The Boy Who Has No Belief - Victoria Quinn Page 0,94
a grown-up.”
Derek smirked slightly. “I used to say the same thing, and sometimes I wish I could go back.”
“Why?” Lizzie asked.
He shrugged. “Just a simpler time. I spent all my free time with my friends, not stressed about work and all the other stuff that comes with adulting.”
“What did you want to be when you were little?” she asked.
“An astronaut, actually.” Derek walked beside her, wearing his leather jacket with a gray V neck. Sometimes he looked so hot that I knew people probably couldn’t figure out how we were together. I knew I was attractive, but I wasn’t a lingerie model like his old lover Fleur.
“Why didn’t you do that?” Lizzie asked, looking up at him in interest.
He shrugged and kept his eyes ahead. “I was really good at the back-end stuff, so I thought my mind would be better utilized that way. Besides, I have no experience as a pilot and would probably get frustrated with all the training they have to go through. You really have to be at the top of your game to be an astronaut.”
“Yeah, that sounds like a lot.”
“And I don’t get along with people very well, so I wouldn’t be a good teammate. My time is better spent working on problems by myself and creating things to get astronauts where they need to go.”
“That makes sense.”
We walked down the block until we approached the outside of my apartment. His black Range Rover was parked there, where he’d left it on Friday night. We’d only come down to it once on Saturday morning to retrieve Lizzie’s gifts. He’d spent the weekend with us, still wearing the same clothes he wore on Friday even though it was Sunday now. He used my toothbrush to brush his teeth and didn’t style his hair like he usually did when he got out of the shower.
“I should get going…” Derek glanced at his car before he turned back to us.
“Yeah,” I said. “Lizzie and I need to clean the apartment and get caught up on laundry.”
“Ugh, that sounds terrible.” She wore the scarf Cleo got for her, the color bringing out her eyes. “Can we get a maid like Derek?”
“You are the maid.” She hated me for making her do all sorts of things around the house, but she’d thank me later.
“Well, I’m going to get fired because I’m terrible at it.” She moved into Derek and gave him a quick hug. “See you later.”
Derek hugged her back, smirking as he embraced her. “Bye, Liz.”
Lizzie went into the building and headed to the apartment.
When she was gone, I looked at Derek differently, like saying goodbye was so damn hard even though I would see him in the morning.
He wore the same look. “I had a nice weekend.”
“Yeah, we did too.”
He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me tightly, fingers digging into the material of my sweater. He squeezed me before he pulled back and kissed me goodbye. “Love you.”
“Love you too.”
The holiday weekend was over, and we went back to our old routine.
It was such a magical weekend that I didn’t want it to end, the three of us spending time together every single day. It made me want to live together, to have us all together as a family. But Christmas was coming up, and we’d probably have more time together then.
Lizzie lay on the couch in front of the TV, but instead of watching it, she was reading the second book in Derek’s series. Her ankles were crossed and propped on a pillow, her long hair across another pillow behind her.
I sat in the armchair and watched her—my whole world. “It’s good, huh?”
She turned to me, slightly surprised, as if she’d been so deep in the story until I interrupted her. “Yeah. Now I get why he’s sold so many books and why his books are in the store windows. Sometimes I see people at school reading them.”
“That’s really cool.”
“Yeah.” She went back to her book. After a few minutes, she turned to me. “So when you and Derek get married, are we going to live in his penthouse?”
“I don’t know. Why?”
“Because how sick would it be to live in a penthouse?” she said incredulously. “I’ve only seen the living room and dining room, but that space is bigger than our apartment.”
“Yeah, it’s nice.”
“That means we’d be rich, right?”
“Lizzie.”
“What?” she asked. “I’m just asking…”
“Don’t say things like that to Derek, alright?”
“I don’t, but why?”
“It’s just inappropriate. I’m not with Derek because he’s rich. I’m