Free Beautiful Broken Mess by Kimberly Lauren Page A

and open the passenger door. I flip through my new textbooks while I wait for the playboy. A few minutes later, Lane’s giant frame rattles the car as he climbs in the driver’s seat.
    “Shit, it’s hot in here. Sorry about that,” he apologizes. I shrug my shoulders because I honestly hadn’t noticed. “Okay, so where were we?” he asks and turns the key in the ignition.
    “Hmm… we were either trying to get our dick wet or talking about how I’m not most girls,” I inform him with a smile.
    “Jealous, doll? Do you want to join Harmony and me later? Can’t say I wouldn’t like having you there, but it might get a bit weird on the friendship, dontcha’ think?” Then the sarcastic ass has the nerve to flash me his dimples.
    “No…” I gasp. “Tell me her name is not really Harmony.” I roll down my window to let some of the cool ocean air in. One thing I’ll never get tired of is the breeze off the coast.
    “It sure the hell is and later we’re gonna… harmonize.” He winks and I can’t hold it in any longer so I burst out laughing. Thank God, Lane doesn’t bring girls back to our apartment. I’m relieved I won’t have to overhear that ‘music’ session. “But that’s cool if you don’t want to join us.”
    “Hey, don’t act like you’re insulted that I’m not one of your groupies,” I add.
    “Well, when we met and the second sentence out of your mouth to me was ‘I’m not sleeping with you,’ I’ll admit I was wounded,” he says, clutching his heart dramatically. “But now I love ya too much, so it’s a good thing I never actually tried to charm you.”
    “Something tells me even that wouldn’t have worked,” I chuckle.
    Just then, I spot Jaxon walking across the parking lot with his arm wrapped around Emerson. I slouch down in my seat, even though they’re too far off in their own world to see me. I’m honestly impressed that those two are still together. I wouldn’t have guessed that Jax had a long-term relationship bone in his body.
    “Ahh… and so it begins. Is that him?” Lane has only ever seen Jace once before, so he doesn’t know how to tell them apart.
    “Nope. It’s Jaxon.” My teeth grind together, because I still have some hostility toward him. “I’m hoping to hide out for the remainder of the year, and then we can hightail it out of California unscathed.”
    “Good luck with that,” he teases and begins to back his car out of the parking spot. My whole body tenses up when I see him jog down the sidewalk to catch up with his brother. My eyes are glued to Jace as he runs past them, smacking Emerson’s ass in the process. She just laughs, but Jaxon takes off after him and wraps his brother in a headlock. I’d forgotten how amusing the twins were together.
    “Stop, Audrey,” Lane says, breaking my trance as he drives off the lot. “Did you ever go check out those bars I told you about?”
    I grin at his not-so-sly subject change. “Yeah, I applied to all of them. I actually got a call back for an interview tonight at the one that’s closest to your gym.”
    “Good, I prefer that one so I can keep an eye on you.”
    “Lane…” I warn, “I don’t need you scaring off every guy I meet.”
    “Pick better guys,” he says simply.
    “You scare them ALL off.”
    The downside of having Lane as your best friend is how intimidating he looks and acts. He may be a whiz with numbers and calculations, but he’s far from being just a number cruncher. He religiously works out at a boxing gym and tries to get in the ring with everyone at least once. We couldn’t even move up here until he found a gym he liked because God forbid there was a small gap in training days.
    A couple minutes later, we pull up in front of our new apartment. The white stucco walls and red tile roof still make me smile; this complex is beautiful and I commend Lane on a great choice. We live on the first floor, which is nice because I can let Chuck out easily and our neighbors