Della exhaled and wished she didn’t think it was sweet.
“Don’t you like him?” Jenny asked.
“Don’t you like Derek?” Della countered, thinking the girl would get the message that some things were too personal to ask.
“I do, but I’m sort of scared. And you?”
Della hadn’t expected her to answer, and now to be nice she had to reciprocate. “Ditto.”
“Wow, I didn’t think you were scared of anything.”
Della wanted to take the confession back. But it was too late. She arrived at her cabin and dropped down on the porch. “I guess I’m not a tough as you think.”
“No, you’re just human. Oh, well, not human, but just … normal.”
Della cut her eyes at Jenny. “Normal is boring. I want to be successful. Accomplished.” I want to show Burnett that I’m good enough to be in the FRU.
“I’d love to be normal.” Jenny sat beside Della. “Then everyone wouldn’t stare at me all the time.”
“You’ll get used to it. Kylie did.” Della reclined back on the porch. “But I agree, it totally sucks, but we don’t get to choose what we are or what we look like.”
“What is it you don’t want to be?” Jenny asked.
“I wasn’t talking about me.” But the word “vampire” popped into Della’s mind. And how many times had she wished she looked more like her dad—just thinking it would have made him happier? But that was only part of it.
“Right,” Jenny said in disbelief.
Della huffed. Then for unknown reasons she decided to let her guard down a little. “I don’t want to be weak, and I don’t want to depend on people. I want to be able to take care of myself, and to be totally fine on my own.” A slight wind blew and a few leaves from a silver maple fluttered to the ground. “But it’s not all that easy. Sometimes it’s really hard to be so distant from my parents, and I’m not talking about physical distance either.”
Another wind stirred a few more leaves free. “Derek told me that he’s helping you look for an uncle and maybe an aunt. Is that the reason you’re looking for them?”
Della frowned at the thought of Derek talking about that, but she supposed she couldn’t complain. “Part of it, but don’t mention it to anyone else.”
“Oh, don’t worry.” Jenny paused. “What are you going to do if you find them? Will you leave here and live with them?”
“No,” Della said. “It would just be nice to have family who understands me.”
“I know what you mean,” Jenny said, and it had Della remembering there were still issues between Jenny and her real parents. She supposed she and Jenny had a lot in common.
Silence hung in the air.
“Derek kissed me,” Jenny blurted out.
Della looked at her, happy to move her thoughts away from Steve, and her parents. “And?”
“And what?”
“A kiss always comes with a story. A kiss is never just a kiss. Did you like it? Did you slap the crap out of him? Did it come with tongue? Did it make your toes curl? Did it stop at just a kiss?”
Jenny grinned. “Isn’t there a rule about not kissing and telling?”
“That only counts with guys,” Della said. “Girls can tell things.” She grinned back. “And don’t worry, I wouldn’t tell anyone.”
Jenny paused. “I told him he shouldn’t have done it, but then I didn’t stop him while he was doing it. So I guess I liked it.” She sighed. “And when he kissed me, it was as if … everything looked different. Beautiful.”
Della had heard that before, from Kylie, but she didn’t think Jenny would like hearing that.
“If you liked it, why did you tell him he shouldn’t have done it?”
“I don’t know … it feels weird. I wonder if he liked kissing Kylie more. I wonder if he just likes me because I remind him of Kylie because I’m a chameleon. But I’m not special like she is.”
“Why don’t you just ask him?”
“If I start asking questions, he’ll think I’m jealous.”
Now, that was something Della could relate to. And it was the exact reason she didn’t ask Steve about his little nurse assistant. “Are you jealous?”
“No. Maybe. But it’s wrong.”
Ditto, Della thought. It was wrong of her to be jealous, too. Especially when she had no ties to Steve.
Jenny pushed her brown hair from her eyes. “I think she’s over him, but is he really over her?”
“You should talk to him. And Kylie, too. I think she could help you deal with this.”
Jenny made a face. “It would feel weird.”
Della rolled over on her belly on the porch, kicked her legs up behind her, and looked at Jenny. “Sometimes you gotta pull your big-girl panties up and just do it.” But when Della considered asking Steve about Jessie, it didn’t seem so easy. She had a feeling she’d be walking around with her panties around her ankles for a while.
Jenny looked at Della. “What are you doing about you and Chase?”
Della’s mouth dropped. “What?”
“He offered blood to spend an hour with you and he looks at you when you aren’t looking. Not as sweet as Steve does, but you can tell he has something for you.”
“He offered blood just to get people to donate more. And he’s not looking at me like that.”
“Has he tried to kiss you?” Jenny asked.
“No.” But Della recalled him telling her she was hot and touching her lips. He’d probably just been trying to annoy her. And it had worked. “I don’t like him like that.”
“Because you like Steve?”
“I just don’t like him.” She didn’t want to go into how his scent felt familiar. Didn’t want to admit that she found him … attractive. Or that she’d thought about how his finger had felt against her lips. Nope, she didn’t want to go there, because it didn’t mean anything.
“I think you’re right to be leery of him.”
It was how Jenny said it that had Della sitting up. “Why? What do you know?”
Jenny’s pause told Della the girl knew something.
“What is it, Jenny? Spill it! Before I have to choke it out of you.” And there went Della’s playing-nice promise.
Chapter Fourteen
“Please,” Della said.