Need You Tonight

by Marquita Valentine

  Normally, I’d let Cole handle things while I make sure Kelly remained oblivious, but Kelly’s not here. “Lay off him, Crystal.”

  “Parker, don’t,” Cole says with a shake of his head.

  “Parker don’t,” Crystal mimics. “Be a good boy.”

  I clench my jaw so hard that I hear a pop.

  “Always my sweet boy. Always took care of me when you wouldn’t,” she whines to my brother.

  “Enough,” Ford says, stepping between the three of us. “I didn’t invite them out here for you to be a bitch to Parker or Cole.”

  She pouts. “They didn’t bring Kelly.”

  “Like you miss her,” Cole snaps.

  “I do miss her, but she doesn’t know me anymore. The last time I spoke to her, she hardly had anything to say,” Crystal says softly, almost like she’s really hurt. “I thought she’d be more excited about the baby.

  Cole narrows his eyes. “What baby?”

  Brett comes to stand beside my mother, putting an arm around her shoulders. “Ours.”

  “You mean to tell me that the reason why Kelly’s been crying and pleading for me and Rae not to have a baby, because she thinks we won’t want her anymore, is you?” Cole growls. “Unfuckingbelievable.”

  I swing my gaze between the three of them, settling on my brother. “You’re trying to have a baby with Rae? That’s awesome.”

  “That would be one hell of a miracle,” Crystal sneers, placing her hand on her belly. “Considering her medical condition and all.”

  I explode, getting right in her face. I would never lay a hand on her, but damn it, she needs someone to talk some sense into her. “What’s wrong with you? Can’t you just be civil towards him? What happened to the woman who attempted to be nice before she moved out here? I thought you were trying to change.”

  Baby blue eyes glare at me. “Could you be civil to the image of the man who used to abuse you?”

  “I’d like to think I’d know the difference between him and his son.” Suddenly her eyes clear, and she lets out a horrified gasp. “I’m sorry.” She turns to Cole. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t take my meds today. I’m so sorry.” Crystal breaks away from Ford’s embrace and runs from the room.

  “What in the hell was that?” Cole asks, just as stunned as I am by her reversal in attitude.

  Ford runs a hand through his short, black hair. “This is why I asked you to come out here.” He sits down, his shoulder drooping a little. “The rehabilitation center was very good to her. They helped figure out what her problem was, gave her the tools…they diagnosed your mother as being manic. She’s been this way since I first met her, but the abuse she suffered while growing up made it worse. By the time she had you guys, she was full blown and self-medicating. She fixated on you Cole, because you remind her of your dad.”

  “That’s no excuse,” he growls.

  Ford holds up his hand. “Not an excuse. An explanation.”

  “Is this supposed to make us feel better? Are we supposed to start coming over at Christmas and Thanksgiving?” I ask.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Well, you had better figure it out real quick, because you got her ass pregnant again,” Cole says. “I don’t see a ring on either of your fingers, so I suggest you find one and do right by her.”

  This is the man my mother refuses to see. A man who stands up for her, willing to go toe to toe with a former sheriff to make sure she’s taken care of.

  “We live together,” Ford points out. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  Cole crosses his arms over his chest. “Any dumbass can move in with a woman he claims to love and move right back out again when he gets tired of her.”

  I stare at my brother in shock. Who is this guy? Then guilt washes over me. Hadn’t I offered that to Brooklyn? Hadn’t I offered her good enough instead of my best? It wasn’t until I thought I’d never see her again, never hold or kiss her again, that I manned up.

  “Either make it official and give that baby a last name, or move the hell out of her house.”

  “This is our house.”

  “Not when I pay the fucking mortgage it’s not.” Cole tips his chin up. “That’s right. All that money she told you she came into when her parents passed, she didn’t get shit from them.”

  “They didn’t leave me anything?” Crystal asks, reappearing out of nowhere.

  My brother’s face heats. He glances away from her. “No.”

  “Did they leave y’all anything?”

  “Yeah, right,” I say. “We’re the spawns of Satan. Pretty sure they left us nothing.”

  She frowns. “I can’t keep taking your money, Cole.”

  “It’s not just my money,” he says, rubbing a spot over his ear, just like he’s always done as a kid.

  “Whose money is it?” I ask.

  “Ours.” He finally looks at me. “I’ve been writing songs for Rae for a while now. Discovered that I had a real talent for it. There’s money in the bank for you. I was waiting to give it to you when you decided where you wanted to go.”

  “I don’t want your money,” I say.

  “Don’t care. You wouldn’t take your half of The Double Deuce, so at least take this.”

  “I don’t need it.”

  “Don’t be a punk. Take the money. You need it. I know you do. No one would voluntarily live at that place if they did.”

  “Maybe I’m saving up.”

  “How will you pay for school?” he presses.

  “Don’t worry about it,” I say, growing more uncomfortable by the minute.

  “Who else will worry about it—her? Him? My dad?” He laughs, but it’s bitter. “It’s always been the Morgan boys against the world. It’s always been us looking out for one another.”

  “But you have a family now. I can’t take that from them.” I’m grasping at straws now. My sister-in-law is a famous country music singer who has more money than she could probably spend in a lifetime.

  “Parker—”

  “Drop it, okay?” I turn to Crystal. “I think it’s great you know what’s wrong with you and congrats on the baby. But I’m fucking tired. Where can I crash?”

  Crystal leads me to a room with a view of a lake. “The next time y’all come with Kelly, I can show her the room that’s waiting for a little princess like her.”

  I glance at the bed. “Are Cole and I bunking up together?”

  “No. Y’all have your own rooms, too.”

  “What about when the baby’s born?” I can’t help but ask.

  “There’s a nursery attached to the master bedroom.” She walks to me, stopping just shy of touching me. “Does Cole know you paid for my medical bills?”

  “No.” I didn’t think she knew either.

  “They weren’t cheap, baby. I saw the last bill before I left Forrestville.” She tucks a strand of pale hair behind her ear. “What did you do to pay them?”

  I can’t stand to look at the concern in her eyes. It’s not foreign to me, but I don’t want it. I don’t want to be reminded of any of that, especially since I haven’t shared the whole truth with Brooklyn.

  Taking a deep breath, I force my gaze back to hers. “What I had to.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Parker

  I sleep for ten hours straight, waking up when the sun is beginning to set. Automatically, I check my phone, worried that Brooklyn tried to call and only got voicemail.

  When we first arrived, I had texted her and received a love you, miss you, hurry home message in return. Cole had tried to read over my shoulder, but I wouldn’t let him.

  I scroll through my texts, finding absolutely nothing from Brooklyn. With a frown, I go through my voicemail and missed calls. Nothing.

  Cole ambles into my room, holding his phone over his head. “Signal isn’t worth shit out here. Yours any better?”

  “We have the same carrier,” I say on a yawn. “I’m going to call Brooklyn on the landline.”

  “So, you and he
r, huh?”

  “Yep.” I scratch my chest and sit up. “What’s the food situation?”

  “Healthy shit you like.”

  “I’m in the mood for wings and beer. Care to join me?”

  “Thought you’d never ask.”

  Ten minutes later, we’re dressed and headed out the door.

  “You’re not staying for supper?” Ford asks.

  “Nope,” we simultaneously answer.

  I hear my mother sigh. “Will you be back soon?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Guys,” Ford says with an edge of warning in his voice. “You will respect your mother, especially in her own house.”

  We turn, striding back to the living room. Cole is first to hug her, and he stiffens when she hugs him back. “Have fun, but be careful.”

  I kiss her cheek. “We won’t be too late.”

  “You’re grown men. What kind of say do I have in your comings or goings,” she says with a wink.

  I look at Ford. He nods at the bottle on the counter.

  “So, that’s what it’s like to have a mom like everyone else,” Cole says as we walk outside and get into the rental car. He drives us into town and finds the nearest bar with food, parking near the front.

  Lighting a cigarette, he offers me one. “You look like you could use it.”

  I take it and put it in my mouth, relishing the feel of it. “God, what I wouldn’t give for just one more last smoke.”

  “I have a lighter.” He waves it around in the air, the flame glowing blue and orange.

  “I have healthy lungs.” I throw the unlit cigarette in the trash. “Weren’t you supposed to have quit?”

  “Last one,” he says, blowing out a smoke ring. “Or not. My nerves are shot to hell and back.”

  “When are we leaving?”

  “I’d drive our asses to the airport right this second if I thought Rae wouldn’t kick my ass.”

  “She told you to come out here?”

  “Yeah, said I needed to do it for me.”

  “Huh.” I shove my hands into my pockets. “Brooklyn said the same thing.”

  “Sounds like a smart woman.” He grinds the cigarette into the bottom of his boot and throws it away. “When do I get to meet her?”

  I shrug. “At the wedding.”

  “When’s West getting married?”

  “No idea.”

  “You’re not helping him plan it?”

  I flip him off, and he opens the door. We walk inside, grab two barstools, and order a round of beer and wings.

  “It’s not his wedding,” I say.

  “Then whose?”

  “Mine.”

  Cole chokes on his beer, and I slap him on the back a couple of times. “Don’t pull shit like that on me.”

  “I’m not pulling anything.” But I am enjoying this. It’s not often I can get one over on him.

  “But you’ve know each other for—”

  “Twenty-four days.”

  “You’re shitting me.”

  “Says the man who proposed to a woman he hadn’t seen in months,” I point out.

  “That was different.”

  I take a drink of my beer. “Yeah, you were also broken up with her at the time.”

  “I’ll admit that you have very good points, but—”

  “There are no buts. Brooklyn is the one for me, and when I get back from this lovely family reunion, I’m going to marry her.”

  “Does she know this?”

  “No, I thought I would surprise her with a wedding she knows nothing about,” I deadpan.

  Suddenly, Cole cracks a smile. “You’re on television.”

  “What?”

  He points with his bottle. “Right up there. I’d recognize you anywhere. What the hell?”

  I turn in time to read the bottom of the screen as the words scroll past. “Escort Agency. Scandal.” And then there’s me, leading Mrs. Groves to the elevator where she gets down on her knees in front of me. “Fuck.”

  “Care to explain?” Cole asks.

  “Not really.” I fumble for my phone and call Brooklyn.

  “She doesn’t know?”

  “Not all of it.”

  “All of it?”

  “Not now, Cole.” My call goes to voicemail. “Fuck.”

  “How long?” he asks, his jaw hard.

  “I don’t do it anymore.”

  “But you used to. That video was of you, and it was recent.”

  “Yeah, it was me, but the date’s wrong,” I glance around the bar to see if anyone’s staring at me, but they’re not. Yet. “Can we get out of here?”

  I pay the bar tab and head outside with Cole trailing behind me. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “No.”

  “Are you in trouble?”

  “No.” I open the door and fold myself into the seat of the sports car Cole had thought would be awesome to rent.

  “Were you in trouble?” he asks, once he’s seated.

  “No.”

  “Dammit, Parker. Talk to me. I want to know what the hell possessed you to do… that.”

  “Whore myself out?” I supply.

  “Don’t you fucking call yourself that,” he says, his voice hoarse. “Don’t you ever fucking call yourself that.”

  “I needed the money.”

  “Don’t lie to me. I know you. I fucking raised you.”

  “We needed the money. Crystal needed the money.” Cole hits the gas pedal so hard that I brace my hands against the dash.

  “Slow the fuck down,” I shout at him.

  “Don’t tell me what to do. Don’t you tell me…I can’t believe she made you do it.”

  “Cole—”

  “Was it her pimps or suppliers?”

  “Cole,” I say louder, but he’s not listening.

  “Maybe her rehab. She loved going to those places—no whiny kids to deal with. No worrying about feeding or buying them clothes, because you’re too fucking high to care while you detox.”

  “I did it because I fucking loved it,” I roar. “I did it to pay off our bills, our rent, and whatever else came up, like food or when Kelly needed shoes.”

  “What did you say?”

  “I was fifteen and loved the fucking money.” The car swerves, and I jam my feet against the floorboards. “It felt good to earn it, not to worry about money anymore. But it wasn’t until Crystal overdosed the first time that I started doing more, and I had to keep doing more, even when I didn’t want to. The bills kept coming in and we had Kelly. So, I upped my game, gave the women what they wanted and—”

  “Jesus,” he breathes. “I do not need to hear this.”

  “Yeah, well maybe you should hear this. Because, not once did you ever question how I made the extra money. Not once.” I shake my head, the anger I’d always kept under control finally breaking free. “You always assumed I was with West or picked up an extra shift somewhere. Even when I had scratches on my body you never questioned it, because I’m the one who was so fucking sweet. I’m the Morgan boy who everybody loves, the one who always does the right thing even if it’s killing him inside.”

  “I’m sorry that the words do you fuck women for money never came out of my mouth,” he growls. “But I was too busy working my own ass off at the time to think of it.” He punches the steering wheel. “Damn it, Parker. Why didn’t you come to me? I would have done more. I would have done anything so you didn’t have to.”

  “I did what I had to do in order to survive,” I say simply. “We both did.”

  “But that video was recent.”

  “And I did what I had to do so that I would never, ever be put in that position again. I saved up a lot, hardly spent anything… I’m good for a while.”

  “You’re done?”

  “Yeah.” I relax into the seat a little.

  “I don’t mean discussing this. I mean with the… you know.”

  “I know what you meant.”

  “And Brooklyn knows?”
<
br />   “Most of it, but I have no idea what it will do to her to see me on television like that. Or what that video could do to you and Rae.”

  “Still love you,” he says. “Don’t care what you do—what you used to do. Still love you.”

  I clear my throat a couple of times, rubbing my eyes a little. “Love you too, bro.”

  “We’ll get through this,” he says, but as I call Brooklyn again and immediately get sent to voicemail, I start to question if he’s right.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Parker

  Just like always, nothing is ever fully resolved with Crystal or with the man she claims to be my dad. Thing is, I don’t care anymore. Maybe some people need closure, but I don’t. Or maybe closure for me is realizing that.

  But, what I do need is Brooklyn. She still hasn’t answered any of my calls or texts. I’m not above begging or groveling when the situation calls for it, and this one does, but a small part of me—that’s getting bigger with each passing minute—is pissed.

  Cole drops me off at my house, and I grab my suitcase, throw it in the back of my truck and drive to Brooklyn’s. It’s Saturday morning, so she should be home.

  Brooklyn’s SUV is parked in her usual spot, and I pull in behind it. For a minute, I sit there, collecting my thoughts as I try to calm down, but I’m nervous as shit and terrified as hell she won’t answer the door.

  Finally, I get out and walk to the front porch, knocking on the front door. Brooklyn opens it. “Come inside.”

  Taken aback by her invitation, I stand there for a couple of seconds. I had expected screaming, shouting, or angry accusations when she opened the door, but all I get is polite southern girl.

  Somehow this is worse. Her non-reaction is worse.

  “How was your trip?” she asks.

  “What I thought it would be—my mother playing the constant victim, Ford sort of defending her, and then we discover the real reason for her problems.” I run a hand through my hair. “Honestly, it was exhausting.”

  She sits down on the sofa in the living room. “Sounds like it.”

  “Your phone working okay? I called and texted you, but you didn’t respond.”

  Her face pales. “I didn’t know what to say.”