Page 13 of After Tonight

Lucy wasn’t someone he’d gone out with before, but she was what he’d loosely call a friend. And she was nice.

Maybe that’s what he needed. To be a nice guy, maybe he needed to hang out with nice girls. God knew, that would be something different. Not that the girls he spent time with were all bitches, but they weren’t Lucy-nice. They were I’ll-be-nice-and-suck-your-dick-on-the-drive-back-to-your-place nice.

He cleared his throat. Yeah, maybe to be a guy who did things other than have sex with the girls he took out, he needed to hang out with girls who didn’t just want to have sex with him. And maybe that was best accomplished by spending time with someone he hadn’t had sex with yet. Because—and he was only kind of bragging when he thought it—once they’d been in his bed, it might be hard to convince them they wanted to be anywhere else with him.

“Hey, Luce,” he said.

She was wearing a pale-yellow sundress. Much like the one Riley was wearing. But where Riley had her arms and legs—and tattoos—exposed, Lucy was wearing a light sweater over hers. It was a far cry from the baggy sweatshirts, but it was still hard to really get a good look at her shape. Unlike Riley, where every curve was clearly on display.

Derek frowned at that. The last thing he needed on top of everything else was noticing how Riley filled out her clothes. Jesus.

“Hi, Derek.”

Lucy gave him a sweet smile, and he purposefully focused on her lips. Yep, shiny peach lip gloss. And very nice lips underneath it.

“Can I get you something?” he asked.

Instead of a coy, flirtatious look like he so often got with that question, Lucy looked around the room. She spotted Riley and smiled. “Nope. I’m meeting Riley.”

“No coffee? Nothing?”

Lucy looked back at him. “Oh. Um.” She studied the chalkboard behind him where he had a few of the hot drinks he served at night listed. “Could you make cocoa?”

Cocoa. Yep, Lucy Geller was unlike the girls he usually hung out with. “Cocoa it is.” He had chocolate syrup for the café mochas and chocolate martinis he served. “I’m guessing you’re a whipped-cream kind of girl?” he asked with a wink.

She simply nodded. “That would be great.”

Not a hint of a smile, not a teasing quip, nothing in response to the whipped-cream-kind-of-girl comment. Or the wink. She really just wanted whipped cream on top of her hot chocolate. Huh. Yeah, this was new.

She started in Riley’s direction, and Derek noticed that Riley had her headphones off now and was watching them.

“Lucy,” Derek said quickly before she got past the bar and within earshot of Riley.

She turned back. “Yeah?”

“I’m really looking forward to Kade’s murder-mystery weekend.”

Her brows rose, but she nodded. “Oh, me too.”

Derek knew that Lucy was a huge Michael Kade fan. To the point that she stammered over her words and stumbled over her own feet in front of the author. It was adorable. “I was planning to be there on Sunday,” he said of the book signing. “You need any help getting ready for it?”

She faced him fully. “Well, um…actually…”

She tucked her dark hair behind her ear, and Derek noticed that her fingers and her ear were both really small. That was a weird thing to notice, but it occurred to him that Lucy was very petite. She was probably only five-two or so, and he was 99% sure that she’d never worn a pair of high heels. It also occurred to him that this was the first time, other than the lip gloss thing the other day, that he’d ever really noticed her body.

“I’m happy to help with anything,” Derek said quickly. Okay, it wasn’t really asking her on a date, but it would be spending some time together, and he got the impression that working up to this with Lucy might be a good idea. If she didn’t catch the teasing about whipped cream, then he was going to have to dial back his usual approach. Take it easy. Make a plan beyond “wanna do some shots and get naked?” Not that he ever said exactly that, but his reputation did a lot of talking for him.

“I could actually use a couple more hands,” Lucy said.

See, if that had been Ashley saying that, he would have made some comment about hands and what she was doing with hers, along with some suggestions for his, but…this wasn’t Ashley. Or Jeni. Or Anna. Or Abi. Or Madison. Or any of the other girls he would have also said that to.

“Just tell me what time to be there,” he told her. Sincerity. That’s what he’d try with her. Not that he was ever not sincere about doing shots and getting naked, but this was…different. And maybe different was good. Maybe it was exactly what he needed.

“How’s noon?” Lucy asked.

He nodded. “Fine. But…let’s have lunch beforehand. How’s eleven?”

There. That was a nice invitation. There would be no shots, no nakedness. It would be a casual chance to get to know her a little…

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