Page 41 of Threat of Danger
“Zelda should move down here too. There’s room.” Derek apparently didn’t miss how long it had taken Zelda to climb upstairs, and how tightly she’d been hanging on to the railing.
“I’m thinking about converting the dining room for her.”
“I can help.”
“Don’t you have books to write?”
Derek went for the mysterious author smile. Damn if it didn’t look good on him. “I’m at the percolating-new-ideas stage.”
Why couldn’t he percolate at home? He took up too much emotional space. And where was Eliot? How long could a man take a shower?
Derek kept watching her. “I missed you.”
Her heart gave a hard, confused thud. “No.”
He looked like he was biting back a grin. “I thought a lot about you. Did you ever think about me?”
“Not really.”
“Out of sight, out of mind?”
“There’s a reason people say that.”
“I’m glad you stayed.”
“I thought you wanted me to leave.”
“It’d be the smartest thing to do. I shouldn’t be glad that you’re here.”
“I’m not glad to be here.”
“I think I read that loud and clear.”
She wrapped her arms around herself. “I thought adversity had made me strong. I think I was mistaken.”
His gaze never moved from her face. “Adversity breaks the weak. Adversity doesn’t make you stronger. You were strong to start with. You were always going to make it. You were always smart and stubborn. You always had faith. You never gave up on anything.”
“I ran. Running is weakness.”
“You were strong enough to take yourself to an environment that was healthier for you. Strong enough to move cross-country, into the unknown. That takes strength, Jess.”
She had trouble processing his words. She’d spent the last decade hating her weak old self, the one who’d allowed herself to be a victim. Everything she’d done since, she’d done to prove that she was a victim no longer.
Yet Derek seemed to see a part of her that even she hadn’t been able to see. He was looking at her with an admiration she was reluctant to think she deserved. That open admiration confused her. She didn’t want to reevaluate herself, the past, or Taylorville. She just wanted her simple life in LA.
“I’m leaving with Eliot in a couple of days.”
Derek’s smile disappeared. “How serious is this Eliot thing?”
“How is that your business?”
“Why are you so bristly?”
“Because you’re butting into my life?”
His flint-gray gaze held hers. “Don’t sleep with him.”
Why did that tone make her heart beat faster?
