Free Beautifully Shattered (The Beautifully Series Book 1) by Courtney Kristel Page B

time our duet is
over, I have tears in my eyes. Being the showman, Jax bows
dramatically and I applaud him. Who wouldn’t applaud him? He rapped
the entire song, not missing any of the words.
    “I can’t even hide
the fact that I’m surprised you know that song,” I shout over
Dirty South.
    Jax saunters over to
the speakers to unplug my phone. “Yeah, well same here. I can’t
believe I walked into that.”
    “Tell anyone and I’ll
be forced to feed you your balls,” I say with a wink.
    “By anyone you mean
Connor?”
    “Of course!”
    “Don’t worry, your
dancing fetish is safe with me.” I smack his arm. “You do realize
they came out with this thing called Bluetooth Speakers, right?”
    “You do realize that
I’m going to have to hurt you if you dis my stereo system, right?”
I counter.
    “Touche.”
    Collapsing onto the
couch we both lay here for a few minutes and catch our breaths. My
abs will ache tomorrow. I can’t remember the last time I laughed
this hard. Without bothering to get plates, we dig into our
sandwiches. We eat in silence, enjoying the food too much to talk.
After I eat my sandwich and steal the other half of Jax’s, I’m
finally full.
    “My lunch was thrown
on the floor,” I remind him.
    “By thrown you mean
you dropped it, right?”
    “So Logan’s
surprise party,” I say in a obvious way to change the subject.
    We decide that we’re
going to rent out Logan’s favorite restaurant and have his party
the weekend of his birthday on July 12. Connor will take Logan out
all day so that Jax and I can make sure everything is set up
perfectly since I don’t see the need to hire someone to do
something that we are more than capable of doing. Jax, of course,
objects but I don’t care. This is my brother’s birthday and I
want to do everything. Jax doesn’t have to try too hard to talk me
into making Logan’s favorite cake from one of my mom’s recipes
for us four and then a bigger one for the party. I’ll use any
excuse to bake.
    This year the “after
party” will be at Connor’s which is perfect since Connor’s
place is closest to the bakery. Every year for anyone’s birthday we
always celebrate an “after party” of just the four of us. Of
course mine is the only exception to the rule since I refuse to
celebrate my mine.
    A knock on the door
causes us to look in the direction of the hallway.
    “Are you expecting
someone?” he asks with a hint of unease in his voice.
    I shake my head and
before I can get up, Jax strides down the hallway. He beats me to the
door. I just love how
he makes himself at home and feels the need to answer my door. I give
him a mock glare that he ignores. He’s squeezing the life out of my
poor door. Confused I focus my gaze away from Jax and to the delivery
man.
    There are a million and
one things that the delivery man could have brought up. The vase in
his hands does not fit into the million and one category . . . at
all. I gape at the flowers, unable to move, let alone breathe. My
head spins. I’m getting lightheaded just standing here.
    Who would be so cruel
to send me Stargazer Lilies? I ignore the delivery guy as every
memory I try to repress comes crashing down.

    Hadley
twirls around in our dance studio while our mom plays the piano . . .
Hadley spins in her favorite yellow dress with the biggest smile on
her face . . . Hadley’s first recital . . . Everyone in our family
giving her Stargazer Lilies . . . Hadley . . .
    Hadley
sprawled lifeless on the stretcher while the paramedics try to bring
her back . . . Stargazer Lilies engraved on her headstone . . . All
because of me.

    Blinking back tears
that threaten to spill over, I notice that I’m no longer standing
in the doorway but sitting on the couch with a worried Jax crouched
in front of me. I can’t believe I just lost it in front of Jax.
Again! I must have blacked out because, for the life of me, I can’t
remember how I got to the couch.
    Great, now Jax is going
to realize how