Always Have: A Bad Boy Romance(18)

He smiles at me, and I feel my heart flutter a little.

“Hi,” he says. “Sorry, I forgot my wallet in the locker room.”

“Oh, sure,” I say. “I think Braxton is in there, but I’m sure he’ll be out soon.”

“Right.” His eyes don’t leave my face and he holds out a hand. “Derek.”

“Yeah,” I say. “Of course you are.”

He takes my hand in his much larger one. “And you are?”

“Oh, sorry,” I say, flustered. “Kylie. Kylie Winters.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Kylie,” he says. “Are you … here to see Braxton?”

There’s something in his voice. Oh my god, is he asking me if I’m with Braxton? “Yeah, he’s an old friend.”

“But not boyfriend?” he asks.

Wow, a little bold. I like that.

I laugh. “Oh god, no. Braxton and I have known each other since we were kids. He has a girlfriend. Who isn’t me.”

One corner of Derek’s mouth turns up. “Interesting. So, what about you? Braxton isn’t your boyfriend, but is someone else?”

I brush my hair back from my face. I’m feeling a little warm. “No, no boyfriend.”

“That is very surprising,” he says.

“I don’t know about that,” I say.

Derek steps a little closer. “Since I don’t seem to have any competition at the moment, I think I should take advantage. Would you like to go out sometime?”

My mouth opens, but it takes me a second to gather my wits. They seem to have scattered. Did Derek Marshall just ask me out? “I’d love to.”

His smile widens as he pulls out his phone. “How about Tuesday? Give me your number and I’ll text you.”

“Tuesday is great,” I say. Holy shit! We exchange numbers and he puts his phone away.

“Hey, Derek, what’s up?” Braxton’s voice makes me jump.

“Hey, man, I think I left my wallet,” Derek says as he walks to the back. “I’ll just run in and see if it’s there.”

Braxton looks at me funny. Did he see Derek and me exchange numbers? Does he care?

He f*cking shouldn’t.

Derek is back before either of us says anything. He pauses at the door and looks back at me. “It was great to meet you, Kylie. I’ll text you about Tuesday.”

“Looking forward to it,” I say.

“What was that about?” Braxton asks after the door closes.

“Nothing,” I say. “He asked me out.”

Braxton raises his eyebrows. “He asked you out?”

“Is that so shocking?” I ask. “What, does he usually date supermodels and you can’t fathom why he’d be interested in me?”

He looks away. “No, that’s a dumbass thing to say, Ky. I’m just surprised you said yes.”

“Why?” I ask.

“I don’t know.”

I draw my eyebrows in and put a hand on my hip. “Is there a problem?”

Braxton opens his mouth to answer but Selene bursts in.

“Hey, you guys, I’m so sorry I’m late. My team had a working retreat yesterday, and I’m still getting messages from my boss,” she says. “Apparently he doesn’t give a shit that it’s Sunday.”

My phone vibrates and I check it as we walk to Braxton’s car.

Hey, it’s Derek. Just making sure you gave me your real number.

I smile. If you’re the good looking tall guy I just met at a gym, then yes, I gave you my real number.

Perfect. Figured I’d check before I start sending sexually charged texts. That could get awkward.

Okay, I like this guy. Now I’m even more excited for Tuesday.

Me too, Kylie. Me too.





I wish I knew why Selene is so obsessed with the triple date concept. It’s like this big must-do thing for her when we’re all dating people at the same time. She won’t let it go until Braxton and I agree. I guess she wants to make sure we can all still hang out together—that the people we date mesh well enough that we can be in a group and not have it completely crash and burn.

About half the time, it’s fun, usually when our semi-awkward group of six drinks enough. Other times, awkward wins and it usually heralds the end for at least one of our relationships.

This time? I’m not even sure what to think.

I’m meeting everyone at Brody’s, which feels weird since the last time I was here I met Aubrey for the first time. But today I’m not coming alone.

Derek is kind of awesome. I admit I’m a teensy bit star-struck, since he’s sort of famous, but when we’re together he’s pretty down to Earth. And there’s nothing quite like a guy who pursues you. I had to change our first date from a Tuesday to Thursday because of work, and he spent the days in between sending me a variety of sweet and sexy texts. It wasn’t annoying or invasive. It was fun and flirty, and I did not mind the attention.

We hit it off right away and have spent quite a bit of time together. His schedule is pretty open, since it’s the off season, so we hang out a lot. He’s even been talking to me about how things will change when he goes back to work. That means he’s thinking about the future, even if that isn’t too far down the road.