The Reluctant Vampire Page 0,12

then frowned and added, "But . . . you know . . . you shouldn't rush out there to find out which it will be in your case. You have plenty of time to try stuff like that. Plenty of time," she stressed.

"Now you sound like my mother," Stephanie said with amusement.

Drina grimaced. She kind of felt like her parent in that moment. Certainly, she suddenly had a lot more sympathy for parents having to give the sex talk. Dear God, she couldn't even imagine that conversation.

"Fortunately for you, my mother already gave me that talk," Stephanie said with a grin.

"You're reading me again," Drina complained.

"I told you, I'm not reading you. You're kind of pushing your thoughts at me."

Drina frowned and turned to ask her to explain what she meant, but paused to glance toward the garage as one of the doors began to whir upward.

"Harper must be ready to go," Stephanie commented. "You should let me take the front seat."

"I should, should I?" Drina asked with amusement.

"Definitely," Stephanie assured her. "We don't want him to think you like him or start worrying about life mates and stuff. Wave me that way as we approach the car. That way Harper will think you didn't care to sit in the front with him."

Drina smiled faintly but just nodded. It couldn't hurt, and she didn't care if she was in the front or not anyway.

"And you should sit right behind him, not behind the passenger seat," Stephanie whispered as the garage door finished opening, and they saw Harper waving to them from the driver's seat of a silver BMW.

"Why?" Drina whispered back, using the excuse of closing the s ll-open door of the SUV to delay approaching the car.

"That way, every time he looks in the rearview mirror, he'll see you," she pointed out. Drina peered at her with surprise. The kid was smart, she thought, and knew by the way that Stephanie smiled widely that she'd heard the compliment. Chuckling, she slid her arm around the girl and used it to steer her toward the car.

"You can sit in the front if you like," she said with amusement, steering her that way, and then breaking off to move up the driver's side of the car herself.

"You're sure you don't mind?" Stephanie asked with feigned concern, pausing beside the passenger door.

"Not at all," Drina said dryly and had to bite her lip to keep from laughing when the girl grinned at her over the roof of the car, out of Harper's view. Shaking her head, Drina opened the back door and slid in behind him.

"Thank you, Harper. This is really sweet of you," Stephanie said as she slid into the front seat. "Isn't it sweet, Drina?"

"Very," she agreed mildly.

"It's no problem," Harper assured them, smiling at Stephanie, and then mee ng Drina's gaze in the rearview mirror and smiling at her as well. "Just tell me where you want to go, and we're there."

"Well, Drina insisted we had to stay in town because she doesn't know her way around, so we were just going to go to Wal-Mart. But with you driving, maybe we could go into London," Stephanie said in a rush.

"I don't think so, Stephanie," Drina said firmly when Harper hesitated. "It isn't just that I don't know the area. I think it's be er that we stay in town un l we're sure no one trailed you guys from New York. Here we at least have the house relatively close and can call Teddy Brunswick if we need help."

"But there are so many cool stores in London," Stephanie protested. "We could go to Garage or the Gap or - "

"I'll tell you what," Harper interrupted. "How about we try Wal-Mart today for the necessi es, and then maybe later in the week we can venture out to London if you don't find everything you need here in town?"

Stephanie heaved out a sigh. "Oh, all right."

"Good. So, do up your seat belts, and we'll be on our way."

Drina smiled wryly at Harper's relieved tones and did up her seat belt, then sat silently in the backseat as he maneuvered the car out of the garage and past the SUV.

"If you're the daughter of Lucian and Victor's brother, how come your name is Argenis and not Argeneau?"

Drina blinked at the sudden ques on from Stephanie, caught a bit by surprise, but it was Harper who answered.

"Argenis is just basically the Spanish version of Argeneau. They're deriva ves of the same