Page 50 of After You

“You could leave,” Derek suggested, pouring the coffee.

Kyle didn’t reply. He could. But that would mean not being in the same place Hannah was, and now that he’d managed to get in the same place as her, he didn’t want to leave. Which was so pathetic, he almost couldn’t choke down his first drink of the blessedly strongbrew.

“You know,” Derek said, wiping up a wet ring on the top of the bar. “I’ve decided that your plan with Hannah makes total sense.”

“Does it?” Kyle liked hearing that. A lot. Because he was thinking he’d made a huge mistake. Already.

“Sure. This way you can flirt with her—which you never would have been able to avoid anyway. You can also kiss her—which you also probably wouldn’t have been able to avoid. You can even sleep with her—which God knows you need. And you stay on Alice’s good side the whole time. And you avoid heartbreak at the end because you know what’s coming. You have a plan. That’s all you reallyneed.”

“Right,” Kyle agreed with feeling. Derek wasn’t wrong. A plan was always good. But there was something Derek had mentioned that Kyle wanted to go into a little further. Or a lot further. “You think I should sleep withher?”

Derek shrugged. “I haven’t known anyone who needs to get laid more than you do, man. And this is the woman who’s basically kept you from getting seriously laid for three years. Might as well do what you can with her while she’shere.”

“I’ve gotten la—I’ve had sex in the past three years,” Kyle said. Getting laid was such a crude term for it. He liked to think that he was a nicer guy thanthat.

“Yes, but you haven’t gotten seriously laid,” Dereksaid.

“What’s the difference?” Scott asked.

Kyle really wished he hadn’t. Because he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear this. But there was no way he could walk awaynow.

“Seriously laid is that holy-shit-now-that-was-fucking-amazing sex. The kind that makes you feel satisfied to your fucking bones,” Derek said, with an enthusiasm that was unusual for him. “The kind that can tide you over for a long time because you know it’s gonna be tough to get anything that good again.”

Kyle lifted a brow and glanced at Scott. Derek was full of shit. But Kyle found Scott nodding.

“Yep, I get it,” Scott said. “The kind that makes you feel like you’re totally wrung out. And at the same time makes you willing to give up food, water, and air to keep gettingit.”

Kyle looked back to Derek. Derek was nodding at Scott’s words.

Okay, so Scott was in love. But Derek? “You’ve had this kind of sex?” he asked Derek. “You’ve been seriouslylaid?”

Derek nodded. “A couple of times. But the keyword is seriously. You have to be seriously into thegirl.”

“And that’s happened to you a couple of times?” Kyle asked. He couldn’t think of a girl that he thought Derek had been serious about.

“Well, I do serious differently than you and Scott,” Derek said. “But yeah, I’ve been into a couple more than most. And that sex is unbelievable.”

Scott nodded. “I’d never had it until Peyton. Butyeah.”

Kyle shook his head. “I’ve had that. With Hannah.”

Derek laughed at that. Then he realized Kyle wasn’t laughing. “Oh. Well, okay, maybe.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Kyle asked.

Derek looked at Scott, but the cop shook his head as if to say you’re on your own. Derek sighed. “You haven’t had that with Hannah, man.”

Kyle scowled at him. “Excuse me? I was going to marryher.”

“Right. Because she’s organized and neat and on time andshit.”

Kyle quickly went through all the cons to punching his best friend and the Come Again’s manager. There were several. But he wasn’t sure he cared. “There was more to it,” he said tightly.

“I know you think so,” Derek agreed. “But you and Hannah weren’t ever…passionate. Like, I never saw you watching her the way Scott watches Peyton.”

Kyle looked over at Scott. Who was, at that very moment, watching Peyton across the room and looking very much like a guy who was imagining her naked. He’d never looked at Hannah like that? Comeon.

Then he really made himself think about it. When he’d looked at Hannah, he’d felt…affection. Satisfaction. Pride. Happiness. All of which were very nice. Probably the way a guy should look at the woman he wanted to marry. But had he ever looked at her and imagined her naked? Surely hehad.

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