Chapter 43
Chapter Forty-Three
Derek
“Derek Riley Reid, you have a good deal of explaining to do!”
Did I think Freya was on the other side of the world in Candora? Sure. Am I surprised when her voice breaks through the peace of my quiet morning at home? Not even the slightest.
Glancing at my watch, I silently commend Freya’s ability to show up at my house before seven in the morning, though I almost wish I was still asleep like Donovan so it would be easier to be annoyed by the intrusion.
Last I checked, Donovan was still out cold, but my mind wouldn’t let me sleep in this morning, so I came out to the back patio to watch the Malibu coast slowly come to life for the first time in months. It’s not quite the same as a morning on the river, but it’s still nice.
Or it was before the Queen arrived.
“Derek!” Freya shouts again, sounding closer now as she makes her way through my house. “When I find you, I am going to—oh.”
I look over to where she stands in the open doorway, gaping at me like she’s never seen me before.
It’s probably because I’m currently stretched out on the couch with a book in one hand and a mug of coffee balanced on my chest. Pretty sure I’ve never been this relaxed around her, so her shock makes sense.
I keep my smile relatively subdued instead of letting myself laugh at her wide-eyed expression. “Hey, Peach. What brings you here so early?”
Her response is a Candoran curse I only partially understand, but I break out in laughter anyway.
Setting both my book and my mug on the ground, I get up and pull her into my arms as she keeps cursing me.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” I tell her, meaning every word.
Being with my friends yesterday mostly filled the hole I’d left in my soul while I was away, but Freya and Elliot were missing.
Now that Freya’s here, my life—my family—is that much closer to being complete.
Her anger shifts quickly to crying as she wraps her arms around my back and holds tight. “I have been so worried about you, Derek.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“Explain yourself.”
Releasing her, I gesture for her to take a seat so I can do the same.
I did this yesterday with the rest of my friends, but I wanted to tell Freya everything in person.
Maybe, if I had known she would be here, I would have delayed my return by a day so I would only have to go through this once.
I would have hated to miss Liam’s birthday, but yesterday wasn’t easy.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, hoping for a moment to gather my courage.
Freya narrows her eyes but answers the question. “It was Evelyn’s birthday yesterday, and Elliot did not wish to miss it again.”
I smile as I imagine my imposing little brother attending a six-year-old’s birthday party.
He’s fond of the family of his late brother-in-arms, and I’m glad things have calmed down enough in Candora for him to be able to come to the States so soon after the last time. “Is El still in North Carolina?”
“Of course not. He will always be wherever I am.” Her face lights up with a warm, distant smile. “Though, at the moment he is having a rather intense phone conversation with someone named Shaw.”
Wincing, I hope Elliot is taking it easy on our mother’s husband, but he has a right to define his own terms of what will happen in the future. “Shaw is married to our mom,” I tell Freya, not sure if she knows that part.
She nods. “Elliot did not tell me as much, but he hinted at that. And your mother? She is behind Hot Scoop?”
I tell her the details of the situation, grateful that she stays silent while I fill her in.
The others weren’t as willing to sit back and listen, so it took over an hour to explain everything by the time I got through all their questions and interruptions.
Freya’s expression remains mostly neutral, but when I tell her what went down at the Hot Scoop office, she wrinkles her nose.
“It’s a good thing Elliot has taken matters into his hands,” she says, rolling her eyes. “While I am glad you have finally severed ties with your mother, you were too kind to the Hot Scoop proprietor, Derek.”
I chuckle. “Donovan said the same thing.”
Freya’s eyebrows pull low, and she looks around the patio with sudden concern. “Where is this woman you say you love?”
“Asleep.”
“Without you?”
Heat blossoms in my chest, and I narrow my eyes at my friend. “A little nosy, don’t you think?”
She waves a hand. “I saw that video of you together. I know full well that the two of you have—”
“Didn’t expect to see you here so early, Peach,” a voice says in the doorway.
I’ve never been happier to see Cole, and I jump to my feet at the same time Freya does. “Hey, man,” I say.
Freya is less calm, gliding to the door and colliding with Cole in a fierce embrace. “Coleman!”
Even though he hugs her back, Cole’s eyes are on me and full of concern.
It is early, and I have to assume he’s here because he was worried I would disappear again.
It’s going to take some time to build trust again, but that’s okay.
I’m willing to put in the work to make sure my friends know I won’t abandon them, no matter how hard things get.
“I’m back,” I assure him.
“Until when?” he asks gruffly.
Freya peels herself from his hold but tucks her arm through his so they stand as a united front. “I am wondering the same thing,” she says, lifting her chin.
I fold my arms. “It’s not entirely up to me anymore.”
Pursing his lips, Cole glances behind him into my house. “Where’s Donovan?”
“Asleep,” Freya replies for me.
“So why are you out here?” Cole asks with a frown.
I groan. “That’s not—”
“Freya!” Bonnie’s voice cuts off my protest, and she appears at the back door right as Cole steps aside to clear the doorway. She embraces Freya warmly, her smile wide. “I thought you weren’t coming until tomorrow!”
“Yes,” Freya says, “well, when I discovered that Derek had come back to the living, we changed our plans.”
“Does Liam know you’re already here?”
“He knows!” Liam shouts from inside. “Bonnie, you’re in my way. I need my birthday hug!”
A curse slips off my tongue when Liam bounces onto the patio and picks Freya up in an exuberant hug, and I’m tempted to text my security guard, Bruce, to ask him why he didn’t warn me that my house was being invaded.
But then I realize my phone is who knows where inside, and I can’t help but chuckle.
I never used to be without it, and now it’s hard to remember it exists.
“What’s so funny?” Cole asks.
Suddenly all four of them are looking at me, and it takes all my self-control not to take an anxious step back.
They are…intimidating. They’ve always been impressive, even before fame found them, but I’ve never had them all so focused on me like this.
There was always something to keep the attention away from me so they wouldn’t look too closely and see the cracks in my facade.
Taking a slow breath, I slide my hands into my pockets and lift my mouth in a small smile. “Nothing,” I murmur and drink in the sight of them, noting as many details as I can so I don’t forget this moment.
Liam has grown up in the four and a half years that I’ve known him.
At twenty-three, he was so unsure of himself when we met.
He still looks the same—messy blond hair, t-shirt and shorts, mischief in his blue eyes—but there’s a confidence and maturity about him now.
He’s learned to face his fame with resilience and focus on what really matters to him, and my heart throbs to know I still make that list.
And Bonnie… She looks so much stronger than when we were in our first movie together five years ago, and I love the way she doesn’t try to hide.
She has always been kind, but that used to be seen as submission, and it killed me every time she let people think less of her than they should.
Now, she knows her worth, and she isn’t afraid to stand up for others as well as herself, shining brilliantly.
Cole looks older than he ever has—he has a baby who keeps him up at night and a team to run during the day—but somehow he also looks softer.
He has always fiercely guarded his heart, but his capacity for love keeps growing the more he lets people in.
Words can never express how grateful I am that he never shut me out, even when I kept so much from him.
He was the closest thing I had to a brother before I met Elliot, and maybe someday I’ll be able to tell him how badly I needed his friendship a decade ago.
He’s going to make an incredible father with the way he loves and protects, and I have so much to learn from him when it comes to trust and vulnerability.
Freya stands as tall as she ever has, proud and confident as a queen should be.
But she also gazes back at me with love and empathy, like she knows exactly how hard it is to admit faults and failings, and I can’t help but wonder how much stronger we both could have been if we’d been less stubborn.
Sure, she’s running a country, while I spend my time making faces and saying someone else’s words, but she and I have always been similar.
So quick to offer advice and solutions but slow to let our friends do the same for us.
My chest grows tight, but it’s not anxiety pulling me into a spiral over the countless mistakes I’ve made over the years. It’s gratitude and humility and overwhelming love for these friends of mine. For the people who have stood by me through thick and thin. For my family.
“Whoa,” Liam says, “am I seeing things, or is Derek crying?”
“Of course I’m crying,” I murmur and shake my head in exasperation.
Then I step forward and pull Liam into a hug that surprises him so much that he stands stiff.
I don’t blame him; it’s rare for me to initiate affection like this.
I shut my eyes tight as my emotions start to overwhelm me.
“I almost walked away from you. From this.”