Beautiful Broken Rules (Broken, Series #1)(35)

“I don’t date. Anybody. Period.”

His look told me that he hadn’t heard about my rules. “You’re a strange girl, Em.”

“He knows all of this about me. I told him basically my life story the first day we met,” I countered.

“Just don’t hurt him, he doesn’t need that again.” He looked right at me when he said that and my heart started beating through my chest. What did he mean by ‘again’? Wasn’t that what I was trying to prevent here? How come no one understood me, and more importantly, how come I was starting to not understand myself?

“That’s exactly what I’m trying to avoid!” I snapped in return. I took a deep breath and stepped back from the two of them, “I’m going to the restroom, and I’ll meet you at the seats later.” Jace gave me an apologetic face.

Quinn tried to follow but I shook my head at her, and told her I’d be right back. Instead of going to the restroom, I walked all the way out to our car. Lying down in the back seat, I stared up at the fabric on the ceiling. What the hell was I doing with Jaxon anyway? Why did I bother getting close like this with someone. Without breaking my rules, I was somehow breaking them. Every time Jax was near me, it was like everything I had tried to push away in the past was rushing at me full speed. The problem is, I enjoy every second I spend with him. We’ve talked about this; we’ve talked about what my needs are. He seems to understand and he continually tells me he can handle it. I just needed to stop listening to everyone else around us.

By the time I made it back into the stadium, they were already ten minutes into the third quarter. The concessions and the walkway under the stands were completely vacant, besides the few stragglers trying to finish off their cigarettes before they went back to their seats. From under here, you could feel the rumble of the crowd above. Some were bouncing their feet, most were cheering loudly. I walked up the stadium stairs to where Quinn and Jace were sitting. I heard Jaxon immediately, even before I could see him.

“Well where the f*ck is she, what if something happened to her?” he sounded panicky and irritated with whomever he was talking. “You said she went to the restroom fifteen minutes ago.” Had I really been gone that long?

Jace responded, “Dude, chill out, she’ll be back.” When I walked toward our seats, I saw Jax leaning up on the railing barriers talking to them. He had his helmet on like he needed to be on the field at a moment’s notice. His last name was called and with a frustrated breath, he turned around and hustled for the field before he could see that I’d made it back.

“Where the hell have you been? I just tried to call you!” Quinn yelled at me as I sat down between her and Jace.

“I needed a breather; I must have left my phone in the car.”

“The car? You were supposed to be in the bathroom!” Quinn screeched at me.

“Jax was freaking,” Jace began. “I didn’t mean to make you mad, I’m sorry.”

“Everything’s fine, Jace. You didn’t do anything wrong. Protecting your brother is what family does.”

“But I shouldn’t have even opened my mouth about the two of you. He’ll kick my ass for meddling.”

“Let’s just forget about it, okay?” I begged. He nodded his head and patted my leg.

“Man, I wish he would have seen you before he headed back out there. Now he’s going to be distracted,” Jace complained.

At that, I stood up with my hands above my head clapping and yelled, “WOOO GO JAXON!” He was all the way on the opposite side of the field but his head instantly stood up from his ready stance and looked directly at me. From all the way over here, I could see his piercing blue eyes. He gave me the “okay” signal with his fingers, gesturing if everything was all right with me. I gave him the signal right back and he nodded his head and smiled, then returned to his ready position. “I think he’ll focus now,” I said to both of the wide-eyed busy bodies on either side of me.