Beautiful Broken Rules (Broken, Series #1)(77)

“Bye, baby,” I whispered on his lips.

“Bye, Beautiful, I lo...“ he stopped himself and sighed. “I’ll see you soon.”

I gave him a sad look as I waved goodbye. I hated that he had to hold back his feelings for me, but I still wasn’t ready to say those words back to him, no matter what my feelings were.

*.*.*.*.*

The next two weeks moved at a snail’s pace. Ellie and Charles had so many events planned for Quinn and me to attend. Not the fun kind either. The dull business function kind, that we had to get dressed up for, smile pretty, and make polite conversation. I tried to act as if I enjoyed it because it was good business for Charles and it was the least I could do for him after everything he had done for me.

Jace and Jaxon had been waking up extremely early every morning to help around their mom’s land while they were there. It was really hard to catch Jax on the phone. The two-hour time difference usually wouldn’t have been a big deal, but Jaxon was going to bed really early, while I was getting home late from the functions and then sleeping in late. I was becoming frustrated with the lack of communication we’d had lately. We originally planned to video chat every day, but we hadn’t been able to catch each other once yet. The most fun I’d had so far was sending him pictures of myself all dressed up for the functions. Every time I got a chance to check my phone later in the evening he had always sent me back a sexy message saying how much he enjoyed my pictures.

I know that the guys had gone out a couple of times to meet up with friends in their town. Quinn always got edgy when Cole would go out to parties with them. Being such close friends with Cole before he started dating Quinn, we got to hear about all of the girls he would hook up with when he went back home for visits. I think Quinn was worried about those girls. I’d lost count of the number of times I told her how ridiculous she sounded because Cole was absolutely crazy about her.

Recently, he had gone to a party and had gotten so drunk he ended up crashing on the couch there. When Quinn didn’t hear from him until the next morning, she was livid. Everyone in the house could hear her yelling through the phone. I realized he was explaining what had happened and was trying to reassure Quinn that there hadn’t been any girls in his vicinity when he crashed. She apparently didn’t care and eventually just hung up on him.

That was four days ago, and neither of them has even attempted to contact one another. At first, I wasn’t worried because Quinn was complaining to me while Cole was complaining to Jaxon, so I knew they would eventually cave. After four days though, I was starting to worry that their pride would get in the way and they might not be able to get past this.

Quinn had been walking around crying off and on. I was consoling her on the couch in the large living room when the doorbell rang. Ellie and Charles had gone out for breakfast together, so I knew that I would need to get up to answer it. I pulled the door open, completely surprised by Cole, who was standing there looking as sad and depressed as Quinn felt. He had bags under his bloodshot eyes, as if he hadn’t slept a wink.

“Cole! It’s a long trip from Texas for a surprise visit!” I asked shocked.

I heard Quinn gasp in the background, “What?”

“Sorry, Emmy.” He shoved past me, barely even noticing that I had spoken. He already had his eyes on Quinn in the living room. He reached her on the couch and pulled her up over his shoulder, her head hitting his strong back.

“WHAT THE HELL, COLE?” she yelled. “You can’t just come charging in here!”

“ENOUGH, QUINN! You’ve been ridiculous long enough.” He found the staircase and started climbing them with a squirming Quinn over his shoulder. I followed behind, giggling at the show. “Where’s her room?” he asked me.