For Now (Forever Book 1)

by Richards, Kylee

  “You love me?” I whisper in awe.

  “I mean, um…” she stammers.

  I stop her sentence by pressing my lips to hers. I whisper against her lips, “That is all that I need from you. I consider it my job to protect you and do what it takes to make you happy. I love you too.” I whisper into her hair and pull her closer to me. She sighs, contentedly and within a minute, she’s asleep again.

  Chapter 35

  Elaina

  “Oh Ellie, it’s so nice to see you again.” Cam’s mom, Beverly is walking towards me with her arms extended. She pulls me in for a tight hug.

  I laugh as I hug her back. “You too, Beverly.” I’m already sad that I don’t know when I’ll see her again. She’s an amazing woman, who kind reminds me of my mom.

  We have made it to LA after doing a few shows in northern California. Beverly is making us all lunch before the final U.S. show. There’s one night left then I’ll be going back home to Chicago. I’m still not sure what will happen between Cam and me. I don’t think I could move here and be so far away from Karen, Jackson and Amy, but Cam can’t really do his job from anywhere, he has to be with Ryder. Cam says we will get though and we will. I asked him to come and visit me in Chicago for a week when he gets back from the world tour. I’ve also promised to call and text every day.

  Isabel is the next person to come out of the house and give me a hug. “I’m glad I got to see you before you went home. We will have to keep in touch.”

  “Of course and you’ll have to come visit sometime.” I really like her, though I don’t know if I could handle her and Amy at the same time. That would be a lot of crazy for one room.

  She nods then screams as Caleb lifts her up for a huge bear hug.

  “Did you see that? I think my family likes you more than me. My mom hugged you first,” Cam says with a playful pout.

  “What can I say? She has good taste,” I tease.

  “I can’t argue with that.”

  I look around to see if anyone else is listening to us. They are all talking about the tour, so no one was paying attention, though I see Isabel eyeing me. “Cam, do you think they will hate me when they find out about us?” I can’t stand the thought of any degree of hatred from them.

  “No, they may be upset at me for keeping this from them. My dad will be mad about the risk I took being with you while you were supposed to be with Ryder, but they won’t be mad at you.”

  “Ugh, this is a hard situation. I don’t want to cause problems for you.”

  “Any problems that I have are my own doing and I’d do it again. Just one more night of this facade. It’s just for now, then we can tell my family and face whatever comes next. Together.”

  Before I have a chance to respond to him, Isabel loops her arm though mine and is pulling me inside. “If you don’t want the parentals to know about you and Cam, you might want to cool it with the intense gazes,” she whispers in my ear. I blush.

  “Do you think they suspect anything?” I whisper.

  “Mom might, but dad is oblivious. So are you two going to tell them after the show tomorrow?”

  “I think Cam might. I don’t want to cause problems in your family.” I frown.

  “I know Cam. He wouldn’t be doing this if he didn’t feel strongly about you, he never goes against Dad’s wishes, but you have given him a reason to. He loves you enough to take whatever Dad is going to say.”

  She opens the door to the house and gestures for me to go in first. The house is beautiful. When you first walk in, there’s a curved, marble staircase on either side of the entrance. Off to the left is a sitting room and to the right a study. And a chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Yes, a freaking chandelier.

  “Wow,” is all I can say as Isabel comes in behind me. This is nothing like the way I grew up. I feel very much like a fish out of water.

  Beverly enters and leads me to a large formal dining room and urges me to sit and tells Cam to sit down in the seat next to me. Isabel might be right, she might suspect something. She obviously isn’t upset about it, if she’s seating us next to each other.

  Everyone else files into the room and has a seat. Beverly has made a lot of food, there is chicken parmesan, potatoes, gravy and spaghetti. I look over to Cam and smile, this was the first meal, we attempted to make together. He’s smiling to, he obviously had the same thoughts. He must have told her about that night.

  “Who are you trying to impress?” Ryder asks Beverly. “We never sit in the formal dining room when we come over.”

  “Oh, you’ve eaten in here before. I wanted to have a nice night with Ellie since I didn’t know when she would be back.”

  Cam’s dad, Mitch seems confused. I can tell that he just assumed, that I’d go back home to my life Chicago. Having a pretend ex-girlfriend of your son’s best friend stick around, wouldn’t really make much sense.

  From across the table, Alex pulls the bowl of potatoes away from me. “Sorry, Ellie, I won’t have you ruining this dinner too,” he teases. I blush and everyone laughs.

  “Hey, Cam is the one that started it by leaving the mixer on as he took it out of the bowl and getting potatoes all over my face.” Cam is laughing hard now and clutching his side.

  “I knew I should have taught him more in the kitchen when he was younger. How is he going to make a good husband someday, if he can’t even help his wife cook?” She shakes her head regretfully.

  “I don’t help you cook and you still keep me around,” Mitch says. “Besides, he was with me, learning valuable life lessons.”

  After dinner, Isabel slides up beside me. “Want a tour of the house?”

  “I should really help your mother with the dishes.”

  “I’ve got it, you’re the guest. You two go on and have fun.”

  My jaw drops a little when Alex, Eric, Caleb, and Ryder all stand up and help her carry dishes to the kitchen. They obviously have a lot of love and respect for this woman if they are cleaning up. I had a hard time just getting them to clean up their dirty clothes lying around the bus.

  Isabel leads me up the staircase to the right. She opens the first door. “Mom set this room up for you, if you want to stay here after the show tonight. She didn’t know if you’d want to go back to one of the guys’ houses or if you’d be more comfortable here.”

  “This room is amazing.” Three of my bedrooms at home would fit in here. There’s a very inviting, four post, king size bed on one wall with huge, fluffy pillows. In front of the window there is a seat with build-in book shelves surrounding it. She leads me to the attached bathroom that is bigger than my room. In there, everything is granite. There’s a Jacuzzi tub and a shower large enough to fit four people. “I think I may just live in this room.”

  “Don’t tell my mom that, or she will hold you to it. She loves having guests in the house.”

  “Come on, there’s more to see.” She leads me to the room across the hall and pulls me in.

  “He might kill me for brining you in here.”

  “This was Cam’s room?” I guess.

  “Yep.”

  I walk around the room taking everything in. It looks like nothing has been touched since he left for college. Pictures of Cam from high school are on the shelves, along with several trophies.

  “He was good, wasn’t he?” I say pointing to a picture of him on the football field; ball in his hands, running down the field.

  “He was; football was all he ever talked about. It drove my dad crazy.”

  “Why?”

  “Dad wanted Cam with him after school, learning more about the music industry.”

  “I would have loved to have known him back then. Though, I didn’t hang out with football players in high school, we would have probably been in two different social circles.”

  “Who did you hang out with?”

  “I kept to myself a lot. When I first moved to Chicago, I wanted nothing to do with anyone and I guess it kind of stuck. I had a few close friends, but I mostly
read, did homework and help my Aunt Karen in the kitchen of her bar. In college, I made more friends and met my best friend, Amy. She is nothing like me, but we have a great time together. You remind me of her a little.”

  “Come on, let’s get out of here before Cam sees us.”

  We tour the rest of the house, each room, even more staggering than the last. As we get back to the front entrance, Isabel goes to find her mom to see if she needs help and I want to find Cam. I hear Cam and his father talking in the study.

  “What you do mean, you need some time off, Cam?”

  “I just need a few weeks off. Can’t Isabel tour with the band for a week until I can get there? She has been wanting to learn more about the industry.”

  “Cam, you are Ryder’s PA, not Isabel, this is your job. You can’t just pass it off onto your sister whenever you feel like you need some time off. You signed up for this, you need to do your job.”

  “Hey, want to go get ready with me? I’m coming to the show tonight.” I jump, when I hear Isabel behind me, afraid that she caught me eavesdropping, but she doesn’t seem to notice.

  “Um sure. I noticed that you and Ryder still aren’t talking; I’m surprised that you want to go. And you seem a little sad tonight Are you okay?” We start up the stairs towards her room.

  “I’m fine and I’m not going for Ryder. My brother is heading overseas and you are leaving to go back home. I want to spend a little more time with you two before you both leave.”

  “We’re both leaving,” I whisper. “We’re leaving. That’s what we have, we have one more night.” I look to Isabel with panic in my eyes. She pulls me into her room and sits me down on her bed. She wraps her arms around me.

  “Hey, it’ll be okay. He loves you. You two will find a way to make it work.”

  I shake my head. “Even if I moved here to be near him, he wouldn’t be here. Would he?”

  Isabel doesn’t say anything, but she doesn’t have to. I already know the answer.

  **********

  “Are you happy that this is your last night on duty?” Alex asks me as we all sit in the dressing room before the show. Ryder is giving a few interviews in another room.

  “Um, yeah, I guess. I’m ready to be home. I’m sorry, I need to use the restroom.” I get up and head out into the hallway. I’m having a hard time keeping it together in front of everyone. I find a quiet hallway and give myself a few minutes to calm down. I know what I need to do, but this is going to kill me.

  “Elaina.” Cam is behind me now.

  “Cam, please don’t.”

  “Don’t what Elaina?”

  “Don’t do this, we both know what is coming for us and what needs to happen now. I love you and I’m thankful for the time that we spent but…”

  “No!” Cam interrupts. I flinch at his tone. He hurries towards me and wraps his arms around me. “We can’t leave it like this. I want to be with you. I love you. I had something that I wanted to tell you.”

  “You love her?” Cam stiffens at Ryder’s voice.

  “Ryder, I…” Cam starts.

  “I trusted you to tell me everything. You were supposed to be there for me,” Ryder yells.

  Oh god. A few members of the press who was interviewing Ryder, heard the commotion and are now standing at the end of the hall, open-mouthed. A few start taking photographs. Cam lets go of me and turns to Ryder.

  Ryder shoves Cam back into the wall. Cam doesn’t fight back though. Security is now pulling the press away, but it doesn’t matter, they got their pictures and they already heard everything. The rest of the band must have heard something and came out of the dressing room. Caleb pulls Ryder away from Cam.

  “Okay, I think we need to take a few minutes to calm down.” Caleb tells everyone.

  Isabel is looking at me with pity in her eyes.

  “Elaina, we still need to talk about this,” Cam says.

  “I’m sorry, Cam. We can talk in the morning, but I just need to get out of here.”

  I start down the hallway. “Want me to drive?” Isabel asks.

  “Please.” Tears are now streaming down my face.

  She leads me out of the stage door and toward her car. The press must have called people outside the stadium because there’s lot of paparazzi waiting for us at the gate trying to ask us questions as we pull out. They work fast.

  “Why did you do it? You had one of the hottest rockers in the world right now and you cheat on him with his PA?” one person asks.

  “Were you just using him for his money?” another asks.

  “Hold on,” Isabel says as she pulls out into the street. Her driving is a little terrifying.

  I look back and several of them hop into cars and pull out into the road behind us. Some of them speeding up now and getting dangerously close.

  Isabel turns right, down an alley to get away from the leaches with cameras. I glace over at her from the passenger seat and grab the handle to brace myself. Her big blue eyes are now squinted in concentration. They all want a picture of me, the woman that tamed and then broke the heart of the famous bad boy rocker, Ryder Kinick.

  She turns back on a major road and they are still following us, who knew I was so interesting. I reach over to turn off the radio and try to help Isabel navigate through the streets, though I’ve never been in LA before.

  I look up in time to see the light changing to red and Isabel slams on the breaks. Less than a second later, a car filled with the paparazzi that were following us, slams into the back of Isabel’s car and pushes us into the intersection. I look over at the driver‘s seat to make sure Isabel is fine, she’s looking at me with fear in her eyes and screams, “Ellie!” In the next moment, I hear screeching tires before I feel the impact of the car. Everything goes black.

  Chapter 36

  Camden

  Why the hell won’t she just pick up the damn phone? I’ve tried calling Elaina ten times now, in between trying to calm Ryder down and ignoring calls from my father.

  “How the fuck did this happen?” Ryder yells.

  “Ryder, I didn’t mean to do it, I just couldn’t help it. I fell in love with her. I really tried to stop it. But I’ve just never meet anyone like her.”

  “I don’t care that you dated her. I care because you put my image at risk by fucking the girl that everyone thinks I’m dating and because you kept this from me. ”

  “It wasn’t fucking. I actual care about her and I said I’m sorry about not telling you.”

  My phone rings and I don’t even look at caller ID before I answer.

  “Elaina?”

  “Cam,” it’s my dad, “there’s been an accident.”

  “Dad, what happened?” I lean against the wall for support because I’m scared that I know what’s coming next.

  “Isabel and Ellie were at a stop light and were pushed out into oncoming traffic. A car stuck them. It was the fucking paparazzi that rear-ended them. I don’t know anything more. Your mom and I are headed to the hospital now.”

  I drop the phone and slide down the wall.

  “What happened?” Ryder asks.

  “It’s Elaina and Isabel. They were in an accident. Dad doesn’t know anything more.”

  “Why the fuck are we just sitting here? I need to get down there.”

  “I don’t have my car.” I shake my head.

  “I had someone drop my car off earlier. I can drive you two,” Mike offers.

  We all hurry out to the car, not even stopping to think about the fact that Ryder was supposed to be performing in ten minutes. Someone would take care of it, it isn’t like I have a job anymore, so why would I care. I just need to get to Elaina.

  It seems to take forever to get to the hospital. Mike drops us off at the emergency room entrance and we both rush in.

  “Elaina Roberts and Isabel Michael, we need to know where they are,” I tell the woman at the desk.

  “Okay, please calm down. Are you family?”

  “Yes, please just tell me.”


  Dad comes around the corner. “Camden.”

  “Dad, what’s going on? How are they?”

  “Isabel had some internal bleeding, but they are confident that she will be just fine.” I breathe a small sigh of relief.

  “What about Elaina?”

  Dad frowns, “The car stuck her side of the vehicle. She has some brain swelling that the doctors are trying to correct with medication. She’s still unconscious.”

  I drop to my knees and begin to cry. My mom is there pulling me to her. She’s pulling her fingers through my hair. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, Mom. I love her so fucking much. I can’t lose her like this.”

  “Shhh, I know sweetie. She’ll be fine, she’s strong. She put up with the five of you for two months.” She gives me a small, reassuring smile.

  Ryder sits down next to me. “I feel like I should be doing something,” he says.

  “Shit, I have to call Karen. I can’t let her find out on the news.”

  I sit up and take the phone out of my pocket and dial her number, dreading this conversation.

  “Cam?” she answers.

  “Karen, I’m so sorry, there has been an accident. Elaina is in the hospital. I’m so sorry, I was supposed to be there to protect her.”

  “Oh my god! How is she? I’m packing right now to fly out there.”

  “She’s still unconscious. I’m still waiting on more information. I’ll make arrangements for you and Jackson. I’ll text you will the details.”

  “Please keep me updated, Cam,” she says, her voice breaking at the end.

  “I will, I promise.”

  When I end the call, Dad finally speaks, “I can make the flight arrangements.”

  “Thanks, Dad.” I turn to my mom, “Do you think they will let me go in to see her?”

  She shakes her head. “No, I don’t think so, Sweetie. They said immediate family only.”

  “But she doesn’t have any family here. I’m the only person she has. They can’t just let her lie there alone. Someone has to let her know she isn’t alone.”