The Singer's Girl

Chapter 14

CAROLINE'S POV

As release week went on all the promotion winded down, now, on Saturday, we were back in Nashville and we weren't doing much. Taylor did have two radio interviews scheduled, but they were for this morning and now we had nothing to do for the rest of the day.

Ever since Taylor talked to me that night in Los Angeles I felt like she had been making more of an effort to be with me, but I understood that it was hard with all of her new album stuff. The one thing that had been bad these last couple days was my lack of sleep. I didn't sleep well anyway, but with the added stress of everything that was going on it had been nearly impossible to sleep. My mind would race for hours and I would just get more stressed when I realized what time it was, the cycle went on and on and on.

"Okay, for real, you should probably sleep." Taylor, who noticed the way I was blankly staring at the ceiling said. She knew that I hadn't been sleeping and now was trying to make me nap.

"I'm trying." I said, rolling over to my side.

"I just can't though." I added.

"I don't know what else you want me to do, I'm letting you sleep in my room, I'm laying in bed with you. What else can I do to help you fall asleep?" She asked, I think she was more concerned than I was.

"I don't know, I'm just not able to fall asleep." I said and I remembered the sleeping pill incident when I fell asleep and stayed asleep well, despite getting diarrhea. I laughed at that thought and Taylor looked over at me.

"Will you at least try for me? Just shut your eyes and try to go to sleep." Taylor said and I shut my eyes, it wasn't that I didn't want to sleep, it was that it was just impossible. I tried to clear my mind but that didn't work, I thought about Taylor, I thought about Grace, I thought about Kelsey, I thought about my dad, I though about the war. So much was going on beneath my eyelids, how could I be expected to sleep?

None of my nights had resulted in anxiety attacks this week, so that was a bonus. Just the frustration of not being able to sleep. I felt Taylor's side of the bed move and I opened my eyes.

"Hey, you're not allowed to leave." I said when I saw her getting out of bed.

"I'm coming back. Don't you worry Care." She laughed. When she came back she had two bowls of ice cream and a stack of movies. I sat up when she gave me my bowl and spoon.

"I decided that if we weren't going to sleep we might as well do something relaxing." She said and I completely agreed, Taylor had been going nonstop all week, she must be exhausted. I started eating my ice cream while she spread the movies out over the bed.

"Belle. No contest." I said before I even saw all of the movie choices.

"Belle?" Taylor asked confused.

"Beauty and the Beast, Taylor, don't you know your princesses?" I said, shoveling ice cream ino my mouth.

"Ohhhh, I didn't know what you were talking about at first." She said taking the movie out of its case and putting it in the player under the TV. Then she came back up on the bed with me and picked up her ice cream.

TAYLOR'S POV

I've found that it easier to get Caroline to sleep when we didn't do it directly. I popped in Beauty and the Beast and gave her ice cream, when she was done with her ice cream I pulled her in so she was cuddled up with me. In 30 minutes she was asleep, and she was the one that was having sleepless nights this week. I wanted to sleep too but I knew that Caroline's sleep was more important, so I didn't move in fear that she might wake up.

"Shhhh, sshhhh, sshhh, shhh." I said quietly every time she got restless in my arms, and since she was known to have frequent nightmares it was a lot. In fact, my mom had had to deal with one of her nightmares this week. They were in a hotel room somewhere and I was still out late at night promoting my album. Caroline had finally managed to get some sleep, but woke up an hour later because of a nightmare, and I wasn't there with her, only my mom.

Caroline hadn't given me this information, my mom had. Apparently she woke up crying and screaming, it sounded like a bad one. My mom had to calm her down and I heard that it took a long time to calm her down because when she woke up and realized I wasn't there she was more upset. I guess my mom held my crying teenage daughter for what seemed like forever that night, and I didn't hear about it until a couple days after because I was so busy.

I looked down at Caroline, she was so needy. I mean, yeah she was a teenager and she could do a lot herself, but there were also a lot of things she needed me for. And it was hard when I was busy, so I felt bad about not always being there, but I also could never give up my career.

Suddenly Caroline drew in a sharp breath and her body twitched.

"Shhhh." I said, trying to lull her back into a peaceful sleep. But upon looking down I realized that she was awake this time. I rubbed her back a little, hoping that she would decide to close her eyes again and try to sleep. But she didn't.

"Can we go to church sometime?" Caroline's groggy voice said as she pulled herself off of me and laid down on the bed. The question surprised me, it wasn't what I was expecting.

"Sure." I said, not knowing when I would find time. Caroline rubbed her eyes and then shut them again, going back to sleep, or trying at least. I wondered what happened in her mind to wake up, ask me that, then go back to sleep again. I knew Caroline was a religious person and she had gone to church almost every Sunday before she moved in with me, but it still surprised me how she asked.

I laid down beside Caroline in bed thinking about her request. I had to do it now that I said I would take her, the only problem would be finding a day to go. I watched her lay there and I knew she wasn't really asleep, I knew he probably wouldn't get back to sleep either. But I fell asleep myself anyway because it had been a long week, and I was exhausted.