How Do I Love Thee Read Online Free PDF

like to be on the outside looking in.”
    “How could you? You're perfect.”
    His heart began to hammer. He wanted her to know he was more like her than she realized and that she was special to him. “Not perfect,” he said, his long-held secret trembling in his mouth. “Once, I had leukemia.”

Seven

    rett told Shayla of his bout with leukemia. He held her hand while he talked and when he paused or choked up, she squeezed his fingers as if to help him over the rough plaees in his memory. He'd never spoken so frankly to anyone before about his feelings, but in Shayla, he believed he'd found acceptance and understanding. When he was finished, he felt cleansed.
    “I'm glad you made it,” she told him, tears in her eyes.
    He brushed them away. “I didn't tell you so you'd feel sorry for me. Pity's the last thing Iwant.” He leaned forward, wanting to kiss her so much he ached.
    Her eyes widened as she understood his intention. He saw her lips part, tremble. Suddenly one of her computers beeped, making both of them jump. “I've got mail,” she explained with a nervous laugh.
    Bad timing
, he thought. The spell was broken.
    She went to the desk and clicked the mouse. “I keep in touch with other XP kids and sometimes we message bade and forth all night long.”
    He looked at the clock on the mantel over the fireplace, let out a shout, and jumped to his feet. “It's two A.M. I've got to get home.”
    “I'm sorry. I didn't mean for you to—”
    He placed his fingertips over her mouth. “Cool it. I wanted to stay. Wild horses couldn't have dragged me away. Truth is, I want to come bade. I want to know everything there is to know about you.”
    “I'm very boring,” she said.
    “Not to me.” He kissed her forehead. “I'll call you tomorrow night as soon as I go home and check in with Mom. Then once she'sasleep, I'm coming to see you.” He stopped at the door and turned as a bold idea struck him. “Would your parents mind if we went out tomorrow night—you know, like on a date?”
    She laughed. “I'm almost eighteen, and Mom and Dad don't hold me prisoner. I know the rules about how to take care of myself.”
    “Good. Then how about packing up some you food? I'd like to take us on a picnic in the moonlight.”
    When Brett coasted into Shayla's driveway at midnight, she was ready to go. He set the basket she'd prepared in the backseat and drove off. “I've cased some places,” he told her, “but the best place is that field where I first saw you dancing.”
    “You must have thought I was loony that night.”
    “I was too surprised at first to think much more than ‘Wow, what a pretty girl.
    “I never expected anyone to actually catch me out there. I saw you moving in the trees and almost ran away, but then decided to sneak around behind you and find out what you were doing in the woods so late at night.”
    “Well, I'm glad you did … even though I almost made a run for it when you told me you were a vampire.” He bared his teeth and she laughed. “Why
did you
say that to me?”
    “Because I'm a big fan of mythology and folktales. I grew up reading everything I could get my hands on about fairies, elves, vampires, and such. I honestly think that these kinds of stories are rooted in truth. One day I got to thinking about how people in medieval times would have reacted to a child born with XP.”
    “They would have probably drowned ‘em,” Brett said. He was a fan of history and knew that superstitions had generally been held as truth before the emergence of science.
    “But think about it—a person put her child in the sun and suddenly the child started to ‘burn.’ It would have blown their medieval minds.”
    “And demanded an explanation,” Brett added.
    “Exactly. So storytellers started incorporating the fact about sunlight burning a person into the legend about the vampire because it couldn't be explained any other way.”
    “A legend Bram Stoker writes about in
Dracula”
Brett