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Della made a face. “I don’t know…”
“She’ll do it.” Chase gave her a nudge up the steps.
“It’ll be fun,” Natasha said. “And you don’t have to eat, just taste.” She led the way inside.
The cabin smelled like a hodgepodge of different foods. Liam, dressed in jeans and a polo shirt, stood in the kitchen stirring something on the stove.
“Hey,” Liam smiled. “My woman has me slaving away in the kitchen.”
“Not true.” Natasha moved in to kiss Liam. “I just took the first shift of cooking.”
Her cousin appeared to be running on happy batteries. “We even have some adult beverages.” She glanced at Chase. “I noticed that you had some beer in his fridge. So that tells me you still drink it, right?”
“Yeah,” he said. “But it has to be really cold.”
“Okay, beer’s going in the freezer.” She stuck some bottles in the freezer. “And Liam brought a bottle of wine from his mom’s house.”
Della made a face. “I didn’t like the stuff before I was turned.”
“Well, maybe it’s changed.” Natasha darted to the cabinet and pulled down four glasses.
Liam laughed. “I swear, she’s been like this all day.” His gaze turned to Della. “Especially since she heard you were coming. Someone’s filled her tank up with happy juice.”
“Well, yeah,” Natasha said. “In a few days I’ll have my life back, and then…”—she ran over and kissed Liam again—“you and I can start our own lives.” She glanced back at Della. “Nothing’s wrong with happy.”
No, Della thought, except it made her realize she must have a hole in her own happy tank. Or maybe knowing she was responsible for having her dad arrested for murder just sucked the happy out of her.
Chase moved into the kitchen. “I don’t think this cabin has smelled this good in a while.”
“Yeah, but I’m told certain foods might smell good, but taste like shit,” Liam said.
“True,” Chase said.
Della watched Chase. This was his house, but he didn’t seem to feel awkward at all as Liam and Natasha played hosts.
Chase’s gaze met Della’s and he smiled. The pain in his eyes had gone. Obviously, he didn’t have a leak in his happy tank.
She glanced away.
Natasha looked at the food Liam placed on the table. “I’m curious if we will all like and hate the same things. Or if our tastes will vary.”
Della moved in. “I think they vary. Some vampires at the camp love pizza. Me, not so much.” She spotted a chocolate cake on a glass platter. “Once, Kylie was having a meltdown, she was eating the chocolate syrup with a spoon. I poured some into my blood and it went down smooth.”
Natasha pulled out the wine cork, then filled four wineglasses.
“I like French onion soup,” Della said. “It’s one of the few foods I still enjoy.”
Natasha handed Chase a glass of wine. “You first.”
Chase raised it to look at it as if he were a wine connoisseur. His mind seemed to wander, and she could swear she spotted a flash of the earlier pain in his eyes.
“Snickerdoodle cookies,” he said.
“What?” Della asked.
“My mom used to make them. She said they tasted like love. About six months ago, I saw them in a bakery. I ordered one. I thought it would taste bad. It didn’t. Maybe it was nostalgia. I bought a dozen.”
He sipped the wine.
