Page 12 of Teach Me to Laugh

Honestly, if I hadn’t taken a year between my four-year undergraduate program and the torture I’d enrolled myself in for med school, I’d probably have already flunked.

But against my parent’s wishes I had taken that year. And I didn’t regret it. Not even a little bit. Yeah, so I was one year farther from graduation and the working world, but at least I’d gotten a little living in before true adult life kicked into full swing. I’d always wanted to backpack through Europe. Now I had those memories.

By the time I hit twenty-seven, I’d be everything I’ve ever wanted to be. Lucky for Mom and Dad, I’ll be everything they ever wanted their son to be.

But as much as I might want to be a Doctor one day, I definitely couldn’t say I liked anything about the long hours that came with studying. It was tough. Worth it, I’m sure, but still tough.

The timer on my watch sounded and my lungs released a long breath as my legs slowed their determined strides for a steady fast-paced walk. I could feel Kaiden beside me, but even if I couldn’t, I could hear his ragged breaths.

I didn’t know why the guy strove to keep up to me. I had years of working out on him. But he said I was butch and Raina liked butch, so he’d work out with me.

I think he was spewing shit. Raina’s been obsessed with Kai for years. She couldn’t care less if he had a few more pounds of muscle or not.

“How’s living with the nutcracker been?”

“Man,” I gave him a look that made him chuckle, and shook my head. “Where do you come up with this shit?”

“Her.” He said, sounding defensive. “Called her peanut when we first met. She told me she wasn’t the peanut, but the nutcracker. Told me if I hurt Raina in any way, it’d be my nuts she cracked.” He shivered. “Woman scared me.”

“Gimme a break, she’s tiny. She can’t be more than five foot four.”

“She’s got a bit of demon in her,” he assured, clearly convinced. “Demons can come in tiny little packages with great legs and big blue eyes.”

I shook my head at my buddy, feeling my wet skin start to cool as my heart rate dropped steadily. “She the star of your nightmares?”

“Naw,” he chuckled. “I’m not dreaming of much while I have Raina in my arms. But I do know whose dreams Mar does star in.”

“You said it man.” I decided to go with his teasing jibe. “Great legs and big blue eyes. What’s there not to dream about?”

“If you’re still dreaming then it’s not going all that well, is it?”

“Not as well as I’d like.”

“What would you like?”

“A date for starters.” I rubbed my brow regretting it instantly when I felt my fingers slide over my wet skin. “Maybe some trust.”

“Trust?”

“The girl doesn’t trust me. She even sleeps with her door locked.” My steps quickened, but Kaiden kept pace. “I didn’t even know that door had a lock.”

“It didn’t.” Kaiden admitted, and he’d know as the room used to be his. “Wait, how would you know her door has a lock?”

“I wasn’t trying to sneak in. She left her phone on the counter. Maddy kept texting her so I knocked. She didn’t answer so I tried her door and it was locked.”

Kai was quiet for a beat while he processed. When you travel with another person in a foreign country for any length of time, you begin to know the ins and outs of their quirks. This was one of many that Kaiden had. He didn’t just reply with oneof his countless quips when the conversation was serious. If a conversation was serious, you could always count on Kaiden to give it real thought before he replied.

It was for this reason that I was getting really nervous. My heart raced and my lungs felt—well, they felt damned uncomfortable.

“It’s not my place to tell you this and Raina would kill me if she knew, so I won’t say much and please don’t ask for more . . .” he pinned me with his ice eyes. I’d known two people in my life with eyes that blue. Kaiden and his father. Apparently his kid brother, Austin, the one who sent him to Europe where he met me, had the same ice eyes.

“Won’t ask for more.”

“Amara had a tough life. Raina won’t tell me the details and I honestly don’t think even she has the details of how tough it was. But she knows enough to know it wasn’t something any kid should live through. Sure, Mar has quirks and she can scare the balls up inside a man, but all that hard she hides behind is just that. A wall she hides behind.”

“She’s not hard.”

“Not even a little. For Raina and even Maddy, Mar’s all soft.”

---