Page 75 of After Tonight

11

The fussing was going to have to wait.

Riley had managed to get curled up on the couch, but Erika wasn’t available for fussing. She was busy getting the house ready for the dinner party they were having that night. That included Kyle and Hannah, their grandmother, and, for some reason, Derek. And his parents.

Okay, Derek being there wasn’t a big surprise. He’d eaten countless meals at her mother’s dining room table over the years and had been over a couple of times just in the past few weeks. They’d had to work on hiding their feelings or anything that might let on that they were more than…what they’d always been.

But were they? That was what was bothering her. She and Derek were the same they’d always been. She still felt she could be completely honest with him and that he was completely honest with her. She could tell him when she hated his shirt, or that dipping his French fries in mayo was disgusting. But she could also now tell him that she liked his haircut and that he made amazing pizza, and that she just flat out liked him and that he was amazing. As kids and teens, she would have never admitted that she liked something about him, or that he was doing something right. Because, well, they’d been kids and teens, and that’s how they interacted.

But now…

She pulled the throw pillow over her face, groaning.

He was amazing.

And she wanted to keep doing what they’d been doing. For a very long time.

Which had to be the most cliché, sickening thing she’d ever done.

She’d gotten out. She’d gone away. She’d had a great job and apartment in California.

And now she was back in Sapphire Falls, living with her parents, crushing on her brother’s best friend—the biggest playboy in town, of course—and another of her brother’s friends was creating a job for her.

Apparently orgasms made her brain mushy. And distracted her from the fact that she had fallen into the rut of Sapphire Falls.

“Riley? Can you help me with the table?” Erika called from the kitchen.

Riley tossed the pillow and sighed up at the ceiling. Of course she could. And should. Lying on the couch, not being fussed over wasn’t helping. Though she doubted the fussing would really help anyway. This wasn’t a poor-baby-chicken-soup problem. This was a shit-what-am-I-going-to-do problem.

Riley padded into the kitchen. “What can I do?”

Her mom looked over. Then frowned. “Are you going to change before dinner?”

Riley looked down at her capris and tank top. “Do I need to?”

“We’re having people over.”

“Yeah. Our people. People I’ve known forever. They’ve seen me dressed like this before.” And Derek doesn’t seem to mind when I’m dressed down. Or not dressed at all.

She stopped those thoughts immediately. That didn’t matter, and she definitely needed to not think about being undressed with Derek while standing with her mother in the kitchen of her childhood home.

Then Erika shocked her by putting down the dish towel she held, leaning back against the counter behind her, and studying Riley.

That never happened when there was a meal to prepare. And there was always a meal to prepare.

It struck Riley that maybe there was something there. Derek had said he’d given her a hard time and teased her because he’d wanted her attention. Had that been part of why Riley acted out and did the opposite of everything Kyle did? To get her mom’s attention? Even if it wasn’t the most positive way to do that?

“Our people,” Erika repeated. “I like that.”

Riley nodded, suddenly feeling nervous.

“Do you really feel that way?”

Riley wet her lips. “Of course.”

“They’re not just my people? They’re our people?” Erika pressed.

“Yes. Of course. Kyle and Hannah are definitely our people.”

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