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"Oh, this must be some kind of joke, Lane Parker!" I heard Audrey shout from the hall I rushed out and tried to block off a nad Gemma, but she just didn’t see little Jocelyn "You wake up the baby that we just spent two hours trying to get down, and now you have her strutting around nad in front ofto look at her!"

Jace had his back co Gemma now and he held his hands up in surrender I could tell Audrey was level-ten-pissed-off because she never yelled at either of us Jace’s eyes burned intopain in the near future

"Please, leaveher in the eye

Gemma descended the staircase and scooped up her shirt She lazily pulled it over her shoulders and turned to face us I cringed when I saw her brsts were still exposed, since I had torn all of her buttons off in my haste

"Hey, Jace," she called up to him, and instinctively he turned at his nah seduction to light the rooroaned in annoyance as she slipped out the front door

"I’ll kill you," Audrey whispered toto bounce an uncomfortable and tired baby

"I’m so damn sorry, Audrey Seriously, I didn’t mean for any of that to happen" Ithat the baby in her arht, Lane I just can’t I’m too tired," she said as she started to cry "I need you to put her back to sleep" She pushed Jocelyn toward me and Jace jumped forward quickly to stop her

"Don’t! Don’t touch her, not when you still have alcohol on your breath" He quickly scooped his daughter into his ar down, he turned to Audrey and swiped a thumb under her wet eyes "Babe, it’s okay, please don’t cry" I flinched as I watched hihly hor her cry "I’ll take her, you go back to bed and rest"

With a kiss, they parted ways Jace bounced on his toes, trying to get Jocelyn back to sleep, and Audrey trudged down the hall toward their roo their soht Thenshe wouldn’t kick me out or in the balls

I heard her sniffles as she cli-size bed and threw the covers on top of herself

"I’ in behind you, doll," I whispered

"No, Lane," she replied harshly

"Too late" I lay down on the bed close to the edge so I wasn’t anywhere near Jace’s side That would have been like breaking so into his bed I pulled her in close and kissed the back of her head "I’roaned in frustration, but she didn’t swatI had to anything To family To friends I had parents, but I’d pretty much pushed them away Audrey had helped

When I escaped to California four years ago, I was a irl I loved I’d decided to go back to college, so I wasn’t being a coree in crih school, finishing it within three years But when I s up and went for a second bachelor’s in Accounting I realized that those two degrees were e your e coly in the saram as I was, and I just so happened to have a spare rooed and because I wasn’t much better off, ere two peas in a pod

Every day I told myself that I let her move in because she looked so wounded… that she needed ood deed by helping her In the end, I realized she was actually helpingthe saether, we took life a day at a ti

Last year, I turned twenty-eight and alked across the stage together with our et there as well

I knew everything about her I knew that her biggest fear was being alone I knew that her hair got outrageously frizzy with even a small a to her because the fa to her--at least she tried toI knew that she loved to sneak peanut butter in the ht and that she had to keep two cups of water by her bedside because she aloke up thirsty And I knew she was in love with Jace Riley the very first time she spoke about him, even if it was to tell me how much she hated him

I could only hope the next tiirl half as well as I knew Audrey She was my sister, maybe not by blood, but in every way it counted She was my best friend and I kneouldn’t be able to sleep until I’d made amends with her, no matter how small the divide was between us

Audrey knewI’ve kept soest secrets from her and if she were to ever find out, it would kill her I understood her heart though If she knew all ofwas resolved And that was not her job--it wasn’t her burden to take on It wasin ht

"Doll, you have to kno sorry I am I realize how tired you’ve been lately with a newborn I’m sorry a thousand times over Good news is I’ll be out of your hair soon My landlord said that the house should be done any day now and I need to head out of town tonight, so you and Jace will be Lane-free in a matter of hours"

"No!" she cried and then shifted so ere facing one another "You can stay here, please don’t leave I hate when you go out-of-town… you never coan to well up in her eyes and I had to re could bring on the orks Tread lightly, buddy

Audrey was used totheot the result I was hoping for, which was having her back inthatcloser to her

"Trust me, you could do without irls all to hiht a s I had a house in town that I rented, but whilebetween three of my buddies’ homes

"I wish you would just stay here"

"Doll, half of my job involves travel, so there will always be tiet your husband isestates on our own piece of land" I may have omitted that this trip was not on her husband’s orders

She rolled her eyes "Why would you bring a girl home? You have never, and Ispecial about her?" she asked, gried in the rooirl I aveme up the stairs and well"

"Yeah, I don’t need to know the rest," she replied in a flat tone Then she sighed deeply, and I could sense her heavy thoughts