"Why?" she asked again without looking at him.
"I was curious about you. I've been curious ever since I saw you standing by your mom before you got on the bus. You were so sad and..."
She remembered Miranda saying that some fairies could read your thoughts and before he could continue, she spoke up. "Can you read my mind?" Turning to him, she felt her face heat at some of the more embarrassing thoughts she'd had about him.
"No." He smiled and in this light, his green eyes with golden flecks literal y sparkled. "Why are you blushing? What have you been thinking about me?" He leaned a tad closer until his forehead rested against hers. Her heart did a flip and her next breath tasted sweeter. Realizing she was staring, she remembered what he'd asked.
She didn't answer his question, just asked another one. "Then how did you know I was so sad?"
He hesitated and his smile faded. "I can't read thoughts, but I can read some basic emotions."
She looked at him and sensed he was tel ing her the truth.
"For some reason I cause a mixture of emotions in you. Some positive, some not so positive, but I'm not sure why."
He was being honest, and Kylie felt she owed him the same in return. "You ... you remind me of someone I know."
He picked a twig off of a tree and studied it. "A good someone, or a bad someone?"
"Both. He's my ex-boyfriend."
"I see." He waited for a minute and then asked, "What happened between you two?"
"He broke up with me."
"Why?" he asked.
She'd offered him some of the truth, but not about this. "You'd have to ask him." It was a lame answer and she knew it the moment the words spil ed.
"But he's not here and you are." He took the twig and brushed the leaves across her cheek. Then he fol owed the path with his finger. He was coming on to her and she didn't exactly know how to stop it.
In truth, she didn't know if she wanted to stop it. Unlike what had been going on lately, these feeling were not so foreign to her. Not that she needed to get caught up in something else right now.
She looked away and tried to clear her head. "What's it like being fairy ... Fae?"
"Half," he said.
She glanced back at him and remembered thinking that, just like her, he didn't sound too thril ed by the idea of being a supernatural. She also realized this might be her opportunity to learn something about the whole fairy species. After al , according to Holiday, Kylie could be part fairy.
"So what's it like being half fairy?"
"It could be worse, I guess." He stared at the twig.
"Who did you inherit it from?"
He cut his eyes to her again. "For someone who doesn't like to answer any questions, you ask a lot."
He had a point.
"Okay, I'l tel you about me, but then you tel me about you? Deal?"
He arched an eyebrow and actual y seemed to consider it. "Okay." He leaned back on his arms and studied her. The position made his chest seem extra wide. She found herself comparing him again to Trey. And sorry, Trey, she thought, but Derek won the best body award. Then again, it wasn't just his body. She studied his face. His features were ... more masculine. More chiseled. Chasing that thought out of her head before she started emitting emotion he might read, she started talking. "I don't know what I am. I think I'm just human but-"
"You're not human," he said, and looked at her in that odd way everyone did here.
She rol ed her eyes. "Yeah, I know I don't have a normal brain reading, or whatever it is that you guys read. But I found out that normal humans can give off this same reading if they're a little off, like halfway crazy. And sometimes I'm pretty sure I'm crazy. Or," she admitted with less enthusiasm,
"the other option is that I could have a brain tumor. And I've had lots of headaches lately, too."
His expression said he was horrified by the idea. "Have you been checked?"
"No." And until she saw the concern in his eyes, she hadn't al owed herself to honestly be worried about it. But God, what if she real y did have a brain tumor? What if ...
His brow pinched as if confused. "But ... what about seeing ghosts?"
"How did you know...?" She recal ed asking him if he saw ghosts. "Some humans can see ghosts. Even Holiday said so."
He tilted his head in a very disbelieving way. "So you real y believe you're just human?"
His question brought a swel of emotion to her chest. "Yeah." She paused and then added, "Okay, the truth is, I don't know what I believe."
And without warning, tears fil ed her eyes.
"Oh, damn. Don't do that." He reached over and brushed a tear from her lashes. His touch was so warm, so comforting, she almost reached for his hand and held it to her face.
Instead, she moved his hand back and wiped her own eyes. "I'm just so confused. I mean, these last few months have been hel . My boyfriend breaks up with me, my grandmother dies, my parents are getting a divorce, and then I start seeing this dead soldier guy. Now I'm being told that I'm not human and..."
He pul ed her against him and she didn't fight it. She rested her head on the nice spot between his shoulder and chest and just breathed in his scent. Amazingly comfortable, she closed her eyes. Somehow just being like this made the knot of emotion crowding out her heart go away.
"I'm sorry." She pul ed away. "I know guys hate it when girls do this."
"Do they?"
"Trey did," she answered.
"I'm not Trey." Then Derek added, "Actual y, it wasn't so bad." He smiled and touched her check. "Besides, your nose is kind of cute when it turns red like that."
She swatted his hand and grinned. She wasn't sure, but it felt like the first real smile she'd had in weeks. "Okay, now it's your turn. Tel me about you."
The playfulness vanished from his eyes. Leaning back a little, he pressed his palms against the rock to hold himself up. And sitting there, his muscles in his arms flexed, his eyes al serious, he looked good. Real y good.
"But you are so much more interesting," he said, his voice low as if he could read her emotions and knew the reaction she was having to his presence.
"You promised. Besides, I told you everything."
His tilted his head forward and looked up at her through his dark lashes. "You haven't told me everything." His voice held the slightest hint of an accusing tone. "As a matter of fact, there's the thing I'm the most curious about."