Teach Me To Live (Teach Me - Book One) (29 page)

The girl really did know him.

And he really was a player.

She snorted. “Just because you’ve only seen two doesn’t mean there haven’t been more.”

Suddenly, I was fiercely angry with Kaiden for the way he had hurt Raina, without even being aware. And then I was angry with her for never telling him. Maybe, if he knew how she felt, he wouldn’t be such a player.

So, I said this. “If he knew how you felt about him, I think he would put a stop to his whoring ways.”

She laughed. Her laugh was so loud and hard we actually drew the attention of the boys on the bridge. I hissed. “Shhh!”

“Babe, you don’t know Kaiden. The only thing he would do if he knew, is get between my legs, fuck me, and forget that he’d been there the very next day.”

I was appalled. I wanted to say a hell of a lot more to her, but I didn’t have the time. I barked under my breath. “We’ll finish this later. For now, shut up!”

Her lips parted and I knew she was going to say something more, but Kaiden butted in before she had a chance. She stiffened at the sound of his voice behind her. “Telling Raina to shut up is like telling a baby never to cry. Fucking pointless.”

I snapped, because I was feeling something prickly. “You two turn around,” I pointed to both Kaiden and Austin. “And Kaiden, shut up.”

Austin’s eyes widened on my face as he watched me begin to lift myself from the towel Raina and I had lain out to sunbathe on. Then he reached out to turn Kaiden around before I had a chance to bare my chest to him. I was still grumbling under my breath as I went about my business.

“You all say to live and let myself feel and experience, but you’re all fucking hypocrites,” Raina hissed my name in warning, but I continued. “Jump off the bridge, they say—so I jump off the bridge. And, I love it. I. Love. It. Every little second! But when it comes time for them to jump off the bridge—
oh, hell no.
Because, suddenly, jumping is all kinds of scary,” I pulled my shirt over my now dry, and warmly sun-kissed, bra. “Hypocrites!” I huffed, tugging my shorts up over my hips. “You can turn around now.”

Thankfully, when they turned, Raina had already dressed herself. I hadn’t actually checked to see if she’d clothed herself before I granted them permission to turn. I really don’t think it would have mattered anyway, because when they turned, they planted their eyes on me as though I’d grown another few heads.

Yeah, not just one head—but a few.

The first to speak was Austin. “Not sure what happened, sweetheart,” he took a cautious step toward me. “But are you all right?”

Blushing, I realized that I’d just let my mouth run wild. And then I realized that in doing this, I’d shocked them. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” Kaiden said. “It’s cool that you finally spoke your mind.”

I glared. “I always speak my mind.”

“When it’s appropriate,” Kaiden replied without missing a beat.

My cheeks flushed with anger. “Are you serious right now, Kaiden?”

“Very.” He spread his legs, planting them in the grassy earth before folding his arms over his chest. He too, had tattoos coating his arms. But unlike Austin’s tattoos that were more filled with color, Kaiden’s were black and gray. They were dark. “What’s going on, babe?”

“You want to know what’s going on?” I cocked my head to the side, ready to give it all to him straight the way he wanted it.

I was ready. Believe me when I say I was ready to give it to the worlds biggest player that he was going to lose the woman he loved if he didn’t keep the zipper of his jeans in place, when said woman bolted past me. She body checked Kaiden.

And yes, when I say body checked, I mean exactly that. Raina’s entire body connected with Kaiden’s and then her arms moved to circle his large frame. He was larger than Austin. He was more built where Austin had a lankier, but still defined body. But Raina had no issues shoving him determinedly backward.

“This isn’t the time.” Her head was tipped back and she was looking into Kaiden’s eyes. “It’s getting late and I’m
starving.
” At this, Kaiden broke eye contact with me to look into her face. It was just more proof that he cared for her. “And we need to get to camp. Please, Kai, let’s get going.”

His mouth was hard, but he nodded. “Kay,” his hand moved around Raina’s waist. “Let’s go.”

I watched, gritting my teeth as I watched them walk to the path in the trees. When I looked back at Austin, I sighed. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry.” He was frowning as he studied me. “Just tell me what’s wrong.”

“Can’t,” I felt my heart ache in anger and frustration for Kaiden and Raina. They were perfect together and they were being bull-headed and stupid about it.

“You can,” Austin moved forward, his hands moving to rest on my hips. “You can tell me anything.”

I huffed a sigh that lifted my hair away from my face before tipping my head back to peer up at him. “Those two idiots are in love with each other.”

Austin laughed. He actually laughed at me. I glared and he schooled his features. “They are, sweetheart. They have been for a very long time.”

I was stunned. “And they’ve never done anything about it?”

He shook his head, moving his hands from my hips to my wrists where he moved my arms around his body. “No,” he said. He dipped his head to lean his forehead against mine and moved his arms to hug me close. “But they will. Eventually, they’ll realize that they’re wasting time and they’ll do something about it. Until then, there’s really nothing anyone can do.”

“She’s hurting so badly,” I whispered and he flinched.

“Raina?”

“Yeah. She loves him and he just,”

“What?”

“He just keeps sleeping with other women,” I closed my eyes. “And it’s hurting her.”

“He’ll get it out of his system eventually.”

“Eventually might be too late.”

Austin sighed heavily and then he announced promisingly. “I’ll talk with him, okay?”

“Okay,” I smiled. “Thank you.”

He held me closer. “So you like Raina, I take it?”

“Well, she’s all right.”

He chuckled. “Because you get all hot-headed over someone you don’t like.”

“Okay, I think she’s pretty great.”

My girl was a definite hot-head when she was passionate about something. All throughout the ride to the campsite in Jasper, she’d been tossing little love-cracks at Kaiden and Raina.

I seriously thought Raina was going to snap a couple hours into the drive, but she didn’t. Raina held her grace, not that she had a lot, and blew every comment off with a smart-ass crack that had Madison stumbling for a reply. She wasn’t as quick on her feet with words as Raina was.

Madison was emotional and Raina was defensive. That’s just who the girls were, but I was happy to say that they both seemed to like sharing each other’s company.

Madison was right, though. Kaiden was hurting Raina. That had been obvious to me for years and it should have been obvious to Kaiden. I mean, every time the girl was in town she cock-blocked him hard. Even Kaiden knew she did this, although I suspected he thought she did it out of some friendly malice, if there was a thing.

Still, the girl had wanted him to move with her to Calgary. He’d been about to do it. It had been in the plans. And then I happened and everything changed. Still, though, if he had gone to Calgary, I wasn’t sure if they would have found a way to make shit work between them. They were bull-headed, as Madison had said they were.

Regardless, we were finishing setting up camp and the conversation was mainly consisting of, “pass me that tent pole” and “we need to stock up on fire wood” and “you brought your own sleeping bag, right? Because I’m not sharing with you,” that was Raina talking to Kai.

We had a killer camp location. It was far enough away from the other people who’d come to spend the week at the site, and through the trees, we could see the clear blue of the lake. In the distance, cheerful yelling could be heard, but it wasn’t enough to break into our own conversations and spark annoyance. For the most part, it would just be the four of us enjoying our week here at the lake in Jasper.

Madison stood, dusting her hands off on her shorts. “Whew,” she breathed. “That was a complicated tent. I’m glad it’s finished.”

“Yeah,” I said. “You girls mind setting up the inside of the tents while Kaiden and I go fill up the box of the truck with wood for the fire?”

Madison bobbed her head and Raina waved, “Go for it.”

I leaned down to kiss Madison quickly before I moved away from her, climbing into the front passenger seat of the truck beside an already ready to go Kaiden. He’d been watching Madison warily since her little outburst a few hours before. I didn’t blame him. It had been completely unlike Madison to explode the way she had.

Kaiden pulled away from camp before asking, “You going to tell me what’s up with Madison?”

“She’s upset with you,” I admitted and he stiffened.

“With me?” He raised a brow. “What the hell for?”

“She thinks you and Raina should be together and she’s pissed that you don’t see it.” Again, I was being honest with him. He asked, and he was going to get the truth.

“Shit,” he shook his head. “Raina and I, we’re friends. That’s it.”

“Have you considered that she might have feelings for you?”

“If she had feelings for me,” he paused. “Fuck it. Raina is more blunt than a fucking baseball bat to the head. If she had feelings for me, I’d know.”

“She,”

“Don’t want to hear this shit, Austin.” He held up a hand. “I get it. You’re a lucky son of a bitch who got the girl he wants. Me, I’ve got a friendship with the girl I’ve loved since I was little. Ain’t messing with that friendship for something that could go wrong.”

“Fuck me,” I mumbled, shaking my head in frustration that was shockingly similar to the frustration I was certain Madison had been feeling earlier. “You want to be stupid about it, fine.”

He groaned. “Raina and I are good as we are. Leave a good thing as it is and you won’t fuck it up.”

“Sure,” I nodded. “Keep telling yourself that, Kai.”

“I fucking will.”

“So, you’re sharing a tent with Kaiden?”