Beautiful Broken Promises(70)

I still didn’t understand how she and Lane hadn’t ended up together. I had a hard time believing that they lived together for years and yet nothing had happened. How is that possible? They were both gorgeous. Gorgeous people migrated to other gorgeous people.

But speaking of gorgeous… Audrey’s husband, Jace, was out of this world. He was tall—like crazy tall. He had at least three inches on Lane, but he wasn’t built the same. I don’t think anyone was built like Lane.

I was beginning to feel inferior in comparison to all of these tall, attractive people around me. I hated that feeling and I used to roll my eyes at girls like that. I needed to straighten my spine and get over it.

Jace moved around the front of the car and grabbed Audrey around the middle. I didn’t know if it was intentional, but he moved her away from Lane by a good two feet. Audrey melted into his touch, and the smile she gave him over her shoulder should have removed all doubts about her and Lane from my head. Jace whispered into her ear and she nodded in return, smirking at him.

Just then, a large truck came flying down the dirt road and we all turned to see it approaching the house. I felt Lane pull me in tighter.

“You know I’m not upset with you, right?” I felt his words whispered against my ear.

“I didn’t do anything so you better not be mad at me,” I replied.

I smiled when I felt him chuckle behind me. “I just want to get us back to the house soon,” he continued to whisper.

“Me too.”

“You nervous about meeting my friends?” he asked.

“No,” I replied quickly. Then I backtracked. “Yes.”

The truck that pulled up near Jace’s SUV was drenched in mud. Not just little splashes here and there, but full-on covered in filth. I couldn’t say what color it actually was if I tried. The windshield was only clean where the wipers had smeared the mud away.

Then Jace got out of the truck. Huh? But it wasn’t Jace, because he was standing behind us, still holding onto Audrey.

“Whoa…” I whispered. Jace had an identical twin. I knew Jace and Jaxon were brothers, but I hadn’t heard anything about twins.

“Crazy, huh?” Audrey said from beside me.

“Whoa, what?” Lane growled into my ear. I shivered against him and moved further into his chest. Kate squirmed down from his arms and reclaimed Braden’s hand.

“Umm….” I didn’t know what to say. I still thought Lane was the most beautiful person I had ever seen, but… seeing two of these guys side-by-side would take me a minute to grasp. They were dreamy.

“Rae…” Lane continued and now he fully held onto me from behind.

He and I had done fairly well at keeping our displays of affection away from the kids. We hadn’t kissed or made any advances in front of them. They didn’t seem to catch on to his current possessive actions, so I let him continue to hold me.

“Give her a break, Lane. Seeing Jax and Jace for the first time is a lot to take in… for any girl.”

He grasped me a little bit tighter and I went willingly. We all watched as Jaxon, who was covered in as much mud as his truck, ran around the front and opened the passenger-side door. He reached inside and scooped out a girl with long, blonde hair. This must have been Emerson. She kicked and giggled as he carried her away from the truck. His smile was blinding as he looked at her squirming in his arms. They each laughed loudly at one another, probably because they were both caked in dried mud.

Surprise, surprise, she was a knockout too… even dirty. “What the hell is in the water here?” I whispered, mostly to myself.

“Why do you say that, babe?” Lane asked.

“It’s nothing.” Or it wasn’t really anything to get worked up over, at least. Maybe in the past four years while I’d been locked away, people just got better-looking for some reason. Although, come to think of it, I didn’t remember seeing this many beautiful people in New York.

“Jaxon!” Em gasped. “Put me down!” She managed to escape his arms and I was happy to see that even though she was gorgeous, she wasn’t another long-legged supermodel. She was my height and seemed to have all the same proportions as me.

“You two are ridiculous,” Jace laughed beside us.

“It’s her fault!” Jaxon laughed.

“Oh, like you’re really going to complain.” Em looked at him mischievously and he grabbed her again, pulling her into his body.