“Hur … ting.” Miranda’s breath shook as she drew in air.

Damn it, Miranda was her friend. “Okay, one hug,” Della conceded. She could suffer through one, then hopefully Miranda would go to bed.

The witch barreled into the room, dropped down on the bed, and wrapped her arms around Della. And it wasn’t the just-one-and-go-to-bed kind of hug. It was the kind that said she didn’t want to let go.

And as crazy as it felt, neither did Della. She wanted to hang on to the way things had been. It’s going to be okay. She heard Chase’s words, but Della knew “okay” meant Steve wouldn’t be around. And neither would Perry.

Chapter Nineteen

“I just … don’t get this whole … take time off crap,” Miranda cried into Della’s shoulder. “People don’t do that.”

Yeah, they do. The witch’s hot tears seeped into Della’s shirt and she thought of all the people lately who’d walked out of her life. Then, finally uncomfortable with the clinging, she managed to pull out of Miranda’s arms. Hugs should never last more than fifteen seconds.

“It’s going to be okay.” Della repeated Chase’s words, but without the same conviction as when he’d said it. What she wanted to say was all this sucked. And at the top of the sucky list was the fact that Della sucked at consoling people.

“No, it won’t!” Miranda snapped. “I told him I would wait on him. Three weeks, months, years. I don’t care. But he said no, that it wasn’t fair to ask me to wait. Then he said that if I still loved him when he came back, that we’d walk off into the sunset and be happy.”

“The sunset? Who even says shit like that?” Della bellowed, saying the first thing that came to her mind, and from the expression in Miranda’s eyes, perhaps it was the wrong thing.

Miranda took some hiccupy breaths, sobbed into her hands for a good minute, then looked up with mascara-induced raccoon eyes.

“Do you want me to walk you to bed?” Della asked, hoping the witch would say yes before Della said something that made it worse.

Miranda either didn’t hear her, or couldn’t in her mental state. “I asked him about him still loving me. Do you know what he said?”

“Something terrible, I’m sure,” Della answered.

“He said that he couldn’t imagine not loving me.”

“Bastard,” Della said, still giving it her best shot, but cringing at her lack of consoling ability.

“Then he said we needed to look at this rationally.” Miranda let out a high-pitched moan. “He’s acting like such a … an adult!” She spit the last word out like it tasted bad on her tongue.

“Yeah, who wants that?” Della said.

“I know. I don’t want to be adult about this,” Miranda continued. “I know a long-distance relationship would be hard, but does he care so little about me that he doesn’t want to try? He’s just going to give up. I guess I’m not worth at least trying to make us work.”

A lump formed in Della’s chest. Wasn’t that exactly how she felt about Steve? He was giving up on her, on them, and even with her confused feelings for Chase, she hadn’t been ready to give up on Steve.

Oh, she knew it wasn’t fair to want to hang on to him, but dad-blast it, it hurt.

“I’m so sorry,” Della said, this time with complete honestly and she gave the witch another hug, her heart aching right along with Miranda’s.

*   *   *

An hour later, Della lay in silence. Miranda, taking up half of Della’s pillow, had cried herself to sleep.

Della heard Kylie walk into the cabin. The chameleon stopped in the living room and listened. Probably turned vampire to tune in to her super hearing to see who all was home.

She moved to Della’s door and cracked it open. It only creaked once.

“Shh,” Della said in a voice lower than a whisper. “If you wake her up, you’re in charge of getting her to sleep next time. It took five hugs.”

Della crept out of the bed with the slowness of an inchworm.

Kylie stepped back into the living room and Della cautiously and silently shut the door. They moved all the way outside to the front porch. They each sat down at the edge and let their feet hang down a few inches from the grass.

“I’m sorry.” Kylie looked at her and nipped at her bottom lip. “I should’ve come home hours ago. Holiday asked if Lucas and I would go to Walmart. They ran out of eggs and asked if we’d make an emergency run. I called Miranda and she said she was fine. I didn’t think you’d gotten home yet. And I didn’t know it would take that long.”

“It’s okay,” Della said.

Kylie looked back toward the door. “Was she an emotional wreck?”

“She’s just Miranda,” Della said.

“So she was an emotional wreck.” Kylie smiled sadly. “And you dealt with her while you’re hurting, too. Damn.”

“I’m fine,” Della said.

“Liar.” Kylie, obviously still in vamp mode, titled her head slightly to the side as if hearing Della’s heart stumble.

“Okay, I’m hurting, but I’m tougher.”

“No,” Kylie said. “You’re just better at pretending.” She gave Della the look that said “spill.” “What did Steve want?”

Della sighed. “As if Miranda didn’t tell you.”

“She did,” Kylie said, “but I was afraid it was more.”

“It was more,” Della said, her heart replaying the pain. “He said he can’t take seeing Chase and me working together.”

“Isn’t it the same thing as seeing him work with that smiley chick at the vet’s office who has the hots for him?”

“He doesn’t think so.”

“What do you think?” Kylie asked.

“I think … Oh, I don’t know what I think. I feel a million different things right now, none of them good.”

Kylie let go of a deep breath, filled with empathy. “So, he’s for sure leaving?”

Della nodded and felt the lump in her throat, then her thoughts went back to Miranda asleep in her bed. “I kind of understand why Steve is doing it, but Perry … that just pisses me off. Do you think it’s because Miranda hasn’t put out? I came right out and asked him, but he denied it, and his heart didn’t actually call him a liar, but I’m not sure I believe him.”




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