“I forgot my coat because I was running late, and unlike you, I don’t set my stuff out the night before, nor do I wake up before the roosters or the sun.” Sierra looked around at the buzzing diner and waved at her friend and neighbor Roxie Giardini and her guy, Will, who were several tables down.

“Morning, girls.” Tilly scurried up to their table with a pot of coffee and efficiently filled both their mugs. “Where’s your coat, Sierra?”

“I don’t need one today,” she said. “It’s not that cold.”

Tilly eyed her briefly, then nodded at the customers who’d just walked in the door. “The usual for you girls today?”

“Plus a plate of hash browns,” Sierra said, adding to her blueberry pancakes and bacon order. At Hayden’s raised brows, she said, “Starving. And I need calories to get through my day. I don’t get to fluff pillows for the next ten hours.”

“Your loss. It’s much better than hammering nails.” Hayden poured multiple single-serve containers of fat-free creamer into her coffee, then watched Sierra expectantly.

Sierra folded easily, mostly because she was dying to pick apart her situation with Cole and figure out what to do next. “I slept with him.”

Hayden had been about to take a sip of coffee but set her mug down hard. “Cole?”

She said it loudly enough that Sierra glanced around to see if anyone had picked up on it.

“Who else would it be?”

“Weren’t you just, less than a week ago, debating whether you should ever look at him again because he worked for you and things would be awkward and it’s against your personal policy?”

“Well…” Sierra dumped in a packet of real sugar and stirred her coffee. “Yeah. Then you told me to go for it.”

“And you went for it.” Hayden’s smile was smug.

“Hole in one, baby,” Sierra said, making Hayden roll her eyes and shake her head as she allowed a short laugh.

“It was unquestionably good,” Hayden said. “It’s written all over your face.”

“It didn’t suck.”

“But did you?”

“Stop,” Sierra said, laughing.

“How did this happen? Last I knew you were limping around after he rescued you from your clumsy self.”

“No limp left. Only a little soreness.” Sierra leaned forward and told her how he’d showed up last night, quiet and withdrawn and all too willing to get physical. “And then he ran.”

“Midnight bolt?”

“Three a.m. He slept for a while,” Sierra said, “and I think it freaked him out. Which I mentioned to him.”

“And he said?”

“He had to feed his cat.”

“Liar,” Hayden said.

“Hundred percent, and I told him that. He then admitted he doesn’t do sleepovers or mornings after.”

Tilly appeared with their plates and set them in front of them. “Frank said to tell you the hash browns are even better with cheese.”