After Tonight

by Erin Nicholas

  “Don’t say that,” Erika told her.

  “Not saying it doesn’t make it less true,” Riley said, barely resisting her eye roll.

  They all ate quietly for a couple of minutes.

  Then Erika said, “You know, I’m sure your brother has worked with sexual abuse victims.”

  Riley swallowed. Yeah, she was sure he had. And she was sure he was good at it. Kyle was calm and reassuring and could even be funny and charming if needed. He was also a damned good doctor. She nodded. “I’m sure he has.”

  “Have you asked him about any of this? Maybe to get involved?”

  Riley pressed her lips together. She hadn’t. Not because he wouldn’t be great at it, but because… She wasn’t sure. She supposed she thought maybe the ultimate advocacy project would involve a lot of people, a committee or something, and she was not the kind of person to head up something like that. She guessed that Scott would do it. Maybe. Or Peyton. Not that Peyton was any more the committee chair type than Riley was.

  She set her fork down and decided to be honest with herself first. She hadn’t asked Kyle because she kind of wanted to do something great that didn’t involve him.

  Then she decided to be honest with her mother. “Kyle doesn’t have to be a part of everything in this town.”

  Erika opened her mouth to reply when they heard the front door open and, “Hey, anyone home?”

  Speak of the devil.

  Kyle came into the kitchen with a big grin and a huge cake in one hand, and Hannah’s hand in the other.

  “Hi, honey.” Erika pushed back from the table and went to take the cake from him.

  “Are we in time to have dessert?” Kyle asked. He slapped his dad’s shoulder while Hannah leaned over and kissed Jake’s cheek.

  “Hey, Riley,” Hannah greeted.

  “Hi.” Riley really liked Hannah. She made Kyle happy, and it was clearly mutual. All through high school, Hannah had been a fixture at this kitchen table. She and Kyle had been inseparable. They’d broken up for a few years, and Riley knew that Kyle had tried to get over her. But Hannah had only been back in Sapphire Falls for a few days before they’d gotten back together. And Riley could honestly say that Kyle had relaxed since Hannah had been back. He smiled more. He joked more. He took more time off. Not that he was ever completely off. He was the only doctor in town. But he didn’t go looking for jobs and activities all over town like he’d once done. Like Derek did now.

  And just that easily, Derek Wright was back in her head. Did Derek keep himself so busy because he didn’t have any reason to stay home? And if she’d said yes to staying in bed all day, would he have really blown off all the odd jobs she was sure he had lined up? And would he really be able to blow them off on a regular basis once he had a girlfriend?

  And why did she suddenly hate the idea of him having a girlfriend?

  Riley forced her thoughts back to the conversation happening around her. About the education and advocacy program that she’d just told her parents about. The conversation that went on without her, with Kyle and Hannah both inputting what they knew and getting excited about helping.

  Riley sat back in her chair feeling disappointed and suddenly left out. Of something she’d brought up. Dammit.

  Her phone vibrated in her pocket, and she suddenly prayed it was someone whose computer had crashed and needed help immediately. She didn’t want to play IT guy to the entire town and yet…it beat having dinner and dessert with her family at the moment.

  But it wasn’t a computer crash.

  It was Derek. And her stupid heart did a stupid flip.

  You know, you could come down early to taste test the pizza.

  Pizza. Now there was something that was always a good idea. And Derek. Who had recently become one of her favorite ideas. Oh boy.

  I’d actually love that. But might be a bit. Kind of in the middle of something.

  Kyle and Hannah there?

  Yes. How did you know?

  He mentioned it.

  Ah.

  But I will see you later?

  Hope so.

  She did want to get out of here, but she was also aware that if she left in the middle of this conversation, it would look like she didn’t really care about the topic. And God only knew what her family would come up with without her. They’d have the entire program planned. And very likely she’d be left out of it completely.

  Ten minutes later, Riley had put her foot down twice—about a program and event that she’d only just begun having the tiniest inkling about yesterday—and she had four pages of written notes that she planned to run past Peyton. She wasn’t sure how this whole thing had snowballed on her, but that would teach her to open her mouth to try to impress her mother.

  Then again, some of these ideas were really good.

  But she was now really ready for some pizza. Or some Derek. She wasn’t sure which, but pizza seemed like a safer thing to be craving.

  The doorbell rang, and she nearly sagged with relief at the interruption. “Okay, this is all good, but I have to talk to Scott,” she said. Scott, who hadn’t exactly hired her for the job. The job that she wasn’t even sure technically existed. But she was going to have to make it exist. Or maybe she’d do this all voluntarily. But either way, she was going to do it.

  “I’ll get it,” Jake said, pushing his chair back.

  Riley took the opportunity to get up too. She was going to get pizza. This was enough family time for now.

  But as she gathered her papers and her mom started picking up the dishes from the table, her dad came back into the room. “Hey, everyone, Derek’s here.”

  Riley’s head came up fast, and her gaze collided with Derek’s the moment he rounded the corner. As if he’d been looking for her first.

  “Derek.” Erika was clearly thrilled to see him. “Hi, honey. Do you want some cake?”

  “Hi, Erika.” He crossed to her and dropped a quick kiss on her cheek. “Nope, I just dropped by to pick Riley up.”

  Riley felt surprise jolt through her. He looked over at her and winked, and she covered her shock. “Oh, is it time already?”

  “Pick Riley up?” Erika asked.

  “Yeah, she’s taste testing some of my pizzas tonight for me.”

  Erika looked at Riley. “You didn’t say anything. You didn’t have to eat with us if you promised to help Derek.”

  Which Riley decoded to mean, “If you have a chance to hang out with Derek, you should take it because he’s amazing.” And he kind of was.

  “I’m always happy to taste pizza,” Riley’s dad joked.

  Derek laughed easily. “Oh, don’t worry. I’ll be asking you all what you think. But I have to start with Riley.”

  “Oh?” Erika asked.

  “Yep,” Derek said. “I haven’t quite been able to convince Riley that I can do no wrong like I have you.” Derek put an arm around Erika’s shoulders and gave her a smile. “I need her brutal honestly here at the start.”

  Erika squeezed him. “Well, it’s hard not to think that.” She returned his smile, then focused on Riley. “You’ll be nice though, right?”

  And it suddenly hit Riley that she could not date Derek. No matter what. Not that it was on the table or even the remotest possibility, but she couldn’t date him. Her mother would never think she was doing that right. If Riley couldn’t even become a sex trafficking victim’s advocate without her mom thinking she needed help, there was no way she could be in a relationship—something she was not all that great at to date—with one of her mother’s favorite people in the world without her thinking Riley wasn’t doing it right. God forbid they ever have an argument. Or break up.

  “I’ll be honest,” Riley said. But good Lord, at this moment, she loved him for showing up like this. “But yes, I’ll be nice.”

  “You just have a tendency to be a little blunt,” Erika said.

  Riley opened her mouth to reply, but Derek beat her to it. “That’s one thing I love about her.”
/>   Whoa. That was…what?

  “I also love that she’s always up for trying new stuff, that she can hack the shit out of any computer system, and that she never apologizes for just being her.” He gave her a grin, and Riley felt her panties get a little warm. “If Riley likes something, you know it and can truly bet on it being awesome.”

  Yeah, whoa. Just…whoa. He loved things about her? Things that drove her mom crazy? And he was willing to say that to her mom?

  “Don’t you think it’s awesome that you can always depend on Riley to make you think about new things you haven’t thought about before and old things in a different way?” he asked, directing the question at Erika.

  Riley realized she was holding her breath.

  Her mother was studying her with a puzzled look on her face. After a long moment, she nodded. “I guess she does do that.”

  Riley couldn’t have been more surprised if her mother had announced she was going to get a few tattoos to match Riley’s.

  There was a long, totally silent pause. Then her brother, shockingly, said, “Yeah, me too.” He gave Riley a grin. “And if Riley says Derek’s pizza is good, everyone will know that’s the God’s honest truth.”

  That was nice. It wasn’t that Riley didn’t think her brother loved her. She knew that her inability to be on time for things and her messy bedroom and her general disregard for most rules drove him crazy. But she’d always gotten the impression that Kyle understood why she did the things she did. All her unorganized, don’t-care attitude had been on purpose. She was actually quite on top of things with her work and, while her apartment in California wasn’t immaculate, it wasn’t the mess her high school bedroom had been.

  But it was nice to hear Kyle say some things he appreciated about her too. And that it was her honesty that people most liked.

  And if I say Derek’s good boyfriend material, all the women in town will know that’s the God’s honest truth.

  She could do that. She would do that. He was a good guy. Who she couldn’t have.

  But she felt her freaking bottom lip tremble.

  Coincidentally, that was the moment Derek let her mom go, took three steps toward her, and held out his hand. “So, let’s go already. I can’t wait to see what you think.”

  She didn’t look at her parents or her brother as she reached out, took his hand, and let him tug her out of the kitchen.

  He kept going down the hall toward the front door.

  “Who’s covering the bar?” she asked, the realization that he showed up here when he should have been at work just occurring to her.

  “I’m not the only one who can pour beer in this town. I’m just the only one willing to stay up until midnight doing it every night.” He shot her a quick grin.

  For some reason, her stomach flipped.

  “So who’s babysitting the bar while you run over here?”

  He pulled the front door open. “Bryan. Until midnight. Then he’s closing up.”

  “The bar is closing at midnight?”

  “Yep.” He gestured for her to step out of the door.

  “But what about the people who all come in after midnight?”

  “They’ll be okay.”

  She still hadn’t stepped out of the door. She turned to face him fully, standing closer than she really needed to for the conversation. But he’d rescued her in there. And she wanted to stand close to him. Really close. “Why aren’t you going to be at work tonight?”

  “I have somewhere else to be.”

  “Where?”

  “With you.”

  That made her feel a rush of warmth and affection. Was that what he was feeling? Or was he feeling sorry for her? Or horny? “Why?”

  He let out a breath. “Ry, do you really want to talk about that? I mean, we can delve in, if you want, but I think that might be more than either of us is really up to right now.”

  He had a point. A very good point. This was complicated. And that meant he wasn’t just horny or feeling sorry for her. “Are we going to eat pizza?”

  “Maybe.”

  “But that’s important to you.”

  He looked down at her. “Yeah. That’s one thing that’s important to me.”

  Oh, boy. They didn’t even need to actually talk about anything for this to be complicated.

  “You’ll have to cook the pizzas in the oven at the bar for them to taste right.”

  He nodded.

  “So eventually, we’ll end up there.”

  “Eventually.”

  “Okay.” She took a breath. “But let’s not go straight over there.”

  “Where do you want to go instead?”

  That was a no-brainer. The warmth and affection contributed to her feeling horny. But a second later she corrected that. It wasn’t horny. Exactly. She just wanted to be close to him. As close as she could get. “Somewhere where no one will look for us. And that we can be naked for a while.”

  His gaze heated and he nodded. But he didn’t seem completely surprised. “I really do like it when you’re blunt.”

  Yeah, he’d even told her mom that.

  And Riley wanted to climb on top of him and lose herself in pleasure with a guy who not only really knew her, but appreciated some of her more annoying characteristics.

  They drove out to the river. She knew that’s where he was headed the minute he turned out of town. And it was the perfect choice. No one would look for them to be there together, alone.

  Once they had bumped over the narrow dirt road that led down to the river, he turned east and continued along the bank for a few hundred feet. The dirt road ended at the best place to park and carry coolers down to the sand right along the edge of the river. It was the most popular party spot. It was also a spot that was likely to have other visitors at some time tonight. Instead, Derek turned and drove over the grass, heading west, and parked two football-field lengths away. He backed the truck up to the edge of the short bluff that overlooked the river and killed the engine.

  9

  “You okay?”

  She turned on the seat to face him. She nodded. “I’m just kind of overwhelmed with wanting to screw your brains out as a thank-you for sticking up for me with my family.”

  He gave her a slow smile. “Overwhelmed?”

  “I’ve never felt that before.”

  He frowned. “You’ve never had someone stick up for you before?”

  She shook her head. “I’ve never wanted someone…” But she trailed off and frowned too. “I’m not sure I have, actually.”

  “Ry—”

  “My family isn’t abusive or anything,” she said quickly. “I don’t think I could make a case at all for having a rough childhood. My mom’s just…” She shrugged. “Critical. She has high standards. We butt heads. But I know she loves me and I love her and…I’m fine. It’s just that I’ve never had anyone say that my flaws are something they like about me.”

  Derek stretched his arm across the back of the seat. He tugged on the end of the strand of hair that lay against her shoulder. “They’re not flaws.”

  She shrugged her other shoulder because she didn’t want to dislodge his touch. “My bluntness and my seeming inability to do anything traditionally definitely drive people crazy.”

  “They drive your mom crazy,” he agreed. “But they’re not flaws.”

  She took a breath, feeling more than just her panties getting warmer now. The sweet side of Derek was as addictive as the hot and cocky side. “Thanks.”

  “That doesn’t mean you don’t have flaws. Those just aren’t them.”

  Ah, and there was the guy she knew. But she grinned. “Oh?”

  “Yeah.” He rotated his finger and wrapped the end of her hair around it. “For one, you don’t listen very well.”

  “I don’t?”

  “The minute your mom starts talking, you start thinking of all the things she’s saying that are wrong and critical. You don’t hear the other stuff.”

  Riley arched her
brows. Oh, okay, so this was kind of serious. “Is that right?”

  He nodded. “It is. She’s on your ass a lot, I’ll agree, but you don’t hear her saying things like ‘I worry about you’, ‘I want you to be happy’, ‘I want you to make good choices and not just pick the option I’ll hate the most’.”

  Riley frowned now. “She doesn’t say that stuff.”

  “She does. It’s between the lines, and yeah, it’s mixed up with ‘do you really think you should dye your hair?’ and ‘you could do more with your life,’ but it’s there.”

  “Well, that other stuff is way louder and more in focus,” Riley said, feeling her chest tighten.

  Derek nodded again. “I know. But you’ve done some dumb stuff, Ry. And she’s your mom. Of course she’s going to worry.”

  “Hey.”

  He shrugged, unapologetic. “One of the things we have going for us is that we can both be brutally honest, right?”

  “You mean, you want permission to keep teasing me about shit like you’ve always done.”

  He thought about that for a second. Then nodded, a small smile curling his lips. “Yeah. I guess so. I know it’s pretty easy to fall under my spell when I’m doling out multiple orgasms, but I don’t want you to get soft. I want to be able to tell you when you’re being a brat.”

  How had talking about sex gotten so easy so fast with this guy?

  But things had always been pretty easy with Derek. Because she’d never cared what he thought.

  In the next second, Riley realized that wasn’t true at all. She’d cared. She just hadn’t worried. There was something about Derek, about him always being there, about him being such a solid fixture in her life, that she’d never worried about him getting offended or sick of her. She could be herself, tell him what she thought, do her own thing even knowing he’d tease her, because she knew he’d always be there. Even when she didn’t think she wanted him to be.

  She needed a guy like that.

  That realization hit hard and direct. She wanted to be able to do her own thing, do things differently, try new stuff, take a few risks, and she needed someone who would be honest with her—not critical like her mom, but just honest—and who would encourage her to try those things, and be there even when she made the wrong choice or did something stupid. She needed the freedom to be herself that came from knowing there was someone—or multiple someones—who’d be there anyway.