After You (Because of You 2)

It doesn’t matter, I’m used to my brain’s bitchiness and there’s no one else around that has to put up with me.

Release day for Dreamcatcher finally comes, and my expectations are blown right out of the water. I thought for sure that my author persona’s radio silence since the last book’s release would mean a modest release for this standalone, but I make quadruple what I projected.

I decide to take Nad

ia and Louise out for a celebratory drink since I don’t have anyone else. They don’t know what we’re celebrating since Nikki Reid is just one of our company’s authors to them, but they don’t ask questions, they just take their free drinks.

I’m on my second drink and Nadia is in the bathroom when someone sits down in her seat. I look over, starting to tell the person they can’t sit there, my friend just went to the bathroom, but I lose all my words at the sight of Henry on the stool next to me.

Smiling faintly, he says, “Fancy meeting you here.”

“Hi.” I offer a muted smile, unsure how to proceed.

Ignoring my awkwardness, he nods at my pink drink. “What’s the occasion?”

“Uh… successful book release. Really successful. More successful than I expected. I figured I should celebrate with someone.”

Nodding his head, he glances past me at Louise. “No Derek?”

Grasping the stem of my glass, I take a long drink, then shake my head. “No Derek.”

He nods again, then says calmly, and with an admirable show of courtesy, “I’m sorry to hear that.”

Smiling faintly, I steal a sideways glance at him. “You are not. You’re probably dancing on the inside.”

“No,” he says, his eyes moving to the drink I’m still holding onto. “I wouldn’t cheer for your pain, Nicole. I’m not that petty.”

God, he is so fucking comfortable. Just that reassurance makes me feel safe. I want to curl up in his arms and take the protection I used to have with him. Insulated from loneliness, but still safe, because Henry never demanded more from me than I felt comfortable giving. Derek ignored the boundaries of my comfort zone and plodded right past them like they were lines drawn in the sand, but Henry always respected them. To the point of annihilating my romantic interest in him, frankly.

Man, I am fucked up.

Tears suddenly burn behind my eyes. “Shit,” I mutter to myself, tipping my head back and blinking until the tears of stupidity have subsided.

“We can talk about something else,” Henry says, noting my discomfort. “Tell me about this book. Which author? What’s it about?”

Instead of answering him with words, I take a deep breath, take one more gulp of alcohol, and pull out my phone. I guess if I survived Derek a second time, I can probably survive letting Henry figure out my secret author identity.

Pulling up the cover of Dreamcatcher, I offer my phone to him. “That’s the book.”

His eyes narrow as he studies the cover. Namely, the cover model whose wedding he attended. Looking over at me as if genuinely surprised, he says, “That’s your stepmom.”

I bring my finger to my lips to shush him, glancing back at Louise. She’s talking to some guy on her other side, so she doesn’t notice. “Yes,” I verify.

A grin splits his face and he looks at the cover again. “Nikki Reid, huh? I guess I’m gonna have to find some reading time. I hear she wrote a pretty great trilogy.”

“Don’t read the trilogy,” I say, softly. “Read Dreamcatcher if you want to, but… skip the trilogy.”

Instead of refusing, instead of wanting all my words, even the ones that might hurt, Henry nods his head in easy agreement. “All right. New beginnings. I like that.”

The bartender notices Henry sitting here now, so he stops and asks if he can get him a drink. Henry nods his head, glancing at my nearly empty glass. “You want one more?”

I probably shouldn’t, but what the hell? “Sure, why not?”

Henry orders us both drinks. The bartender makes our drinks and slides them in front of us.

Henry lifts his, meets my gaze, and holds his drink in, wordlessly inviting me to share in his two-person toast. “To new beginnings,” he says.

I lift my drink, offer him a little smile, and touch my glass to his.