Taming the Country Star: A Hometown Heroes Novella (Entangled Bliss) by Margo Bond Collins

enough.
    Fingers pressed over her mouth, she stumbled toward the reception. At the last minute, she pulled herself up straight, preparing to walk through all those people with her head held high.
    She was not her mother.
    This would not break her—no matter how much it hurt.
    She swallowed a sob and pushed blindly toward the door, determined not to start crying until she was alone again.
    …
    Cole pulled away from Billie’s embrace. “Thank you so much,” he said. “This is going to be perfect. I know it took a lot of work to get it all together on such short notice.”
    His manager smiled. “I’m happy for you, sweetie,” she said. “You have been back to your old self this week—you really hadn’t been the same since last year.”
    “Come meet Kylie.” He tugged her toward the door. “You’re going to love her.”
    “Like you do?” Billie’s eyes twinkled.
    “I refuse to answer that,” Cole replied. “Not until I’ve had the chance to tell Kylie first.”
    Laughing out loud, Billie let him pull her down the hall and out into the reception room. “Okay, okay. Slow down.”
    Cole’s gaze moved around the room for a long moment and he frowned. “Where did she go?”
    “Oh, hell,” Billie said. “Cole? It’s Stuart Jeffries.”
    “Where?” He scanned the room, his gaze landing on the sleazy little son of a bitch who had made his life hell for the last three years. Everywhere he went, the photographer had followed, making a living catching Cole—and other celebrities, Cole had to admit—in as many compromising positions as possible.
    Fists clenched at his sides, he took a step toward the tabloid reporter. A movement at the front of the room captured his attention, though, and he looked up in time to see Kylie marching out the front door. Pausing, she glanced back at the room. Their gazes met and held for a moment, and then she was gone.
    What the hell?
    “I know you had something to do with this,” he said, catching up with Jeffries. “How did you get in? What did you do?”
    “Me? Just having a drink, man.” The self-satisfied glint in the reporter’s eye didn’t match up with his calm demeanor, though.
    Every protective instinct he’d ever had welled up inside Cole’s chest. Dammit. He had promised Kylie he would keep her safe.
    “Billie,” Cole ground out between his teeth. “Call security. Get this asshole out of here.”
    “Not going to do it yourself?” Jeffries taunted.
    Cole’s nostrils flared, but Billie touched his arm. “Don’t. Remember last time.”
    His broad shoulders loomed over Jeffries, and the smaller man shrank back a bit. “If I see you anywhere near Kylie ever again,” Cole hissed, eyes narrowed as he stepped into Jeffries’s space, “you won’t be able to take any more pictures. Ever. You stay away from her. Got it?” He didn’t wait for a response, but moved toward the front door.
    There was no way he was going to let Kylie walk away again.
    …
    She heard his boots scuffing against the bricks behind her. She didn’t turn around, but she didn’t try to move any more quickly, either.
    “Hey,” he said softly, coming up beside her and touching her shoulder. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ignore you back there.”
    Kylie wrapped her arms around her stomach and curled into herself. “That’s not it,” she said.
    “Then what? Kylie, talk to me.” He stopped, gently forcing her to pause as well. “You’re shivering,” he said, and pulled her closer to him. “Please tell me what’s going on. What did Jeffries say to you?”
    “It’s not what he said. He had pictures, Cole.”
    He frowned at her. “Pictures?”
    “Of you, with women. With the blonde.” Her voice dropped to a bare whisper. “I heard you say you loved her.”
    The rumble of laughter from Cole’s chest snapped her gaze to his face.
    “It’s not funny,” she said.
    “Kylie, that’s my manager, Billie. I was thanking her for getting the ribbon-cutting ceremony ready