“Hey! There’s a party tonight. A small send-forth for the outgoing CEO of Billy Jones. I got a plus-one slot… do you want to come?”
Derek’s voice carried across the room, easy and unhurried, as if he hadn’t just shattered the stillness of the evening.
On the sofa, Tessa, still insisting to herself she was just visiting lay stretched out with a glass of wine dangling between two fingers. She had been halfway lost in James Patterson’s Invisible, her thumb marking a page while her eyes lifted slowly to him. The lazy smile that curved her lips softened something in Derek’s chest. He hadn’t grown used to it yet, that simple smile that could feel like a secret meant only for him.
He had convinced her to stay a few nights after the incident. Those nights had been a mix of healing and discovery
