40. Cole
Chapter 40
Cole
T here was nothing like watching her onstage. I’d seen her in every possible light, now — half asleep and naked in our bed, crying and heaving over the toilet, flushed and moaning under my hands. But this? This was Annie on a whole new level. This was her little show for us in the living room and hotel rooms dialed up by a thousand.
She stood under the haze of the soft amber lights on the stage of the small but packed venue, her guitar hanging around her front like it had grown from her fingertips and lived there. The crowd had started out loud, talking through her opening number, clinking glasses and chatter filling the space. But two songs deep into her set and the venue had gone quiet — you could hear hearts breaking if you listened hard enough.
Xavi leaned in from my right, his voice in my ear. “She’s fucking unreal.”
On my left, Colton tapped his phone like a man possessed, scrolling and scrolling. “You guys watching the Live comments?”
I glanced down at my phone, the stream a few seconds behind, the volume off. The venue’s social media streamed their shows with a good camera and decent audio, and there were a few thousand viewers watching now. Most of the comments were fire emojis and hearts and men begging for her contact details. Typical.
But one caught my eye. Blue-check name. Big name. Connie Drayton — A&R, Siren Records. The comment read: Who is this? Need to speak to her ASAP. Tag her social!
Who…?
I tapped onto her page, my eyes going wide. “Holy shit.”
“What?” Xavi asked.
I turned my screen toward him, and Colton crowded around behind, trying to get a good look.
“No fucking way,” Xavi murmured.
“Check that’s legit, people can pay for blue checks now.” Colton hit my back like I didn’t already know that.
“Annie follows them, I don’t need to,” I said.
We all looked at each other, frozen in a moment where none of us knew what to think, eyes wide as Annie sang out in the background.
“She’s going to lose her fucking mind,” Colton grinned.
“She’s not even gonna believe us.” Xavi pulled out his phone, already going to Google, already looking up everything he could find on Connie Drayton. “Can you screenshot that comment?”
“Already did,” I chuckled, staring down at the phone like the comment might disappear if I blinked. “We’ll show her when she finishes her set. No waiting.”
The set wound down, but she didn’t fade, and neither did the crowd. It was as if every eye was on her, every ear turned toward her, every breath held. Her last song was something new — something we hadn’t even heard from her yet, but the melody was familiar enough that I wondered if it was the one I’d heard her humming in the shower this morning. The melody was almost haunting, and the lyrics stung in just the right way, the way she was so good at, the way that made you question how someone could think to pen that to page.
We were all entranced, but Xavi was staring at her like she’d hung the moon, like she was everything he’d ever wished for. And she was. She was everything all of us had ever wished for.
The crowd burst into wild applause as she thanked them, her eyes scanning the sea of bodies and finding us, her smile brightening further. She gave us a little wave, and I waved right back, caught off guard and nearly falling over as Colton’s arms swung around mine and Xavi’s shoulders.
“She’s about to get off, let’s go, go, go ,” he insisted, pushing us forward toward the door on the right.
We slipped through, shutting it behind us, the excitement buzzing in my brain and hands. Colton grabbed for my phone and pushed past the lone security guard who didn’t bother questioning, and we followed, taking the steps up to the side of the stage as she walked toward us, slipping her guitar strap over her body and carrying it at her side.
“Sweetheart, you’re not gonna believe this,” Colton said, beaming at her like no tomorrow as we caught up. He deposited my phone into her waiting hand and wrapped his arms around her from the side, tucking her into him, peppering the side of her head and face with kisses.
“No ‘great set’?” She teased, giggling as she leaned into it, her eyes falling down to the phone. “No ‘wow, what a great new song?—’”
She blinked as she stared at the screen, her mouth falling open, her hand twitching around my phone case. I took it from her before she inevitably dropped it, her eyes wide and flicking between the three of us.
“That’s—” she started, cutting herself off.
“Yep.” Xavi grinned as he leaned in, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “We saw it happen in real time.”
“Oh my god ,” she breathed. The bottom of her guitar hit the ground, and I grabbed for it, catching it before the whole thing could topple over. “That’s real? You’re not fucking with me? Please tell me you guys aren’t fucking with me.”
“Real as hell, sweetheart,” Colton murmured into her hair. “Cole’s already sent them your contact details. They want to talk to you.”
Tears pricked the corners of her eyes, her lips trembling like she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “You guys did this, didn’t you? Reached out earlier or something?—”
“Nope,” I cut in. I set her guitar down against the wall and took her face in my hands, Colton retreating just enough to let me. “You did this, darling. You .”
She couldn’t stop smiling. Even with her mascara smudging from the tears starting to fall, she was practically glowing. The chaos of everything else — the stress, the nausea, Elliot, her father, the lawsuit I was helping her build — was so far in the background right now that it was like none of it existed.
“I thought stuff like this happened to other people,” she said, her smile still big but her voice cracking.
Xavi snorted and took her hand in his. “You are other people now.”
She took a deep, shaking breath. “What if they call me? Or email me? I’m so bad at being professional in emails. What if I say the wrong thing?” She squeezed Xavi’s hand, her other flitting about her face with her words. “What if I screw it up?”
“You won’t screw up anything.” I caught her wrist, stilling her, feeling the warmth of it beneath my fingertips. “Breathe, Annie. We’ll help you write an email if you’re that nervous about it.”
Xavi brought her hand up to his lips and pressed a kiss to it. “I’m so good at writing emails.”
“You misspelled your own name on the injury form for your chin, like, three weeks ago,” Colton laughed, letting his chin come down and rest on Annie’s head.
Xavi’s gaze narrowed. “Spell check exists for emails. And I’m pretty sure I had a concussion.”
“You did not have a concussion,” I snorted.
“Guys, seriously,” Annie said, her eyes blinking too quick, her breathing a little stuttered. “I’m going to fuck this up. I can feel it. How am I meant to focus on whatever this could mean when?—”
I knew what she meant. The mess with her dad, with Elliot, with her worry about money and the pregnancy, with the house feeling like a goddamn pressure cooker half the time because of it all, all the pieces of her life that she never asked to shatter, shattering anyway around her.
I held her cheeks a little more firmly. “Annie. Trust us when we say we’ve got everything else under control,” I said softly. “You don’t need to worry about anything. Stop spending so much time focusing on things that we can handle. My lawyer’s on the lawsuit to get the trust back in your name, we’ve got him ready to go in case anything goes to the press as well. Just focus on this.”
“But—”
“Cole’s right,” Colton murmured, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. She tilted it back, resting the back of her head on his chest, and I let her go, letting her look up at him. “All you need to worry about right now is landing this opportunity and growing our kid. Let us shoulder everything else.”
She swallowed, her throat working, her chin trembling a little. “Okay. I’ll try.”