Page 6 (2/2)
He ordered a steak and baked potato and some sweet tea She ordered French onion soup, about the one thing she could actually enjoy, and a Diet Coke
When the waitress left with their order, Steve looked at her, still wearing an apology in his eyes Yup, he felt guilty for things getting out of hand But she didn&039;t put all the blame on him She could have stopped it Should have stopped it
"How&039;s the shoulder?" he asked
She reached up and touched where she&039;d been stabbed "Co they&039;d talked about earlier "Did you learn medicine from your mom?"
He nodded "Sometimes she&039;d volunteer at different free clinics I used to go with her on weekends I&039;s"
She suspected he was a fast learner in all things She hadn&039;t seen it at first, but intelligence lingered in those big brown eyes "And you don&039;t want to be a doctor?"
"I didn&039;t say I don&039;t want to be a doctor"
"But you saidIwhen you talked about your parents that you didn&039;t want to do what they wanted you to do"
"She wants o into medicine for humans because that&039;s where the money is I want to train to treat supernaturals That&039;s where my skills will be the most useful"
She nodded "I see" The waitress dropped off their drinks Della twirled a straw around her glass and watched the bubbles rise to the top "My parents wanted me to be a doctor, too"
"And you don&039;t want that?" he asked
"Hell, no I want to go into criminal justice"
"A lawyer?"
"No I don&039;t want to defend the laant to enforce it Before I was turned, I was thinking FBI or CIA Now I&039; FRU Which is why I didn&039;t want Burnett to know I&039;d screwed up"
He shook his head "You didn&039;t screw up"
"I got stabbed That&039;s pretty screwed up" She jabbed her straw into her drink
"We were up against a whole gang of rogue va lass "But you&039;re the one who saved us The one who caain with the olves"
"Yeah, but you were a little busy trying not to let that rogue were/va And when the weres showed up you were already stabbed and bleeding like crazy, but you still stood up"
"I didn&039;t do shit when they came," she muttered, ashamed of herself
"You stood up and faced them and let them know you weren&039;t ready to be their dinner"
He looked down at his own glass for a second "Honestly, I was totally i out inside Hell,and you were like this epito if you could do this, I could, too"
She let go of a deep breath "I wasn&039;t cal out, too"
He sood at this, Della You didn&039;t seem scared Not once You can do this I personally don&039;t like the thought of you putting yourself in danger, but don&039;t ever think you screwed up You kicked ass in that ring"
His co And as she constantly told Kylie and Miranda, she wasn&039;t ain, the realization hit She used to be a hugger, but nohen anyone wrapped their warm arms around her it reminded her of how cold she was
Suddenly, she realized when Steve had kissed her and touched her she&039;d forgotten she was cold For the first tiain-felthuood
"Thanks" She looked up briefly and hoped he understood how much she meant it, because she didn&039;t want to have to express it anythe word
The waitress dropped off their food Della spooned the French onion soup into herthe cheese But as the warue, she couldn&039;t help but think how good Steve&039;s blood tasted How good his kisses were How it felt to be touched and not think about being cold
When she&039;d showered, she&039;d noticed a hickey between her shoulder and left breast She was glad he&039;d left his lad it wasn&039;t permanent It would fade in a few days And that&039;s the way it should be Because once they were back at Shadow Falls this was over
Done
She siain Lee, along with her parents, had taught her how hard it was to love someone How easy it was for them to disappoint you
She didn&039;t love Steve, not yet, but these last thirty-six hours had taught her how easy it would be to let herself go there When soenuinely nice your heart welco and hi such an awesome kisser to the scenario, and her heart had a welco band, and banners with flashy letters reading, COME ON IN
And that was unacceptable She couldn&039;t fall in love with Steve Nope No way As soon as they returned to Shadow Falls, she was back to being the old Della Solo She had Miranda, and she had Kylie As soon as Kylie returned
Della didn&039;t need a guyher feelhuman
Steve picked up his knife and cut a piece of steak "Oh, when I spoke with Burnett earlier thishe mentioned that he went to see Kylie"
Della&039;s heart swelled "He knohere she is? Is she co back?"
"He must know because he said he&039;d seen her, but he didn&039;t say anything about her co back He just said to tell you that she was okay and that she asked about you"
That was Kylie, alorried about others before she worried about herself The girl was an idiot Well, not an idiot She was just one of those really caring people Sort of like the da lunch with
Della dipped her spoon into the onion soup "Well, if he knohere she is, then I can just go and bring her back"
"Kidnap her?" he asked
"If I have to, yeah She belongs at Shadow Falls with Miranda and me"
Steve chuckled "You&039;re not serious," he said
"The hell I&039; home and that&039;s all there is to it"
Home Della felt it as she landed outside the fence at Shadow Falls about thirty minutes later Funny, how the place had started to feel that way Of course, ed with her parents
Steve landed and transforo to the front"
"No" She pulled out her phone "I&039; hi the fence I just want to go to ated right now"
She wanted to have tiroup in her head
Burnett answered on the second ring "Where are you?"
"We&039;re here Right outside the fence on the east side of the property"
"Good We&039;re having dinner now Why don&039;t you come over? There&039;s a surprise"
"I&039;m tired Not in the mood for surprises I just want to take a shower and relax Can we talk torew dark, concerned
"I&039; up, Steve started walking over to her She watched the way he ht in front of her and brushed a strand of hair back behind her ear "You know, I kind of don&039;t want to go back I liked it just being you and ht his hand and lowered it froret, she forced herself to say it Part of her had hoped she wouldn&039;t have to spell it out for hi wasn&039;t a coward Plus, Steve deserved to know up front that it wasn&039;t hi I really did, butit&039;s over now"
He shook his head "Why? It doesn&039;t have to be"
"Yeah it does" Her heart suddenly grew heavy Too heavy for her chest "I don&039;tI&039;m notI&039;m not ready for this" She waved a hand between theain "I told you I didn&039;tto pressure you to take it there It&039;ll happen when it&039;s supposed to happen I&039;ll be patient"
She shook her head "I don&039;t htened his brows "Then what do youan &039;us&039; I&039;ot along great"
"Why isn&039;t i there I&039;s are, happy with eall sorts of erratic thu her a lying bitch
"No," he said, "I can&039;t accept that"
"You&039;re going to have to accept it Because that&039;s just the way it is, Steve We went on a reat We did ere sent to do and thanks to both of us the world ht be a little safer But what happened between us needs to end I&039;ht for?" he asked, sounding jealous
"I&039;ht for anyone," she said and her heart didn&039;t race or mark that as a lie She had loved already Loved and lost "It&039;s over, Steve Just accept it"
She started running and right before she leapt over the fence she heard hi in her ears A promise or a threat, she didn&039;t know But the idea of it being a proest part of the pain she carried in her heart
As she walked inside her cabin, she breathed in the scents of home-the smell of Miranda&039;s fruity shampoo, and her scented candles Della could even pick up the scent of Kylie&039;s favorite lotion
Standing in the living room, Della let herself feel the tiniest bit of pride that she&039;d co reconfiruys
Walking into her bedroom, she opened her bottoes of her and her family, and others of her and Lee All captured moments with emotion Memories that now hurt to think about
She started to rip theht, she dropped the pictures of her faive up on But others
She tore the snapshots of her and Lee into little pieces and let the tiny specks of paper rain down into the garbage Then she went to her bed and flopped down on her back and stared at the ceiling
We&039;ll see about that Steve&039;s words echoed in her head like the lyrics of a song-a good song, one that crawled into your head and replayed itself over and over
She closed her eyes Life ht have thrown her soo down easy She was just going to punch back