Only for You by Marquita Valentine Read Free Book Online Page B

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—”
    “