Beautiful Broken Rules (Broken, Series #1)(13)

All three of us moved out of my dad’s house and into a new three-bedroom home. The third bedroom was meant to be mine, but I basically moved into Quinn’s room. No one argued with me. A year and a half after my parent’s death, Ellie remarried to Charles. He’s amazing; he loves Quinn and me, and spoils us rotten. Quinn and I do have to have jobs while in school because Ellie and Charles felt it was important for us to know the value of college, but they help us with our bills for the most part. Quinn and I both had our own cars back home, but we decided only to bring one with us to college. It usually works out okay, since we’re always together for the most part, or one of us gets a ride from Cole. I usually always give Quinn the car; I would rather be without it than for her to be without.

“Don’t stress, Quinn, I’ll be okay. I don’t mind walking. Besides, if I decide I don’t want to walk, the campus added that new bus line that stops right outside the apartment. I just need to go home.” She stood up like she needed to reassure herself that I was okay and if I needed someone to talk to. I shook my head and said, “I’ll talk to you at home tonight after my shift, kay?”

“Alright…” she said hesitantly, while sitting back down next to Cole, “text me later.” I nodded and waved goodbye to the rest of the table. I tossed my entire pasta salad on my way out the door.

I didn’t know if I was going to walk home or ride the bus yet. I still had to walk across the campus, so I guess I would decide when I got there. I didn’t get more than twenty feet before I heard someone jogging up behind me. If this is Micah, I will seriously lose my manners and go crazy on him. Mercifully, it wasn’t Micah.

“Emerson, wait up,” Jaxon said, easily catching up next to me.

“So you’re sticking with the full first name thing, huh?” I teased, while continuing toward the other end of campus. The end of August was pretty warm in Southern California, but college kids don’t mind. There were girls lying out in the grass, working on their tans, and guys kicking a ball back and forth to one another.

“I was heading home anyway, need a ride?” he asked while dodging my question. He pulled his backpack around to the front and unzipped it. He reached inside and pulled out that black ball cap. He grabbed the bill and slapped it lazily on top of his head.

“If you don’t mind. You should go finish your lunch though; I saw that pile of food on your tray,” I joked with him.

“Yeah, I would have preferred if we both could have finished our lunches. But you seemed upset and since you said you were heading home, and I was going there after lunch, it made sense,” he said, eyeing me.

“Thanks. I just needed to get away from Micah.”

“So you two aren’t together?” he asked, looking confused.

“Never.”

“Seemed like you were having a good time with him when I walked up.” This guy was observant.

“That’s all I want though… a good time. Nothing more. Micah is starting to think I’ll change my rules for him.”

He stumbled for a fraction of a second and turned to look at me. “You have rules?” He laughed and raised one of those sexy eyebrows at me.

“Only three, but they’re pretty important to me,” I said feeling silly talking about this.

He gestured with his hand out in front of him, “Please, do share. I’m intrigued.”

He pulled keys out of his pocket and I was getting a little excited, because I’ve never been on a motorcycle before. But he pointed his keys at a massive four-door black truck and clicked the unlock button. He guided me to the passenger side and opened the door for me. I gaped at him, “What about the bike? I was excited to ride on it.”