“Alright! For fuck’s sake!” Derek yanked his front door open and stood staring—with a mix of surprise, trepidation, and concern—at Riley Ames.

“Morning!” She gave him a big, almost perky smile.

Except that Riley was never what he’d call perky.

“Are you okay?” He was aware that he was scowling. But fuck, it was early.

Her smile dropped and she frowned. “Yes. Why?”

“It’s not even eight a.m.”

Her perkiness slipped a bit and she sighed. “I know, right?”

“So what’s going on?”

“I’m here to have breakfast with you.”

Now his brows lifted. “Why?”

“Because that’s something that happens in normal, not-just-fucking-around relationships.”

Ah. Wonderful. His training was starting. At the crack of dawn. Okay, to be fair, the sun had been up for a couple of hours, but this was way before he normally rolled out of bed. Riley too. He narrowed his eyes. “You’re not a morning person.”

She shrugged. “But your future sweet, contributes-to-society-with-a-real-job girlfriend might be.”

“Is Lucy a morning person?”

She didn’t roll her eyes, but it seemed that she wanted to. “She is, actually. She does yoga and then reads the paper while she drinks her coffee.”

Hmm, yoga. He realized Riley was dressed in a pair of yoga pants, as a matter of fact, and a tank top. Her hair was in a messy knot on top of her head and she was wearing glasses.

She looked really hot in those glasses.

He blinked.

What? He’d just thought of Riley as hot? It wasn’t technically the first time. She was hot. It was just a fact. And he’d realized it and acknowledged in the same way he acknowledged a sunny, 70-degree day. It was something that was a fact and was happening around him, but that didn’t really affect anything.

It was different this time. It seemed that Riley was affecting him. That was…weird. And probably complicated. But mostly weird.

He’d seen her dressed like this before. Fitted clothes that hugged her body and showed off her tats and piercings and smooth, creamy skin, and curves—

Wait. No, he hadn’t. He’d appreciated her tats and piercings and the streaks of color she put in her hair and the dramatic makeup she seemed to prefer, because it was so funny that she looked nothing like the nerdy, bookworm gamer-girl she was. But he’d never thought of her skin as creamy.

“Are you here to do yoga?” Did his voice sound funny?

Riley tipped her head. “I’m more of a kick-boxing girl.”

He snorted. That didn’t surprise him at all. “I’m just saying, if I have to get up early, seeing a bendy girl in skimpy clothes seems like an okay perk.” Seeing you bending over would be a perk.

Fuck. He couldn’t be thinking things like that. This was Riley. She was not only Kyle’s little sister, but she found Derek incredibly irritating. Oh, and she was here to teach him how to date another woman.

“You can’t sit an ogle a woman while she does yoga,” Riley said.

He sure as hell could. “So what should I do while she does yoga?”

“Make her French-press coffee. And crepes. And go out back and pick her some flowers for the breakfast table. And put her towel in the dryer so it’s warm after her shower.”

Derek blinked at her again. That was all very specific. And…romantic. How did Riley know this stuff? Had some guy done those things for her? And who was he?

And why in the hell did Derek feel a prick of annoyance behind his breastbone at the idea of her wrapping up in a towel some guy had warmed for her?

“You’re going to teach me to be romantic then?” he asked. “That’s what nice girls like?”

“All girls like that.”

“A lot of girls would like me to bend them over on their yoga mat.” Like almost all of the girls he usually hung out with.

Had he said that to put a sexual image in Riley’s head? Hell yes, he had. Why? Well, that was the real question. Riley didn’t like him. What good did it do to put sexual thoughts in her head? Of course, her not liking him was kind of why he did most of the things he did when she was around. Pushing her buttons was just so damned fun.

But Riley didn’t blush or act surprised or offended at his comment. She lifted her chin and said, “And if there were flowers and crepes on the breakfast table afterward, I guarantee your chances of getting a before-work blowjob would increase exponentially.”

Riley Ames had just said the word blowjob to him.

Derek wasn’t sure what to do with that. He might have vaguely registered her hotness before, but he knew for a fact she’d never said the words blow and job together like that to him before.

As he was still trying to unstick his tongue from the roof of his mouth, she moved to push past him, and her bare shoulder brushed over his bare sternum. Derek became acutely aware that he was in only the pair of gym shorts that he’d pulled on when the pounding had erupted from his front door.

It seemed the same realization hit her at the same moment. They both froze, both holding their breaths.

It wasn’t like they hadn’t been in tight quarters before. Surely they’d passed close to one another in a hallway or had to move around one another in a small space at some point in the twenty-six years he’d known her.

But if he’d ever been hit in the gut by how soft and warm her skin was or how great her hair smelled, he’d promptly forgotten it. He’d never felt an urge to lean in and take a big breath. And maybe drag his mouth up and down her throat.

Until this moment, anyway.

Because yeah, her hair fucking smelled amazing, and she was very warm and soft.

Slowly—very slowly—she turned toward him. Her shoulder grazing his chest again. Her eyes lifted to his, taking time to track over his pecs, shoulders, throat and mouth before making eye contact, however. She swallowed.

“But I’m going to make you crepes today.”

Yeah, her voice definitely sounded funny.

“Do I like crepes?” And did that mean she was romancing him? Well, no. She was just going through the motions of romance so he’d learn.

“If you don’t, you will,” she told him with a little cockiness in her voice that was so familiar and yet, also sent a bolt of heat through him.

“That’s pretty big talk.” He was more a bacon-and-eggs kind of guy. And he had no idea what French-press coffee was.

“Well, this isn’t actually about what you like,” she told him. They were still standing really close. She’d turned enough that they were no longer touching, but the centimeters of space between them were full of heat.

“Right. So Lucy likes crepes,” Derek said.

Something flickered in Riley’s eyes but after a moment, she nodded. “Yes. She does. And cream in her coffee.”

He should make a note of that. But all he could think was that Riley drank her coffee black.

Finally, Riley stepped the rest of the way through the door and headed for his kitchen. With the bag from the grocery store that he had just now noticed.

He blew out a breath and followed her.

“And put a shirt on,” she called over her shoulder.

“Why?”

“Because you walking around half-naked would make Lucy uncomfortable.”

“Lucy’s not here.” But he snagged a clean T-shirt from the basket of clothes he’d left on the sofa.

“You need to practice what it will be like when she is,” Riley said. “You might spend the majority of your time with women half-naked, but you need to do things differently with a real girlfriend.”

He stepped into the kitchen, still just holding his shirt. Why? Because he kind of enjoyed making Riley uncomfortable? But she didn’t seem uncomfortable exactly. She did seem a little jumpy though. Like she was trying to avoid looking at him. Which automatically made him want her even jumpier.

He crossed the kitchen floor to get closer to her. He couldn’t explain it other than to say that there had never been a time he could remember, from the time she was a little girl to now, that he’d been around Riley Ames and hadn’t wanted to get her attention. Even if it was negative attention.

He’d always chalked it up to their like-a-brother-and-sister relationship. But he was absolutely questioning everything about that right now. Because her nipples were pressing against the front of her tank top, and he loved that reaction more than any other he’d ever gotten out of her.

“Seems like I might spend even more time without clothes on with a real girlfriend,” he said.

Riley spun away as he got closer and started pulling items out of the grocery bag. “You have to do normal things with a real girlfriend,” she said. “And most normal things require clothes.”

“Normal things like what?” He watched her set flour, sugar, eggs, and milk on the counter. She didn’t think he’d have those things? But then he thought about it. He wasn’t sure he did have flour.

“Things like…” She trailed off and gave an exasperated sigh, then turned, seeming reluctant. “You can’t have sex with a woman every single time you’re alone together.”

“Why not?”

“Because you have to get to know her. You have to talk. You have to do things together like make meals, and watch TV and movies, and talk about pop culture and politics and current events. That’s how you learn about what kind of person she is and what she likes and doesn’t like. Otherwise, you won’t really know if you like being together or not, and if you should keep seeing her or not.”

Yep, that made sense.

“Okay.” He pulled his shirt over his head. “But the physical stuff is important too.”

“I think you’ve practiced that plenty.” Riley turned away and started opening his cupboards and drawers.

He would help her find whatever she was looking for, but first he wanted to finish this subject. “But we have to be comfortable together physically,” he said.

She turned back to face him quickly. “We do?”

“We…as in me and my real girlfriend,” he said, but his thoughts were on all of the times he and Riley had been together in swimming suits and pajamas, when he’d had his shirt off, when she’d gotten soaked with water balloons and her white T-shirt had been plastered to her body, when she’d pulled off a tank top and replaced it with a T-shirt in the back of Kyle’s car. He remembered thinking, “Hey, Riley has boobs,” when he’d glanced over his shoulder and caught a glimpse of her pale pink bra. But it had been only a few seconds. And it had been Riley. It hadn’t mattered.

She’d slept in a tiny tent with him and Kyle while camping. She’d swum in the pond with them. She’d leaned her head on his shoulder in the backseat and slept all the way home from a Dierks Bentley concert in Lawrence, Kansas. He’d thrown her over his shoulder and carried her out of a party at Damon Jenkins’s house when she’d gotten puking drunk and started telling Carrie Reynolds what she really thought of her.

Yeah, they’d been physically close and not-fully-dressed several times together. And yet, now she seemed jumpy. And he couldn’t really focus on the fact they were talking about another woman together.

“I get that it has to be more than physical,” he said, his thoughts still scattered. “But it has to be physical too.”

Riley took a deep breath and nodded. “Yeah. Of course. There has to be physical attraction too. And you have to want to be close to each other, touching, stuff like that.”

“So, seems like Lucy might need to get comfortable with the physical side.” His eyes flickered to Riley’s mouth, and he felt a stab of surprise and desire at the same time. “Cooking breakfast and talking about current events while also touching and being half-naked.”

He’d really like to pull the strap of her tank top down her shoulder and kiss her right there.

The thought occurred to him and didn’t shock him as much as it should have. Especially considering they were talking about him doing all of this with one of her best friends.

Riley gave him a frown. “Really? Already?”

“Already what?”

“You’re already changing the rules. You can’t get through one morning without wondering how to do things your way instead of hers?”

He opened his mouth. Then snapped it shut. Dammit. The thing was, he hadn’t really been thinking about Lucy. If she was more shy and would take longer to warm up, of course he’d take it slower. Not make their first breakfast together half-naked. But he hadn’t been thinking about Lucy.

Still, she had a point. “Okay, okay.” He looked at the table where they’d be eating. Fine. He could be taught. He headed for the backyard and returned five minutes later with a handful of the rhubarb that grew along his back fence.

Riley watched him grab a plastic cup from The Stop, the convenience store on the edge of town, and stick the stalks inside. He set them in the middle of the table.

She was clearly fighting a smile when he turned to face her.

“I don’t have flowers. That and green beans and tomatoes are what grow in my backyard, and I know how you feel about green beans.”

Her eyes widened. “What?”

“You don’t like green beans straight from the garden. But you do like rhubarb. I mean, maybe not raw, but…” He shrugged. “You’re not really a flower kind of girl.”

Her eyes got even rounder. “I’m not?”

She wasn’t. He wasn’t going to be able to give her a rundown of all the reasons he thought that—for instance, she never wore flowered patterns on her clothes—but honestly, even if he’d been driving her crazy for twenty-six years, he knew her. Period. He wasn’t going to fight with her about it. “You’re not,” he said simply.

“But this is about Lucy.”

“Yeah, well, Lucy isn’t here right now.”

They just stood looking at each other for several long seconds.

Then Riley nodded. “Well, I didn’t do any bendy yoga, so I guess all of this is just as close as we can get today. But that’s why you’re practicing.”

“So I need to plant flowers?”

“I don’t…that seems…a little more involved than it needs to be,” she said after tripping over the first few words.

Yeah, maybe. Which also maybe meant that he should do it. This was about doing things differently. But that seemed kind of—well, not permanent, because flowers weren’t, of course, but they lasted longer than his relationships typically did. Yeah, maybe he should plant some flowers.

“What kind?”

“Of flowers to plant?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll, um, ask Lucy what she likes,” Riley said.

“What kind of flowers does your grandma like?” he asked.

Riley looked surprised. “My grandma?”

Riley’s grandmother and Derek’s were best friends. He knew Ruby as well as he did his own. And loved her just as much. “Yeah. My grandma loves lilacs.”

“Mine does too. And roses, of course.”

“I could plant roses.”

“Roses are kind of hard to grow.”

He shrugged. “I’m pretty good with plants.”

“Why are you planting flowers our grandmothers like?” Riley crossed her arms.

“Because if the relationship thing doesn’t work out, then I’ve still got someone to give the flowers to.”

Riley didn’t say anything to that at first. She studied him for a moment. He lifted a brow. Finally, she said, “Grandma loves Butterfly Weed. And the butterflies and hummingbirds it attracts. And it’s easy to grow.”

“Great. Perfect.”

Riley shook her head.

“What?” he asked.

“That’s very sweet.”

“Is it?”

“Of course.” She laughed and dropped her arms. “You don’t know that?”

“So being romantic is really just doing thoughtful things,” he said.

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Then this will be easy. I’m a very thoughtful guy.”

She snorted at that. And he realized that yeah, she would snort. He was very thoughtful. To everyone but Riley. Because he wanted people to be happy and feel good. He wanted Riley wound up.

That realization seemed to hit him right between the eyes.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want her happy. But while he spent his time making the town a better place, making people’s lives a little easier, with Riley, it was different. He liked to give her a hard time and get her going. Why was that? Why was she the one spot he wanted worked up in his otherwise peaceful, relatively carefree life?

That was…interesting.

“You realize that having multiple types of coffee creamer for your overnight guests’ morning coffee is also sweet, right?” Riley asked.

He frowned. “How did you know about that?”

“The girls in the bar that first night,” she said.

Damn, those girls had spilled a lot.

“The whole idea is making them feel better about…whatever. And saying goodbye in the morning can be awkward. The coffee makes it better.”

Riley nodded, still watching him as if she was pondering something serious. “That’s all you really need to do, you know,” she finally said.

“What do you mean?”

“You just have to think about how to make her feel good, make her happy.”

He shifted his weight. Yeah, he got that.

“And you already do that,” Riley pointed out.

“Yes, but the orgasms the night before make the coffee taste even better.”

She didn’t fall for him trying to lighten things. “You do understand this.”

Of course he did. He wasn’t an idiot. No, he was just cursed with a deeply engrained desire to make things better around him. To make things work better, to make people feel better, to even make things look better. The fucking town square’s landscaping was a testament to that. But he also had an allergy to clinginess. He wanted to do things for people because he wanted to, not because they needed him to or expected him to.

Honestly, with his parents, there was really no other way he could have turned out. His father was involved in everything from planning the town’s Fourth of July display to serving on the school board. And his mom didn’t trust his dad any further than she could throw him. She inundated him with texts all day and peppered him with questions as soon as he set foot through the door.

So Derek had learned to balance wanting to take care of things with his absolute unwillingness to have someone on his ass constantly. He made women feel good—beautiful and desirable—he made them laugh, he was sweet to them. Then he got them out of his house and life before they could even begin to think they might have a right to know where he was going to spend his next weekend. A reputation for one-weekend stands and coffee to go had served him well. Those little creamer tubs and to-go cups were the best, most symbolic things he could have bought. I care that you have your coffee exactly the way you want it combined with I wouldn’t want you to spill it while you’re driving away from my house.

“Making a woman happy between the sheets is easy, and then all I have to do is get through coffee,” he said. “That’s not really that much of a challenge.”

“So what you need to practice is doing the sweet thing longer term.”

“Guess so.” And risk the clingy thing. Dammit. He knew that would come. It was unavoidable. A “real” girlfriend, as they’d been referring to Lucy, would come to depend on him. But maybe it was time. Scott and Kyle seemed to be doing okay. Derek would just ignore the cold sweats the idea gave him.

“And you need to practice keeping your clothes on the whole time you’re with someone.”

“The whole time?” And his thoughts were right back on Riley again and how clingy her clothes were.

Or had his thoughts ever really left Riley? Because he’d just been kind of wondering what he could substitute for the morning-coffee-creamer thing for a woman who didn’t use coffee creamer.

But it wasn’t hard to imagine her without clothes. Her nipples would probably be pale pink to go with her pale skin. And she seemed the type to shave everywhere. He wasn’t at all sure why he thought that, but yeah, he really would put money down on Riley being bare. And she might have some hidden tats.

And he suddenly wanted to know all of that.

“What the hell, Derek?” she asked, snapping her fingers in front of him.

“What?”

“Are you actually thinking about me without clothes on?”

How the hell did she know that? “It just kind of happened,” he admitted.

“But I’m like a sister to you. Right?”

She said the last word as if she would take no other answer. And the answer should be easy. It was yes. Absolutely. Up until about twenty minutes ago.

“It’s just a reflex,” he said, frowning. “Calm down.”

Was it so horrible that he might think about her as more than a sister? But yeah, to her, probably. He was just a pain-in-the-ass guy who’d been in her way forever and who had never gotten his shit together enough to even leave home.

And what the hell was that?

Riley Ames was not going to make him feel like a loser. Plenty of women thought he was damned amazing. God level, in fact. Yeah, he fucking loved that. And loved that she knew that. He wasn’t saving lives like Kyle or protecting the town like Scott, but he was making people here happier. Mostly female people, sure, but when they felt better about themselves, the people around them benefitted. It was a proven psychological fact that people were more productive and nicer to the people they interacted with when they felt good. Great sex was like eating healthy and working out and vacation. He was like their trainer.

He still lived in his hometown and there was nothing fucking wrong with that. No matter what Riley thought. She was the least clingy person he knew. She didn’t even cling to fond childhood memories or the idea of being in her hometown every year at Christmas. Some clinginess wasn’t all bad.

“Are we cooking or what?” he asked crossly.

He was hungry. And up early. And turned on by a woman who was off-limits. And who he didn’t really like that much anyway.

The least he could get was a good breakfast.

She was making crepes with Derek Wright. How had that happened?

“That one’s the best yet.” He slid the last crepe onto the plate and handed it to her. “Now what?”

Riley narrowed her eyes. This was nice. He wasn’t giving her a hard time. He wasn’t messing around. He was following her directions and making crepes that were turning out to be really good.

“Blueberry pomegranate chai seed jam,” she said, reaching for the jar in the sack she’d brought in with her. “I roll it all inside, but you can put it on top if you want.”

“Okay. Sounds good.”

It did?

He wasn’t going to tease her about her not-plain-old-strawberry jam? He wasn’t going to give her a hard time about the chai seeds?

That was nice. And weird.

It was like he was lost in thought or distracted or something. Or maybe it was like he was being normal. How he was with other people. Not her, of course. Derek was never not messing around and not giving her a hard time. But she assumed he was normal and not irritating at least some of the time with other people. He seemed to be well-liked.

She spooned jam onto the crepes and Derek rolled them up. Then she dolloped whipped cream on top, and he took the plates over to the table. She frowned at his back.

But this was definitely not how he usually acted with her. Hell, the last time they’d been alone in a kitchen together, he’d started a food fight.

Her mother had been pissed. Until Derek teased her and got her laughing and charmed her right out of her bad mood.

Yeah, Derek was going to be fine at this relationships stuff. He was wonderful with her mother, their grandmothers…hell, he was sweet to the entire town of Sapphire Falls. He basically romanced the town all the time. He’d just never applied it to a woman.

The thing was, once he decided to, he’d probably be really good at it.

How had she not seen that? She hadn’t thought it through. Because with her, he was a…pain in the ass. He liked to push her buttons and tease. And not in a sexy way. In a…well, a pushing-her-buttons kind of way. He was different with her, but yeah, he kind of had some potential for being boyfriend material after all. Maybe there was a chance he could pull it off.

Like a 40% chance.

But that wasn’t good enough for girls like Lucy. No, Riley wasn’t actually training him to be the perfect boyfriend for Lucy. Lucy wasn’t interested. But Derek didn’t know that and it was fun to lead him on, letting him think that Riley was hauling him out of bed before his alarm because Lucy was a morning person, when really Riley just wanted to mess with him a little. She owed him for the ants in her peanut butter. At least. Anyone would agree. And she wanted to test him. Test him to see just how far he’d go to become a “better man” for these sweet, nice girls he thought he wanted to date.

Riley poured coffee and carried the cups to the table. She drank it black and so did Derek. In spite of the multitude of cream flavors he kept around.

“You okay?” she asked as she slid into the chair perpendicular to him.

He cut into one of the crepes. “Yeah.” He lifted it to his mouth. He tasted the bite, chewing slowly. Then he nodded. “This is really good.”

“Thanks.” She sipped her coffee.

He sipped his coffee.

She took a bite of her crepe. Which was really good.

He took another bite.

She took another sip of coffee. And tried not to grind her teeth.

At her parents’ house, she would give a hundred bucks every morning just to sit at the table and eat without conversation. But with Derek, this felt awkward.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had anything that was blueberry and pomegranate together,” he said, taking another bite.

She blinked at him, waiting for him to make some disparaging comment about pomegranates. She didn’t really know how someone would disparage pomegranates, but Derek would find a way. Even if he didn’t mean it. She knew, had always known, that about 70% of the stuff he gave her shit about was just to give her shit and wasn’t actually how he felt.

When she’d gone through the phase where she’d studied and listened to everything the Beatles had ever done, Derek had delighted in telling her “behind the scenes” stories about the guys. About 90% of what he’d told her was complete bullshit. Just like the things he’d told her he’d read about the dangers of a vegan diet when she’d gone through that phase had been 90% bullshit. Just like the statistics he’d cited when they’d argued about the government’s climate change policies had been 90% bullshit. Just like most of the things they’d ever argued about had been around 92% bullshit on his part. He just seemed incapable of agreeing with her and having the conversation end cordially.

All of which made her conscience completely clear about her fake nice-guy training program.

And maybe it wasn’t entirely fake. If he warmed up a towel for a woman while she was in the shower, even once ever, Riley would have done a very good deed.

But Derek said nothing disparaging about pomegranates. He just took another bite.

Riley slapped her hand down on the table. “What are you doing?”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Eating.”

“You’re eating crepes,” she said. “With blueberry pomegranate chai seed jam.”

He cut off another piece. “I know.”

“And you haven’t said one thing about how the chai seed farmers are slowly poisoning us with pesticides, or asking if eating crepes will suddenly give you the urge to go see a musical.”

He chewed, watching her. After he swallowed, he took a sip of coffee. “No, I haven’t,” he finally agreed.

“Why not?”

“Because…”

She frowned as he trailed off. “Because why?”

“Because I wouldn’t say any of that to Lucy.”

It was the dumbest thing…but Riley felt a little prick of annoyance at that. She should want him to be nice. She didn’t want him to tease her about crepes and chai seeds. She wanted him to practice just hanging out with a woman. She wanted to see him being a normal, nice guy since as far as she knew, that side of him was theoretic.

But now that he was doing it, she was annoyed.

“Well, stop it, it’s creepy when it’s you and me,” she said, cutting into her own crepe with a scowl.

“It’s creepy for me to be nice?” he asked.

“It’s just not…you,” she said, scowling harder as she concentrated on the crepe. Or at least on spreading the blueish-purple jam around her plate.

“I don’t have breakfast with women I’m not related to,” he said.

“You’ve had breakfast with me before.” She wasn’t sure why she felt the need to point that out. She knew she was being contrary. She was trying to teach him to be nice and sweet, and now he was being nice and sweet and she was trying to get him to stop. But…it felt wrong. Fake. Like he was trying too hard. And she realized that things with her and Derek had always been pretty easy. And honest.

“I have.” He took a breath. “I don’t have breakfast with women I don’t know really well. And I don’t watch my mouth with women I have breakfast with.”

And that, stupidly, made her feel warmer. He did know her well. Maybe better than she’d ever realized. That also made her feel strangely restless.

“So I’m practicing, I guess.”

Riley watched him frown and realized that he was uncomfortable too. Okay, that was weird. One, Derek Wright was never uncomfortable. He made situations comfortable for other people. That was almost his entire purpose in life. Two, this was her. He should not be uncomfortable around her. And vice versa.

She set her fork down. “Well, it’s creepy,” she said.

He sighed.

“Listen, I think you can practice hanging out with someone, fully clothed, doing things other than…fornicating…”

He snorted at that and she smiled. Okay, that was good.

“And still be yourself,” she finished. “In fact, I mean…you should be yourself. Just, you know, with your clothes on.”

“You keep making that point.”

“I think it’s an important one to keep at the forefront.”

He smiled, and she felt herself relax.

“I can’t treat other girls the way I treat you,” he said.

She didn’t know why, but her heart sped up. “You can’t?”

“You’re…you. I can say anything to you. You know that I’m 90% bullshit.”

Riley laughed at that, loving that his comment was so close to her thoughts. “Ninety-two.”

“But other girls won’t know that. I can’t tease them and stuff.”

“You can just tell them you’re joking.”

“It’s not the same,” he said, shaking his head. “I do tease and joke with other women but, it’s not the same. With you, I never worry about…”

Again he trailed off, and she had to hear this. “You don’t worry about what with me?”

“Being a dumbass.”

Okay, that surprised her. “Because I already know that you’re a dumbass.”

He gave her a look. “Yes,” he admitted. “But you also know that I’m not a dumbass all the time.”

She tipped her head. “Do I?”

He tossed his napkin at her. “Brat. You do. Because we’ve spent so much time together for so long that you know all the sides of me.” He paused. “Well, most of the sides of me.”

“What side don’t I know?” And the answer occurred to her two seconds after she’d asked.

“The side that wants to sleep with you,” he said before she could stop him.

Right. That side. The side that nearly every other woman in Sapphire Falls knew.

And it was hugely stupid that she felt a little jealous at that.

Because he was right. Generally, she thought of him as her brother’s dumbass friend, the guy who teased her, the guy who bugged her. But yeah, she knew other sides of him too. The sweet-to-her-grandmother side. The best-friend-no-matter-what-to-her-brother side. The didn’t-tease-her-but-held-her-hand-by-the-grave-and-got-her-cake side that had showed up at her grandfather’s funeral.

Riley blinked hard as that memory crashed into her mind suddenly. Wow, she’d forgotten that. And the time that she’d had a fight with her mom and had driven out on a dirt road after a rainstorm and gotten her car stuck, and he was the only person she could think to call who wouldn’t yell at her. He hadn’t teased her that time either.

Huh.

So, okay, he might actually have some potential here. But he needed to practice.

She’d already decided that she was going to coach him, but maybe…maybe it needed to be a little more. A little more like real dating. She had to show him what having a girlfriend would really be like and make sure he was sure he wanted it.

“What time will you be home tonight?” she asked, getting up to refill their cups.

“Uh, not ’til late,” he said. “Which is why I like to sleep in,” he mentioned dryly.

Right. She’d known he’d still be in bed. That was why she’d come here. That, and the fact that she didn’t really have anywhere else to go. Lucy really would be up and into her morning routine and on her way to work. Kyle and Hannah were at her mom and dad’s. And Peyton would be wrapped up with Scott or busy in the bakery. Basically, everyone else she might spend time with had other stuff to do. Derek was the only one with an odd schedule like Riley’s.

“I’ll wait up for you.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

She meant that she was going to show him that having a serious girlfriend took time and energy, even when he’d been working all night. “I’ll be here when you get home and we can watch a movie or something.”

“At two a.m.?” he asked.

She was a night owl, just like he was. Two a.m. didn’t scare her. Her mother making waffles five hours later scared her. She nodded. “Unless you want to close up early.” He’d never close up early.

“Close up the Come Again, where a bunch of people are now coming in and working and studying?” he asked. “I don’t think so.”

“Okay. I’ll see you after then,” she said. No big deal. But she was going to have to figure out a way around her mother’s morning routine.

Her eyes flickered toward the hallway that had to lead to Derek’s bedroom. Hmm…

“You intend to keep me up until four a.m.?” he asked. “Especially after getting me up early this morning?”

She shrugged. “Spending time together is kind of a huge part of a relationship. You have to make it work around your schedule.” That was true. And one big reason that she’d had trouble dating guys who had to be up early.

Riley made a note that he took another crepe. She actually had no idea if Lucy liked crepes, but Riley did. Not as much as waffles, but they were good. But Lucy probably did. Or she’d eat them without complaint if Riley brought them over for breakfast. Unlike Derek. She frowned. The usual Derek. She liked that he felt he could be himself and say what he was thinking with her.

But that was something else she had to keep in mind. She had to train Derek to go along with things once in a while even if he didn’t like it. He didn’t have to do that with her because she’d do what she wanted anyway. But Riley had a feeling that Derek got his way a lot with women. She’d even seen it with her own brother. Kyle liked things his way, for sure. But there were times when Riley had been amazed to see Derek talking her stubborn, perfectionistic brother into things.

Derek was charming and funny and had a way of saying exactly the right thing to get his way. It was good that he hadn’t gone into used car sales. The entire town of Sapphire Falls would be driving old beaters around.

His charms had always been particularly effective with females. Even the girls he didn’t date thought he was so funny and had a hard time not agreeing with him when he wanted to do things like make the prom theme vampires and werewolves—which the principal had, thankfully, shut down. Derek had done it simply to push some buttons and make people laugh. And probably to test just how much he could get away with. Which was a lot.

For every crazy, push-his-limits idea—like when he’d spread the rumor that he was going to bring strippers into the Come Again one Saturday night a month—he had four great ideas. Fundraising efforts for everything from tree planting in the park to buying an electric wheelchair for Landon Thompson. Programs like making the nursing home a daycare center during the day for little kids, mixing the children who needed supervision and activity with the older adults who needed stimulation and attention. Fun events like the town-wide snowball fight, and open mic night at the Come Again, where people got to sing, tell jokes, read poetry, or give motivational talks.

Derek Wright could charm anyone into doing things the way he wanted to do them, and he didn’t have to worry about what the other person wanted. And that worked in these short-term hookups he had going on. But in a longer-term, more serious relationship, he’d have to be more aware of the other person. Riley was absolutely going to teach him to be aware of her.

They finished eating, but everything still felt awkward, between him trying to be nice and polite and her thoughts about him as a boyfriend, and a Sex God, and an honest to goodness good guy. So when he said that since he was up so early he was going to go check on the new sink he’d helped install at The Stop a couple days ago, Riley was relieved and said she’d clean up the kitchen.

So she did.

And then she was bored. As was her usual MO lately.

She didn’t want to go home to her mom’s. All of her friends were working—or lived in another state. And even if they didn’t live a couple thousand miles away, they’d be in bed. They were all night-owl computer geeks like her.

At that, she yawned. She really had gotten up early. She eyed Derek’s couch. She’d bet he’d taken plenty of naps on that couch over the years. She settled onto the cushions, stretched, turned over, rubbed her cheek against the throw pillow that smelled like Derek.

And that was the last thing she remembered.