Page 7 of After Tonight

Derek shook his head. Why did she care? “Look, I’m like…Vegas,” he said.

Riley’s eyebrows went up. “You’re like Vegas?” she repeated. “What does that mean?”

“People love Vegas,” Derek said. “Vegas has the reputation of being an anything-goes, get-away-from-it all, if-it-feels-good-do-it hell of a good time, right?”

“Okay,” Riley said slowly.

“But no one wants to live there, you know? And even the people who go regularly don’t stay for long and go back to their real lives in between.”

He watched Riley process all of that.

“You understand?” he finally asked her.

She nodded, looking slightly stunned.

“And if you come home from Vegas and didn’t have a great time, and don’t feel a little better about facing your real life, and don’t smile thinking back on your time there, then you did something wrong,” he said.

Again, she nodded, with a slight frown. “So…you’re like Vegas,” she repeated again.

Satisfied that she understood, Derek nodded. “I’m like Vegas.”

Her frown deepened. “Why do you want to be like Vegas?” she asked. “That’s about as opposite from Sapphire Falls as you can get, and you love it here.”

He did. Definitely. But… “Pretty much every other guy here is Sapphire Falls,” he said.

She looked confused.

Derek sighed. “Everyone here is about family and settling down and putting down roots and being a part of this big community. Which I love,” he added. “But the women here can basically throw a rock and hit a nice guy who wants to put up a white picket fence and start having babies. And most of the women want that. And that’s great. But sometimes they just need something else. Like a quick trip to Vegas.”

Riley’s eyes widened and she said, “Dessert instead of salad.”

He frowned but decided he didn’t need to understand that. “So, anyway, I’ll go out and talk to these ladies and see if they’re up for some gambling this weekend.” He gave Riley a cocky wink that he knew would annoy her.

She frowned on cue. “It’s just the one girl who needs to get over a breakup.”

“Well, it’s not uncommon to show up in Vegas, thinking you know which game is yours and have your mind totally changed by the lights and glitter.” He had no intention of taking two women home, but again, he loved the idea of shocking Riley a little.

Her eyes narrowed. “I don’t suppose any of this has anything to do with the fact that women who have just been through a breakup are easy targets, right? Their self-esteem is low so you come along, act a little romantic, and they’ll fall for anything?”

Derek felt his own frown forming. He and Riley had always poked at each other, teased, pointed out each other’s flaws readily. But this felt more…something. More raw. More annoying. More real.

“You know, you can be a real brat sometimes.” He pulled his hand from his pocket and started toward the door.

“Where are you going?”

“Out of this kitchen,” he told her shortly.

“Hey—”

He swung back even as he knew he should just keep going. “What?”

“Do you remember Sarah Lamb?” she asked.

Derek frowned at the out-of-the-blue question. “Of course.”

“You mean, of course you remember taking her virginity. In my basement.”

Well…yeah. And he knew that Riley thought of the basement in her parents’ house as hers. It was where she’d spent nearly all of her out-of-school time. But once in a while, Kyle and his friends would commandeer the away-from-the-parents space.

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