After Tonight

by Erin Nicholas

“I know you do.”

  He bent and she lifted onto tiptoe, their lips almost touching, when the kitchen door swung open.

  “Hey, need an extra hand up here.”

  Derek gave a little growl. But he was at work. “Yeah, okay,” he told Bryan. “I’ll be right there.”

  Riley settled back onto her feet with a little giggle. She lifted her water bottle for a drink. Derek just watched her. They’d had a lot of sex. A lot. And he still wanted her. All the time.

  He hadn’t slept with a woman this much in…ever. His relationships simply didn’t span weeks, and even if they were more than a one-weekend thing, he certainly didn’t see them, and have them spending the night, every single night.

  Riley had practically moved in.

  Her schedule was nearly as erratic as his. He’d get called for odd jobs here and there. She’d get called to help Scott and his task force out with things at any hour. She was sometimes at his kitchen table working when he came in for a shower or a sandwich during the day. She was sometimes propped up on his couch when he came in at night. And sometimes she wasn’t. Sometimes she was at the station until past closing time at the Come Again. But then there were the nights when they were both at the Come Again, him behind the bar and her at her usual table, working. They’d make eye contact across the room, share little smiles, flirt when she came up for a coffee or water refill. And, of course, there were the times he’d pull her into the kitchen or back room for a quick make-out session just because he couldn’t stand not kissing her for another minute.

  All in all, things were really good. Comfortable. Happy.

  Which was freaking him out a little.

  Riley wasn’t a traditional girl. She didn’t do things the way other people did. It seemed in character that she’d accidentally start dating someone that she’d been coaching in how to be a good boyfriend to someone else. But falling for that guy and making it a long-term thing did not seem like her MO. Especially if that guy was pretty rooted in Sapphire Falls and had been a regular at her mom’s dinner table even before they’d started seeing each other.

  Yeah, it felt like they were dating, for sure. But it also kind of felt like they were two people who had known each other for a long time and had become friends over the past few weeks and were just hanging out. Banging each other on a regular basis too, of course, but also just hanging out.

  Friends with benefits. That was exactly what this felt like.

  Except for the fact that Derek was pretty sure he was in love with her.

  He did know Riley well enough to know that telling her that was probably a really good way to end it all. And he didn’t want to end it. Not the sex. But also not the advice they were giving each other about their jobs, and the support he was lending with her family and just the fun they had.

  The whole thing would feel far too cliché for Riley. So it was better to just keep his mouth shut. Especially when he felt the urge to say, “I love you”.

  “Guess I’d better get to work.” He pushed away from the counter.

  She nodded. “Guess so.” She picked up a piece of the pizza and took a bite.

  “More? Really?” he asked. “I thought you said it has too many onions and not the right seasoning.”

  She nodded. “I did say that. Fewer onions and another seasoning would make this amazing. But it’s pretty good anyway.” She took another bite.

  Derek shook his head but laughed. “I guess I did want you to be honest.”

  She swallowed and smiled. “I’ll always be that.”

  He started toward the front of the bar but he hesitated, turned back, pulled her in and kissed her forehead. “Thank you.” It was not sexy or flirtatious, but it felt right.

  Her eyes were soft when he pulled back and looked down.

  “You’re welcome.”

  Then he got to work.

  But an hour later, things were slow. Two bartenders was one too many. Finally, Bryan said, “Why don’t you go hang out with your girl for a while?” He nodded toward Riley.

  Derek took a deep breath. Was she his girl?

  The vibe in the bar at ten p.m. was more laid-back and fun than it was after midnight, when the after-hours crowd came in to work and study. Now, even Riley was sitting with a soda and laughing and talking to Lucy and Peyton and a couple of other local girls.

  Derek took a second to study the group. Peyton was hard not to notice. She was bright and loud and funny. She was a little more easygoing now that she was with Scott and felt more settled, but she was still outspoken and impossible to ignore. Samantha was another of the girls. She was the only one in the group who was married. She had a baby boy at home, but her friend, Kendall, also sitting with the group, made sure Samantha got out once in a while for a girls’ night. And then there were Riley and Lucy.

  They seemed completely different on the outside. Lucy wore very little makeup, generally kept her hair pulled back in a ponytail. She wore, well, basic clothes. Nothing in wild colors or particularly fitted or short. She smiled easily but was quiet and unassuming.

  Riley was…none of those things. She was a lot like Peyton in that she was very hard to ignore, and Derek knew he wasn’t the only man to feel that way. Her red hair, her dramatic makeup, her tattoos and bright-colored clothing were part of it. But her smile was big, her laugh was big, and she could be ready to argue nearly anything with anyone in a snap. Unassuming was not a word that would ever be assigned to Riley.

  How could he think about dating Lucy? She was so nice. Smart. Sweet. He knew there was a man out there who would appreciate and love Lucy exactly as she was, but for him, well, he wasn’t sure he could do quiet, nice, and sweet now.

  Peyton had pulled Kendall and Samantha out onto the dance floor, and Riley and Lucy were sitting, just watching. He saw Dawson Hayes heading in their direction, and Derek fought the urge to step in front of the guy and tell him to back off, because he knew that Hayes was beelining for Riley.

  Derek and Riley had been keeping their relationship on the down low. No one knew they were seeing each other. No one knew that she was his.

  His.

  Derek frowned. That seemed damned possessive. Like the night a few weeks ago when Scott had first called her in to work and Derek had actually worried about her. And missed her.

  He didn’t do these things with women. But watching Dawson ask Riley to dance, and her accept, made Derek very much want to claim her. Loudly. Publicly.

  And once he did that, he couldn’t very well take it back. Riley was Kyle’s little sister. Erika and Jake’s daughter. Ruby’s granddaughter. Once he said she was his, he wouldn’t be able to take it back.

  He still wanted to say it.

  He started around the end of the bar, determined to cut in. In a very grand-gesture kind of way. But Riley looked up at him when he was only halfway across the floor. She tipped her head in the direction of the table where Lucy sat, now alone. He followed her gaze. Lucy didn’t look unhappy. She looked…resigned. And yeah, okay, that made him feel a little like asking her to dance.

  He glanced back at Riley. She widened her eyes and then nodded toward Lucy again.

  Derek sighed. Yeah, yeah, he was going to ask Lucy to dance.

  And, not for the first time, he wished that Riley was a little clingier. Why couldn’t Dawson dance with Lucy? Why didn’t Riley suggest that? She had a boyfriend. Lucy didn’t.

  But he turned, walked over to Lucy, held out a hand, said something charming, got a smile, and pulled the quiet bookworm onto the dance floor. And was rewarded with a big grin from the woman he was seriously considering spanking later.

  And five hours later, after they’d danced and laughed, after he’d made sure Lucy had a fabulous time, after he’d leaned in and told Riley that he expected her mouth around his cock two minutes after they got home, after everyone had finally vacated the bar, they’d headed out to his truck hand in hand. And Derek admitted that he liked that Riley knew she could trust him, that he could dance with other
women without her needing to worry. He liked that he didn’t have to report in to her on a regular basis, that they could each do their own things and then end up back together at home.

  But he still spanked her, because she asked very nicely.

  Riley tore open the bag of sparkly sapphire-blue stones with a swarm of butterflies in her stomach. They were perfect. Beautiful and bright. They were going to look amazing scattered among the white and silver stones.

  “Oh, those are so pretty!”

  She looked up and smiled at Lucy. “They are, aren’t they?”

  Lucy was helping her get the path finished before the big crowd came to town for Michael Kade’s murder-mystery event.

  “Okay, so the white and silver stones are to fill up the path,” Lucy clarified.

  Thanks to Derek, the path was already dug. It curved from the highway on the edge of town, through the grass and trees that bordered the town, to Teal Street, the first street in Sapphire Falls. The path then continued through the town square from Teal Street to the gazebo that was the heart of the town. The path signified that anyone was welcome in Sapphire Falls and would find safety and hospitality. It was also designed to raise awareness among the people in Sapphire Falls and their visitors for victims of sex trafficking that were often taken from their own homes to places far away, where they were alone and scared.

  The square saw the most traffic of anywhere in town, and when the people of Sapphire Falls walked by the path, or even followed the path up to the gazebo, they’d think of what it stood for. And when visitors saw the unusual path, made of loose white, silver, and blue stones, and they asked what it was about, anyone in town should be able to tell them.

  “Yes, those are just the basic fillers,” Riley said. “And then every person or family or business who donates five dollars gets a blue stone to add to the path. Hopefully, some families and all the businesses will donate more than one stone.”

  All the money would go to an advocacy group called the Family Alliance. Her parents had actually given her the money to create the path and buy the stones, so that all the proceeds could be donated. She still got a little choked up when she thought about that.

  “I love it,” Lucy told her. “It’s beautiful, and I love the symbolism.”

  Riley smiled. “Thanks, Luce.” She was really proud of it. And she loved that Derek had helped her build it, and that her mom and dad had given her the money to get it started, and that Lucy was here helping her now.

  “And you’re doing the official ceremony where everyone adds their stones the morning of the event?”

  “Yes. I figure people will be sure to be in town because of the event, and we’ll have lots of visitors too. Everyone can gather here, put their stones in, and then head to the event.”

  “Wonderful,” Lucy said. She bit her bottom lip, then said, “I have an idea to add, if you want to hear it.”

  “Of course.” Riley set the bag of stones down. “What are you thinking?”

  “So we have the path here, and you’re going to do a little speech explaining everything at the gazebo.”

  “Right.”

  “Then what if we have a path that leads from here over to the bookstore? We’re going to start the murder mystery there. We could set up tables a few yards apart between here and there. Some of the tables could have educational materials, a few could have refreshments, a couple could maybe have people from the task force or from Family Alliance to answer questions or give people even more information.”

  Riley was staring at her. “Lucy, that’s a fabulous idea!”

  “You think so?” Lucy gave her a small smile.

  Riley stepped over the bag of rocks and gathered her friend in for a hug. “I do. I think that’s great.” She stepped back, holding Lucy’s upper arms. “Are you sure though? That day is also about Kade and the event too.”

  “Of course. The whole idea of the event is to show people around the town he based Aquamarine Ridge on. We’ll have people walking all over town and they’ll definitely see this. It will educate them too. Maybe they’ll even go back to their communities and see what they can do. And,” Lucy said with a shrug, “it was actually Hannah’s idea.”

  “Oh.” Riley nodded. “That makes sense.” Hannah was Michael Kade’s best friend, and the reason he’d ended up in Sapphire Falls in the first place. It was a well-known fact that she hated that Kade had set a gruesome murder mystery in a town that resembled her sweet, beloved hometown very closely.

  Lucy nodded. “She says this will show people how nice Sapphire Falls really is. Apparently, there are some internet rumors that Kade’s book is actually based on a true story.”

  Riley laughed. Then she focused on Lucy. “Wait, it isn’t, is it?” Lucy knew everything about Sapphire Falls’ history. If there was a bloody unsolved murder in the town’s past, she’d know it. Riley frowned. She hadn’t read the book, but Derek had. He was a huge fan and had the book on the coffee table at his house. She’d flipped through it one night, reading bits and pieces. “But there are vampires in Kade’s book, right?”

  “Well, there are suspicions of vampires in Kade’s book.”

  “So, I mean, that couldn’t have happened. The internet rumor is just about the murder then?”

  Lucy shook her head. “I didn’t say that.”

  “The internet rumor is about there being vampires here too?”

  “What I meant was, I didn’t say that vampires couldn’t have lived here,” Lucy said.

  Riley felt her eyes widen. “Excuse me?”

  Lucy had always been into the macabre. She loved mysteries and ghost stories and murder and mayhem. But Riley had always kind of assumed that all of that was in Lucy’s fictional world. She did study history, especially that of their little town, but Riley didn’t think Lucy actually thought there were ghosts and things in Sapphire Falls for real.

  “And there are definitely some suspicious deaths in Sapphire Falls’ history,” Lucy said. “This town isn’t all sunshine and daisies, you know.”

  Huh. Riley thought that about 98% of the town would actually argue that with Lucy. “So you helped Kade with his research?”

  “I might have pushed a couple of file folders under his door at the boarding house,” Lucy said. Then she gave Riley a proud grin.

  Riley laughed. “Oh my gosh, you’re so funny. I suppose you’ve arranged some kind of ghost tour of the town?”

  Lucy’s eyes brightened as she nodded and Riley groaned, but was still smiling. “That’s hilarious.”

  “And Derek has agreed to take people through the cemetery and give some history there too.”

  At the mention of his name, Riley’s heart gave a little stutter. Then she frowned. Derek hadn’t mentioned that he was doing any tours for the book event. He’d only told her that he was helping with things at the bookshop, like building the stage and helping Lucy with some of the bigger cleaning jobs. She’d needed to make more room in the shop and had been moving bookshelves and things around. She’d kept Derek busy hauling books out of the lower level of the shop to the second floor, where Lucy lived over the store.

  Riley shook her head. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t mentioned it. He loved these books and had been excited about the event since it had first been announced. She was glad he was going to get to help and have fun with it.

  “He’s been so helpful,” Lucy went on. “I really don’t know how I would have done this without him.” She smiled. “He’s really sweet. And funny.”

  He was. Or could be, anyway. Riley nodded and picked up a bag of white rocks to fill the path, suddenly wanting to be busy for some reason.

  “I know you were worried that he might try to, I don’t know…”

  Riley looked up. “He might try to what?”

  Lucy shook her head. She almost looked embarrassed. “That he might flirt or something,” she said.

  Riley was shocked to feel a surge of relief. He’s not flirting because he’s very happy at home. She s
miled. They hadn’t told anyone they were seeing each other. They hadn’t really told each other that they were seeing each other. But she didn’t know what else to call it. They saw each other every day, told each other what they were up to—okay, with the exception of Derek not telling her about the cemetery tours—and they spent almost every night together. That was, pretty much, dating. She supposed. Kind of. Even if it was a big secret. But maybe it was time to tell someone.

  Riley opened her mouth to reply to Lucy, but before she could, Lucy said, “But it’s all been very sweet. Very appropriate. Romantic. He doesn’t treat me like the girls I’ve seen him flirting with at the Come Again. He’s a lot more respectful.”

  A chill swept over her, and Riley realized she was having a hard time taking a deep breath. “He’s been…romantic?” she asked, trying her best to sound normal. “How so?”

  “He brought me coffee the last couple of mornings,” Lucy said.

  “Oh, that’s nice,” Riley agreed. “But romantic?”

  “He put caramel creamer in it,” Lucy said with a smile. “He said he remembered that’s how I’ve ordered it at the Come Again before. And,” her smile grew, “he added extra whipped cream. Remember that night when we had hot chocolate and you didn’t want any but he put the extra on mine?”

  Oh, yeah, she remembered that. “I do.”

  “And he brought scones with the coffee yesterday.”

  Scones? Scones? It was one thing to put some extra coffee in one of his to-go cups and take it along when he left the house. He already had the stupid creamer tubs all over his kitchen. But scones meant he’d made an extra stop.

  “And while we worked, he put music on his phone,” Lucy said.

  Riley nodded. He often had it on in the kitchen at the bar and at home when he was cleaning or doing yard work. “He likes to work to music.” She honestly didn’t care at this point if Lucy wondered how Riley would know that.

  “But it was Lindsey Stirling.”

  Okay, Lindsey Stirling was pretty amazing, but not only could Riley not imagine Derek listening to violin music while he worked—even really cool violin music—but she’d never heard him listen to it around the house or at the Come Again. While Lucy loved Lindsey Stirling. “How did he know you like her?” she asked.