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Eva shook her head. “No! We can be civilized about this. I just want to explain to you, West, make you understand that we’re just not right for each other.”
“Eva!” West roared. “Get in my car.” His lips twisted sarcastically. “I promise I won’t hurt mybabybrother.”
“I’m not getting into your car!” she cried out. “Look, this was just as much my fault… maybe more…”
West glared at her for that, and Cole realized that his brother actually agreed that she was to blame.
Cole steadied himself. “West…”
“You’ve got to listen to me,” Eva cut in. “I’m worried about you, West. Do you know that? You’re all beat up. All the time, you come home with some new scrape or bruise and I can’t–can’t stand to see it! And still you won’t tell me anything. You refused to let me in. It hurts how little you trusted me, you know!”
“Trust?” West spat. “Inyou?” Eva flinched as he directed all his wrath on her. “Why should I trust you? You’ve shown me just how little I should.”
Eva stepped back. Hurt paled her face. “So that’s it then? You’re going to blame everything bad happening on me?”
“I’m not in the mood to hear you go off on me on howIshould behave.”
“Fine,” she said. “But this? Whatever we are? It isn’t happening anymore.” A tear slid down her cheek.
Cole put his arms around her. “Eva, it’ll be okay.”
“No, no, it’s not.” Her hair flew around her shoulders as she shook her head. “I can’t bear to see this…” She ripped from his embrace and ran up the stairs with a cry.
“Eva?” Cole stepped after her.
West dove forward, getting between them. He crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Isaidwe need to talk.”
Cole could scarcely keep himself from throwing his brother to the side to go after her. “Don’t pretend that you’ve ever cared about her,” Cole said. “You treat her like trash. That’s ending now.”
“You think so, huh?” West’s glower seemed especially threatening in the shadows. “You’re the one I don’t get. Such a disappointment. I thought you had far better sense than to go for her.”
A sick feeling permeated Cole’s stomach. “Better sense?” It was almost as if West thought Eva wasn’t good enough.
“You pretended to have all these morals…” West said.
Eva was a sparkling ray of sunshine in the gloom that their lives had become in the shadow of their momma’s illness. West was an absolute blind man if he couldn’t see that. “Do you even hear yourself? She’s… fantastic, kind, warm. Of course I fell for her. What did you expect?”
“From you? Everything! You’re my brother!”
“You don’t love her,” Cole said, “or even care about her. Admit it! You just saw a pretty face and–and her connections. You’ve never seen who she really is.”
“And you do? After a week and a half and a few stolen kisses?” West gave a mocking laugh. “Spare me the lectures. You’re just a lusty monk with your holier than thou attitude. You’re as shallow as the next guy. Yeah.” West nodded like he had Cole all figured out. “If you have to cast me as the villain to live with yourself, go for it. It’s none of my business how you ease your conscience, but if you think that you and Eva are going to be a thing, you’ll have to get through me first.”
He had to be kidding. “You don’t own her, West.”
“You never will either.”
Cole’s fists tightened. “That’s not how relationships work. You make it sound like a chain that holds you back. No wonder you’re always fighting commitment.”
West let out a bitter laugh. “But you’re ready to jump off that plank? Ha! You really are a simpleton. What else has Eva talked you into while my back was turned? Good thing I got here when I did—she’d have you saying your vows on the top of this barn.”
They hadn’t talked marriage, but it wasn’t off the table. Cole couldn’t imagine a life without her. “I’m sorry if we hurt you, but…”
“Hurt me?” West scoffed. “What kind of world do you live in? Her daddy wants to see her in Nashville tonight. He’s not taking any excuses. You know her daddy, right? Mr. Devlin Trout.”
Since when did Eva not have control over her own life? Cole grew uneasy. He knew nothing about the shadier part of West’s business or Eva’s home life. The bruises on West’s face were a dead giveaway that something wasn’t right. No way was Cole letting West drag Eva into that world again. “She’s not going with you,” Cole said.
“You want to bet?” West seemed very sure of himself, which made Cole even more nervous. “You really don’t know how her world works at all. We’re going to one of her father’s parties tonight—one of those who’s who parties where you have to bar paparazzi it’s so exclusive, and Eva loves that glittering world, like she loves her attention from her fans on social media—like she wants from me. I hurt her pride, so she got me where she thought it would hurt me most—my own brother. And guess what? She won. I’ll mind my P’s and Q’s after this. Eva and I understand each other.”
