Page 7 of All In Good Time

“Hello?” she called out.

It was so dark she couldn’t make out any features, but she could see him flinch at the sound of her voice. His head leaned forward, and she could feel the moment his gaze landed on her. He didn’t say anything.

She walked closer to him, and realized he was wearing a leather jacket and a pair of acid-washed jeans. A step closer, she realized he wasn’t wearing a shirt. Certainly not suitable for sitting on a roadside in the middle of the night in October.

“Are you alright? Is this your car?”

Only a couple yards away, and she finally recognized him. Those long dirty blond curls, that face. It was surprising that it took her so long to figure it out. Even the car made sense now, since she’d seen him driving it every day to school.

“Derek?”

He looked up at her, then his eyes glazed down over her costume and back up. “What the hell are you supposed to be?”

She frowned and held up the ears in her hand. “A rabbit.”

He didn’t laugh. In fact he barely showed any emotion. At least that she could see. “It looks stupid.”

She already knew that, but she still rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “At least I dressed up. You’re not even wearing a shirt under your jacket.Thatlooks stupid.”

She didn’t know much about Derek. In fact, this was the first time she had ever spoken to him. But she knew he was a major flirt, who targeted any girl or woman he came into contact with. So part of her expected that he would make a remark about how he looked better without clothes or that women were dying to see him tonight.

He said nothing.

He just leaned his head back against the tree again, and Becca realized he was looking up at the sky.

She followed his gaze and saw the stars. Millions of them—absolutely extraordinary. But not what she would expect Derek Stokes to be admiring, half dressed in the cold.

“What are you doing out here?” She stepped closer, and when she did, he flinched slightly. She stopped. “Are you alright?”

“Jesus, don’t you have anything better to do?” he snapped.

She stepped back, putting more distance between them. With it went the clarity she could see of his face. “Sorry, it’s just…the party ended, like, thirty minutes ago and now you’re out here alone, and it’s freezing, and…” She almost didn’t say what she wanted to, but the darkness gave her more courage than she would have if they could see clearly. “To be honest, I thought something might be wrong.”

“As you can see, I’m perfectly fine. Now move along and leave me be.”

She sighed and backed away some more. “Sure. Whatever.”

There went her ride.

She was about to turn when another car passed by, just quick enough for her to catch the way the headlights hit Derek’s face and illuminated the answers for her. She gasped, and in a second the lights were gone, but she had already seen everything.

“Holy shit.”

He seemed to realize he’d been exposed. The blooming bruises under his eye, on his cheek, and his jaw. The dried blood coating his nose and the few drops staining his bare chest.

He rose from his spot and shoved past her, heading toward his car.

Becca knew she had about three seconds to decide. It only took her one to move.

She grabbed his arm and pulled him to a halt, spinning him so he was facing her. This time, she was close enough to see the damage, even in the darkness. “Holyshit. What happened?”

She had watched from the sidelines, countless times since he moved here, as he pummeled others and received a punch or two to his own face, but she had never seen him walk away from a fight with more than a small bruise. Now, his entire face was an array of colors.

He tried to pull out of her grasp, but she was stronger than she looked and pulled him closer as her hand lifted instinctually—fingers lightly touched the spots where red littered across his jaw.

He hissed as they connected, and she paused. When he didn’t push her away, she continued to examine him. She was no doctor, but being raised by a nurse had taught her a little.

“I told you to mind your own business,” he said again, but his voice didn’t hold the same venom as before. Now it sounded defeated, as if whatever fight was in him had vanished the second she stopped him.

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