Only for You (7 page)

Cole

Marry her?

Marry Violet Rae Givens aka
Violet Lynn, Country Music Princess? Not that the title matters to
me, it doesn’t. I fell in love with Rae long before I knew who she
was. I don’t care who she is.

In fact, if I could have
things my way, she’d only be Rae Givens, not Violet Lynn. Mostly
because I’m a selfish S.O.B. that would rather have her all to
myself.

And there’s still the
matter of that tour with her ex-boyfriend.

“
Just how hard did you
bump your head?”

She laughs, the sound
making my heart flip. Only she can do that to me. “Not
very.”

Marry Rae. I can’t stop
thinking the words. Me married. Me with a wife. Me with another
mouth to feed and look after and make sure… I blink.

“
But you’re
rich.”

Her nose scrunches on one
side, the diamond in it flashing. “Yeah, and, so what? My money
would be our money. ”

“
You can’t do that. I
didn’t earn it.” The thought of taking her money makes me queasy.
Sure, it would make my life easier but it’s not mine.

“
But I did, and what kind
of nonsense is that? If you made more money than me, should I
refuse it because I wasn’t the one making it?”

“
Well, no but—”

“
No buts.”

“
Rae. People will talk.
They’ll think I’m like Jessica Simpson’s boyfriend, taking
advantage of you.”

Her chin drops. “You know
who Jessica Simpson’s boyfriend is?”

“
Football announcers get
chatty.” I shift in my seat. “Hell, Beau is the chattiest guy I
know, and tells us everything while we play poker. He and Parker
gossip worse than a bunch of old ladies at a quilting
circle.”

I rise from the chair, and
start pacing the room. She watches me, leaning back on her pillow
as the nurse comes into check on her. They talk in low
voices.

“
I get to leave, as soon
as they get the doctor to sign my discharge papers,” Rae announces,
all casual, after the nurse leaves, like she hadn’t just hadn’t
asked me to marry her.

“
You know I love you,
but—”

She holds up a finger. “At
least think about it.”

“
Fine,” I grudgingly
agree. It’s not that I don’t want to be with her like that. I mean,
sometimes, I think about our future, and it does involve an even
deeper commitment than what we have right now.

But marriage? I know
nothing about it, and I’m pretty damn sure I’d screw it up somehow.
Not by cheating on Rae or physically hurting her. I just… honestly,
I have no idea what I have to offer her, beyond loving
her.

Marriage is more than just
love, right?

After another hour, we
finally get to leave. They wheel Rae out. She’s wrapped up in a
robe with a blanket over her legs.

Standard procedure, they’d
informed us when Rae had refused to ride in it.

A crowd greets us, larger
than I’ve ever seen. Thank God, they let me pull my Jeep up to the
curb.

Rae holds her arm up to
cover her face, and I get in front of her, trying to protect her
from whatever I can. A police cruiser pulls up, lights flashing,
and its siren making furious little beeps.

Ford steps out, with a
partner, and they start to manage the crowd. Questions and comments
are shouted together. But the questions aren’t only directed at
her.

“
Is it true you’ve been
arrested for battery multiple times?”

“
Are you pregnant again,
or was this another relapse?”

“
Did you hit Violet
Lynn?”

The crowd of press and
onlookers edge closer.

“
I said take a step back!”
Ford shouts.

“
How many people have you
assaulted, Cole?”

Biting back my answer and
clenching my fist to keep from flipping them off, or worse, popping
one of them a good one in the mouth, I help Rae into my Jeep and
jog to the other side.

“
God, they’re assholes,” I
mutter, closing the door and glancing at Rae. “How in the hell did
you deal with this, from day to day?”

Instead of answering me,
she exhales and closes her eyes. “Take me home, Cole,” she
whispers.

***

There’s a police escort
almost the entire way to my house. I park the Jeep and ignore the
one cop car that decides to park beside me, so I can get Rae
inside.

She’s lightly dozing when I
scoop her up in my arms. Her eyes flutter open. “Please don’t leave
me.”

My heart stutters. “We’re
at my house, baby. I told you in the hospital—”

“Not that… just don’t let
what happened tonight make things worse for us.”

I climb up the steps right
as my brother opens the front door, saving me from coming up with
an answer.

Parker’s gaze clashes with
mine, questions gleaming in his eyes.

“She’s fine. Hit her head
is all, but no concussion.”

Rae stirs in my arms. “I
have really sweaty hands and really bad taste in online
viewing.”

“The bug was worried. She
tried to wait up for you,” he says, following us down the
hall.

“Can I sleep with her
tonight?” Rae asks.

Automatically, I change
course, heading for Kelly’s room. A ballerina nightlight is on in
the corner, toys carefully put up and school clothes laid out for
tomorrow on a small chair by the window.

I wonder if Kelly will
always be so careful with her things, if the pain of having so
little for so long will make her forever grateful for what she
gets.

“I love her so much,” Rae
says as I tuck her into bed beside my little sister. They curl into
each other, Rae wrapping her arms around Kelly and pulling her
close. My heart does a funny flip at the reminder of what Rae won’t
ever have or be.

I pull up the sheets,
smooth back Rae’s hair, and kiss his forehead. “She loves you too,
you know.”

Rae yawns, baby blue eyes
blinking up at me. “Don’t forget what I said.”

“Said about what?” Wanting
to marry her or pleading with me not to leave her?

“About
everything.”

“We’ll talk later,
okay?”

She mumbles sleepily and I
leave the room, Parker hot on my heels as I head for the back
porch. Lighting a cigarette, I push open the door and find my usual
spot on the stairs.

“What?” I ask.

Parker joins me at the
stairs, but he doesn’t sit. Instead, he leans against a post and
crosses his arms. “Did she really hit her head?”

For a moment, a flash of
self-righteous anger rises. “What do you think?” I snap.

He takes a breath. “I think
the two of you need a break.”

I take a deep pull from my
cigarette and blow out a thin stream of air. “That so?”

“Yeah.”

I grunt and hear the sound
of another vehicle pulling into our driveway. Hemy engine. Wyatt’s
here. Grinding the cigarette into the heel of my boot, I shove it
into a nearby bottle and stand, giving my brother an accusatory
stare.

“
Think of this as a
bro-vention,” he jokes, but I’m not laughing.

Wyatt appears, beanie on
his head and jacket zipped up tight. “Everything okay?”

“
Apparently not,” I say,
slicing my gaze once more to my brother. “Apparently, Rae and I
need to take a break.”

“
That’s not a bad
idea.”

My head whips around to
face my best friend. “Excuse me?”

He doesn’t look away, and I
didn’t expect him to, but I did think he would at least look a
little contrite. “Look, I like Rae… But, she’s not like us. Any of
us.”

“
You don’t seem to have a
problem with Beau.”

“
Beau hasn’t been famous
since the age of thirteen. And the press doesn’t follow him around
like they do her.”

“
And that’s my problem
how?”

Wyatt shoves his hands into
his pocket. “Because you love each other, and with the good comes
the bad, but dude… lately, the bad has been overshadowing
everything.”

“
And that’s your problem
how?” I punch the post beside Parker, wishing it were him instead,
but a part of me thinks that both Wyatt and my brother might be
right. But I’d made promises to Rae and to myself. Just because
things got tough, didn’t mean I should walk away. She’d defied her
parents to be with me. She’d chosen me over them, not that I’d ever
ask that of her. But she had anyway.

“
Both of you can kiss my
ass.”

“
It’s only a suggestion,
Cole,” Wyatt says. “Nothing you have to do right now, but maybe
think about taking a step back and—”

“
Leave her? Like she is
right now?”

“
Do you really want to be
with a woman just like Crystal?” This from my brother.

It dawns on me. They
believe the shit that’s been said about Rae. They believe that
she’s some strung-out starlet who relapsed, not the truth about
her.

“
She’s nothing like
Crystal,” I snap, fighting for control of my temper. I curl my
hands into fists, clenching them tight and keeping them by my
sides. “And for your information, both of you, some sick bastard
put up the video of Rae after her wreck. She watched the EMT’s pull
the windshield from her body. She
watched
the baby inside of her die,
because of her stupid mistake. But it didn’t stop there… oh, hell
no. God thought it would be extra special to punish her even more
by making it so she’ll never be able to have kids
again.”

“
So you know what—if she
did have to go to the hospital for a relapse… Damn it, she’s earned
it.” I give them both a long, hard stare, daring them to say a word
against her.

“
Jesus Christ,” Parker
curses.

“
Shit,” Wyatt mutters.
“I’m so—”

“
Save it… Carry your asses
somewhere else. That includes you, too, Park.” Without waiting for
an answer, I head back inside, slamming the door behind me. I get
ready for bed, grab some pillows and blankets, and head for Kelly’s
room. Once there, I check on her and Rae, then make a bed in the
floor.

But with Parker and Wyatt’s
words rolling around in my head, it’s a long damn time before I can
sleep.

Chapter Seven

Cole

It’s Christmas, my favorite
holiday for once.

Things are still tense with
Rae, even more so after Wyatt Parker’s failed bro-vention but she’s
here with me, smiling and sitting beside me on the couch while
Kelly opens presents.

Maybe this is the best time
to talk to her. “Rae?”

“
Yes?” Rae’s pretty smile
falls and so does my stomach. I don’t want to do this. I want
things back to the way they were before, we were just a guy and a
girl meeting down by the creek and flirting with each
other.

Before I knew she was
famous or what had happened to her. Before I loved her.

I glance at Kelly. She’s
just opened yet another present from Rae. This time it’s a pink
makeup vanity. Luckily, it’s already been put together and Kelly
sits down on a stool that pulls out, immediately enchanted with all
the buttons—and the makeup that comes with it.

“
Can we talk?”

“
Sure.”

“
Kelly, Rae and I are
going to the kitchen. Want anything?”

Kelly doesn’t answer at
first, too absorbed in her pretend play.

“
Kelly Morgan, do you want
anything from the kitchen?”

“
Nope! I got all I need
right here,” she exclaims, all cheerful and still in her pajamas
from this morning.

We make our way to the
kitchen. I lean against the counter and pull Rae between my legs.
She looks up at me, blue eyes wary.

“
So I guess you’ve noticed
the foul mood I’ve been in lately.”

She nods. “And my trip to
the hospital didn’t help things.”

“
Not your fault. You
didn’t make anyone put that video up.” Since then it’s been taken
down. Rae’s legal team had threatened to sue that blog, and any
other, so fast that my head spun.

“
But I do bring the press
around.”

“
Still not responsible for
my mood.”

“
Doesn’t help
it.”

“
No it doesn’t,” I admit.
“But the real reason, and I’ve been thinking about telling you this
for a while now, is that Everett said something the night you and
Jaxon sang together.” Okay, so that’s not the entire reason I’ve
been such an ass, but it is most of it.

She makes a face. “He’s not
been a very good dad to you, Cole. And I’m sure it hurt to know he
adopted a kid he didn’t know instead of taking care of the ones he
had with your mom.”