Page 20 of Her Shifter Pack

It was for me! “Wow.” College educated. White collar.

He wasn’t what I expected an accountant to look like. Weren’t they all nerdy?

He shrugged. “And Markus does garden landscaping. Private contracts, stuff like that.”

I smiled at him. “The brains and the brawn, huh?”

He blinked at me as though I shouldn’t have said such a thing. I probably shouldn’t.

“Not that I was inferring you don’t have brawn! Or that Markus doesn’t have a brain,” I reassured him, reaching for his arm. “You’re gorgeous! I didn’t mean to offend, I promise. It was a silly thing to say.”

Instead of yelling at me or stomping off like I half expected, Ollie laughed. “Oh, no. That’s not it. It wasn’t silly. Markus does have a lot more muscle than me. About fifty pounds worth. I just found it interesting that you instantly saw the way we complement each other.”

I tilted my head at him, my intuition picking up on something strange in his tone. This conversation was important to him and for some reason, he thought it may be important to me also.

I never ignored my intuition. “You know,” I said, “I was really worried about coming back here last night. I thought I’d never be able to fall sleep because I’d be too scared. And yet I slept, the best I have in... well, forever.”

Ollie’s eyes lit up with obvious happiness. “That’s great. I hope you always feel safe and secure here.”

“Can I ask you something?” I questioned, taking a spoon full of the rich yogurt, loving the assortment of flavors and textures that he’d added into my breakfast—or rather, given the time of day, my lunch.

He nodded. “Anything.”

“What’s with your brother?”

Ollie burst out laughing. “Ah... that is too broad a question to even begin to answer. Can you be more specific?”

“Well, I mean... you’re so different, and yet you’re also similar. You’re both good men, obviously, trustworthy and caring. You proved that last night. But Markus seems, totally different from you. I don’t know. I probably sound ridiculous.”

I wasn’t sure what I was asking, and realized I wasn’t being specific at all. I decided I needed to focus on my food rather than unravel this mystery right now. I took a sip from the glass of orange juice on the corner of the tray and took a bite of a sliced apple.

Ollie put his hand out and pressed against my knee. “Actually, you don’t sound ridiculous at all. Thing is, Markus and I aren’t just brothers, we’re twins.”

“Twins?” I asked, shocked. “Fraternal, obviously.”

“Yeah. Obviously. But we’re, um...” He shook his head suddenly. “I wasn’t sure if I should tell you this yet or not.”

“Tell me,” I said, feeling my intuition kick in again regarding the inevitability of this conversation.

He sighed. “Well, in our pa... err... family, there’s something called a perfect pair. It pretty much means a fraternal set of twins that are the opposite from each other in every way. One light, one dark. One tall and big, one shorter and smaller. One brains, one brawn. Usually, Markus is more light-hearted and funnier than me. I’m more serious. It’s like the list of every quality available got evenly divided up and distributed between us.”

My brows rose as he spoke. Sounded like perfection all tied up in two men rather than one. “But you’re both kind and generous,” I said. “And you have manners. It’s not like one of you is all nice and the other one is a serial killer, or something.”

Well, I hoped not, anyway.

Ollie cackled at that. “Ah, yeah. Well, our Mom would kick our asses if we didn’t show a basic level of respect. Especially toward women.”

I liked that. She sounded like my sort of woman. A mother someone could actually look up to. One I wished I’d had.

“And your dad?” I asked, trying not to sound too nosy, yet I wanted to know everything about these incredible men.

“What about him?”

“Is he... still around? Or did your mom raise you on her own?” I wouldn’t have been surprised, of course. Half of modern marriages ended in divorce.

“Oh, he’s very much still around,” Ollie said. “He’s a good man. You’d like him, I think.”

Something strange and warm curled around my heart that I couldn’t describe, but it was simultaneously uncomfortable and a feeling I wanted to experience again.

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