Someone Like You
Evernight Publishing
Copyright© 2012 Vanessa
Devereaux
ISBN:
978-1-77130-146-6
Cover
Artist: Sour Cherry Designs
Editor:
Lauren Fisher
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WARNING:
The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is
illegal.
No part of this book may be
used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission,
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This
is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any
resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or
dead, is entirely coincidental.
DEDICATION
Kathleen
Devereaux
SOMEONE
LIKE YOU
Perfect Pairings, 3
Author's Name
Copyright © 2012
Chapter One
Jake opened
the door on his mailbox and reached inside. While flipping through today’s
offerings, he walked toward his house.
So far nothing much of
interest.
A couple of bills, and the running magazine he had subscribed
to, hoping he’d take up his hobby again. A letter grabbed his attention. It had
been handwritten with the return name and address of Mitchell and Rachel
Farraday
stamped upon it.
He stepped
inside the house.
Probably a thank you note for their wedding
gift.
Jake sliced
it open with his index finger. Going shopping for their gift had been a
challenge. He’d always left that sort of thing to Katie. Jake had printed out
their want list from the gift registry but had wandered around the store like a
zombie. It hadn’t been so much that he didn’t know what to chose, but while
he’d been shopping he’d only thought about one thing, his own wedding
preparations.
He and Katie walking around the store,
selecting items to put on their want list.
Being so in love and looking
forward to a future together. One they would never have guessed wouldn’t have a
happy ending.
A tear fell
from Jake’s face and splashed onto the letter, slightly smudging the ink. Going
to the wedding had been hell because never before had he attended a social
event alone. Seeing
everyone
with a loved one had
turned him into a bitter and grumpy guest. He hoped no one, especially Rachel
or Mitchell, had realized he’d left one hour into the reception.
Sneaked out actually.
He’d driven back to the hotel, crying
all the way, longing for the safety of his home in
Jake sat
down, willing himself not to cry again. He should apologize to Mitchell for
being so unsociable on his big day. He’d seriously thought about turning down
the wedding invitation but didn’t want to offend him. Mitchell was a great guy
and had been a good friend when they’d served together in
who’d pull him out of the rumble after the bomb had exploded. He honestly
didn’t think the poor guy would make it through one day, let alone fully
recover from his injuries. But he’d surprised everyone. Jake couldn’t have been
happier to hear that he’d met a young woman shortly after returning home and
was now tying the knot.
Jake pulled
out a letter and a card from the envelope. He sat the card on his knee before
starting to read.
Hi Jake,
Hope this finds you well. It was great to see
you at our wedding. Rachel and I want to thank you for the beautiful crystal fruit
bowl. It’s sitting in the middle of our dining table, and we’ll think of you
every time we look at it. I don’t think I ever did thank you for being there
during the worst moment of my life. Had it not been for your quick thinking, I
probably wouldn’t be around to write this
letter, or to have married the girl of my dreams. So it got me
thinking, and I don’t want you to be mad about this. Well, I should own up and
say I was pretty angry when my brother did this for me, but had he not, I
wouldn’t have found Rachel. Enclosed you’ll find a gift certificate for a
matchmaking service called Perfect Pairing. Everything is paid for, so all you
need to do is call the number on it and ask for Sadie Sutton. She’s a great
lady and will help you find someone to fill the void that I know still exists
in your heart.
Jake stopped
reading, banging his fist on his knee. Damn right he was angry. His Katie, she
was all he’d ever wanted. There wouldn’t be anyone else for him. He wanted her
back so much.
Despite his
anger he continued reading.
I know it’s tough and that you loved Katie with
all your heart, but she wouldn’t want you to spend the rest of your life alone
and unhappy, so for her, if not me, use this certificate. All I ask is that
once you’ve found love again you return the favor for someone else and buy them
a certificate. I thought this would start a great tradition among stubborn guys
like us who don’t think they’ll ever find a special lady to love.
I’ll be waiting to hear how things are going, so
give me a call soon.
All the best, Mitchell.
Jake wanted
to scrunch up the letter into a tight ball and throw it across the room.
The gift certificate.
He didn’t
even want to look at it because it would make his blood boil.
Just who the
fuck did Mitchell
Farraday
think he was giving him a
lecture about what Katie wanted him to do? He’d never met her, so he didn’t
know the first thing about Jake’s late wife.
Jake glanced
up at the photo of her on the mantel above the fireplace. He’d only re-enlisted
and gone to
his service, and back in
his heart would be healed. He’d been wrong. Now with nothing to occupy his mind
and body, he missed her more than ever.
For a strange
moment he could have sworn he’d seen her eyes glance down at the gift
certificate as it balanced upon his knee. Suddenly there was something eerie
happening around him.
Something that was compelling him to
look at it.
Maybe Katie had come back to him as a ghost.
He lifted up
the certificate and saw the gold lettering
Perfect
Pairing
, written underneath his name, and the words
A
gift from Mitchell and Rachel
Farraday
.
He fingered
it before throwing it across the room. This was so wrong. He’d only ever loved one
woman. No one else could ever have his heart.
****
“Nicky,
you’re going to be late for school if you don’t get moving,” Gen shouted down
the hallway to her son. She only hoped he had come home last night and was
actually in his room. She’d been dead on her feet with the latest landscaping
project, taken a bath, rolled into bed, and then fallen asleep and not woken up
until 6:30 this morning. Nicky had gone out with the two boys from school that
she didn’t really like.
She flew down
the hallway to his bedroom door. Gen had always been a liberal single parent,
giving her son as much freedom and privacy as she could, but since he’d become
a freshman in high school he’d been talking back to her on a daily basis. He’d
also been hanging out with kids she didn’t think were good role models. He was
quickly turning from a boy to a young man, and she knew he really needed a
stepfather. However, the chances of that happening were non-existent. Gen
hadn’t even been out on a date for, how embarrassing was this to admit, close
to two years.
She put her
hand on the doorknob, about to turn it, but then stopped, opting to call to him
through the door instead.
“Nicky.”
“I heard you
the first time, but I’m skipping school today, okay?”
Without
hesitating this time, she turned the knob and walked in on him. Her son was
still in bed with the blanket pulled around his shoulders.
“You sick or
something?”
“Yeah,
something.”
She walked
over to the window and whipped open the drapes, causing Nicky to squint. She
heard the f word escape from his mouth. He’d whispered it, but she nevertheless
had heard it. She decided to let it go for now.
“You are
getting up and going to school.”
“I hate high
school.”
“We all hated
high school for awhile, but then you fall in love with it.”
“I don’t feel
like going today.”
“Some days I
don’t feel like going into work and dealing with grumpy customers, but I do
because that’s life. Now get your butt out of that bed.”
“You can’t
make me.”
“Can’t I?”
Gen grabbed
one side of the mattress and tipped it on its side until Nicky fell onto the
floor with a slap.
“Hey, I think
I’ve broken my arm.”
“I don’t
think so. You’re not going to drop out of school like I did,” said Gen,
throwing the covers over the bottom sheet so he couldn’t get back into bed.
“What? You
think I’m going to get pregnant like you did?”
She let his
sarcasm go for now too.
“I want to
see you showered and in the kitchen for breakfast in fifteen minutes.”
She said no
more and rushed out of the room. She put her back against the door, finding the
hardness pressing on her spine surprisingly comforting. She’d meant it when
she’d said that he wouldn’t follow in her footsteps. He’d finish school and go
to university like she’d planned to do before she’d fallen under the spell of
his father.
Gen walked to
the kitchen and reached for the container of oatmeal just as she heard the
newspaper being thrown against the front door. She’d placed an ad advertising
her landscaping service and wanted to check that it read correctly. After all,
she’d dictated it quickly over the phone at the last minute to try and meet
their deadline, so there was a chance something had gone haywire. Opening the
door, she picked the paper up from the mat and carried it into the kitchen. She
set it on the countertop while she poured some milk and threw a handful of
oatmeal into a saucepan. She skimmed through the paper while she waited for it
to come to a boil.