My Kind of Beautiful : a friends to lovers romance (Finding Love Book 2) Read online

  Contents

  Playlist

  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

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Epilogue

  Other books by Nikki Ash

  About the Author

  My Kind of Beautiful © 2020 Nikki Ash

  All rights reserved

  Editing: Lawrence Editing

  Cover design: Jersey Girl Designs

  Cover photography: Sara Eirew photography

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  Find the playlist on Apple Music

  Your Song- Rita Ora

  Perfect Storm- Brad Paisley

  You and Me- Lifehouse

  Say You Won’t Go- James Arthur

  Broken-Lifehouse

  Breakeven- The Script

  Battle Scars- Lupe Fiasco & Guy Sebastian

  Don’t You Wanna Stay- Jason Aldean

  Stay- Rihanna

  Let Me Go- 3 Doors Down

  It Will Rain-Bruno Mars

  How to Get the Girl- Taylor Swift

  Rumors- NEFFEX

  There’s No Way-Lauv

  I Loved Her First- Heartland

  Somebody-Natalie La Rose

  All I Want- Daniel Skye

  I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing- Aerosmith

  As Long as You Love Me- Justin Bieber

  Sweet but Psycho- Ava Max

  Too Close- Next

  Let Me See Ya Girl- Cole Swindell

  Leave Her Wild- Tyler Rich

  Replay- Lyaz

  Nightmare- Halsey

  FRIENDS- Ann-Marie & Marshmello

  Halo- Beyoncé

  What Ifs- Kane Brown

  Heaven-Kane Brown

  Love You Like I Used To-Russell Dickerson

  Nobody but You-Blake Shelton

  To my daughter, for showing me every day how beautiful life is.

  Alec

  “It’s your turn to cook, bro, and I’m thinking burgers.” Chase grins wide and throws two packages of ground beef into the shopping cart. “I’m also thinking baked potatoes.” He pushes the cart over to the produce section and grabs several potatoes, tossing them into a produce bag and then the bag into the cart.

  “Yeah, yeah. Why is it when it’s your turn to cook, you buy pre-made meals, but when it’s my turn, I actually have to cook?” I pick out a few tomatoes and onions and add them to the cart.

  “Maybe because you can actually cook. Trust me, I’m doing everyone at the station a favor.” He chuckles, throwing a head of lettuce into the mix. “Who’ll put out all the fires in Los Angeles if all the guys are sick with food poisoning?”

  I throw a couple cans of baked beans into the cart. “Maybe you should give those words of advice to Lexi. The woman is determined to learn how to cook, and I’m pretty sure it’s going to end with her killing all of us.”

  “Food poisoning doesn’t kill.” Chase laughs.

  “No, but fires do.” I shake my head as I think about the last few times my best friend and roommate has attempted to cook and failed. “I’m telling you right now, if that damn fire alarm goes off one more time while I’m trying to sleep, I’m going to find a way to padlock the oven so she can’t cook.”

  “When are you going to admit you have the hots for Lexi Scott?” Chase shoots me a knowing look, which I choose to ignore, instead grabbing a package of buns from the shelf and throwing them at him.

  “Oohhh, that hurt.” Chase groans dramatically. “Seriously, though, in the last year, since I was transferred to this station and have gotten to know you, not once have I seen you treat the women you’re talking to the way you treat that woman.”

  “That’s because I’m not talking to Lexi.” And if I’m honest, I’m barely talking to other women. But when the guys and I go out, it tends to send up a red flag when they’re all trying to hook up with various women, while I’m wallowing in my drink, trying to fight my feelings for a woman I’ll never make mine. It’d probably be smart to actually hook up with one of those women—fuck my feelings for her straight out of my system. But the few times I tried ended with me walking out the door, leaving the woman hanging—sexually frustrated and pissed—so I decided to take a short hiatus from sex, get my shit together, and then try again. Only that hiatus has lasted way longer than I planned. I’ve been abstinent so long now, my dick has probably disowned me. If it could, it would detach itself from my body and find another guy to get it laid.

  “She’s my friend,” I tell him for the millionth damn time, hoping this time he’ll believe me. “Just like Georgia is my friend. And if you want to stay friends with women, you don’t talk to them.”

  “I’m not buying it. I’ve seen you with both of your roommates. You don’t give Georgia the same look you give Lexi.”

  “And what look might that be?” I regret the question the second the words come out of my mouth. I thought I’ve been good about hiding my feelings, but it’s hard when we share a living space. When she flits around in her tiny little cutoff shorts and bikinis. When she lays her legs across me on the couch, begging me to give her foot massages. Or when she snuggles up next to me to watch a movie, and her tiny, perfect body rubs up against mine. I try so damn hard to ignore the way my heart clenches in my chest, or the way my dick stands at attention at her touch. If Lexi’s noticed, she hasn’t said anything. So, she’s either blind to my feelings, ignoring them, or I’m doing a good job at hiding them—at least from her.

  “The look that says you want to lock her up in your room and fuck her until the sun comes up,” Chase says. “Then, when all the condoms run out and she can’t take any more, you cook her breakfast in bed.” He waggles his eyebrows.

  “Chase, you’re seeing shit that isn’t there,” I deadpan, lying through my teeth. “And speaking of breakfast in bed, when are you planning to sleep in your own bed?” I give him a pointed look.

  Without answering me, Chase pushes the cart into the checkout line and starts loading the items onto the conveyer belt. I could push him to answer, but I don’t. For one, C
hase sleeping on my couch when he has his own home and a wife can’t be a good sign, and if it means he’s having marriage troubles, the last thing I want to do is make him feel like he can’t crash at my place. And two, it might cause him to further push the subject of me hooking up with Lexi, and the last thing I need is to visualize my best friend in my bed: under me, on top of me, me fucking her from behind. Pulling her long blond hair while she calls out my name. Damn it! I look around to make sure nobody is watching me, then adjust my pants.

  Chase pays the cashier while I bag the groceries and then we head back to station one-fifteen, which is located in Los Angeles near UCLA. We’re one shift away from having three days off, and once we’re off, I plan to spend at least one of those days in my bed asleep.

  We get back to the station and the guys are all hanging out in the workout room. Chase and I work shift B with four other guys. This shift consists of two twenty-four-hour shifts every other day and then four days off. Chase has been a firefighter for ten years and was recently promoted to Battalion Chief—he’s in charge of the guys on our shift. He took the place of a guy who was promoted to Fire Chief when ours retired. I’ve been working as a firefighter-slash-paramedic for the last five years at this same station and was promoted last year to Lieutenant. The other guys on our shift are Luke and Thomas, who are both firefighters-slash-paramedics like me, Carter, who is the Driver Engineer—he drives the fire truck and manages the equipment—and Scott, who just recently finished the academy and is still working on his EMT license.

  “What’s for dinner?” Carter yells from the treadmill.

  “Burgers,” I yell back, throwing the bags onto the counter while Chase lights the grill.

  I’ve just finished putting everything away and am in the middle of prepping the burger patties when the tone goes off throughout the station. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been working as a firefighter, when the ridiculously loud ringing hits your ears, you cringe. Then you jump into action. Because all of our bunker gear is kept on the truck, all we have to do is jump on once Chase comes out with the information from the dispatcher to let us know where the fire is.

  “Westwood Village condos,” Chase calls out, looking straight at me. “Alec’s address,” he adds with a smirk. The guys all groan. Dammit, Lexi. Even though the fire probably isn’t anything to be too concerned about, we still treat it how we would treat any fire that’s called in.

  We arrive at my complex in less than two minutes and head up to the second floor. The door is already open and you can smell the smoke leaking from inside. The smoke alarm is blaring throughout the house, and is Lex in the kitchen trying to put the fire out? Nope, her ass is standing on a chair with a broomstick in her hand, jabbing at the smoke alarm to shut it off. Chase and a couple of the other guys head into the kitchen to make sure the oven fire is under control while I go straight for Lexi.

  Grabbing her by her waist, I pull her off the chair. She shrieks in shock, until she sees it’s me, then her eyes go wide. I lower her to the ground before I reach up and press the button to silence the alarm. When the room goes quiet, Lexi sighs, and I can see it in her face that she’s trying not to laugh.

  “Lex,” I groan, about to lay into her, but then her deep blue eyes meet mine and I shake my head. It’s damn near impossible to be mad at her. “This is the third time this month. Maybe you could…I don’t know…practice cooking at your parents’ place.” At least then it would fall on another station.

  “I wasn’t cooking.” She shakes her head emphatically, and several strands of her blond hair fall from her loose ponytail. I give her a pointed look and she grins wildly, reminding me of a rose: beautiful to look at from afar, but filled with thorns, making her impossible to touch. And if you do attempt it—thinking you can somehow get around them, so you can experience her beauty up close—there’s no doubt she’ll prick you, leaving you bleeding and in pain.

  “Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday…” The guys begin singing, and I turn around to see a charcoaled cake in Chase’s hands, a huge smirk splayed across his face. The guys are all shaking with laughter as he sets down what I’m assuming was Lexi’s attempt at baking me a cake for my birthday. They finish singing and start clapping, thinking they’re fucking hilarious.

  “See? I wasn’t cooking. I was baking.” Lexi shrugs innocently. “It’s your favorite…white cake.”

  Her eyes go to the black cake that could pass for burnt brownies, then back to mine, her top teeth biting down on her bottom lip. “Sorry about Ms. Holden calling nine-one-one.” She rolls her eyes. “She could’ve just come over and asked if everything was okay. She doesn’t have to be so dramatic all the time.”

  I throw my arm across the back of Lexi’s shoulders and pull her into a side hug. “Lex, you know I love you, right?”

  “Yeah…” She tilts her head up to look at me, and I ignore the stirring in my gut at the sight of her. Of her plump, kissable lips, of the way her blue eyes remind me of the deep ocean—full of life, yet mysterious and uncertain.

  “You’ve gotta stop trying to cook and bake. Paint, surf, go graffiti the hell out of some of those abandoned buildings.” I give her forehead a kiss to lighten the blow. “But for the love of God, woman, don’t touch our oven, please.”

  “Ugh… fine. I did find some crock pot recipes I’ve been wanting to try out. Maybe I’ll ask my mom if I can borrow hers.” The guys start to chuckle, but when Lexi glares at each of them, they all stop laughing at the same time.

  “Lexi, I’m home.” The door slams closed and in walks Georgia, Lexi’s sister and my other roommate. “Please don’t tell me that firetruck outside is for…” Her feet and mouth come to an abrupt halt when she sees all of us standing in the kitchen.

  “Hey.” She shyly waves at the guys. “I guess it is…”

  “Lexi, here, was baking me a birthday cake.” I point to the cake pan.

  “I was gone for less than an hour.” Georgia sighs. “How do you even burn a cake in that amount of time?”

  “Well…I…” Lexi looks at her sister sheepishly.

  “You what?” Georgia grabs the pan and throws the entire thing into the garbage can, not even bothering to try to clean it out and at least save the pan. “I wasn’t even gone long enough for you to burn a cake. What did you do?”

  “Well, Ricco may have called and said the waves are killer. There’s a storm brewing, you know. But I had already put the cake in, and you were gone. I just thought if I doubled the temperature, I could cut the bake time in half. It makes sense, right?” Lexi’s shoulders shrug and her head tilts to the side.

  I cover my mouth from laughing, knowing it will only encourage her. But holy shit, she’s so fucking adorable. She’s just so lost in her own world. Chase’s gaze meets mine, and he raises one knowing brow.

  “Anyway,” Lexi continues when nobody answers her. “I figured while I was waiting for the cake to finish, I could paint some, so I put my earbuds in and got to work. The next thing I know the fire alarm is going off and the condo is all smoky.”

  “It’s okay, darlin’,” Carter says. “You know…” He approaches Lexi, who eyes him speculatively. “I’ve been known to make a mean omelet”—he nods slowly—“the morning after.” He shoots her a flirtatious wink, and the guys’ gazes go to me, and it’s in that moment I realize they all know my feelings for Lexi. I thought I’ve been doing a good job of hiding them over the years, but apparently not. Does that mean Lexi knows too? If she does, and hasn’t said a word, wouldn’t that mean she doesn’t return my feelings?

  Lexi scrunches her nose up in disgust, and I bark out a laugh. “And on that note, let’s go.” I give her a kiss on her cheek. “Be careful surfing.”

  “Always.” She beams.

  The guys all say goodbye to the women and then we head back to the station to finish our night.

  Lexi

  “How’s it going?” I throw myself onto my sister’s bed and peek over at her computer screen. She’s work
ing on designing a new website for Jumpin’ Java—our favorite coffee shop in Larchmont Village, where our mom has a painting studio and our dad owns a UFC training facility. While we both take after our mom creatively, I’m more of a paintbrush-in-hand kind of artist, and Georgia is all about the digital. Technically, Georgia is my stepsister. Her mom married my dad when we were little and they each adopted us. But to anyone who doesn’t know that, we’re sisters—and she’s my favorite person in the entire world.

  “It’s going.” She smiles softly, pushing a wayward strand of brown hair behind her ear. “Finishing this up.” She points to the screen.

  “Want to come watch me surf tonight?” Georgia’s made it known she doesn’t particularly care for the people I hang out at the beach with, but I hate that she almost never goes anywhere, so I invite her everywhere. She’s either at school, at our mom’s studio helping with the children’s parties, or at home working behind her computer.

  “Max is coming to take some pictures,” I add, knowing if I say our younger brother is going to be there, she might actually go.

  Georgia gives me another smile—the one that tells me she loves me and doesn’t want to hurt my feelings, but she doesn’t want to go. When I look up at her, her bright green eyes are dimmed, and my heart hurts for my sister. Somewhere in there I believe there’s a woman who’s begging to come out and be carefree, but that woman is being pushed down by another part of my sister who shies away from the public and all social situations. She’s more comfortable sitting behind a computer than hanging out with living, breathing people—except for me. Georgia is the yin to my yang. She’s more than my friend, more than my sister. She’s the other half of my soul.