Page 52 of After Tonight

“Ican’t believe you charged him.”

Riley sighed as her mother put more green beans on her plate. “Why wouldn’t I charge him?”

“He’s your brother.”

“And he hired me to do a job. That he can afford to pay me for,” Riley said.

“Do you have any idea how much Kyle gives away to this town?” Erika asked, pulling out her chair and sitting down across from Riley. In the chair she’d sat in for every meal Riley could remember.

“Yes, I have an inkling,” Riley said dryly. “But I didn’t do his clinic website as a favor, and he’s not a charity. I did it because his other designer messed up a bunch of stuff, and he needed some new features added.”

For fuck’s sake, her mother wanted her to have a job. Now she had one, kind of, and she wasn’t supposed to charge for it?

“You don’t understand,” Erika said, passing the plate of pork chops to her husband. “I guess the computer business is different than health care. But Kyle does a lot of his work for free.”

Yes, and he could calm the storms and walk on water. Riley got it. She’d gotten it a long time ago.

“I just thought you could help him out this way and indirectly contribute to the town,” Erika added.

“How am I contributing to the town by not charging Kyle for the website?” Riley asked.

“You’re helping out the guy who helps so many other people out,” Erika said. “Kyle has the money to pay you, of course.”

Of course. Because perfect Kyle was far too successful and smart and generous to ever be plagued with not being able to pay his bills.

“But the money he pays you could go to something else. Like that little boy who is having to have some kind of kidney treatment while his dad is deployed. Or Elizabeth Victor,” Erika said. “Kyle helped Derek put a ramp in at her house now that she needs a wheelchair when she’s out of the house.”

Hearing Derek’s name made Riley’s heart thump in her chest, and she had to resolutely not think about it. “But if Kyle already put the ramp in, how does this money help with that?” she asked.

She vaguely realized that she was being a brat. She knew what her mother meant. And she didn’t need the money. She had no bills, living here with her parents. And she had to be honest—as long as she was in Sapphire Falls, she’d be living with her parents. There weren’t a lot of places for rent, and she wasn’t buying anything that might signify a commitment to staying.

But there’s a really nice couch about nine blocks away. Or even a bed. He invited you into the bed.

She pushed that thought away. She couldn’t just keep sleeping on Derek’s couch, and she definitely couldn’t sleep in his bed on any kind of long-term basis.

Could she?

“You know what I mean,” Erika chided as she took a bite.

Riley sighed again and started eating as well. Yeah, she knew what her mom meant. All of the things her mom meant. Like that Riley’s job could be simply a way of supporting the much more important work her brother was doing.

“I’m working with Scott Hansen on a project for his task force.”

Erika looked over as Jake passed the pork chops. “What task force?”

“The sex trafficking task force he works with.”

Erika frowned. “Sex trafficking?” She looked concerned. “Why is he doing that?”

Riley set her fork down and leaned in. “Because it’s a huge problem, and he’s in law enforcement and wants to make a difference.”

“But what does he do for that?”

“They go after the people who are trafficking,” Riley said. “They find the people doing it, shut them down, arrest them, save the people they’ve tricked and manipulated and trapped.”

She was aware that her voice had risen slightly and that her mother was looking horrified. But that didn’t bother Riley. Erika should be horrified. Everyone should be horrified about it.

“Where does he do that?”

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