Page 20 of Something Cheeky

“Oh no!” She bolted and yanked her sketchbook out of her bag. The blue cover was soaked.

“I’d offer you my shirt to wipe it up, but someone threw a drink at me.”

“You started it.”

“Here—” He took it from her and used a dry section of his sleeve to dry it off. “I think only the cover got wet.”

He flipped it open to shake out any liquid that hadn’t been absorbed by the paper. Derek’s heart pounded. Instead of lingerie or fashion sketches, he found something even better.

She’d drawn T?m in various costumes. The initial one was soft and flowy to mark her naivete but the pieces fell away to reveal a harder, more confident woman. The pencil marks were light but drawn with assertive hands.

“Give it back,” Zoe demanded. Her earlier lightness was gone. “That’s private.”

“Your sketches are exactly how I’d imagined the costumes would look.” He blotted the sides of her sketchbook as much as he could. He ran his thumb across the edges of the pages. It took every ounce of self-control to keep from flipping through the rest of it. He held the sketchbook open to the drawing that had taken his breath away.

“Those were just for fun. To practice my drawing skills,” Zoe replied with a forced smile.

He caught a hint of wistfulness underneath her superficial brightness.

“You never stopped dreaming aboutT?m Cámeither,” he whispered. That meant she hadn’t forgotten about him all this time.

“I—I haven’t,” Zoe admitted. Her eyes went soft and unfocused. Was she remembering those nights on the roof when they cast their dream show?

“Z, will you do this with me, please?” He immediately regrettedhis tone. Desperation wasn’t a good look for anyone. His hands clenched around her sketchbook as he forced himself to breathe slowly.

Her eyes narrowed as she considered his request yet again. His stomach twisted. She was going to turn him down and this time she wouldn’t change her mind.

“I’d have to postpone my formal wear collection if I did this. Can I think about it?”

She stuck her hand out for her sketchbook. He gave it back to her, but he couldn’t erase her drawings from his mind. It was as if she had a direct link to his brain.

“You only came back into my life yesterday. I can’t make a major decision in twenty-four hours.” She held the book against her chest but remembered her clothes were soaked. Zoe tucked it back into her bag.

“I’m sorry. That’s not fair of me.” He stared at his shoes, which thankfully were still dry. “I panicked.”

What he really meant to say wasDon’t walk out of my life again.That would definitely scare her away for good.

Chapter 10

Zoe examined her sketchbook for any spatter that Derek had missed as a way to avoid looking at him. The longing in his voice gutted her. He was trying so hard to mend their friendship. She had to make more of an effort because she was the one who’d kept her distance from him.

She missed her best friend.

The Boss Babes were also her best friends, but she’d known Derek the longest. They’d spent almost every waking hour together for four years. It took his coming back into her life to realize she’d had a Derek-shaped void.

Luckily the cover had done its job and protected the inside of the sketchbook. She flipped through the pages and tried to look at them with fresh eyes. With Derek’s eyes.

“I guess these aren’t so bad,” she said as if speaking out loud instilled more confidence. She’d drawn them in a creative fog after running into Derek yesterday. The sketches were basic but she’d captured the character’s energy and evolution. She needed to redraw them and add more detail and color, but deep down they felt right.

She knew this without reading Derek’s script or hearing the music. They’d created this show from angst and frustration about their aspiring theater careers. She knew every scene they’d created by heart.

“Zoe, no one would believe that you drew those costumes without seeing our script,” Derek said softly. “But I can. We lived and breathedT?m Cámwhenever we weren’t working on stuff for class.”

“Those nights on the roof were some of my favorite memories.”

“Aha!” He grinned. “You haven’t stopped thinking about it all these years.”

“Well, it would be fun to design something out of the ordinary,” Zoe conceded. To her surprise, she’d been bereft after turning in herLysistratacommission.

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