‘backup’ for the backup quarterback for the ASU football team. Logan was handsome, rich and cocky as hell. Warning bells were going off in my head before he ever even opened his mouth. But, as many girls do, I overlooked his obvious flaws because he was so damn hot. And he did win me over with what I thought was his warm, sensitive side. At the time, I considered him to be nothing short of perfection. Turns out I was dead wrong. It took me over a year to figure out that my boyfriend had a passion for sleeping with girls other than me. Even girls I thought were my friends. That loser single-handedly soured me on relationships.

  Since him, my love life had been…well non-existent. I was unattached and definitely not looking. There was a certain satisfaction in being single. I could do what I wanted, whenever I wanted. My main focus was not on finding a guy…it was to graduate on time the following spring. Even though I worked part time to help pay for my expensive tuition, my parents had sacrificed a lot to send me to college on their fixed income. I felt a strong sense of responsibly to really buckle down this year and get my degree completed.

  Love would have to wait. And when it was time, I now knew the type of guy NOT to look for. Really I wasn’t picky. Personality was way more important to me than looks…although if a guy were also hot I would consider that an added bonus. The older I got the more I realized that I shouldn’t have to dumb it down or clean it up in order to impress a guy. Either I was good enough as is or he wasn’t worth my time. I knew my man was out there somewhere…I just never, in a million years, could have predicted who he would be.

  Kate Mullin was a good friend of mine. We met as waitresses at Outback and stayed friends even after she left. We shared a quirky sense of humor and a love for reality TV. I’d known Kate for two years when she asked me to be a bridesmaid at her wedding. I was thrilled to be part of her special day. At lunch a couple of weeks before the wedding, Kate dropped the bomb on me.

  “Mitch thinks it would be best to pair you up with Jake.”

  “What?” I asked, not understanding immediately what she was talking about.

  “We are going to partner you and Jake up for the wedding.” Kate repeated.

  Then I understood. My stomach dropped. Holy crap, she meant the rock star! I knew Jake McKallister would be there, he was, after all, the groom’s brother, but I just assumed I would be admiring him from afar.

  “But…I thought Sarah was his partner,” I sputtered. “That is all she has talked about for the past four months.”

  “I know. I love Sarah but sometimes she comes on too strong.”

  “Sometimes?” I joked. “Remember Aaron?”

  “Oh God,” Kate rolled her eyes and laughed. “Yeah. That was bad.”

  “I was going to tell her he was gay but it was just so much fun to watch,” I laughed.

  “You’re awful,” Kate proclaimed, giggling and shaking her head. “Anyway, Mitch is worried that Sarah will be all over Jake and that she might make him feel uncomfortable. Jake doesn’t like fawning.”

  “And you don’t think I won’t fawn all over him?” I replied in a raised voice.

  “It’s not your style, Casey,” Kate laughed.

  “Have you SEEN the boy?”

  “Yes,” Kate giggled. “I have seen him.”

  “Then you understand that you give me way too much credit, right?”

  Kate nodded her head, laughing.

  “I mean, I have
never met anyone famous before...not to mention gorgeous-famous. There is no telling what I might do to that poor boy,” I claimed, only half-joking.

  “And if you do, I’m sure he would be happy about it.”

  I gasped like I was offended…which I wasn’t. The reality was I would never be bold enough to hit on a guy like Jake so such a scenario would be absurd.

  “Mitch just wants him to feel comfortable at the wedding. If Jake wants to get laid, that’s his business…we just aren’t going to facilitate it,” Kate said.

  “Right because the last thing you want is all eyes on the rockstar and busty blond Sarah,” I giggled.

  “Yeah, for sure,” Kate laughed. “Look, Casey, if you really don’t want to partner with him I’ll talk to Mitch and we will find someone…uh…someone more deserving of spending the evening with a famous, smokin’ hot rock star, okay?”

  “Well, now, hold on there, missy! Let’s not be hasty!” I replied with a sly smile on my face. “I didn’t say I wasn’t interested. I’m just conveying to you that the idea of it scares the crap out of me. But, yeah, I can suck it up for one night…take one for the team. I mean it’s YOUR wedding and that is the type of person I am…selfless.”

  “Ahhh…yes, you are an amazing human being. Thank you for your sacrifice, Casey,” Kate responded in mock seriousness.

  I nodded stoically as if I was doing Kate a huge favor then gasped after realizing the implications of pairing me with Jake, “Oh God, Sarah is going to be so mad.”

  Kate cringed. “I haven’t figured out how I’m going to tell her yet.”

  “She will never forgive you. It’s like she called dibs on Jake the moment you announced your wedding.”

  “I know.”

  “Sarah is still going to go after him…I hope Mitch realizes that.”

  “Yeah he does but at least Jake won’t feel obligated to hang out with her the entire time.”

  “That’s true. Does Sarah even know if Jake is single? Isn’t he dating that pop star?

  “That was awhile ago. I don’t think they are still together,” Kate said.

  “That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a new girl. I mean all this effort Sarah is putting into nailing a rockstar and it could all be for naught. It just seems such a shame.”

  Kate laughed. “You be nice, Casey. Sarah will be mad enough as it is. And I don’t think Jake has a girlfriend. He didn’t ask for a plus one for the wedding so I’m just assuming he’s single.”

  “Single but banging the groupies,” I sang out.

  “Casey! God, you can be so crude sometimes,” Kate grimaced as she tried to suppress a smile.

  “That’s why you love me,” I declared.

  “True,” Kate smiled.

  “I guess I should tone it down for Jake. He probably won’t appreciate my raunchy personality as much as you do.”

  “I don’t know about that. He does have four brothers.”

  “True. But I’ve heard he isn’t…uh…how do I put this nicely…the most interactive guy.”

  “Where did you hear that?”

  “Uh…EVERYWHERE!”

  “Well don’t believe everything you hear or read about him in the media. Mitch says Jake gets a bad rap and that he’s actually a pretty well adjusted guy.”

  “Seriously?”

  “That’s what I’m told,” Kate affirmed, putting her hands up. “But then, what do I know? The first time I’ll meet the other half of Mitch’s family will be on our wedding day.”

  I could hear the annoyance in her voice. In the two years they had been dating, Mitch had yet to take Kate to California and introduce her to his father, step-mother and half-siblings. I knew this was an issue for her so I decided to ignore her comment.

  “Don’t you worry. I’ll take care of our handsome rockstar. If there is fun in that gorgeous body of his then I’ll do my best to bring it out of him.”

  “There’s the Casey I know and love!” Kate replied.

  After the initial shock wore off, the nervous excitement set in. All week before the wedding, I worried that Jake and I would have absolutely nothing in common…nothing to talk about. I had zero experience with guys like him. I’d never been the type of girl who went for bad boy, tattooed rocker types. Although I had to admit, my current dating pool, the clean-cut jock or the self-important intellectual, had not yielded me the best results either.

  Regardless, what was I going to say to a guy like him? Jake McKallister may have been a rock star but he was no ordinary one. His road to the top had been a brutal one. Jake became famous as a child…and not for his musical aptitude. In fact, he became famous for something entirely not of his doing. At thirteen years of age, Jake McKallister was the victim of a stranger abduction. The violent kidnapping, which was witnessed by his traumatized younger brother, struck a nerve with the American public. His disappearance, and the subsequent search efforts, played out over television sets across the nation. Incredibly Jake managed to survive over a month in captivity before making a shocking escape, which ended with the stabbing death of the very man who kidnapped him.

  Police immediately declared the killing self-defense and refused to provide any further comment. Then, presumably in an effort to protect the privacy of a minor, the court system sealed all documents relating to Jake McKallister’s kidnapping. So, in other words, no details of either the kidnapping or the killing were ever released to the public. But that didn’t stop the media from speculating on every tiny detail. The general consensus about the kidnapping was that Jake had been horribly abused during his time in captivity and that, had he not killed his abductor, he would not be alive today. That became especially telling when the kidnapper’s DNA linked him to several other missing and murdered boys. Jake had, not only survived a stranger abduction, but also a serial killer.

  The sensational story lit up the news channels and printing presses for months. The media hounded Jake. He could not step foot outside his door without cameras in his face. It was a feeding frenzy and the prey was a traumatized thirteen-year-old kid. I remember as a young teen seeing a picture of Jake in some magazine and being affected by the defeated look in his eyes. I could not imagine what it must have been like for him to survive what he had and then be treated so harshly by the media. However, as with all big news stories, Jake’s eventually faded from the headlines and he, presumably, went on to lead a private life.

  But, as it turned out, that was not the end of his story. Jake resurfaced a few years later as a solo rock musician and was, almost immediately, catapulted into super-stardom. He was hailed as a musical prodigy, and truly, his talents were undeniable. With his soaring rock anthems, haunting ballads, and his knack for writing one mega hit song after another; Jake was, arguably, the world’s most famous rock star.

  Yet, despite all his success, Jake was a bit of an enigma. He lived a giant life but little was known about him privately. Aside from work related appearances, Jake was rarely spotted out in public. He didn’t frequent typical celebrity establishments, seldom appeared on TV, and steadfastly refused all interviews…much to the dismay of the collective media worldwide. Really though, who could blame him for snubbing the media after how they had treated him as a child?

  Jake’s silence, however, only seemed to fuel the fire of mystery surrounding him. Rumors swirled. Reports of him being unhinged or suicidal or gay or having HIV or harboring homicidal fantasies was front-page fodder for the trash magazines. Jake was commonly described as someone who was dangerously unstable, antisocial and severely messed up. And without him telling his side of the story, that was the version most people believed.

  But I was never so sure. The very few times I’d seen Jake appear on TV, he seemed like a fairly personable guy. He smiled and interacted like any other person would. And when he performed, Jake was really engaging and energetic. I’d always kind of thought that maybe Jake wasn’t the recluse he was portrayed to be in the media. Maybe he just liked his privacy. Plenty of people had survived tra
umatic childhoods and had turned out to be perfectly normal adults. I mean, talent and looks alone could not have gotten Jake to where he was today without, at least, some social skills. Besides, getting up on stage in front of thousands of people…that took tenacity and resolve…certainly not common traits found among deranged, homicidal loners.

  No it wasn’t so much Jake I was worried about but myself. I always turned into a blabbering idiot when I was around reserved people. There was always that need to fill in the blanks. I could almost picture the look on the poor guy’s face when I started jabbering on endlessly about trivial stuff. He was going to think I was such a weirdo.

  It didn’t help my nervousness when my dad went all ‘paternal’ on me after learning I would be paired with Jake. It was an instant distrust and he wasn’t shy about voicing his opinion. My dad even got my two older brothers involved so I was getting it from all angles. I found myself feebly trying to defend a guy I didn’t even know just because they were so relentlessly bashing on him. Obviously no father would want his beloved daughter that close to a rock star, especially one as notorious as Jake McKallister, but geez, it was just one evening. It wasn’t like I would ever see him again.

  Thankfully my mother was the polar opposite of the men in my family. She was giddy with excitement that I was getting the unique opportunity to meet, and maybe even hang out with, one of the world’s most elusive stars. She couldn’t wait to hear every last detail. My mom was into celebrities and read People magazine faithfully. She knew everything there was to know about every celebrity out there except, of course, Jake McKallister…the one celebrity that even the media knew nothing about.

  When Kate told me a couple of years ago that she was dating Jake McKallister’s half-brother, I figured she’d met him already. But the reality was, Jake and Mitch were not close. They shared a dad but not much else. Mitch’s mom and dad had never married and split while he was still a baby. Growing up, Mitch lived primarily with his mother in Arizona and only visited his dad and half-siblings in California during the summer and holidays. The age gap between him and Jake was just too wide. When Jake was starting kindergarten, Mitch was already a teenager in high school. The last thing he wanted to do was hang out with a little kid. By the time Mitch was fifteen, and was active in high school sports, he stopped visiting his dad during the summers. He saw his half-siblings only occasionally after that.