Candace took her seat, her posture upright and rigid. As her eyes found Sam, they were warm and friendly, containing none of the fire that he had seen earlier in the car. They certainly didn’t seem like the same eyes as those of the girl who had been moving her hand up his thigh. Her body language and behavior were all over the place right now. He didn’t know what to make of it. It made him wonder again about her doctor’s appointment.
“You said something about the doctors finding ‘other stuff’ in your body before. What other stuff did they find? Are you going to be okay?”
Candace seemed to appreciate his concern. She placed her hand on his. He still felt a bit of a thrill from the skin contact with a beautiful girl, but with accompanying eyes that were affectionate rather than fiery, it didn’t have quite the same impact. It did, however, set him more at ease. She felt… comforting… right now.
“I don’t know. They found something that affected the body sort of like adrenaline, and another thing that might be changing my RNA... or maybe DNA… or maybe the RNA was changing my DNA… I don’t remember. I couldn’t really follow it all. They didn’t seem worried, exactly. More like curious. Excited even. They said they had never seen anything quite like it.”
A pretty young waitress stopped beside their table to take their drink orders. Candace paused in her explanation to order an Italian soda. Sam just ordered water. It was less expensive and healthier. He was surprised that Candace had ordered a sugar-packed drink. She was usually a bit of a health nut. He supposed that she might need some extra calories to support all the growing she’d been doing.
His eyes dropped again to her luscious figure and the way it filled out her dress. She was beginning to look as if she should be auditioning for television roles and modeling gigs rather than heading off to a dorm room on a college campus in a couple of weeks.
“Did the doctors say that anything might be affecting your personality?” Sam gave her a slightly pensive look, unsure how she would react to the unsubtle implications of his words. He did want to know, though. She certainly hadn’t been acting like her normal self.
“Why?” she said, the look in her eyes transforming. The friendly warmth in them changed as her eyelids dropped slightly. Her chin lowered, her eyes remaining locked on him in what almost looked like a challenge. He felt a bead of sweat form on his forehead under the intense heat of her gaze. “Do I seem different to you? Better? Sexier?”
Her fingers dug into his hand like painful claws, but, Lord help him, he welcomed the pain. Something about how she was looking at him made it feel… wonderful. She gave him a Cheshire smile.
“I know you like the new me. I can taste it.”
Sam blinked in surprise. His reaction seemed to jar her, and she straightened again, the fire in her eyes extinguished. Her grip on his hand relaxed, though she left it, covering his.
“Candace, I hope this doesn’t upset you, but you have been acting really weird tonight. I’m a little worried about you. You’re just not acting like yourself!” There. He’d said it. He didn’t want to ruin his chances with Candace, but he couldn’t just say nothing, could he? What if something were wrong with her?
She wasn’t offended at all. In fact, she seemed eager to discuss it.
“Thank you so much, Sam. I really appreciate how you’re always looking out for me and taking care of me. You’re such a good friend.”
Her eyes left his to focus on his hands as she continued.
“I have been feeling strange since the day at the pond. Sometimes, I feel on top of the world, like everything is wonderful, like I could just rise up from the ground and… fly... or something.”
For a fleeting moment, Sam almost thought he saw a faint, hazy, white outline of what looked like wings behind her. It was gone before he could be certain, however, evaporating into the air.
“Other times, I feel so dark, so aroused, so… sexy... I can barely contain myself.” Her eyes darkened for a moment as she finished her sentence, flicking back to his with almost palpable fierceness. It quickly faded, however.
“Do you think that’s just some kind of side effect of my heart stopping or something?” she finished, emerald eyes remaining on his expectantly.
Sam sat there, open-mouthed, unsure what to make of what he had just seen. It was as though two different sides of her personality were being pulled apart and magnified, and she was penduluming between them.
He had to be imagining things. His mind was probably playing tricks on him in his concern for Candace’s health. A lot had happened to him these last few days. He’d had to save Candace from drowning. He’d started hanging out with Candace and Mara. He was on a freakin’ date with Candace for goodness’ sake! Candace!
All of this was bound to loosen his grip on reality a little, right? It’s not like girls grew suddenly prettier over the course of a couple of days. It’s not like outlines of wings magically appeared then poofed away. It’s not like his dream girl would suddenly be coming on to him after four years of aloof obliviousness to his obvious crush on her.
All of this was his subconscious doing cartwheels and making him exaggerate things, see things that weren’t actually there. It had to be. She was acting a little strange after having been through a near-death experience. That’s probably why she had agreed to go out with him too—some sort of feelings of indebtedness. It’s not like they had really done anything beyond touch hands, though after all. He was just reading too much into it. Some combination of wishful thinking and stress. It all made sense.
Sam let out a breath, his shoulders slumping slightly. He hadn’t realized he had been tensing them, but he had been getting pretty worked up as they talked, he supposed.
“Yeah. I think that’s exactly what it is. We should probably just take it easy tonight and relax. You’ve been through a lot these last couple of days, and the strange news from the doctors probably has you ill at ease.”
Candace smiled at him and squeezed his hand in appreciation, withdrawing it, however, as the waitress approached the table to take their orders.
“I’d like two orders of spaghetti—with the garlic bread on the side—and a bowl of soup, a side salad, and some breadsticks. Thank you!”
The waitress scribbled it all down, then glanced uncertainly over to Sam.
“Um, did the lady order for both of you, or…” the waitress asked.
Sam was kind of wondering that himself.
“Oh no. I’m just really hungry tonight…” said Candace with a smile. The waitress gave her an appraising look. Sam could almost see the wheels turning. How did she eat like THIS and look like THAT? He stifled a laugh and gave her his order, grinning in spite of himself.
“Could I have the linguini please?”
“Would you like a side salad with that?”
“No, I’m good.”
“Perfect!”
Candace shrugged, then grinned as the waitress walked away in bemused wonder.
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