* * *
Saturday morning, Kylie stood back from the crowd waiting to hear who they'd be paired with for an hour and finished her conversation with her dad. She'd final y given in and cal ed him on Friday. He'd acted like nothing was wrong, never even said anything about not coming last week, or about her not answering his cal s or e-mails. He told her he was looking forward to seeing her on Sunday and then he started talking about a trip he was taking to Canada in a few weeks.
Kylie explained that her mom was also coming tomorrow and that they would have to take shifts. Kylie was positive that her dad would tel her that whole shift thing was stupid, that they could both just visit her.
Maybe deep down, a tiny part of her hoped they would both come at the same time, and then, miracles of miracles, maybe they would take one look at each other and decide they'd missed being together.
That's the thing about miracles. They didn't happen that often. Her dad didn't cal the shift thing stupid. As a matter of fact, he seemed just as adamant not to see her mom as her mom was not to see him.
"How about I show up after lunch?" he asked. "And I'l cal first to make sure she's not there."
Kylie bit her lip to keep from asking him where her real dad was. Every since a divorce had been mentioned, her father had changed. Completely, wholeheartedly. Parents weren't supposed to do that to their kids. She was certain it was written in the parents' rulebook.
"Fine," Kylie said. And if you don't show up, don't worry. I don't think it will hurt as much the second time. "Later, then," she said, and closed her phone.
"You ready?" a male voice said from behind her, leaning in close to her ear. "I got your name."
Kylie recognized Derek's voice. She'd managed to evade him al week. Not to be mean, but out of a basic need for sanity. Her life was already a friggin' mess. She didn't need to add anything else to it. Besides, he had a girlfriend who was probably more than happy to spend time with him. She turned around. "You already had my name," she said.
"I got lucky a second time." There was something about his voice, as if he worried she wouldn't believe him. She didn't. "You did it again, didn't you?"
"Did what?" he asked, but she knew darn wel that he understood exactly what she meant.
"You traded some more blood for my name, admit it."
He shrugged. "I wouldn't have to if you'd quit avoiding me."
"I haven't been-" She didn't want to lie to him, so she just shut up.
A couple of people walked past and he leaned in. "If you real y don't want to go, you know I won't make you."
She looked up and saw the total honesty in his gaze. He hadn't touched her, so she didn't think he'd altered her emotions, and yet ... everything inside her shifted. How could she have such strong feelings for Lucas and stil be angry with Derek because he'd hooked up with another girl? It didn't add up.
Then again, why should it? Nothing in her life made a lick of sense lately.
"I've been worried about you," he said, and his voice sounded so concerned ... and so warm.
"You mean when you weren't with Mandy?" she asked. And then she wanted to kick herself for acting as if she had a reason to be jealous. He looked a little uncomfortable. "That's sort of what I wanted to talk to you about."
"I don't do relationship advice," Kylie said.
"I heard you do. Helen said she talked to you about her crush on Jonathon. Miranda mentioned talking to you about Perry. And what's that other vampire's name...?"
Kylie let out a breath. "Fine, for some unknown reason people think I'm Cupid." But she didn't want to play Cupid for him and Mandy.
"Maybe you're related to him," he said, sounding serious for a moment.
Kylie's heart did a tight squeeze. "Could I be?"
"Some supernaturals are descendents of the gods," he said.
"Would my parents have to have been born at midnight? Or is that one of the instances that it could skip a generation?"
He shrugged. "I wouldn't know. But I bet Holiday would. You want us to go find her?" he asked, apparently wil ing to give up part of his hour to help her get an answer.
"That's okay. I'm meeting with her after lunch."
"So, my possible goddess." He did one of those old-timey bows. "Can I have the pleasure of your company for an hour?"
She grinned at his antics. "If you promise to behave." Or did she want him to?
"That takes al the fun out of it, but I promise." He shot her a sly look and she saw that his eyes were twinkling. They started walking and he hesitated. "Same place? Or does the thought of the snake scare you?"
"Same place is fine." A nervous tickle did a slow dance down her spine. It wasn't about the snake, but about the memory of how close she'd come to kissing Derek that day.
They walked down the trail in silence. The sun did its magical thing again of casting sprays of light through the trees. Kylie couldn't help but wonder what it was about being with Derek that made everything feel ... enchanted.
"Is it you?" she asked as they got to their spot.
"Is what me?" he asked.
She eyed him with skepticism. "Are you the reason that everything feels ... magical and so vivid? The colors, the smel s, the way sun streams in."
"Oh, that's just my charm." His tone came off teasing.
"Seriously?" she asked. "Are you doing this?"
He laughed.
"Stop laughing," she insisted.
He stopped, but he didn't stop smiling. "Okay, seriously, I don't know what you mean. I'm not doing anything. It's just pretty back here."
He jumped up on the rock and held his hand down.
She hesitated and looked at his hand.
"I promised to behave," he said.
She took his hand and he lifted her up. She sat beside him, but not too close.
He pul ed a knee up to his chest. His jeans looked wel -worn but comfortable, and his T-shirt was a dusty green. It wasn't tight, but snug enough that it showed off the width of his shoulders. It might have been the shirt he'd been wearing when she met him. He looked real y good then, and stil did. Right then, Kylie wondered how she could have ever compared him to Trey. Derek was so much hotter than her ex-boyfriend.
"So you and your girl are having problems?" Kylie blurted out, trying to change the course of her thoughts.
"You could say that," he answered in a sly voice, and she watched him run a finger across his chin. Her gaze studied his lips and she wanted to taste him.
"What's wrong?" She blinked, ignored the slyness in his tone, and hoped hearing him talk about Mandy would chase off her thoughts of kissing him.