Only One (16 page)

“I’ll just leave you to it, then.” He exited as fast as he entered.

She continued to rub circles on my back, apologizing over and over for hitting me.

Finally I found my voice, even though it came out strained. “My fault. I’m okay. Just give me a minute.”

Ten minutes later Annabelle went to get dressed while my dignity sat in the dirt at her kicking my ass.

“I’m so sorry, Cole. You shouldn’t have done that. You scared the hell out of me,” she said as she came back out of her room and grabbed a shot glass and filled it with Malibu Rum. Once she threw it back, I stood.

She piqued my interest now. “What’s going on?” Sure I’d seen her do shots a few times, but this wasn’t like her and I knew something was up when she turned to alcohol to numb whatever it was she was worried about.

She shrugged and poured shot two and then downed it. “Nothing, you want one?”

I shook her off. “No, baby, I don’t want one.” I studied her face to see if I could figure out if she was lying, but she covered up quickly. She came over to me and planted a very nice welcome home kiss that tasted like coconut and Annabelle.

Thinking about her daddy watching us on the camera compelled me break the kiss. “C’mon, I want to take you out to dinner for my behavior earlier.”

Her face dropped. “It’s fine, Cole. I know how you feel, and it’s never been a crime to be honest. It was a stupid question, anyway.”

I pulled her to the couch and held her hands in mine. “Annabelle, I didn’t mean it the way it sounded, I promise. Neither one of us is ready to start a family, right? I mean, shit, if it happened we’d deal, but there should not be anything to deal with. I wasn’t careful. I take full responsibility for this morning. It’s just, I need you to understand that I love you and I just want your dreams to come true, and a baby would stop all of it in a second.” I exhaled, watching her pouting face. “Am I making any sense?”

She looked up and plastered on one her fake smiles that I knew so well. “Yeah, you are.”

“Then why do I still feel like an asshole?”

She played with her hands on her lap for a second, but then looked back at me. “You’re not an asshole, and I love you, too. It’s just…”

“Just what?” I pulled her hands up to my mouth and pressed my lips against them.

“What if I was? After what you said, how could I come to you and tell you? I left years ago to give you your space to be the big old quarterback, because I knew if I stayed put you’d come back for me. I was so afraid of you worrying about me getting my dream that you’d forget to be the best at yours.”

I closed my eyes, letting all her words sink in. Once I took a deep breath, I opened them. “You’re right. I want you to be able to tell me anything. Okay? You’re my girl, the most important person in my life, and you should never feel like you can’t come to me.”

“Okay,” she mumbled, but I could still see the sorrow on her face. And I needed to fix that.

“You eat all your dinner, and we’ll hit up Dairy Queen.”

Her face brightened some, and she shot me a genuine smile. “You know all the right words to win my heart.”

“Baby, I’ll take you for ice cream every day to see that smile.” I stood and brought her up with me. “Give me a kiss before we go.”

Annabelle

Cole had scared the shit out of me. Ever since that flash on the beach and then the black sedan that seemed to follow me all the way home until I hit my exit had my nerves completely frazzled. The first thing I did when I got home was go into my daddy’s gun case. I took out the rifle I’d been taught to shoot on when I was younger and placed it under my bed.

I hadn’t mentioned the car to AJ on the way home, since he tuned me out after a while, and he was too young to worry about such stuff. I hadn’t mentioned it to Cole, because I didn’t want to freak him out. I was freaked out enough for both of us. I’d been on edge the whole day. Cole had just set me off. I did feel felt proud of how easily I’d dropped him. Cole was a pretty healthy southern boy who got his muscles from all those years of working on the farm or helping his daddy build houses. His body was proof that real labor and not the fitness kind could build a body that most men would spend hours at the gym trying to find.

The next several days went by in a blur. Cole worked and I rode Lance as much as possible and took care of the farm. Cole had come by each night after work and had dinner with my family and then happily he saw me to bed, but never stayed. I kind of felt bad for him, since I knew the cameras bothered him, but I missed waking to his arms wrapped around me. Which was why I was looking forward to our date tonight.

Cole had stopped and got a six-pack of beer on our way back from grabbing a bite to eat. We were sitting in the old field that we’d spent countless nights in as teens. He smiled and pulled me in for one of his heart-melting kisses. “You know what I want to see right now?”

“Hmm?” I asked as my lips grazed over his again.

His hand flicked his high beams on and then he turned the music up some. “I want you to dance for me.”

I froze. “What? Why?”

“I still dream of it, Belly. Do you remember that night we almost kissed right over there?” he asked as he pointed out the window.

“Yeah, I do. But,”

“No, buts. Dance for me for one song and then I’ll join you.”

Instead of jumping out of his Jeep, I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling his mouth to mine. He pecked my lips quickly. “I promise to kiss you all night, but not until I see you dance.”

I pouted.

“C’mon, girl. Get out there and shake that ass for me.”

After exhaling dramatically, I jumped down. Before I shut the door, I hollered, “play something good.”

He grinned and then cranked up some Tim McGraw as I started to move. He whooped and hollered a few times, flashing his high beams every few seconds as my body took over, responding to the beat of the music.

As soon as the second song came on, Cole made good on his word and joined me. We stayed in each other’s arms forever, dancing and kissing. It wasn’t long before my sweet little sundress was hunched up, my panties lay on the ground next to me, and Cole, deep inside me, whispered sweet words of love in my ear.

I lay in his arms on the grass, looking up to the sky, wishing I could rewind that night a long time ago. If I could, I would’ve let him kiss me and I would’ve told Tate to go screw himself. His hand ran through my hair, twisting and twirling strands around his finger. “I don’t want to go back, Cole.”

“What? Go back where?”

“California. I want to stay here. My life out there was, well, it was harder than I like to admit, and now that I have you and if you promise to stay in school, then I want to stay.”

He rolled over until he was hovering over me. “I thought you wanted to try again. What’s going on?” His eyes roamed over my face, searching for the answers.

I shrugged. “I promise it’s what I want. Sometimes I wish I could go back, but Aaron…” I swiped some tears away.

“Hey, hey, hey…no, do not shut me out. Keep talking about him.”

“He wasn’t nice to me, and for the time we spent together he made me feel like it was all my fault, all the nasty words, the times he took a swing at me.”

Cole reared back. “What the fuck did you just say?”

I turned my head to the side. “Nothing. I just want to stay here in your arms forever.”

“Belly, that man hit you? Why? Why didn’t you tell me? Fuck!” he screamed before jumping up and pacing back and forth.

“I’m going to kill that son of a bitch,” he fumed, and I could tell maybe it hadn’t been the best thing to do, exposing one of the reasons I was choosing to stay.

He took several breaths, calming himself down before sitting next to me. “Are you okay? Tell me everything, baby, please. I can’t believe I sat at school having fun, while you needed me, and I wasn’t there protecting you.”

I kissed his cheek and cupped his face. “I believe I forced you to give up on me. It’s not your fault, and I’m okay now. I promise you, Cole.”

He nodded, resting his forehead against mine. “Okay.”

We spent another hour talking about Aaron and my new life and what everything meant before we decided to head on home. And even though Cole got it together, I could tell he did it all for me, because inside I knew he was dying after listening to my account of what had happened.

When we arrived back at the house, Cole dropped me off to my mama waiting on the porch for me. “You coming in?”

He looked up to the porch. “Nah, got to get up early. Go spend some time with your mama.”

I pouted, puffing my lower lip over the top. He tapped my nose with his finger. “I’ll see you tomorrow, baby.”

“Fine,” I snapped, upset we weren’t going to do a little snuggling in my bed.

I started to turn, but he pulled me back. “Hey, get your ass back in here and kiss me goodbye.”

“No,” I said, with agitation in my voice.

“All right, I’ll kiss you.” And then he did, and I forgot I was trying to pretend that I was mad. Because Cole Lucca really did know how to kiss me senseless.

He honked as he backed up and waved to Mama.

Mama and I sat, sharing some sweet tea on the porch and told stories of love and the roads that had brought us here today. And it had me wondering how my story was going to end.

Cole

The smell of coffee woke me. The sun was barely up, but my dad was already rummaging around in the room next to mine, and the aroma of bacon frying made my stomach growl in appreciation. I’d barely slept a wink thinking of what Annabelle had shared with me. The guilt of not being able to protect her overwhelmed me, but the thing I focused on was that I could now. She was not going back to the fucker and I wouldn’t let him near her ever again.

Once I showered and dressed, I stepped out to see Mama dancing in front of the stove as she flipped the eggs. “Hey, Mama,” I called out over the music she had on.

“Hey, sugar. Eggs and bacon will be ready in a minute.”

I sat at the table after pouring a cup of coffee and started to read the paper. Out of the corner my eye a glimpse of yellow startled me, as it looked painfully familiar.

I tipped my head to the side and looked under the crossword puzzle section that mama always pulled out to do. “Mama what’s that?”

“Oh, shoot! That was under the door this morning when I woke up. It’s addressed to you.” She pulled out the all too familiar envelope from underneath and handed it to me.

My face must have shown the panic, because she stiffened beside me. My coffee spilled to the floor.

“What is it, Cole?”

“It’s nothing,” I told her without looking up. “I’ll be right back.”

“Cole,” she called after me.

Not able to answer, I slammed my door and sat on my bed. My breathing picked up, anticipating what it was that I was going find. Without hesitation I ripped the seam and pulled out the photo. I couldn’t believe I had done this to her again.

I slammed my fist into my mattress, enraged at whoever was invading our privacy. I ripped my phone off the dresser and hit send without thinking.

“Cole?”

“Hannah, I swear to god, if you are the one fucking with me, I’m turning you over to the cops.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t be coy with me. Are you responsible for the pictures?”

“Cole, you’re scaring me. What pictures?”

My breathing settled some as the minutes passed while I tried to regain my composure. “Hannah someone is taking pictures of me and Annabelle. I need you to promise me that it isn’t you.”

“I promise. My god, Cole, you need to go to the police.”

“Yeah, um, I’m sorry to bother you.”

“It’s okay. You sound really freaked out. How are you doing? Are you okay?”

“Understatement of the century. I gotta go.” I hung up to avoid dealing with her.

Mama was standing outside of my door, beside my father. When I came out Mama’s head shot up. Daddy stared at me like he could read my thoughts. “Your mama said someone sent something to you. What was it?”

“I can’t get into right now, Dad. I got to go see Uncle Dane.”

“Dane?” Mama questioned me, and I could hear the worry.

“Are you in trouble?” he asked.

“No, not me. Annabelle.”

“What?” Mama asked. She rambled on and on about how and why before I slammed the front door to head to Dane’s office. I knew I shouldn’t have said anything about Annabelle, since Dane didn’t want Ashton to find out, but I was scared out of my mind at the thought of someone so close to us, to her, apparently watching our every move.

Dane was already waiting for me in his truck in front of his office building, so I knew the word had spread fast.

Josh met us five minutes later. “What happened?” he asked as he jogged up behind us to go inside.

The office came to life as we strode inside. Dane flipped the lights on and Josh started a pot of coffee. Dane sat behind his desk, his hands resting in front of him, and I could tell he was trying to stay calm. Jason came inside the room to join us.

When I pulled out the envelope Dane’s face dropped. He stared for a long time before he finally said. “I thought maybe Lu had it wrong.”

I shook my head, trembling, unable to find my voice.

Josh came up next to me and rested his hand on my shoulder, trying to comfort me. Dane held out his hand, and I couldn’t help but notice his knuckles had very recently been bloody.

Jason stood behind him, remaining quiet.

“Dane, I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but is there someone else who can help me? I can’t have you look at this one. It’s too personal.” I scanned the three of them and then focused on a small lamp perched on his desk to avoid their eyes. “Frankly, I’d rather no one see it.”

“Fuck!” he screamed, slamming his hand down on his desk.

I flinched.

“I’ll look at it,” Josh offered.

I waved him off. “Um, too personal for you, too.”

“Give me the damn envelope, kid.”

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes for a brief second before reopening them. “I’m sorry,” I cringed, apologizing, knowing that this was not going to be fun for any one of us.