Page 5 of After Tonight

Derek had gotten that look from her probably a million times in his life. It still made him grin. “Because I fell in the mud.”

She sighed.

To be honest, he played up the dumbass stuff for Riley’s benefit. She’d always been a too-smart, geeky know-it-all, and he’d loved playing the big dumb buffoon who wasn’t worthy to even engage in conversation with her. She loved to spout off about politics and climate change and women’s rights and the arts. And if she got started on technology and social media, she could talk the Pope to drink.

It wasn’t that Derek didn’t care about those things or have opinions, but the girl had always used big words on purpose—with a snotty, you’re-not-worthy tone of voice—and loved to debate and, frankly, she was exhausting.

So whenever he’d been around her, from about age twelve to, well, now, he just played along that he didn’t have a clue. That way, Riley got to feel smart, and he didn’t have to get into a conversation that would take many, many, many precious minutes off of his life.

Thing was, he agreed with her. On just about every point she made. So what was the point in talking about it?

“I was out at the cemetery. Don didn’t get the new section mowed earlier so he called to see if I could do it.”

“You fell off the lawnmower?” she asked, her tone indicating she had no trouble believing that he was incapable of even mowing grass.

Jesus, she was a pain in his ass. “I was helping Lucy, actually.” He smiled thinking of the other too-smart geek he’d known most of his life. Unlike Riley, her best friend Lucy was sweet and quiet, and the only time she’d ever made him feel dumb was during her Valedictorian speech, when she’d quoted people he’d never heard of and said things that went right over his head. Fortunately, 99.5% of the audience in the Sapphire Falls high school gymnasium bleachers had been in the same boat, so he hadn’t felt so bad.

But he’d realized in that moment that Lucy and Riley were out of his league. Sure, Riley got not-great grades, but he knew she was smart. Very smart. And cool and funny and beautiful. And he’d been giving her a hard time pretty much her entire life. They might have been geeks who didn’t date much and spent most of their weekends in Riley’s basement, but yeah, they were on a whole other level from Derek and the girls he hung out with.

Not that his big-brother-ish teasing had stopped that day. He and Riley had their relationship very well established by then. And, well, clearly she didn’t need him giving her pep talks or telling her she was awesome or encouraging her to go after her dreams. So, he told himself she needed him to keep her grounded.

“You were helping Lucy?” Riley repeated. “At the cemetery?”

“Yep. I’d just gotten done mowing and she was there looking at headstones for some town history thing she’s doing.”

Lucy ran the local bookstore and was in charge of the town’s archives. She also oversaw the Sapphire Falls town museum—an old house on Main that served, more or less, as a storage unit for people’s old clothes, books, photos and other “items”. Most of the stuff in there was just old, but everything supposedly had a story that tied it to the founding families. Derek wasn’t so sure about the validity of those claims, but the museum was Lucy’s headache, not his.

Except, of course, when something leaked—like a pipe or the roof—or a big heavy bookcase needed to be moved from the third story to the first. Or when a big heavy table needed to be moved from the first floor to the third. Or when big heavy boxes needed to be retrieved from, or stored in, the attic. Or when everything needed to be moved around for the haunted house.

The old house was the site of the traditional haunted house at Halloween and during the annual town festival every June. No one knew why they had a haunted house during the summer festival, but it was tradition, so they did. Which meant that twice a year, Derek was the main guy helping put it all together. And take it all down.

Of course, Lucy thought the place was actually haunted and had data on whose ghosts inhabited the oldest house in town.

Derek shook his head. Lucy was sweet and…quirky. That was really the best word for her. And she was cute. That he couldn’t deny. She’d grown from nerdy-bookworm cute into shy-librarian cute. He wasn’t sure what the exact distinction between the two was, but he was pretty sure it had something to do with her losing the baggy hoodies that hid her curves, her use of lip gloss that called attention to her very nice lips, and her increased confidence that resulted in more eye contact and smiles.

“And you ended up in the mud how?” Riley asked.

Derek focused on the pain-in-the-ass redhead in front of him instead of thinking about sweet Lucy’s lip gloss. “I slipped down an embankment over in the oldest part of the cemetery.” He looked down. A little mud never hurt anyone. “But I’m good with being dirty.”

He was shocked to see Riley blush.

For one, he wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Riley blush. For another…what had he said?

“So, anyway, did you need something?” he asked.

He stripped off his shirt and turned toward the back door. He had a duffle hanging on a hook back there that had extra clothes in it. He had extra clothes stored in a lot of places—here, his truck, his grandmother’s house, and over at Kyle’s, since Kyle lived in town, at least right now.

It seemed Derek was always in need of a clean shirt or jeans. He did odd jobs all over town and very few of them were actually scheduled. Or paid, for that matter. He never knew when he might get called to help someone change a tire, or pull out a tree stump, or dig their fishing boat out of the mud. He didn’t mind that everyone in town had his cell number and used it freely. He was easily bored, didn’t like to sit still, and loved not having a set schedule.

Of course, once the pizza ovens were finished at the Come Again and they got that business up and going, he’d be busier with work there, but hey, it was pizza. It wasn’t like he was spending his days saving lives at the hospital like his best friend Kyle, or protecting the town like his buddy Scott, one of Sapphire Falls’ cops. Derek’s specialties were pizza and beer, and that was just fine with him. He was an expert in both.

Riley still hadn’t said anything, so he turned back after he’d pulled a clean shirt from his bag.

She was staring at him as if she’d never seen him before. He frowned and yanked the T-shirt over his head. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked, pulling the shirt into place and tucking the dirty one into his bag.

She shook her head. “Nothing. I’m fine. I’m…” She seemed to be searching for words. Then she frowned, planted her hands on her hips and said, “There’s a woman out front looking for you. I thought I’d warn you.”

Riley was warning him about a woman? That was…weird. For one, Riley had never been protective of him in all the time he’d known her. For another… Nope, pretty much just that one thing. She loved when he screwed up and fell on his ass—figuratively and literally.

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