Twisted Perfection Page 0,40

“Woods?” The rest of her question was left open.

“You weren’t out there.” I nodded my head toward the door. “I wanted to check on you.”

Understanding dawned on her face and she gave me a small smile that made my chest feel tight. “Thank you but you know you don’t have to worry about me. I’m fine. Really I am.”

She wasn’t fine. I wasn’t sure she’d ever been fine. I walked across the room and sat down beside her on the bed.

“I’ve wanted to come check on you since Friday night. You know you can call me if you ever need me.”

She turned her head just an inch so that she could meet my gaze. “You were busy with your fiancée this weekend. You don’t have time to worry about me.”

I had only been with Angelina today at lunch. “I’ve hardly seen Angelina this weekend,” I replied, hating saying her name to Della. It seemed wrong.

Della dropped her eyes to stare down at her hands. “I saw the two of you when I got off work today.” She didn’t say more. I thought back to the disaster of a lunch we’d had with our parents and the fight we’d had on the ride over to the club. Then I’d apologized because Angelina had been right. I was torturing us both by being an ass.

“We had lunch together,” I explained. I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to explain but I did.

“You fought and you made up. I don’t understand how you can ever be happy, Woods.” Her honest reply caused the tightness in my chest to ache.

“Me either.”

“I can’t let myself care about you anymore. I’m afraid of how I feel about you and I don’t want to get hurt.”

She was making it hard to breathe. The soft pleading in her voice was going to break me.

“I would never hurt you,” I swore. I could never hurt her. I just wanted to protect her.

“But you do. Every time I see you with her it hurts. That’s not your fault. It’s mine. I cared too much too fast. And Friday night didn’t help. It only made me care about you more.”

We had barely even had a chance to be friends. She was already putting space between us. I couldn’t let her do that. I needed her. She was the only bright spot in my life right now.

“What about our being friends?” I asked.

She shrugged and then squeezed her hands together tightly in her lap. “I don’t know. I don’t think I can. When you’re… when you’re sweet and caring like you were the other night… no one’s ever been like that with me. At least not a guy. I can’t seem to control my emotions.”

Fuck. I couldn’t lose this… this thing between us but I also didn’t want her hurt. I’d do anything to keep her from getting hurt.

“I want to be there for you when you need someone. Please don’t push me away.”

Della let out a sad laugh. “That’s just it. You can’t be there for me when I need someone. It makes my heart hurt just a little more each time. I’ll be leaving soon. Let’s just keep our distance until I go.”

Hell no. I started to tell her just that when the door opened and Tripp stepped into the room.

“You okay?” he asked Della without looking my way. I didn’t like the way he looked at her. The concern in his eyes pissed me off.

“We were just talking about my leaving soon,” she replied without looking up at him.

“You’re not leaving,” I argued. If she wanted to have this conversation in front of Tripp then we’d fucking have it.

“I can’t stay here,” she replied.

“Yes you can.”

“She doesn’t want to, Woods. And why the urgency to get her to?” Tripp said taking another step in Della’s direction.

“Stay the fuck outta this conversation, Tripp. You don’t know anything about her.” Della stood up and held up her hands to stop me from saying anymore. “Stop it.”

I looked up at her and the sadness in her eyes tugged at me. I liked seeing them twinkling with laughter. Not like this.

“You need to step back and think about this bullshit you’re doing. The Woods I remember wasn’t an insensitive jerk. Della doesn’t deserve this. You’re engaged. Whatever you feel for Della has to end. She’s leaving with me in a couple of weeks. We’re going to travel together. Why don’t you let this go, huh?”

She was leaving with him? The refusal to