That Night
Normal POV
"Wow, you look amazing baby." Cole smiled after he came back to my room after going home to get dressed for the party, & seeing me in the dress above. "Thank you. You clean up pretty well yourself, Swindell." I smiled knowing he would tease me about calling him by his last name. "Now normally I would tease you back, but I'm just too distracted by how amazing you look." He smiled & leaned in to kiss me.
"Are you ok baby? You're not still nervous about meeting my family, are you?" He asked. "A little bit. I'll be fine though. I trust you that everything is going to be great." I smiled. "Good. There's nothing to worry about baby. Everyone is going to love you. I promise." He smiled & kissed me again quickly. "We should get going." I suggested. "You're right, baby. Let's go." He smiled and held the room door open for me.
*
"Hey guys! I'm so glad y'all are here!" Kerry smiled and hugged us. "Thank you so much for doing this for us, Kerry. Y'all are really making me feel like part of y'all's family." I smiled appreciatively. "Believe me sweetie, if you're family to Cole, you're family to us." She smiled & hugged me again. "Y'all should go mingle. Cole, go introduce her to everyone." Kerry smiled. "Will do." Cole agreed & Kerry walked off.
"Oh, there's Luke talking to Dustin Lynch. Let's go say hi." Cole smiled & I nervously agreed. "Hey Luke. Dustin, I don't believe you had a chance to meet my amazing girlfriend at the show." I smiled. "No. I didn't get a chance to introduce myself. Hi Hope. It's great to finally officially meet you." Dustin smiled & pulled me into a hug.
"It's great to meet you too, Dustin. I'm a huge fan." I smiled. "What's your favorite song of mine?" He asked curiously. "Oh, definitely Cowboys & Angels." I said & I could feel my smile growing by the second. "That's definitely still my favorite after all these years too. I'm so glad that you love it." He smiled appreciatively. "Well, it was great talking to you, Hope, I need to take this call though. I'll see you guys later." He smiled and walked away.
"See, that wasn't so bad." Cole smiled knowingly. "Ok, you're right. I overreacted. I still haven't met your family though, so the pressure is still on." I sighed. "Well, here's your chance to face your fears." He smiled & when I followed his gaze, I saw his mom and brother Richie walk in. "Cole! It's so great to see you." Mrs. Rainey said & hugged Cole tightly. "It's great to see you too, mama. It's great to see both of you. There's someone who I want y'all to meet though." Cole smiled and grabbed my hand.
"You must be Hope. It's lovely to finally meet you sweetie." She smiled. "It's great to meet you too, Mrs. Rainey." I smiled. "You can call me Carol. Or mama. Whichever you prefer. You're family now." Carol smiled and pulled me into a hug. "I think I'll stick with Carol, if that's alright with you?" I asked politely. "That's perfectly fine sweetie. I understand. I wouldn't want my kids to call anyone else, but me mama either, so I know where you're coming from." She smiled.
*
Cole's POV
"Hey mama, can I steal my girlfriend away for a minute?" I asked after mama had been talking to my baby for like 20 minutes & I was beginning to get nervous about what they were talking about. "You're family is awesome. Carol is such a sweetheart, & Richie is your typical big brother. Looking out for you and all." Hope smiled. "I hope he wasn't too hard on you." I frowned & looked towards my mom and Richie. "He's great. They're both awesome. I'm so glad I got to meet them tonight." She smiled and grabbed my hand.
"I'm glad that we have a moment alone though." She continued & squeezed my hand gently. "Me too. I have to ask though, what were you & mama talking about?" I asked nervously. "Calm down, she wasn't telling me about baby Colden, she was actually making sure that I knew how much you really love me. She told me that she's never seen you as happy as she has since we met." She explained & a huge smile came across my face.
"Leave it to mama to say the words that I should be saying to you." I smiled. "What do you mean?" My baby asked. "I mean, she's absolutely right. I've never been as happy as I have been over the last few months. That's all thanks to you, baby." I smiled and kissed her lips softly. "I love you so so much beautiful." I said after pulling back. "I love you too, Cole. I can't even describe how much I love you." She smiled as tears began to form in her eyes.
"Hey! There you guys are! What are y'all doing all the way over here?" We suddenly heard Joel's voice & she dried her tears as much as she could. "What's wrong sweetie? Cole, what'd you do, bro?" He asked after he saw her eyes. "He didn't do anything, Joel. These are happy tears." She explained. "Oh ok good. So, are you having fun tonight?" Joel asked, changing the subject.
"I'm having a really great time. Everyone has been so great to me." She explained & then her eyes widened as she saw Scotty McCreery and his wife Gabi walk in. "Hey Scotty! Come over here for a minute." I waved them over. "Hey Cole, how ya doing buddy?" Scotty asked.
"Doing great, man. I actually called y'all over here to introduce you to my girlfriend, Hope though. She's been a huge fan of yours since Idol she told me." I explained. "Well.. it's so nice to meet you Hope. I've heard many great things about you. Including that you made it onto Idol yourself." He explained.
"I did. I started dating Cole not to long afterwards though, & I just didn't think it would be fair if I was on the show now, so Luke is working on getting me out of it. I'm still going to be working on my singing though, Luke asked me if I'd record a song that he wrote, & his and Cole's manager already offered to sign me, so I think I made the right decision." She explained. "Sounds like it. I'll be looking out for your music now." Scotty smiled.
*
2 hours later, we said goodbye to my mom and brother & we were actually getting ready to call it a night ourselves. "Are you about ready to call it a night, baby?" I asked knowingly & she nodded. "Let's get you back to your room, baby." I smiled softly and led her out of the club after saying goodbye to the guys.
*
"Can I ask you something?" I asked quietly as we sat in the backseat of our Uber. "Anything." She smiled tiredly. "How would you feel if I stayed with you in your room tonight? I just.. I don't feel like being away from you." I asked. "That's fine with me." She smiled and began dozing off again. "Get some sleep baby. I'll let you know when we get to the hotel." I said softly and slowly she fell asleep.
