Beautiful Broken Rules (Broken, Series #1)(20)

“Q, he’s a douchebag. Last week he took one of the Chi Omega girls out to the movies, saw Rachel Morgan in the hallway and he just left his date sitting in the theater all alone, so he could take Rachel back to his room at the frat house.” He grimaced at Quinn.

Jaxon and I just sat there watching the two of them, getting a little uncomfortable. I finished up my coffee and placed it on the table in front of me. Jaxon leaned forward and sat his bowl down next to my cup.

“Well, it’s a good thing I’m not trying to be his girlfriend, Cole.” She smiled coyly.

Cole’s jaw got tight and he pounded the countertop with his fist lightly, almost silently, and started to walk toward the hallway to his room. “I’ll see y’all later. Ems, I think I’ll come to the bar tonight to shoot pool with Jace and Jax. You working?”

“Sure am!” I said as I swung my backpack onto my shoulder, happy to get away from the tension in this room. “Bye guys.” I waved walking for the door with Quinn in tow. “See you later, Jace!” I yelled down the hallway, but winked at Jaxon. He squinted his eyes and glared at me. It was fun messing with him; he obviously wasn’t crazy about his brother’s flirtatious behavior with me, but I enjoyed it.

That night while I was mixing drinks at the bar, I noticed Jace and Cole walk in the front door. I waved at our bouncer Mark, to go ahead and let them in. I loved being able to work in a bar, even though I really wasn’t allowed to. I was still only twenty, but Ed, my boss, wasn’t running the most legitimate establishment, so he hired me on as a bartender, knowing I’d turn twenty-one soon. I was damn good at it, so that was another reason I usually got my way around here. I think he just wanted a female bartender that would bring in regular customers and I was an expert at leading them on.

“Hey boys, I saved table number twelve for you.” I pointed to the pool table closest to the bar. “Quinn didn’t come with you?”

Cole tapped the bar with his fist, which I was coming to realize was a sign of frustration toward Quinn that he was trying to tamper down. “She’s tutoring.”

“Where’s Jaxon?” I asked while pouring Cole’s favorite whiskey into his glass. I didn’t want to upset him anymore with talk of what Quinn was most likely up to tonight, with Bryce.

“Right here, Beautiful.” He grinned from behind me. “I was just outside talking on the phone with mom. By the way, Jace, she said you couldn’t use studying as an excuse not to call her, jackass.”

I smiled at the fact that he enjoyed calling his mom and he wasn’t ashamed of it. I had heard him on the phone with her a couple times already. I still had my back turned toward him. When I finished with Cole’s drink, I turned around to ask him what he wanted and his eyes bugged out at the sight of my shirt. It was just a tight black t-shirt that said, ‘Nice Rack’ across my chest, which is the pool hall’s name. But Ed had thought it would be a fantastic idea for me to wear a deep V-neck t-shirt. My boobs were on display nightly at the bar. I learned quickly to get a tight-fitting bra, one that wouldn’t expose anything when I bent down a hundred times a night. I tried to get the rest of the employees of the bar to have to wear V-necks as well, but since they’re all male, they weren’t having it.

“I agree with the shirt,” he said while beaming.

Jace came up beside him with a devilish grin and said, “Me too, Emmy.”

Jaxon slapped him upside the head and pushed him toward the pool table. It was fun to watch these three playing pool together; they really were the three amigos. Cole looked so happy to have his two best friends finally back with him, and I was pretty happy they decided to join our little group as well. Cole was decent at playing, but that was because he came in here a lot to play with Quinn when she wanted to hang out with me while I worked. Jace and Jaxon knew how to work a table though, and they were extremely competitive with each other. There were lots of cuss words and playful punches thrown.