Page 12 of After Tonight

“He’s hosting a thing here in town in a few weeks,” Derek said. “It’s a murder-mystery thing where fans can come to Sapphire Falls and actually live out the story in his book.”

Derek thought it was fabulous. That would probably surprise a lot of people, but he was an avid reader and was, admittedly, a fan-boy dork over Michael Kade’s stuff. He’d loved the Aquamarine Ridge book. It was funny and suspenseful with just enough gore. And he couldn’t wait for the fan weekend. He was the guy building the sets they needed and the keeper of the weapons and clues, and he was stupidly into it.

That would surprise Riley, he bet.

And dammit, there he was thinking about her again.

“I heard something about the weekend thing,” Ashley told him.

“Yeah, I’m working on the planning and everything. Was wondering if you’d want to go to his book reading next Sunday afternoon?”

Kade was going to be reading from the book and signing copies at Lucy Geller’s bookstore in town. The first hour was for Sapphire Falls only, then it would be open to anyone who wanted to make the trip to the little town. They were expecting a huge crowd, and every place from the diner to the bakery was gearing up to serve and charm their visitors. Hailey Conner Bennett, the woman in charge of everything having to do with tourism in Sapphire Falls, was nearly beside herself.

“A Sunday afternoon?” Ashley asked, as if he’d just asked if she knew how to tap dance.

It was true that most of his “dates” were long over by Sunday afternoon, and he was typically either at the pond fishing or lounging on his couch watching TV.

“Yeah, it starts at three,” he said, telling himself he couldn’t bail on the invitation just because she looked completely confused.

“Um…” Ashley glanced around. “I haven’t read the book.”

“You can still get a signed copy,” Derek said, giving her a little smile. “You could get it read before the big murder-mystery event.”

It wasn’t much of a mystery, really. If people had read the book they knew how it would turn out. But they were still expecting a big crowd of people who wanted to live the book by seeing the places that Kade had described in the story and meet the people who had inspired some of the characters. Like local millionaire Levi Spencer, who had ended up as a sidekick to the detective in the story because of his near nightly negotiations—i.e., whining—with Kade. Of course, the sidekick had been brutally killed in chapter seven. But Levi thought that was the best thing ever and was now in negotiations with Hailey to let him use fake blood and stage the murder scene at City Hall himself.

And Derek couldn’t forget the small-town doctor who doubled as the county’s medical examiner and had been the one to blow the case wide open. None other than his buddy Kyle Ames. Who was not all that pleased with being the story’s hero, because it meant that the doting fans would want to meet him. And dote on him.

It was all going to be a ton of fun. Derek couldn’t wait.

But Ashley wasn’t returning his grin. She shook her head. “I don’t think so. But if you want to hang out Saturday night, let me know.”

He knew what she meant by hang out, and he knew it did not involve a discussion about Kade’s book. Or really a discussion of any kind, other than deciding who would start on the bottom. Got it. He nodded. “I’ll let you know. Not sure what’s up yet.”

“Okay. See ya later.”

Ashley walked away and Derek shook his head. Not only had he asked a woman on an actual date—and been turned down—but he realized that it was very likely the first time since he’d seen his first pair of breasts that he’d turned down sex.

Okay, he was technically just putting it off. It’s not like he and Ashley needed to make concrete plans right now. He could still end up with her in his bed.

But he wasn’t going to. He was going to ask someone else out.

And he blamed Riley Ames. Completely.

He shot a frown in her direction again, but she was completely oblivious to him.

Whydid it matter what she thought?

Or rather, why did what she think of him influence what he thought of himself?

But suddenly he wanted to know that he could ask a woman out on a date and she’d want to go. A real date. Not hanging out as foreplay. Parties out at the river, dancing at a street dance, shooting pool here at the Come Again, even sitting at football games were all just a chance to flirt and do some major hinting. It was all foreplay. The lead up to sex. The opening act.

And now that Riley had gotten into his head, he really needed to prove that someone would want to go out with him even if that was all it was going to be.

He shoved a hand through his hair and looked around for something to do. But he had everything cleaned up. Dammit.

The door opened again and he looked up, hopeful. Maybe another of the girls he’d gone out with recently would come in and help reassure him that he was a nice guy who was good for something other than orgasms.

Lucy Geller stepped through the door—and Derek smiled. The universe didn’t think he was all bad.

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