Page 31 of After Tonight

She tipped her head. “Do I?”

He tossed his napkin at her. “Brat. You do. Because we’ve spent so much time together for so long that you know all the sides of me.” He paused. “Well, most of the sides of me.”

“What side don’t I know?” And the answer occurred to her two seconds after she’d asked.

“The side that wants to sleep with you,” he said before she could stop him.

Right. That side. The side that nearly every other woman in Sapphire Falls knew.

And it was hugely stupid that she felt a little jealous at that.

Because he was right. Generally, she thought of him as her brother’s dumbass friend, the guy who teased her, the guy who bugged her. But yeah, she knew other sides of him too. The sweet-to-her-grandmother side. The best-friend-no-matter-what-to-her-brother side. The didn’t-tease-her-but-held-her-hand-by-the-grave-and-got-her-cake side that had showed up at her grandfather’s funeral.

Riley blinked hard as that memory crashed into her mind suddenly. Wow, she’d forgotten that. And the time that she’d had a fight with her mom and had driven out on a dirt road after a rainstorm and gotten her car stuck, and he was the only person she could think to call who wouldn’t yell at her. He hadn’t teased her that time either.

Huh.

So, okay, he might actually have some potential here. But he needed to practice.

She’d already decided that she was going to coach him, but maybe…maybe it needed to be a little more. A little more like real dating. She had to show him what having a girlfriend would really be like and make sure he was sure he wanted it.

“What time will you be home tonight?” she asked, getting up to refill their cups.

“Uh, not ’til late,” he said. “Which is why I like to sleep in,” he mentioned dryly.

Right. She’d known he’d still be in bed. That was why she’d come here. That, and the fact that she didn’t really have anywhere else to go. Lucy really would be up and into her morning routine and on her way to work. Kyle and Hannah were at her mom and dad’s. And Peyton would be wrapped up with Scott or busy in the bakery. Basically, everyone else she might spend time with had other stuff to do. Derek was the only one with an odd schedule like Riley’s.

“I’ll wait up for you.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

She meant that she was going to show him that having a serious girlfriend took time and energy, even when he’d been working all night. “I’ll be here when you get home and we can watch a movie or something.”

“At two a.m.?” he asked.

She was a night owl, just like he was. Two a.m. didn’t scare her. Her mother making waffles five hours later scared her. She nodded. “Unless you want to close up early.” He’d never close up early.

“Close up the Come Again, where a bunch of people are now coming in and working and studying?” he asked. “I don’t think so.”

“Okay. I’ll see you after then,” she said. No big deal. But she was going to have to figure out a way around her mother’s morning routine.

Her eyes flickered toward the hallway that had to lead to Derek’s bedroom. Hmm…

“You intend to keep me up until four a.m.?” he asked. “Especially after getting me up early this morning?”

She shrugged. “Spending time together is kind of a huge part of a relationship. You have to make it work around your schedule.” That was true. And one big reason that she’d had trouble dating guys who had to be up early.

Riley made a note that he took another crepe. She actually had no idea if Lucy liked crepes, but Riley did. Not as much as waffles, but they were good. But Lucy probably did. Or she’d eat them without complaint if Riley brought them over for breakfast. Unlike Derek. She frowned. The usual Derek. She liked that he felt he could be himself and say what he was thinking with her.

But that was something else she had to keep in mind. She had to train Derek to go along with things once in a while even if he didn’t like it. He didn’t have to do that with her because she’d do what she wanted anyway. But Riley had a feeling that Derek got his way a lot with women. She’d even seen it with her own brother. Kyle liked things his way, for sure. But there were times when Riley had been amazed to see Derek talking her stubborn, perfectionistic brother into things.

Derek was charming and funny and had a way of saying exactly the right thing to get his way. It was good that he hadn’t gone into used car sales. The entire town of Sapphire Falls would be driving old beaters around.

His charms had always been particularly effective with females. Even the girls he didn’t date thought he was so funny and had a hard time not agreeing with him when he wanted to do things like make the prom theme vampires and werewolves—which the principal had, thankfully, shut down. Derek had done it simply to push some buttons and make people laugh. And probably to test just how much he could get away with. Which was a lot.

For every crazy, push-his-limits idea—like when he’d spread the rumor that he was going to bring strippers into the Come Again one Saturday night a month—he had four great ideas. Fundraising efforts for everything from tree planting in the park to buying an electric wheelchair for Landon Thompson. Programs like making the nursing home a daycare center during the day for little kids, mixing the children who needed supervision and activity with the older adults who needed stimulation and attention. Fun events like the town-wide snowball fight, and open mic night at the Come Again, where people got to sing, tell jokes, read poetry, or give motivational talks.

Derek Wright could charm anyone into doing things the way he wanted to do them, and he didn’t have to worry about what the other person wanted. And that worked in these short-term hookups he had going on. But in a longer-term, more serious relationship, he’d have to be more aware of the other person. Riley was absolutely going to teach him to be aware of her.

They finished eating, but everything still felt awkward, between him trying to be nice and polite and her thoughts about him as a boyfriend, and a Sex God, and an honest to goodness good guy. So when he said that since he was up so early he was going to go check on the new sink he’d helped install at The Stop a couple days ago, Riley was relieved and said she’d clean up the kitchen.

So she did.

And then she was bored. As was her usual MO lately.

She didn’t want to go home to her mom’s. All of her friends were working—or lived in another state. And even if they didn’t live a couple thousand miles away, they’d be in bed. They were all night-owl computer geeks like her.

At that, she yawned. She really had gotten up early. She eyed Derek’s couch. She’d bet he’d taken plenty of naps on that couch over the years. She settled onto the cushions, stretched, turned over, rubbed her cheek against the throw pillow that smelled like Derek.

And that was the last thing she remembered.

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