Shattered: A Salvation Society Novel Bella Emy (best ebook reader for laptop .TXT) 📖

I’m not complaining, and I’m aware of how lucky and fortunate I am. I don’t ever take that for granted, but sometimes I wish people would know there’s more to me than just my family name.

And still, all the money in the world can’t stop people from fighting. My parents have had the worst fights lately. I hate to hear them bicker, and most nights when they do, I head out to stay with Erin.

I take in a deep breath and want to avert my thoughts elsewhere. I want to ask him why the hell he came out here if inside is such a great party, but before I have a chance to figure out how to word it, because right now the words are not coming to me, he’s speaking once more.

“So, Miss Alderidge, who would rather be reading than partying with her fellow Tranquility Creek classmates before the start of her senior year—”

“Junior year,” I cut him off abruptly.

“Junior year?” His eyebrows furrow. “I seriously thought you were a senior.”

I grimace. Is that disappointment washing up on his face?

“No. I just turned sixteen two months ago. You’re in college?”

He chuckles. “No. I’m a senior. Turned eighteen a few months ago.”

“Oh, I thought you were older, too.”

“Disappointed?” He smirks.

“No, not at all. But which school do you go to?”

“Tranquility Creek High School.” He flashes me a smile that makes me forget my train of thought for a second.

No way is he a student at Tranquility. I would have definitely seen him around school. It’s not like our school is that big. And a guy like him, with eyes like his, a smile like his, and a body like his? I’d definitely remember him. Definitely.

Before I can say anything else, he adds. “I just moved here, about two or so months ago. I met Jason Delaney at the construction company I started working for this summer.”

Construction? No wonder he’s built like a freaking god. That explains a lot. And he’s friends with Jason? Erin would love this.

“I see,” is all I manage to say.

He chuckles, and I’m instantly drawn to the sound. Jesus.

“So, Lexi… besides reading, what else do you like doing?”

I think I love my name. Or at least the way it sounds when he says it. I could watch his lips saying my name all day long.

As I go to open my mouth and respond, Erin barges out with Jason to her right. “There you are, Lex! I’ve been looking all over for you!”

I take a glance at my watch and see that it’s already past ten. How the hell had an hour passed by so quickly? “I was just out here... reading.”

“Um… reading what, exactly? That hunk’s shirt that has no visible writing on it?” She points to Kalen’s black shirt.

Kalen, Jason, and Erin exchange a laugh. Of course, I had put my phone away and now I look like a moron. Two points for Lexi.

Before I can tell her I had been reading on my phone, Kalen rises and extends his hand. “Hi, I’m Kalen... Jason’s friend.”

Erin smiles widely and shakes his hand. “Erin. Nice to meet you.” Once they let go, she looks at me, and covers her mouth to say to me, “He’s hot.”

I look down and giggle quietly to myself as I nod at her statement. He sure is.

Erin looks back and forth from the guys to me and says, “Jason and I were going to get ice cream, why don’t you guys come with us?”

Ice cream does sound good. It’s hot enough tonight. And Kalen is not helping to cool me off at all.

“I’m actually probably going to head on home in a bit,” he responds.

Okay, now I’m disappointed. Even though I don’t know much about him, I was really enjoying getting to know him.

“Lexi, you can go with them if you like. I don’t want to keep you from hanging out with your friends,” he says.

Listen to him talking as if Jason isn’t his friend, too.

“Well, I—”

Jason intervenes before I have the chance to decline the offer. “Come on, dude. You should come, too.”

Kalen thinks for a moment before nodding. “Okay.”

He gives me that mesmerizing smile of his and asks, “What do you say, Lexi? You want to get some ice cream?”

I smile back. Do I ever. But instead, I respond, “Ice cream sounds great.”

Chapter Six

The four of us find ourselves sitting at a wooden table and chairs out back of Polar Freeze Treats, the town’s ice cream shop. The place isn’t too crowded but there are enough patrons here that we almost didn’t find a seat.

A little boy around the age of three holds on to his mother’s hand, while his other carries a dripping chocolate cone. I’m surprised to see a kid his age up at this time. Most children are asleep by now. But he is adorable with chunky cheeks and sky-blue eyes. When he catches me staring at him, he stops licking his cone and his eyes widen. I smile.

“He seems to like you, Lexi,” Kalen leans over to my right and whispers in my ear. “Can’t say I blame him.” He pulls back, and I feel myself blushing.

I look across the table at Erin and Jason, but they’re in their own little world, unaware of what Kalen just said to me.

But I noticed. And I take it in.

And I feel myself jumping up and down inside. Because honestly, I’m really liking him, too.

I turn my head slightly to face him, and he’s just scooping up his double mint chocolate chip ice cream onto a little plastic green spoon as if nothing happened.

And then, without ever turning his head, he winks at me through the corner of his eye.

I can’t help it as my lips curl into a smile.

“So, Jason was telling me you just moved here?” Erin’s voice breaks my thoughts, and in all honesty, I’m thankful for it. Because if I dwell on all the ways Kalen is making me feel right now, I’ll