Beautifully Shattered (The Beautifully Series Book 1) (13 page)

No, I don’t. I’m
nowhere near ready for that and I doubt I’ll ever be. This is a
first date, a date to see if it gets under Jax’s skin, nothing
more. I don’t see how Kohen and I will have anything in common.
He’s older, put together, and smart. The more I think about it, the
more intimidated I feel.

Maybe it’s not too
late to cancel.

I pick up my phone to cancel for the
hundredth time tonight. I even get as far as pulling up our text
thread before locking it. Each and every time I do this, I remember
how alive I felt being behind the camera lens. That’s the only
reason why I don’t go through with any of the excuses I keep
making. If I’m able to do that, then I can go on a date with a
decent guy. Hopefully Connor can help with the nerves.

Me:
I’m going to throw up

Connor:
Don’t be dramatic. YOU ARE GOING so don’t even try
to back down

I’m about to reply when there’s
a knock on the door. My whole body stiffens.

Me:
Crap he’s here. What do I do?

Connor:
Just a guess but I would say . . . open the door.

Connor:
Breathe. Relax. Have fun. In that order.

Doing as Connor says, I
take several deep breaths and will myself to relax. After another
minute of trying to calm down and failing, I trudge to the door. My
fake persona is firmly in place as I swing it open.

Kohen holds the most
exquisite bouquet of ranunculus I’ve ever seen. Not knowing what to
do, I stare at him, wondering not for the first time why a guy like
him could possibly want to go out with me.

Kohen clears his throat
and extends the flowers. “These are for you.”

Nervously, I take them.
“Thanks, they’re beautiful. They’re actually one of my favorite
flowers. I like quite a few kinds.” I force my mouth shut to keep
from rambling.

I wave Kohen inside so
that I can get a vase for them. He follows silently behind me into
the kitchen and watches my every movement.

“I know,” he says
once I’m finished arranging the flowers.

“Huh?” I ask,
confused.

“I knew they were
your favorite flowers,” he says with an easy smile.

“Should I be worried
that I have a stalker?” I ask with a laugh. I’m slightly serious.

“Ha hardly. You just
seem like a ranunculus type of girl.” He shrugs. “Lucky guess.”

He moves to stand in
front of me. “You look beautiful, Adalynn. I don’t think that I
could ever get bored looking at you.” Without warning, he gives me
a lingering kiss on the cheek.

The elevator ride down
is filled with awkward silence. I can’t stop myself from stealing
glances at Kohen. I chew my lip, a nervous habit of mine. This is the
first time I’m alone with a man besides one of the guys in six
years. Okay, not exactly if I count the gym incident. Why did I agree
to this date in the first place? Oh that’s right, because I’m a
child and want to make Jax jealous instead of acting like an adult
and confronting him. So now I’m on a date with someone that I don’t
really have any interest in. Points to my stupidity.

The elevator doors
slide open, distracting me from telling him I can’t do this. He
rests his hand on my lower back while he leads me out of the elevator
and into the parking garage. He steers me towards his BMW. Like a
true gentlemen, he holds his door open for me.

I wait for him to
speak, but when he doesn’t I snag his iPhone. “May I?” Before
he has a chance to answer, I start going through his music. I can
always tell a lot about a person by their music choices.

Kohen is a good sport.
“Sure . . . oh and I hope you like pizza, I know this amazing place
called Frank’s, it’s to—”

“Die for,” I finish
for him.

“You’ve been
there?”

I place my hand over my
heart. “I LOVE Frank’s. I have to have at least a dose of the
yummy goodness once a month.”

Kohen shows his
dimples. “I’m glad I can help.”

“You’re two for
two.” I can see that he’s about to ask what I’m talking about
so I elaborate. “With my favorites. Two for two.”

Kohen chuckles, but it
seems a little strained. “The first one was a lucky guess on my
part.”

“And this one?”

He surprises me by
clasping my hand. “We both have excellent taste.” The way he says
it makes me think he isn’t talking just about our pizza
preferences.

I pick a Journey song before I reach
for my phone with my free hand and text Connor. My fingers hover over
the keys. I want to defy him and prove that he doesn’t need to know
where I’m going. I can protect myself. Besides, Kohen doesn’t
seem like the serial killer type. I give in only because if I don’t
tell Connor where we’re going, he will tell my brother, and I do
not need Logan finding out about this, only Jax.

Me:
Eating pizza.

Connor:
Where?

Me:
At the only place that I eat pizza.

Without waiting for a
reply, I slide my phone back into my clutch. The rest of the short
drive, we listen to music. I’m surprised that Kohen’s music is an
almost identical copy of my iTunes.

“We have a lot in
common,” I tell him as he opens my door.

“Oh?”

“Well, besides both
of our excellent choices in pizza parlors, we like the same music . .
. give or take a few bands.”

“Really?” he asks.

“I know, I was
shocked too. I thought I was going to have to give you a lesson in
music.”

Kohen laughs. “Do
that a lot?”

I’m not even
surprised when the hostess addresses both of us by our first names.
It’s obvious that Kohen is as much as a regular as I am. I search
my memory, but I come up with a blank. I don’t remember seeing him
here.

“I did, but now my
brother and his friends have graduated from my class so I don’t
need to give them lessons anymore,” I say once we sit down.

“I’m guessing they
just added a playlist for you on their phones.”

I bite my lip to keep
from grinning but fail. “Of course.”

We both laugh. I’m
pleasantly surprised how easily conversation flows between us. I’m
glad that the first date I decided to go on in six years is with
Kohen. I think if I went out with anyone else, it would have been
beyond awkward. It helps that we have a lot in common, but I doubt it
would really matter since Kohen is so easy to talk to.

I’m working on my
second slice of pizza when for some reason my skin breaks out in
goosebumps. My eyes find their way to the door. I gasp loudly when I
see who walks in.

Logan, followed by
Connor, and lastly Jax.

I’m somehow able to
swallow the bite I just took without choking to death. I glare at the
guys as they approach our table. Terrific. Kohen pauses mid-sentences
when he realizes we have company.

“I’m sorry,” I
whisper as the boys stop at our table.

I can’t tell if I
want to die from embarrassment or kill Connor for telling Logan and
Jax. Both will be perfect. I should have gone with my gut and not
told him where I was going.

Connor puts on a lame
attempt to feign innocence. “Wow, crazy running into you two here.”

“Yeah, we wouldn’t
have come if I’d known you were going out on a date.” My brother
shrugs. “Too bad you chose not to tell me. We could have avoided
this awkwardness.”

“Yeah, too bad,”
Jax says with so much sarcasm it’s impossible to believe him.

Yup, kill me now. Kohen
raises an eyebrow, but I ignore him to glare at three soon-to-be dead
men. To my absolute horror, my brother and Connor both sit down on
Kohen’s side of our booth, blocking him in. I shake my head at Jax
as I extend my legs on my side of the booth.

He shrugs before
sitting down on my legs. I don’t know if I’m more upset that they
crashed my date or that Jax seems so blasé.

“Ow, get your fat
butt off of me!” I say more angrily than I should. Jax doesn’t
even notice how upset I am.

“If you moved your
legs, you wouldn’t be getting squished.”

Too
many witnesses.

“Fine!” I shout.

Jax leans up so I can
drop my feet back under the table where they belong. I want to
breathe in relief that he’s not touching me anymore, but I can’t.
I despise being this close to him and not being able to touch him.
That weekend at my apartment comes to mind and I have to forcibly
drink my wine to keep from reaching out to him. Probably not the best
move on a date with someone else.

The waitress arrives
with three more waters. “Can I get anything else for you three?”

“No,” I say at the
same time that Jax says, “Yes.”

The poor waitress’s
eyes bounce back from me to Jax and back at me again.

“No, we’re good,
thanks though,” I inform her.

As the waitress leaves,
Jax gives me a smug grin. “Fine, have it your way.” And before I
can say anything, he picks up my wine glass. I yank it from him
mid-sip, spilling wine on his tailored shirt.

“I don’t even feel
bad!” I say when he looks from the stain to me.

He glares at me and I
glare right back. I will not be the one to back down first. Someone
coughs not too discreetly, but we both ignore him. Jax raises his
eyebrow, silently challenging me. It isn’t until I hear Kohen clear
his throat with obvious annoyance that I snap out of the trance Jax
has put me under. When I turn my head, my brother is studying the
three of us; Kohen, Jax, and me. I cast my eyes down to my plate.

“So help yourselves,
there’s more than enough to go around,” Kohen says with forced
indifference.

Ignoring the three men
that have decided to stay and make this the date from hell, I look at
Kohen. “So you were about to tell me why you chose to be a
neurologist before we were rudely interrupted.”

“How old are you?”
Jax shifts in the booth. His hand grazes my thigh. It’s only a
whisper of a caress, but it’s enough to ignite my entire body.

“Thirty-one come
July.”

Jax noticeably
stiffens. “Don’t you think you should date someone more your
age?”

My brother’s baby
blues meet mine. I silently beg him to leave. I nod from the table to
the door. Twice. Logan is either being obtuse or ignoring me.

“So, about that
career choice . . .” I trail off uneasily.

Talk about awkward
silence.

Kohen seems a little
uncomfortable as he clears his throat. “Oh . . . right . . . eh . .
. well, my mom died from a brain tumor when I was twelve so I think
that’s the reason why I chose neuro instead of a differently
specialty.” He fiddles with the Parmesan shaker. “I guess when I
was little I thought that I could prevent what happened to my mom
from happening to someone else and it just always stuck with me.”

Wow, and I thought this
date couldn’t get any more awkward. Clearly the boys weren't
expecting this either from the looks on their face. I have no idea
what to say to that. I thought I was staying on an easy topic. Guess
not.

Reaching over, I
squeezes his hand. I see Jax’s fist tighten from the corner of my
eye, but I ignore it and focus solely on Kohen. “Your mom would be
very proud of you.”

He squeezes my hand
back. “Thanks,” he says quietly before taking a long drink from
his wine.

The guys help
themselves to pizza and Connor places an order for an extra one. He
eats more than anyone I have ever met.

Connor clears his
throat and faces Kohen. “From what I hear, you’re a pretty decent
neurologist, as in one of the best in the country. I’m positive
you’re able to prevent what happened to your mother from happening
to someone else if it’s in your power.”

I stare at Connor,
wondering how he knows this, but I quickly decide I’d rather not
ask in front of Kohen. I have a sinking feeling it involves a certain
P.I. that I know Logan is fond of. Instead I sit back and watch while
Kohen gets the third degree from Logan, Connor, and Jax. I’ll be
surprised if Kohen wants to go out with me again.

Dinner is almost over
and I’m beyond surprised that I haven’t stabbed anyone yet. There
were a couple close calls, though. It’s still early, so who knows,
someone will more than likely get stabbed, all because Connor
couldn’t keep his big mouth shut. I give Connor a little kick under
the table, but my temper gets the best of me. I kick him harder than
I expected. Too bad, I guess he’ll learn to keep his mouth shut
next time.

“Ow,” Logan says as
he bends to rub the shin that I thought was Connor’s.

I don’t even bother
giving my brother an innocent smile. “I would say my foot slipped,
but that would be a lie.”

“I guess that will
teach me not to crash your dates.”

“Too bad you couldn’t
figure that out a lot sooner, you could have gone home without
limping,” I snap, hoping that he’ll see how insane he is for
crashing my date.

Then again, I don’t
really have anything to be upset about since I’ve been able to
witness Jax’s reaction firsthand. Maybe I should be thanking them?
Never.

Suddenly Connor starts
pushing Logan out of the booth. “Well, we’ll take that as our
sign to leave. I don’t want to be bleeding by the end of the
night.”

I narrow my eyes at
him, but follow Connor’s lead and shove Jax out of my way. Luckily
he is already getting up because I wouldn’t have had any hope of
moving him without his help. I wasn’t joking when I said he had a
fat butt. It’s sexy as hell and rock hard but still, his muscles
weigh too much.

Connor pulls me into
his arms first. “You’re going to pay for this,” I threaten into
his ear.

Connor turns away from
my scowling face to see Logan and Jax saying goodbye to Kohen.
“Sorry, but Jax was over when you texted me,” he whispers.

“And what happened?”
I whisper back.

He rubs his hand
through his hair. “Because once he saw your name, he stole my phone
and the next thing I know we’re on our way here. Your brother came
over just in time to tag along.”