Page 76 of How a Vampire Falls

Ryker watched Leslie’s face for the micro-expressions vampires never missed. She wasn’t angry with him, at least not yet. But she was worried, and he was the cause.

“I wanted your first visit, meeting my parents and all… I didn’t want Jacqueline to be part of this. I was going to tell you about her after.”

“That’s fair,” she said. “But clearly she’s not a normal ex, so…shouldn’t you havealreadytold me? Before I came this weekend?”

He’d known that the whole time, had no excuse. He dropped his chin to his chest. “Yeah. But that’s…not how it feels.”

Leslie laced her fingers through his and tugged his hand into her lap. “How does it feel?”

He shrugged again. “We parted badly.”

“How long ago?”

“Two years ago.”

She blinked. “You said you quit dating two years ago. She’s the last person you dated before me?”

“Yeah.”

“How long were you together?”

“Ten months.”

Her slow nod gave nothing away. Her face had smoothed out as she pondered, grown harder to read. “I’d like to hear about her, Ryker.”

“But I’m over her.”

She poked a finger at his chest. “You dreamed about her last night.”

“I had anightmareabout her.”

“Which means she’s still in your head somewhere.”

“No. Not anymore.” Until she showed up on his porch, he hadn’t thought of Jacqueline in months. “There’s no part of me that misses her, not a single part of me. Please believe me.”

“Oh, Ryker.” She leaned into him and rested her head on his shoulder. “You don’t have to defend yourself because you had a bad dream.”

Was that what he was doing? He twined the end of her ponytail around his finger.

“We need to talk about this,” Leslie said. “It’s past time. We can do it here, or we can go somewhere private if you want.”

“Slake It Off?”

“Perfect.”

They stood together, and as he bent his knees to leap to the ground, Leslie took his hand. She gave it a squeeze, and then they jumped. They landed lightly on the floor a few feet out from the wall. Leslie kept hold of his hand as they left the gym and headed to his car. The blood bar was only a few miles from the gym, and they didn’t talk on the way over.

When Ryker had parked, Leslie took his hand again. “Ready to talk?”

He looked out the windshield, through the plate-glass window of Slake It Off. Behind the bar, Claire darted around pouring drinks. The line was longer than usual. But the crowd size inside didn’t matter for his and Leslie’s purpose here.

“I’ve wanted you to know about…her. I just haven’t wanted to put it into words again.”

“Again?”

“Let’s see. First there was Tai. He knows the most; he was my first phone call after it all blew up. Then there was Dad and Mom, then a few close friends including Claire. You’d think by now it would be easy to talk about.”

She gave his hand a slight tug. “Let’s go inside. Settle in. Maybe by then you’ll have the words you need.”

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