“That supposed to be fatherly advice?” she snipped, because it was either be snippy or start bawling.
Kyle gave her a sad smile as he turned to go. “Just...think about it. Let me know when you want to talk.” He straightened. “I’m not going to throw away a second chance to be a part of your life. You have always been my greatest hit, honey.”
Alex showed him out, leaving Brooke alone with her tumbled thoughts and her sleeping son. Now that some of the shock of the attack and fight was wearing off, she was more confused than ever.
Kyle Morgan was her father, but he’d completely abdicated any responsibility for her, choosing to be a friend instead of a parent. He’d abandoned Mom, but had helped Brooke as she’d worked her way up in country music. But he hadn’t wanted her unless she was easy and talented. He was a selfish, egotistical asshole, and forgiveness would be a long time coming, if ever.
Flash, on the other hand, wanted to marry her and make it legal—not just in name only, like Kyle and Crissy had, but as a real family. He wanted to be a part of Bean’s life. He’d talked about building her a studio on his ranch in Texas and buying Bean a pony. He’d introduced her to his family and staked his claim in front of what felt like the whole world.
Was what happened tonight a deal breaker? Or was she overreacting? If she walked away from Flash, was she doing the same thing Kyle had done? Pushing Flash out of her life because it was easier?
She simply didn’t know what the right answer was.
Probably because there wasn’t one.
Eighteen
Flash woke up in the hospital to find Milt Lawrence sitting next to the bed, watching baseball. That seemed off. Dad was supposed to be in Texas. Texas was a long way from Nashville. Or was Flash in Texas?
“What time is it?” Flash asked groggily. Or tried to. Damn it, his jaw had been wired shut again.
“High time you woke up,” Dad replied, clicking off the television. “That was a hell of a concussion that ass gave you. But don’t worry,” he went on, and Flash thought the old man winked, but it was hard to tell because one of Flash’s eyes was swollen. “You did a hell of a lot more damage.”
That sounded bad. “Didn’t kill him?”
“Naw, he’s alive and pissed. You’ve bested him twice. His pride is never going to recover and Oliver’s working to have him brought up on charges. Plus, your sister has banned him from ever entering an All-Stars event again and I believe she’s gotten him kicked off the Total Bull Challenge, too. She can be very persuasive when she wants to be.” Dad chuckled. “Mighty proud of that girl, going to the mat for her family like that.”
Flash grunted.
Dad stood on bow legs and peered down at Flash’s face. It took Flash’s eyes a second to focus. “Never known anyone who had such a glass jaw but could keep fighting.”
“Thanks, Dad,” he slurred. He didn’t care about his jaw at the moment. He only cared about two things. “Brooke? Baby?”
Dad’s smile cracked a little and he sat back down. “They’re fine. Not really in the mood to deal with your brother and sister. That friend of hers has been sending updates, though.”
Flash tried to think, but he could tell he was on painkillers. His brain was muddy and he couldn’t see through the silt. Dad couldn’t be saying what Flash was afraid he was saying. “Need her.”
“Not sure that’s the best idea at the moment,” Dad said, sounding sad about it. “You gave her quite a fright. But, hell, I saw the tape. I’d have done the exact same thing. When someone threatens the woman you love, you step up and throw down to protect her. You did the right thing.”
“Don’t love her.” Funny, those words really hurt to say.
Thankfully, Dad was having no trouble understanding Flash’s slurring. “That’s not what it looked like to me, boy.”
“Like her. Lots.” Protecting her had been the most important thing he’d ever done and, if he had to, he’d beat the hell out of Tex again. Anything to take care of her and James. “Need her.”
“Son,” Dad began in that tone that signaled Flash was in for a hell of a lecture, “I don’t know who you think you’re trying to fool, but I’ve got eyes and I’ve loved my Trixie far longer than you’ve been walking on this planet.”
“She doesn’t trust me,” Flash said, or tried to say. “She hid the baby from me.”
“So?”
Flash managed to roll his eyes at that, although it hurt like hell.
“I’m serious,” Dad said, leaning forward to meet Flash’s gaze. “No, I don’t think she should’ve kept that kid from you—but I can count, son. I did the math. I’m betting she saw those headlines, just like everyone else did. And your sister says that Brooke’s mother is a problem.”
“Huge problem,” Flash agreed. His father was making sense. Never a good sign.
“So she had her reasons. And you have yours. But if you’re waiting for the stars to line up and everything to be perfect in a relationship, then you’re gonna spend the rest of your life alone, pining for the girl that got away from you. You’re in love with her, and don’t even try to deny it—I know you, boy. She’s pretty crazy for you, too, from what I can tell. But everything that comes after that, including faith and trust and love, is a choice. Every day you have to choose to do what it takes to be in love, to stay in love and then? Then you’ve got to do the work.”
Flash blinked at his old man in confusion. “But...you and Mom?”
Milt Lawrence snorted. “There were times your mother, bless her soul, didn’t like me very much. More than once she almost strung me up by my toes and I’m not too proud to admit I deserved it. And, as much as it pains me to say, there were days when she drove me up a wall. We had our fights, although we made sure you kids didn’t know. But the next day, we’d choose to love each other all over again and do the work. Every single day, I made it my job to show her not just that I loved her and needed her and trusted her, but that I was the man she could love, trust and need, come hell or high water.” He snorted again. “I never cheated. I made time for her. I put her needs first and I was there for you kids. And let me tell you, flowers never hurt a thing.”
Was Flash hearing this right? His parents’ marriage had always seemed so perfect—a love story for the ages. At no point had it looked like work.
“A year ago...” Dad rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “A year ago, I don’t think you would’ve been capable of it. I sure as hell wouldn’t have told you to go get your girl. Wouldn’t have been fair to the girl,” he added with a chuckle.
“Thanks, Dad,” Flash slurred. His head was spinning and he had no idea if it was the drugs or the concussion or the jaw or...
The truth.
He and Brooke hadn’t chosen each other after their one-night stand. But doing the work...that sounded a lot like proving Brooke could trust him.
Would she choose to prove he could trust her? Or would she bail?
Dad kept going. “But you got your act together. You did the work on yourself and, Lord knows, I’ve never been prouder of you. So now? Now I know you can do the right thing. I know you’ve got it in you, Flash.”
A warm feeling spread through Flash’s chest. He had, hadn’t he? That year of sobriety and anger management and, yes, celibacy had been the longest, hardest year of his life. Every single day he’d had to get up and choose to stay on the straight and narrow, even when it sucked.
There wasn’t just one thing he could do or say that would prove to Brooke he was worthy of her. He had to show her, day in and day out. It’d take a lifetime to prove it, but it’d be a lifetime with her.
Because he loved her.
Damn it, he hated when his dad was right. Made the man insufferable.
“So give her a few days to cool off. You don’t have a choice—you’re being held for observation for that concussion.” He sighed heavily. “Fla
sh, you’re not gonna want to hear this, but...”
For a panicked second, Flash thought Brooke had called in lawyers. But then Dad wouldn’t be giving him that pep talk if Brooke was done with him, right?
“Your jaw can’t take another break,” Dad said, his voice...sad, almost. “This one is going to take a few more surgeries before it’s all said and done.” He cleared his throat, a sound like a tractor engine turning over. “Might not be best for you to compete anymore.”
That sounded like... the end. The end of a career.
Like his body couldn’t take the jarring from bucking broncos and bulls, like steer wrestling was completely off the table. Maybe he could still do calf roping?
Oh, hell—was he done? Done done?
No.
No! This was his year! Cowboy of the Year was his for the taking! He’d finally earned his place at the table and he was the best in the world! Hell, he’d been chasing the rodeo for over half his life. If he wasn’t chasing the buckle, what was he doing?
But the moment the question crossed his fuzzy mind, the answer followed it. He’d known it since he’d seen Brooke up there, trying to protect their son from Tex.
Nothing mattered more than she did.
Brooke and Bean were everything to him. The rodeo was...just a job.
He’d be a husband and a father. He’d be there to read bedtime stories to his son and travel with Brooke when she toured. Maybe there’d be more children, babies he’d be able to hold the moment they came into the world. Brooke would test her songs out for him, and he’d be by her side when she did things like walk the red carpet at the Grammys or the Country Music Awards.
A family of love and laughter, for the rest of his life. That was his future. Not another buckle or another brawl.
Or another broken jaw.
He’d show up and do the work because Brooke was worth it.
One problem with that plan.
He needed to get to Brooke right now.
Dad grabbed his hand away from the IV before Flash could pull it out. “Knock that off, son. You’re no good to anyone all busted up.”
“How long?” He had hazy memories of time passing, but clearly he’d been sedated so the doctors could work on his jaw. Stupid head injuries.
“Day and a half. Oliver sent the company jet to get me.” His phone chimed. “Hey, listen to this—your sister forwarded this to me. Know what the press is saying? Here. ‘Flash Lawrence Defends Fiancée Brooke Bonner in All-Stars Brawl.’ You’re a hero, son.”
Yeah, a hero to everyone. Did that include Brooke?
“Need her,” he mumbled to his father.
“I know you do. Lawrence men fall hard and fast and forever. It was the same with your mother, God rest her soul.”
A hush settled in the hospital room, except for all the beeping. Hey, he’d noticed the beeping! Maybe his head was starting to clear.
Then it came to him. Flowers were great, but he needed to show Brooke that he knew her and cared for her.
“Tea,” Flash managed to say. Yeah, his head was definitely clearing because his jaw was starting to throb. But the pain was good. It centered him and gave him something to fight against.
“What was that?” Dad leaned in closer.
“Send her tea. And honey. Good honey. From me.”
Dad leaned into Flash’s line of sight, a crafty grin on his face. “That,” he said, “I can do.”
Nineteen
“Just so we’re all operating on the same page, let’s look at the footage,” Kari Stockard, the PR exec, said as the footage of the All-Stars Rodeo from two weeks ago began to run. “As you can see, we arranged for Brooke and the baby to be behind the chutes for a touching moment with Flash Lawrence.”
Two weeks since Brooke had last seen Flash. It felt like a lifetime. She kept telling herself she was still making up her mind about him, but that was a lie.
She was doing the exact same thing she’d done after she’d discovered she was pregnant. She was hiding.
And she hated it.
Brooke stared in horrified fascination as her life played out on the screen in a conference room at her record label’s executive offices, surrounded by men in suits and her new manager, Janet Worthington. Bean trilled in delight when the camera zoomed in on Brooke’s face. Because Bean went everywhere with her now. She didn’t have to hide him anymore. And also, because Mom was no longer his primary babysitter.
She didn’t want to watch the exact moment she’d lost control of her life again. She was still having nightmares about living it.
But she was seeing it now while Kari talked over the video. Brooke watched as Flash kissed her and then cuddled Bean, and it took Brooke’s breath away because it’d all been for show, right?
But that’s not what she saw. What she saw was real. Real adoration in Flash’s eyes when he’d looked at her, real tenderness as he’d held his son.
She saw real love in her eyes when she’d kissed him for good luck.
It was as plain as day that Flash Lawrence loved her.
It was all over his face, in every single movement he made, in every touch between them. He was head over heels in love with her. And she...
The camera caught her touching her lips as Flash walked away from her, a happy smile lighting up her face. She didn’t even remember doing that, but apparently she had.
Oh, God—it hadn’t been for show.
It’d been real. All of it.
The camera cut back to Brooke and Bean, still on top of the chute. This time, that terrible Tex McGraw started advancing on her.
Brooke gasped in shock to see the horror that’d been on her face. She watched helplessly as Alex lunged but missed and suddenly Tex had hold of Brooke, his hand digging into her arm and then...
Then Flash had been there, moving so fast he was little more than a blur. He’d gotten Tex off her and she had to swallow back tears as she watched herself stumble, struggling to hold on to her son. Then Alex rushed her down from the chutes, and that was when the video clicked off and a graph came up on the screen.
Kari was talking again but Brooke couldn’t listen. She had to keep her gaze on the top of Bean’s head while she struggled for control. The incident was every bit as bad as she remembered and yet...not as bad, either.
Because Flash loved her. It was so obvious.
Why hadn’t she seen it at the time?
What would Tex McGraw have done if Flash hadn’t been there?
Alex had been right. Brooke hadn’t been able to separate her terror at the attack from her feelings for Flash. All those emotions had sloshed around, mixing together.
She looked down at Flash’s ring glinting brightly on her finger.
It’d been real to Flash. She remembered him saying he wouldn’t ask her to marry him again, but the offer was on the table. She’d thought he’d been asking her out of duty or a concern about custody.
But had he really been asking her to marry him?
“As you can see from this chart, the number of social media hits from the last two weeks has been tremendous and the reception has been overwhelmingly positive,” Kari explained to the bored-looking suits. “People are not only excited for Brooke’s new album, but they can’t get enough of Brooke and Flash!”
He had. He’d been asking Brooke to marry him because he wanted her. Not just her body or a quickie against the door but her, Brooke Bonner. Hadn’t he said as much?
And what had she done?
The one thing Kyle Morgan had told her not to do because it’d be the regret of her life. She was perilously close to walking away.
What was she doing?
“Brooke?”
Brooke startled. Everyone in the room was staring at her, expecting an answer, maybe? “Yes?”
Kari’s smile tightened. “When can we
schedule an interview and photo shoot with you, Flash and that beautiful baby boy?” Clearly, she’d already asked once.
How could Brooke schedule interviews and photo shoots? She hadn’t spoken to Flash since that awful night! She’d ignored his gifts, his notes.
Brooke looked helplessly at Janet Worthington, her new manager. Janet had heard the whole messy story, mostly so she could successfully run interference in situations like this.
“Who did you have in mind?” Janet asked, keeping her tone cool.
“People is our first choice, but we’ve had offers...” Kari launched into the pros and cons of the print publications.
Brooke tuned it all out because it was nothing but noise.
Because Flash had sent the most thoughtful, charming, perfect gifts, starting with a box of jasmine green tea and local clover honey with a note that read, “I will never stop fighting for you and Bean.”
The next day, a sampler of black teas and a different honey—wildflower—had been delivered. “I have faith in you,” the note had said.
Every day since, different flavors of tea and honey and occasionally delicate teacups or thermal mugs and, once, even a plastic toy tea set for Bean had shown up, each with a short note written in Flash’s scrawl. He missed her. He hoped Bean was letting her sleep and having fun getting out and about. He asked about how the plans for her album were going. Was she doing okay with Kyle and her mother? Did she need anything from him? He’d be there for her.
The last note—the one from yesterday—had said, “I choose you. I want to do the work. You’re worth it.”
Flash loved her.
He hadn’t said the words—it was true—but his love was in every cup of tea she drank, in every bit of honey sweetness.
He wasn’t backing her into a corner and he wasn’t forcing her to make a choice. Instead, he’d spent the last two weeks showing her how much he cared, and she hadn’t responded. Not even to check on him.
Bean fussed. Brooke took the chance to escape. “Is there anything else you need me for?”
His for One Night Page 16
