Page 6 of After Tonight

And “as long as he’d known her” was a really long time. He’d been there when her parents had brought her home from the hospital. He’d only been four but he remembered it distinctly. She had been crying her lungs out when they’d carried her into the house, and he’d thought “holy shit, she’s gonna be a pain”. Okay, maybe he hadn’t thought the word “shit” at that tender age, but he did remember thinking that Riley had seemed like more trouble than she was worth from the very first minute.

But he’d stuck around anyway. Because her grandmother had made a strawberry cake. And Ruby’s cakes had always been worth putting up with Riley. Thankfully. Because Riley had always been there. Kyle’s birthday parties, neighborhood gatherings, Super Bowl parties, Derek’s birthday parties. He hadn’t been able to get rid of her.

Thank God for Ruby’s cakes.

Riley’s It’s-A-Girl cake had been pink with pink frosting and one of the best things he’d ever tasted in his life. He assumed that was why he’d always associated strawberries with Riley, and why he’d called her Shortcake when they’d been growing up. It was definitely why it had amused him so much when she’d dyed her hair red when she’d turned fourteen. She’d gone from a mousy brown to a fiery look-at-me red. And the guys had definitely looked.

He was pretty sure they hadn’t stopped looking since.

It wasn’t just the red hair. She had several piercings in her ears, one in her nose, and one in her belly button. She had tattoos—gorgeous ones that ran up the entire length of one leg and showed off her creamy skin when she wore shorts or skirts, one on her shoulder that peeked out with certain tops, and one on her lower stomach that he hadn’t seen but he’d heard Peyton telling Scott about.

Riley was also gorgeous, had a trim body with big boobs, and an attitude that said “I dare you”. And all of that would have made him follow her around like a puppy if it weren’t for two very important facts.

One, he’d known her his whole life, and she was like an annoying little sister to him.

Two, she didn’t really like him.

She seemed like a rebel. She’d gone with the piercings and tattoos—using fake ones until she was old enough to get real ones—in order to get away from her big brother’s Boy Scout reputation. Kyle had huge shoes to fill, and Riley had grown tired of being “Kyle Ames’s little sister” very early on. So she’d started acting out and expressing herself…differently than Kyle had. Kyle’s straight A’s, perfectionistic, straight-laced habits were countered with Riley’s barely passing grades—in spite of her high IQ and giftedness in math and computer science—lots of swearing, and general antisocial tendencies. Kyle had been involved in everything. Riley had hung out in her parents’ basement with three computers and an online community no one else really knew about or understood.

So yeah, Riley seemed to be Derek’s type, but women who didn’t like him were definitely not his type.

“What’s she look like?” he asked of the woman supposedly looking for him.

“Well, there are two actually. A brunette and a blond.” Riley tipped her head and narrowed her eyes. “She’s basically looking for you so you can help her friend get over a breakup.”

Huh. Brunette and blond didn’t really narrow it down. “What did she say?”

“That you—” Riley faltered, blushed, coughed, then said, “Apparently you two spent the night together and she never thought about her ex again.”

Also didn’t really narrow it down, but Derek was far too distracted by Riley’s reaction to the whole thing. She was fucking blushing. Again. What the hell? And she’d dyed her hair red from brown, but she did have the pale skin of a redhead. Which made the pink staining her cheeks all the more obvious.

“Oh,” he said, searching for something to say other than “that sounds about right.”

“You don’t seem surprised.”

“About what?”

“That her heartbreak was totally healed after one night with you, and she was able to move on, happier, more confident, and feeling good about herself.”

He shrugged. “That’s kind of how it should work, right?”

“How what should work?”

“Really hot sex with someone who thinks you’re amazing.”

Her cheeks turned a darker pink, but that didn’t completely distract from her very skeptical look. “They all think you’re amazing? After knowing you only one night?”

Derek realized this was the most bizarre conversation he and Riley had ever had. “Well, as you can attest, I probably seem more amazing the less time you know me.”

But instead of agreeing with him, she frowned.

Then before she could respond, he said, “And actually, I was referring to how I make them feel.”

Her frown deepened. “What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “I want them to feel amazing.”

“Because then they’ll go and talk about you to all of their girlfriends?”

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