“I stay over when he’s not there,” she said, her annoyance evident.

Was it possible her friend had a thing for the single dad? Erika had momentarily suspected it the night before, but now the feelings were written all over Cassie’s face. Sexual frustration across the board that evening.

“You can come with if you want...”

To babysit. Probably not. Children weren’t her thing—she couldn’t relate to them. “Nah, that’s okay. I’ll finish my wine, then head back to your place.” To do what, she had no idea. Downtime was going to be the death of her.

“Here’s the key to the condo. Sorry, I know I haven’t had a whole lot of time to spend with you, but I have a few evenings off coming up.”

“It’s cool. I crashed in on your life. I’ll keep myself busy,” she said, a sideways glance at Reed.

“Okay, see you tomorrow,” Cassie said, rushing out.

Erika glanced around the bar, but other than Tyler, who’d been conveniently chased away, there was no one else she recognized. It was possible there were others she might know from high school, but unfortunately, she hadn’t kept in touch with many people from her small town. Would they even want to reconnect with her?

She took a sip of her wine as she watched Reed work, his back to her as he restocked the clean beer glasses behind the bar. His black T-shirt stretched across his broad back and shoulders and tapered at his waist. Tucked in haphazardly to one side of his jeans, it gave her a nice view of his ass. It was a nice ass. Too bad he was a bit of an ass.

He continued to work, ignoring her, and she tapped her nails against the bar, checking her watch. It was barely eight o’clock. How was she going to get through the night? Cassie no doubt had Netflix—she could binge-watch the entire first season of one of the popular shows the nurses talked about.

But what she really wanted to do was call her father and ask why he hadn’t told her about the trial approval yet. All afternoon, she’d waited for a call or email from him. Nothing. Confronting him would get her nowhere though, and she wasn’t allowed back at the hospital anyway. She’d never wanted special privileges for being his daughter, but it almost felt like the reverse was true. He treated everyone else on staff with a lot more respect.

Reed shot a look over his shoulder. “That’s kinda annoying.”

She stopped tapping her nails and sighed.

God, she was bored. She looked around the bar, almost wishing someone would choke on a bar nut or something.

She cleared her throat. “So, that’s why you work here... It makes sense now.”

A guarded look appeared in his eyes as he turned all the way around. “What makes sense about it?”

She had no idea what she’d said to offend him, but the set jaw as he waited for her reply meant she clearly had. Man, could they just have an uncharged conversation—sexually or otherwise? He seemed to want to make everything an issue. “Just that it gives you the flexibility to be a part of the search and rescue team.”