Shadowing the Teacher (Perfect Pairs Book 3)

by Tamsin Baker

  “Yes, that’s right. You must have a perfect memory, Jack.”

  She was terrible with names, and if Jack hadn’t been one of the grooms, she’d be standing here grinning and wondering who to ask to find out his name again.

  He chuckled a rather deep, sexy laugh, and waved her inside. “Come on in. Ash is holding court out the back, and there’s drinks just over there.” Jack pointed to a large bar off to one side of the already full lounge room. “And heaps of food out the back.” He waved at the glass doors that opened out onto a huge porch.

  Sam’s eyes were instantly attracted to the view of the mountains. “Oh my word! What an incredible view.”

  Jack grinned, and they walked towards the doors. Jack’s happiness was an actual palpable thing as he stood next to her enjoying the sight of the Rocky Mountains outside their windows. They were a lush green and white tipped. Picturesque and perfect.

  “Jack!” A booming male voice came from behind them. Sam jumped, and they spun around.

  Jack yelled back. “Yeah, I’m comin’!”

  He turned back to her, another playful smile playing across his ruggedly handsome face. “Sorry, Sam. Gotta start cooking the food. Have a great time, and I’m really glad you could make it.”

  “Thanks heaps.” Sam gave Ashleigh's husband a big smile and watched him head off in the direction of the rotunda.

  The house was incredible. High ceilings, gorgeous furniture and an incredibly large and modern kitchen. If the rest of the house was this well designed and finished, then Ashleigh was one very lucky woman.

  Another bonus of having two husbands I suppose. Three incomes coming in to pay the mortgage.

  Sam giggled to herself and headed over to the bar.

  “Hey, Sam, what can I get you?”

  Sam stood stock still and stared hard at the man behind the bar, his red hair and freckles bringing up an old memory of a young boy she once knew.

  “Travis? Seriously? Is that you?”

  The guy behind the bar chuckled and leant on the wooden table with his large hands. He had to be at least early twenties now and hugely built, too. Nothing like the boy she remembered.

  “Yeah, it is. How’ve you been?”

  Sam smiled at the distant cousin she hadn’t seen since they were children. He was from Laura’s branch of the tree if she remembered correctly.

  “I’m great, thanks. I’m a teacher actually, and loving it.”

  “Still living up north?”

  Sam nodded and began looking at what beverages were on offer. “I’m only a couple of hours away now. What about you? What do you?”

  “I just graduated pre-med. Been accepted into Toronto university.”

  “Oh, wow Travis, that’s awesome! Your parents must be so excited for you!”

  The man behind the bar blushed a fiery red, and Sam actually felt sorry for the intensity of that heat. There was quite a bit of red hair in their family, yet most the female cousins had managed to escape it.

  Thank goodness.

  Travis pointed to the drinks in front of him. “Can I make you a cocktail, or would you like a glass of wine?”

  Sam weighed up her options, and after consuming far too much white wine the night before, she went for the safer option.

  “Just a Pepsi or something if you’ve got it to start with, thanks, Travis.”

  He picked up a glass bottle of Pepsi, twisted the lid, and poured her a drink in the tall tumbler. “Laura and Ash are out the back with my sisters if you were wanting to catch up with them?”

  Sam’s belly fluttered with excitement as she thanked Travis for the drink and took the few steps outside and into the fresh air. Summer smells of flowers and trees surrounded her. She closed her eyes and tilted her face up into the sun.

  The heat spread over her skin, light filling up her insides and calming her down. She’d been worried about what would happen today, that she’d be pushed into meeting people who wouldn't accept her or love her as her own family did, but she shouldn't have worried. This was her family.

  “Sam! Sam!”

  Samantha opened her eyes and looked towards the female voices calling her name.

  “Hey!” She bounced down the stairs and ran straight for her cousins. Laura’s belly was round and protruding, and so beautiful it made her heart clench with envy. Sam wrapped her arms around Laura’s shoulders, careful of not squashing the baby bump. “Just beautiful.” She rubbed Laura’s hard belly and smiled at her cousin.

  “It's so good to see you Sam! I was so upset we couldn’t make it last night.”

  Sam tilted her head at Laura, noticing the grey tinge to her cousin’s skin. “Ashleigh said you guys were sick?”

  Laura nodded and took a sip of her water. “Yeah, Brandon brought some sort of gastro bug home from his work, and Tyler and I were really sick for the past few days. We’re better now, but I didn’t feel quite up to everything last night.”

  “I can imagine.” Sam agreed, nodding her head wholeheartedly. She could justify missing a wedding when you were vomiting, but she couldn’t actually imagine being pregnant and sick. She was jealous of Laura’s big belly, she had to admit. She’d wanted a baby for as long as she could remember, but the man had to come first.

  “So, anyone special in your life, Sam?” Ash asked from beside Laura.

  Sam took a long sip of the cold drink she held and swallowed with relish. She hadn't realized she was so thirsty.

  “Nothing to report on yet.” And that was technically true, although not wholly so. She didn’t know why she was avoiding the questions about her love life, but it probably came down to the fact that she didn’t want to answer the questions as to why she hadn’t brought him with her.

  “But everything else is good with you?” Laura asked, rubbing her belly again in a hypnotic way that made Sam want to reach out and mimic the movement.

  “Yeah, everything’s great really. Work’s good. I’ve just bought a house actually.”

  “Fantastic.” Her two married cousins chirped at her, and Sam struggled to pull a smile up on her face. Despite the advances in her own life, new house, great career, awesome friends, she was slowly being left behind, but she didn’t want to just settle for anyone. She wanted to find true love to pair up, but her need for a family and love was beginning to gnaw at her.

  Someone called out Ash’s name, and she looked up towards the house, waving at them frantically. “Oh, my mother-in-law’s here. I better rush. I’ll see you guys later on.”

  Sam nodded and kissed her newly married cousin, Ash hurrying away. There was a warm glow around the woman Sam had never seen look anything but lackluster.

  “I never thought I’d see the day Ashleigh looked that happy.”

  Laura sighed beside her. “Me neither. It’s so good. So … come sit down and tell me more about everything.”

  Sam laughed as she was led to a cluster of chairs and began regaling Laura with stories of her students, her parents, and her string of failed dates. It wasn’t a marriage to two men, a massive property, and a baby on the way. But her life still made her happy.

  ****

  Reid looked down at his trembling, pale hands, barely recognizing the implements that used to help him build homes. They stood outside Jack and Scott’s new home, a total mess. “You know we shouldn’t be here, brother.”

  Kane stared at him a moment, dark flashes of pain evident in his eyes before he straightened his spine, turned towards the door, and knocked hard.

  Fuck. This is not going to be good.

  The carved wooden door that was a beautiful acknowledgement of their heritage swung open, and Jack greeted them with his characteristic devil-may-care grin.

  “So glad you guys made it!”

  He waved them both inside, and Reid hesitated before his foot could pass over the threshold. He could hear the happy noises coming from the backyard and through the house. His skin crawled like a slithering snake. The idea of having to stand again with too many people had pan
ic rising inside him like the tide. The wedding had been bad enough.

  “It may be better if just Kane stays. I’m feeling pretty strange today.”

  He took a step back, and Jack’s smile fell. Kane twisted back around to stare at him.

  “One hour, and we’ll go.”

  Reid crossed his arms over his chest and inhaled sharply, his brother’s words circling in his head. That wouldn’t be too bad. He could probably do that. It was obvious his twin wanted to stay, and he owed Kane a lot.

  “All right.”

  Jack’s grin returned, and Reid forced his legs to move, the steps a jolting force up his legs as he moved down the long hallway and stepped into a brightly lit living room, buzzing with energy and people.

  Whoa.

  Dizzy swirls made his legs weak.

  Fuck. I could lift half my car last year. Now look at me.

  “It’s ok, mate.” Jack’s voice slid into his ear, and he realized he’d been cowering back from the room.

  Jack patted him on the back, and Reid straightened, embarrassed by his behavior. “Yeah, thanks.”

  “Drinks are that way.” Jack pointed across the room, and Reid almost smiled as his cousin pushed him towards the alcohol. He wasn’t a huge drinker, but today was definitely one of those days that his nerves could use some deadening. Kane headed off with Jack, and he made a beeline for the bar.

  “Hey, mate, can I get you something?”

  “Double whisky neat, thanks.”

  The guy behind the bar whistled and picked up one of the bottles, pouring the amber liquid into a fresh glass within a few moments. Reid nodded and accepted the drink, tossing it back and wincing as it burned through his mouth and all the way down into his belly.

  “Wow. You need another?”

  Reid opened his eyes and saw the empty glass. It shouldn’t look like that.

  He handed it back to the bartender, a young man who looked fit and healthy. He could never understand what Reid was feeling, but his compassion was noted and appreciated.

  “Absolutely. Thanks.”

  His glass was refilled, but this time Reid nodded his thanks and moved slowly towards the porch, sinking into an empty chair, his back to the house.

  He’d struggled at the wedding yesterday to be around so many vibrant people, and today was no better. Everyone was too colorful. The clothes, the laughing, the drinking and eating. All of the things he’d avoided over the past twelve months. Life.

  Reid pulled his sunglasses from his pocket, opened them and placed them over his eyes. His heart was beating too fast, and he focused on taking careful, even breaths. He could handle an hour, he could.

  His eyes were pulled to the tree by the side fence, where two women stood.

  It was her.

  Samantha’s hair was so long it reached the small of her lower back, cascading down in flowing brown waves. She wore a pair of denim shorts that clung to her ample hips, and when she turned, laughing at something that was said, her large breasts wobbled and shook in the white top holding them in.

  Lust stabbed him in the gut, and he groaned. The feeling was as foreign as the alcohol in his hand. He took another drink of his whisky, the warmth beginning to seep along his veins, relaxing him.

  He assessed his body again and couldn’t believe the ache in his groin. He hadn’t felt anything like lust since his wife’s shocking death, and it made him look away in disgust that he could feel such a thing again. He wanted to die, not feel.

  He angrily thumped his thigh with his fist, the pain destroying whatever warmth the sight of Sam had aroused.

  “Reid! Come here.”

  Reid looked up and saw Kane and Scott waving at him from the center of the backyard. He shook his head, sensing their need to push him into meeting Sam. He didn’t want to know why his brother and his senses were being tangled with the woman. It was all wrong.

  Kane gave him a dirty look and made shoving motions with his hands. Reid looked away. He wasn’t interested in anything more. He’d had his chance of happiness, his one shot at being happy. Now, the legend would be fulfilled once again, and he was grateful for it. He only wanted one more thing from his life.

  To go home and die in peace.

  Chapter Three

  Kane made a disgusted noise and turned away from the porch. The image of his brother sitting like a leper in his single chair alone burned into his brain.

  “I seriously don’t know what I’m going to do with him.”

  Scott chuckled. “Well, you could force him into meeting Sam the same way Jack forced me. I was so against this relationship in the beginning.”

  Kane held up his hands as his heart began to thump harder and faster in time with his fear. “Whoa, hang on, Scott. I’m not assuming anything yet about Sam, and it would be disrespectful to my wife to even suppose such a thing.”

  Scott sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his finger.

  “Will you listen to me for one minute, Kane? As one intelligent part of a Perfect Pair to the other?”

  Kane stared at his cousin for a minute and finally nodded. Scott was his side of the twin pair, and if there was anyone who’d make sense to him, it was Scott. What else did he have to lose anyway?

  “I’m sure your parents told you all the old stories, too. To know your true mate you need several things, but the main sign is the instant attraction and the electricity that shoots through you when you first touch. Did you have that with Amanda?”

  Kane clenched his teeth hard and opened his mouth to answer, of course we did, but stopped. His memories pulled up every file they had. The first time he’d met Amanda, their first kiss.

  “There was lots of heat and instant attraction, but I don’t know about the electricity thing.”

  Scott stepped forward, his eyes darkening with seriousness. “That’s pretty much the most important thing, Kane. It’s so powerful it almost knocked me to the ground, and Tyler and Brandon have said the same thing about their moment with Laura.”

  Kane crossed his arms over his chest and stared at his cousin, his bottom jaw jutting forward in a way he knew was belligerent. “We probably felt it. I just don’t remember.”

  Scott sighed, and Kane looked away. He didn’t like what his cousin was suggesting and wasn’t sure he was ready to cope with the possibility of a new life being offered to them. That wasn’t the plan.

  Scott pressed him again. “Do you think it might be possible that Amanda was a beautiful woman who both you and Reid fell in love with, but not your destined mate?”

  Kane’s ribs were squeezed by some invisible force. His breathing was labored and painful now. His eyelids drifted shut as his brain forced his body to shut down.

  Scott’s hands come down onto his forearms hard, gripping tightly. The pressure didn’t ease, forcing Kane to reopen his eyes and stay present.

  “Kane, it’s completely possible and not something you should be terrified of. Just breathe.”

  Kane focused on his cousin’s green eyes and did as he was told, the implications of what Scott was saying, sinking in rapidly. That changed everything.

  “You mean … we are not going to die…”

  Scott shook his head. “Not if she wasn’t your mate. No, you won’t.”

  Tears sprang to Kane’s eyes, hot and stinging. His heart refused to believe that their beloved wife wasn’t the mate they’d always believed she was.

  Scott continued, his voice urgent and fast. “Or maybe she was, but because she was taken away so quickly, fate chose a second one. No one knows enough about this, Kane. Perfect Pairs are rare enough, but stories of their lost mates are even fewer.”

  Kane took quick breaths to calm his pounding heart. His muscles, which had tightened to the point of shaking, now released. Scott was projecting a very reasonable solution to his dilemma. His brain was putting everything together very quickly now.

  “That’s … possible.”

  And maybe it was. Amanda had died in a horrible car accident
, less than twelve months after their mating and marriage. Would fate be that kind to them again?

  “We can’t replace Amanda, Scott.”

  Scott shook his head, taking his hands off Kane’s arms finally, the release allowing the blood to tingle and flow again into his hands. “I’m not saying that, but it would be amazing, a real gift from whatever God made us, if you two could be happy again.”

  Kane’s heart had calmed and was now beating at a regular rate. He needed to change the topic for just a moment.

  “You were married before Ashleigh. Is it different this time?”

  Scott’s laugh was so loud almost everyone in the backyard stopped talking to stare at them.

  Kane glanced around, blood heating his cheeks as he waited for everyone to go back to what they were doing. He didn’t think what he’d asked was funny at all, so the response was obviously going to be interesting.

  Scott finally sobered, his face settling into a huge smile. “Oh so different. My first wife was a nasty piece of work. I should never have married her, and almost didn’t give Ashleigh a chance because of the damage the ex had done.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.” He hadn’t known Scott’s life had been so bad. He’d never said anything.

  His cousin shrugged. “I got over it, finally, thanks to her. But enough about me. This is about you and Reid. Just touch her, hold her hand for one moment, and I guarantee you’ll know if Sam’s the one for you.”

  Kane bit his lip, not entirely sure he wanted to know that. That would mean giving up everything he’d believed to be true. He’d have to let go of his grief and work on a future. Did he have the strength for that in himself, let alone the courage to try to pull Reid along with him?

  “And if she isn’t who you think she is?”

  Scott grinned again. “Then you’ve lost nothing and you can continue on as you were.”

  Kane almost groaned with the pain in the guts he got from that statement. Go back to where they were? Hell itself?

  Well, doesn’t that tell you something?

  His decision seemed quite simple now as he turned towards the maple tree where Sam stood with Laura, another Perfect Pair wife. Despite his loyalty to Amanda, if he had a true choice, he didn’t want to go back to the black hole that Reid clung to so strongly. There was a light at the end of the tunnel, and it was time to take a step in that direction and see if it was real.