Page 30 of After Tonight

It was the dumbest thing…but Riley felt a little prick of annoyance at that. She should want him to be nice. She didn’t want him to tease her about crepes and chai seeds. She wanted him to practice just hanging out with a woman. She wanted to see him being a normal, nice guy since as far as she knew, that side of him was theoretic.

But now that he was doing it, she was annoyed.

“Well, stop it, it’s creepy when it’s you and me,” she said, cutting into her own crepe with a scowl.

“It’s creepy for me to be nice?” he asked.

“It’s just not…you,” she said, scowling harder as she concentrated on the crepe. Or at least on spreading the blueish-purple jam around her plate.

“I don’t have breakfast with women I’m not related to,” he said.

“You’ve had breakfast with me before.” She wasn’t sure why she felt the need to point that out. She knew she was being contrary. She was trying to teach him to be nice and sweet, and now he was being nice and sweet and she was trying to get him to stop. But…it felt wrong. Fake. Like he was trying too hard. And she realized that things with her and Derek had always been pretty easy. And honest.

“I have.” He took a breath. “I don’t have breakfast with women I don’t know really well. And I don’t watch my mouth with women I have breakfast with.”

And that, stupidly, made her feel warmer. He did know her well. Maybe better than she’d ever realized. That also made her feel strangely restless.

“So I’m practicing, I guess.”

Riley watched him frown and realized that he was uncomfortable too. Okay, that was weird. One, Derek Wright was never uncomfortable. He made situations comfortable for other people. That was almost his entire purpose in life. Two, this was her. He should not be uncomfortable around her. And vice versa.

She set her fork down. “Well, it’s creepy,” she said.

He sighed.

“Listen, I think you can practice hanging out with someone, fully clothed, doing things other than…fornicating…”

He snorted at that and she smiled. Okay, that was good.

“And still be yourself,” she finished. “In fact, I mean…you should be yourself. Just, you know, with your clothes on.”

“You keep making that point.”

“I think it’s an important one to keep at the forefront.”

He smiled, and she felt herself relax.

“I can’t treat other girls the way I treat you,” he said.

She didn’t know why, but her heart sped up. “You can’t?”

“You’re…you. I can say anything to you. You know that I’m 90% bullshit.”

Riley laughed at that, loving that his comment was so close to her thoughts. “Ninety-two.”

“But other girls won’t know that. I can’t tease them and stuff.”

“You can just tell them you’re joking.”

“It’s not the same,” he said, shaking his head. “I do tease and joke with other women but, it’s not the same. With you, I never worry about…”

Again he trailed off, and she had to hear this. “You don’t worry about what with me?”

“Being a dumbass.”

Okay, that surprised her. “Because I already know that you’re a dumbass.”

He gave her a look. “Yes,” he admitted. “But you also know that I’m not a dumbass all the time.”

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