Only for You (12 page)

“
Because I still love, and
I still want, to be with you,”
I sing
back, but then my voice breaks and I can’t continue.

So Cole does it for me,
walking with me in his arms to the bus. “
Because in this world, you’re only for me, and I’m only for
you.”

He sets me inside, on my
feet, and shuts the door. I run to the closest widow, pressing my
nose against it, and mouth
I love
you
to him.

A smile is all I get in
return, but for now, it’s enough. I stare at him for as long as I
can see him. He stays in the same spot, like he knows I’m
watching.

“
God, you’re pathetic,”
Callie huffs.

For the first time in
years, I actually agree with her.

Chapter
Eleven

Jaxon

Today’s the first stop of
our tour and Callie’s late.

So is my dad.

Violet’s standing off by
herself, mooning over Cole.

“
Predictable,” I mutter,
strumming on my guitar.

We’re playing Dallas
tonight, and we’re all sitting on stage, waiting for those two
dumbasses to get here.

An annoying giggle precedes
Callie, right before she rushes on stage. Her face is flushed. She
sits down beside me.

“
Ready for
tonight?”

I smirk. “I’m always
ready.”

Violet rolls her eyes and
crosses her arms over her chest. “Where’s Everett?”

It’s a damn good question,
and a legitimate one, too.

“
The world doesn’t revolve
around your schedule, Vi,” Callie snaps.

“
But it does revolve
around people who pay good money to watch us perform. And if we’re
not up to our absolute best, then word will spread and people will
start demanding their money back,” Violet says, not in the least
intimidated by my fiancée.

I clap, and Callie punches
me in the shoulder. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”

“
And you’re supposed to be
on time.” I raise my brows at her. “Not messing around.”

She has the grace to flush.
“I don’t answer to you.”

Wrapping my arm around her,
I squeeze her tight and say, “Oh but baby girl, you do, because
we’re a couple and all that shit.”

Before Callie can punch me
again, and in a more vulnerable place, like my nuts, Everett walks
out and all attention turns to him, including Callie’s. A girl with
curly brown hair and black glasses follows him. She’s practically
running after him, her tits bouncing.

“
Stop looking,” Callie
hisses.

“
Make me,” I say
pleasantly as I flash the new girl a smile. She doesn’t return it.
Oh no. Instead, she turns as pink as the shirt Violet’s
wearing.

I can’t stop staring at the
new girl, at the way her hair curls, or the way her clothes fit
her. They’re not tight and they’re not baggy. They’re somewhere in
between, nothing remarkable.

In fact, if she hadn’t been
trailing after my dad, who we’re all waiting on, I doubt I would
have noticed her at all.

“
New tour, new member of
our family.” Everett’s voice booms inside the room. Whenever he’s
up here talking, he reminds me of the LET’S GET READY TO
RUUUUUMBBBBLLLEE guy, except my dad doesn’t need a mic.
Ever.
“This is Bliss
Davenport. She’s an intern from Western College, and will be
earning credits for going on tour with us and assisting
Anita.”

Anita is the head of
wardrobe. Usually, I eighty-six anything she picks out, because her
version of Country is too honky-tonk for me. The only time I ever
wear a cowboy hat is when Violet and I sing our duet.

I’m a country boy, not a
cowboy.

Everett pushes Bliss
forward. She turns even pinker. “Say hi, Bliss.”

I cringe, Callie perks up,
and Violet keeps her face expressionless, which means she’s
irritated.

“
Hi.” Bliss doesn’t really
look at any of us, only in our general direction. She squints
behind the lens of her glasses a couple of times and then
sighs.

Looks like I wasn’t making
her blush, after all.

“
Loser,” Callie
giggles.

Violet shoots her a
murderous glare, and then marches up to Bliss. She takes her by the
arm, personally introducing Bliss to everyone.

Except Callie and me. Not
that I can blame her for keeping Bliss away from Callie. Despite
the lack of feelings we share, she gets insanely jealous when other
females show interest in me.

Frankly, I find her
attitude insulting and annoying. I’d never cheat on the woman I
love, which is why I make sure I’m banging other girls as often as
my schedule allows since our engagement was announced.

“
Violet,” I yell across
the stage. “Bring Bliss over here.”

“
She’s like a cow, with
her huge tits,” Callie says, her lip curled in disgust. Not that
long ago, Callie looked more like Bliss and less like Violet.
Supposedly, she lost weight to look better in photographs and on
camera. But I know better than that. She lost weight and bleached
out her already light hair because of Everett.

He likes all of his little
stars blond, skinny, and innocent looking. And not just because he
thinks that sells either.

I take another look at the
new seamstress for the band. Blond, skinny, and innocent looking is
the exact opposite of Bliss.

Bliss gives our new
drummer a tentative smile, and I begin to hum the chorus of Elton
John’s
Tiny Dancer
.

Well, maybe the innocent is
there, but the other… well, let’s just say I don’t have to worry
about Everett sneaking around with her.

“
Why are you interested in
meeting her?” Callie asks, genuinely perplexed.

I stop humming. “Because
I’m not an asshole to the people that work for us.” I stand up,
holding out my hand to shake Bliss’.

“
Hi, I’m
Jaxon.”

“
Bliss.”

As soon as we touch,
something comes over me. It’s like I can feel her, everywhere. I
want this girl, but I can’t have her.

Mainly, because the girl
I’m supposed to want is standing right beside her, wishing she were
back in the arms of the guy she really loves.

But all I see is Bliss
Davenport.

*** *** ***

Violet

I like Bliss
immediately.

She’s funny without being
cruel, nice without being a doormat, and genuinely interested in
getting to know everyone.

Last night, I didn’t have
to sing the duet I was dreading with Jaxon. Everett thought it best
to bring out the new and end with the familiar, as he likes to call
it, tonight.

That way, people would
clamor for tickets, never knowing who was going to be paired up
with Jaxon, their favorite country music bad boy. Even I have to
admit that it’s a genius marketing idea.

I also have to admit that
I’m hoping people start asking for Callie and Jaxon rather than
Jackson and me, then Everett can kick me off the tour, and I can go
back to Forrestville.

This is my first tour
without my family. Before I was a minor and since they were both my
managers and my parents, they tried to go on every tour. But as I
got older, they got a little too comfortable with my agent taking
care of me the times when something came up.

That’s how I ended up on
Jaxon’s couch, losing my virginity. Moral of the story—never leave
a horny teenage girl and her boyfriend to their own
devices.

“
This is so pretty,” Bliss
says, holding out a short, sequined dress that I’m to where for the
show tonight in Houston. “It matches the pink in your
hair.”

“
God, Vi. When will you
wash that shit out and get some extensions?” Callie asks as we sit
to wait for hair and makeup. “You… wardrobe girl. Fetch me
something to drink, like wine.”

“
Don’t do it,
Bliss.
She
’s not
old enough to drink,” I say. “You would get fired for serving a
minor.”

Callie rolls her eyes.
“What’s the use of people working for us, if they don’t actually, I
don’t know—work?”

Bliss doesn’t say a word,
just hangs up our outfits, places the shoes that go with them
underneath, and leaves the room.

“
Come find me after the
show, Bliss. We’ll get something to eat,” I yell, hoping she heard
me. If not, I’ll go find her.

“
You were always a strange
one.”

“
And you were always a
snob.”

Callie smirks at me. “Good
times, Vi. Good times.”

As the makeup and hair
artists arrive, I text Cole.

Me: Miss you. Houston is
stinking hot.

Cole: Miss you too. It’s
cold here.

Me: Lots of homework
tonight?

Cole: No.

Me: ?

Cole: I’m not taking
classes this semester.

I want to call him right
then, and fuss at him for dropping out. He’s working all the time
now, barely doing anything other than raising Kelly and hanging out
with his boys.

Cole needs to do something
for him, but the last time I tried to bring up the subject, he
jumped all down my throat. I don’t want to fight, especially not
when we’re a twenty-four hour drive away from each
other.

Me: Okay. Love
you.

Cole: Love you
too

***

Two days later, I finally
get Cole on the phone. “Guess what!”

“
What?” There’s lots of
background noise, and I can barely hear myself think.

“
Can you go outside or
something?”

“
Sure.” The noise drops
away, or he’s clicked off the television.

“
So, guess
what!”

“
You get to come home for
a couple of days.”

“
Who told you?”

“
You did, right before you
went on tour, you showed me your schedule and told me to mark down
the days we would be able to see each other.”

Determined not to let his
less-than-enthusiastic tone get me down, I continue on, “My flight
gets in at ten AM. I worked it around your schedule, and Kelly’s
too. We can wait for her bus on the front porch, just like we used
to.”

“
Today?”

“
Yes, today. I’m in the
Raleigh airport right now, walking to my gate.”

A stewardess passes me, her
blue scarf flowing behind her.

“
Oh.”

Oh? That’s the best I get
from him? “You should see what I’m wearing, Cole.”

“
Really?”
Now
he sounds
interested.

“
Mmm-hmm. Trench coat,
high heels, and nothing else.”

“
Holy f—Rae, did you just
fly across the country like that?”

I glance down at my yoga
pants and yellow t-shirt, grinning. “I made sure to sit very
lady-like.”

“
Baby, when I get a hold
of you—”

“
Keep that thought. I’ll
meet you out front. I’ll be the one wearing red high heels.” Then I
press the End Call button.

***

True to his word, Cole
pounces on me as soon as he spots my outfit. I changed in the
restroom, right after I disembarked.

“
I’m so spanking that
ass,” he growls. He practically throws me into the passenger side
of his Jeep. Instead of driving home, we drive to a hotel near the
airport.

Shielding my eyes from the
morning sun, I glance up at the sign. “I thought we were going
home?”

“
Thank Parker,” Cole says
by way of explanation. Then he grabs my hand and my carry-on. We
run to our room, not caring about all the looks we’re
getting.

As soon as the door shuts,
he’s stripping me out of my clothes and smacking my ass, just like
he promised. Then he’s inside of me, and I’m clawing at him. He’s
groaning my name and saying everything I could ever want to hear
from him:
I love you. I missed you. You
belong to me.

All too soon, it’s over,
and we lay side by side, fingers laced together and
panting.

“
I didn’t wear that outfit
on the plane.”

“
Figured as
much.”

“
Then why did you spank
me?”

We turn toward each other
at the same time. A grin kicks up the corners of his mouth.
“Because you let me.”

***

“
The press is getting
worse,” he says.

We’re lying in bed, our
bodies flush from sex, in the shower no less. “I’m
sorry.”