Just Friends: NA Romance (Bending the Rules Book 3) Read online

  Just… Friends

  Bending the Rules 3

  A.M. Wray

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  OTHER WORK by A.M. Wray and her other pen name, Candy Crum.

  *** A.M. WRAY ***

  Bending the Rules Series (NA Romance)

  Rebound

  Honor

  Just… Friends

  ------ Bending the Rules Boxed Set (Book 1-3) (2/21/17)

  BTR Book 4 (Releasing 3/28/17)

  Phobia Series (YA Dystopian)

  Phobia (Releases 2/21/17)

  - PRE-ORDER AVAILABLE NOW (Cover and blurb at the end of this book!)

  STANDALONE NOVELS (not in a series)

  This Means War (NA Romance)

  Karma’s a Bitch (COMEDY) (Releases 3/7/17)

  - Cover at the end of this book!!

  *** CANDY CRUM ***

  The Eternal Series (Action Paranormal Romance)

  The Eternal Gift 1

  Eternally Forsaken 1.5

  The Eternal Echo 2

  Eternally Bound 2.5

  The Fated Series (YA Fantasy)

  Rise from the Ashes

  Time of Death Series (Paranormal Adult Thriller/Romance)

  13:17

  Wrath (Releases 2/14/17)

  - PRE-ORDER AVAILABLE NOW (Cover and blurb at the end of this book!)

  STANDALONE NOVELS (not in a series)

  Lean on me (YA Dramatic Romance)

  Into the Nether (Horror Short)

  Chapter One

  Blessed. It was a powerful word, and one I’d always been grateful for. I’d always considered myself to be very blessed, both in family and in the many intangible gifts that I’d been given. My life had always been full. To be completely honest, I never had to work super hard for things. It was because of that lucky gift that I drove myself to help others along the way. I had amazing friends, Elizabeth Martin in particular, a wonderful family, and a husband that I couldn’t get enough of. I wanted for nothing.

  Nearly three years ago, I got my first taste of what real life could be like. I was a grown up. I didn’t have my unruly, childish friends by my side to go beat someone up for me. My pretty face and athletic ability wasn’t scoring me metaphorical points anymore like they had in high school. I didn’t have drinking every night after class in college to turn to anymore, either. I was an adult. I was in my mid-twenties. I was married, and my husband had been cheating on me.

  I’d managed to go through long days and nights in school, clinicals, internships, and any other training that I saw fit, or that was required for my degree. I wanted to be a Nurse Practitioner. I became a Nurse Practitioner. I worked very hard to make sure that my husband could one day do what he wanted to do: work from home.

  Little did I know, while I was at work, he was having an affair with a girl that he worked with. For a long time, I begged him to quit his job and pursue his dreams. He refused and I couldn’t understand why. I kept getting a bad feeling, but I let it go. I loved him so much. I couldn’t believe for an instant that he would ever do something like that to me, not after all we’d been through together and all I’d done to make his dreams come true.

  As I said before… After all those years, I finally got a taste of what real life was like. It was the most miserable moment of my life. I found myself envying those with normal lives and normal problems, just as they would envy mine for having such good luck. The grass is always greener, I’d always heard. That saying is very true. Elizabeth learned that right along with me.

  She’d always joked about being jealous that things seemed to always go well for me, and I’d smile, not knowing how to respond. I watched her go through hell often and there I was with all the luck. Then we realized that going through life as easy as I had doesn’t allow you to prepare. It doesn’t teach you anything at all. Least of all, how to deal with pain. When it hits you for the first time, it’s like dying. There’s no way to know how to process anything, and it leaves you terribly confused and overwhelmed by the suffering.

  I never would have found out the truth had it not been for Elizabeth. She caught on that the name of a patient of mine matched that of the woman my husband was always talking about at work. The very one that always gave me chills. I’d given her a prescription to treat an STD. In fact, I’d given her two. One for herself, the other for her lover. I soon found the second bottle in my husband’s drawer. Tucked away and hidden inside of a rolled-up pair of socks. It had her name on the bottle right alongside mine as the prescriber.

  Because of everything that had happened, I promised myself that I would never allow anyone to have that much hold over me ever again. I’m sure that I sound a lot like Elizabeth had, but it was she that sounded a lot like I did. It’s easy to allow that to happen. That’s why I refused to let her bring herself down with it. Once you’re in the habit of keeping a wall built, it’s almost impossible to let back down.

  During that time, I focused on myself and I rebuilt my life. Elizabeth never left my side. She was the only person in the world that I’d allow myself to care for, until that gorgeous baby of hers came along anyway. Hunter is incredibly precious. He’s the only little man for me. Well, when I actually get to see him.

  Elizabeth and Jax moved to Fort Wayne to be with Desiree during her pregnancy. I get it. After all Desiree had been through, I’d have made the same decision. I’d met Aiden. He seemed like a great guy. It also seemed like he couldn’t get enough of her, which I loved. I was very happy for all of them, but that left me alone. Alex, Jax’s brother, was also left behind, so we’d kind of stuck together. We’d become best bros. It’s been nice to have a pure soul to turn to again, though he’s a bit sweet on me. That complicates things a little, but he knows my boundaries and he’s been very understanding.

  We were going out with a few of his friends that night, so I was just finishing up getting ready. I’d recently dyed my hair a medium-dark blonde. I wasn’t quite sure if I liked it, but everyone at work seemed to. I’d dyed my hair so many times in the past few years, I couldn’t remember what my natural hair color was anymore. It had gotten far too long, so I decided to cut it off. Big mistake. Almost immediately after cutting it, I remembered that I hated having short hair. Thank God for hair extensions. I’d gotten very well acquainted with them.

  “Andi?”

  I heard Alex’s voice calling from the living room.

  “Yeah!” I called back. “I’m just finishing up in here.”

  I heard his footsteps falling as he walked into my room. My bathroom door was open, but I didn’t mind since I was only doing makeup.

  “Why do you mess with all that stuff?” he asked. “I mean… I know girls like it and all. Most of them think they need it, but you don’t. Not only are you beautiful without it, but you’re just going out with the guys. You’ve made it abundantly clear you’re just one of us. You don’t have to impress us.”

  I smiled. “Just like a man to think that I’m doing this for you.”

  He laughed. “Oh, I hold no delusions of that. You know what I meant.”

  “I’m just picking. I do know what you meant. Thank you for the compliment, but I really do it just for me. First of all, I’ve always like dressing up and putting makeup on. I didn’t have the time to for quite
a long time with school and work.” I laughed. “Probably why my ex-husband…”

  “AH! No. Don’t say it. You need to stop cracking jokes like that. I know you do it because you’re uncomfortable talking about yourself. You hate anything requiring confidence.”

  “Oh, shut up. I try not to. It just pops out sometimes,” I said.

  He was right. I didn’t have a lot of confidence, but I also didn’t care. I was confident about not feeling confident. How many times can you say confident before it doesn’t sound like a real word anymore?

  To be honest, I didn’t care what others thought. Well, for the most part. Anyone who says they don’t care what anyone else thinks actually does. They do a lot. There just may be some things they don’t care about. You don’t like what they do for a living? Doesn’t matter. They love it. You don’t care much for the clothes they wear? They don’t give a damn. Those are some super comfortable clothes. If you were to question them as a person, however, they would care quite a lot and so did I.

  Elizabeth always mistook my lack of caring for over-confidence. It was mostly because I was an insatiable flirt, and I always tried to be a good wingman for her. I didn’t flirt for myself, only for others. I was perfectly fine trying to find dates for other people. It had certainly worked in favor of Elizabeth and Jax. I pick on her all the time about it.

  Alex stood behind me, looking at me in the reflection of the mirror and I did the same to look at him. He was beautiful. I remember the day that I met him and his twin brother, Jax. They were both stunning, but I’d always liked Alex. Jax was the perfect gentleman, though Elizabeth said he was quite wild in bed. Alex was a bit wilder at heart. He was still just as kind and respectful, but he knew how to have a good time.

  He was dark-haired, dark-eyed, and dark complected, just like his brother, though they looked very different. Alex was a bit shorter than him, too. I liked it. He’d always been built nicely, but going through the police academy had made him even bigger. He’d taken it very seriously and was in the gym every day. I admired the dedication.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” Alex asked.

  I jumped a little, realizing at that moment that I’d been staring.

  I shrugged. “Just watching you watch me, I guess. You were staring first.”

  He smiled. “I was bored. What’s your excuse?”

  I threw a soft elbow. “You liar. Get out of here. I’ll be done in ten minutes.”

  “Okay. So, like… forty-five?” he said.

  I rolled my eyes and shook my head, continuing my work. Alex made himself comfortable on my bed, watching TV as he waited. Once I’d finished, we headed to Jack’s Pub. It had grown quite a bit and the building had even been torn down and rebuilt to reflect that. Though the name hadn’t changed, the atmosphere certainly had. It went from being a standard bar to a large sports bar and grill. It had great food and amazing drinks. The girls behind the counter knew exactly how to mix a drink.

  “What do you want to drink?” Alex asked.

  “A beer would be fine with me. Surprise me on the kind. I’m not picky,” I replied.

  “I wouldn’t trust it,” Rocky, one of Alex’s close friends said. “It’s a bit risky,”

  I laughed. “I can understand why you’d think so, but I’m really not picky!”

  I sat at the table with Rocky and Jack. Jack had picked the venue for our little gettogether, which I made sure to rib him on, given the name. Jack’s was Jack’s favorite place to go. Rocky had been friends with Alex since they were young, but they went through the police academy together and met Jack.

  “I’m glad we made it before the game,” I said.

  “Yeah,” Alex chimed in, setting my beer down in front of me. It was a brew from a local brewery. I loved trying new flavors from the area. “We almost didn’t.”

  I turned in his direction. “They got here after us, you turd.”

  He smiled. “Oh, yeah.”

  “He’s worse than a woman,” Jack said.

  I laughed. “He really is! It’s time to place bets, boys.”

  We continued to joke as we took turns placing bets on the team we had the most faith in. I’d never minded sports, but I certainly wasn’t into them like I’d become more recently. Somehow, I’d developed a love for it. It could have been the guys and their energy, or it could have been that I simply found a new love for it. Either way, we always had a lot of fun.

  “So, when is Jax getting married again?” Rocky asked.

  “Six weeks,” I replied.

  “Damn. That’s not very long at all,” Rocky said.

  “Not at all. It hasn’t been a very long engagement, but she’s perfect,” Alex said. “When you get a girl like that and she gives you a perfect little boy, you don’t waste time on that shit.”

  It warmed my heart how he spoke of Elizabeth. Alex already considered her a sister, and I loved it.

  “I still have a lot of work to do,” I said. “I’m making all of the bridesmaids’ dresses. Each one takes forever because of all the tiny little details. Elizabeth never asks for much, so when she gave me a list of specifics, I made damn sure to get it all right.”

  “What are you guys doing for the bachelor and bachelorette parties? That’s what we really need to know,” Jack asked.

  Of course, that’s what he’d be most interested in.

  “We are kicking a few things around,” Alex said. “Neither one of them wants anything special, but I think we should make it special anyway.”

  “Hey!”

  A man stumbled up behind Alex and put his arm around Alex’s shoulders. He was completely wasted, swaying all over. He was middle-aged with a proper haircut, though the greying auburn hair was a mess at that moment. He had a bit of weight in the middle, but his body looked very lean elsewhere by comparison. I imagined that it was alcohol that was the culprit for that one.

  “Hey!” Alex said, smiling once he recognized the man who had placed his arm around Alex’s shoulder. “How are you, man?”

  “I’m good, good. I was just wondering… Do you realize you’re at a table consisting of three dudes and you’re talking about weddings?”

  Alex laughed. “It’s my brother! He’s getting married!”

  The man’s eyes widened. “You’ve gotta be kidding me! Wait, it’s not that one, is it?” His face crinkled in disgust. I assumed he was talking about the ex of Jax’s that Elizabeth told me about. The one that had screwed Kevin, her ex-boyfriend, in the theatre bathroom.

  “Hell, no,” Alex replied. “He’s marrying a great girl. We’re just talking about the specifics.”

  “Like the bachelor party?” the man said with a devious smile. “Because that is a pretty big and pretty important specific.”

  The two took a few to catch up, and I found myself wondering who the hell he was. He seemed like a nice guy, but certainly had no issue with being totally trashed and embarrassing himself in front of an entire restaurant full of people.

  When he left, Alex told us that was their basketball coach in their senior year of high school. He’d had a rough time in the last few years and started drinking, but he was still a fun drunk. He just liked to get wasted and hang out with people, apparently.

  “Hey,” Alex said during half-time. “The guys kinda made me think about this whole party thing. We really should do something great for them. Would you want to go somewhere else after this and plan? I’m starving, but I’m not in the mood for anything fried.”

  I thought about it for a moment. I had some things that I wanted to get done, but I could always use more time out of the house. I worked so much that I had two homes: the hospital and my very neglected house.

  “Sure,” I said. “That sounds good. I guess I’ll stop eyeballing these cheese sticks, then. Shame because they look amazing.”

  “I’ll take you somewhere with even better cheese sticks, if you want,” he said. “I just don’t want anything fried. I’m fried-fooded out.”

  “Fried-f
ooded out?” I laughed. “Okay, then. Solid deal.”

  Chapter Two

  Turns out, I knew how to pick ‘em. My team won, which meant that Alex had to buy me food. That worked out great for him, considering our plans for the evening. I say, “it worked out great for him,” because I knew that when we went out, he’d offer to pay and an argument would ensue when I declined to let him do so, like I always did. Our little bet gave him what he’d inevitably want to do, but forced me to give up my reservation about it.

  The restaurant was packed, which prompted us to order ours to go. We’d originally wanted to go in and sit down, but neither one of us felt like being around a lot of people any longer after having just left the bar. While Alex was inside picking up the food, I got a text from Elizabeth. She was worried about the dresses. She’d been increasingly worried about the time frame in which everything was happening, and it was for that very reason that Alex and I were heading over to his mom’s house to borrow her sewing machine.

  Due to the amount of work that needed to be done, and the detail that would be included, I needed a better machine. Nancy and I had become increasingly close over the past year. Elizabeth and I had saved her life. It was mostly Elizabeth, a day I would never forget and a day that my pride in her grew tenfold. Nancy had suffered complications due to the chemo that she’d been taking. They’d been too much for her and it nearly killed her.

  After Elizabeth had saved her, Nancy spent quite a while in the hospital receiving care and being monitored. A lot of that care was administered by Elizabeth and me on our off time. We’d been very short staffed at the time and both of us had wanted to make sure she received great care. After seeing how hard Alex and Jax were taking everything, it was very hard for us to stay away.

  Nancy was a good, strong woman. She’d fight to the death for her kiddos. It seemed that at some point I’d been lumped in that category as well. I didn’t mind it. I loved Nancy, and I loved her children. They were very good people.

  “Hey, Andi!” Nancy said as we walked through the door. “How have you been?”