There was nothing Cole liked to watch more than Sierra in her element, and she was full-on in her element right now. In her element and flying high, as she should be after yesterday’s news that she, or they as she insisted, had been selected as one of three finalists in the Eldridge competition after the second round, the interview stage.

Sierra had shined, charmed, and impressed with her knowledge and experience during the recorded interview—Cole had been on-site for moral support and watched on a monitor. He could fully cop to being biased, but obviously the unbiased production people and probably Eldridge himself agreed with him that she could carry any show they wanted to give her—as well as any renovation project.

Today, they’d been granted entry into the Eldridge Mansion, along with the other finalists, in order to survey, measure, research, and plan for the final stage of the competition—full business proposals.

“Cole!” Sierra grasped his arm as they walked from the rear hall on the main floor into what appeared to be a den. “Look at the two-sided fireplace. That must be the living room on the other side.”

He followed her to the fireplace and ran his hand over the drywall. “I wonder if there are bricks under here.”

“There has to be. My grandpa nearly stroked out whenever someone put drywall over bricks. He always said bricks are like glimpses of the building’s soul.”

He couldn’t help a grin at the drama in her voice. No one was as animated as Sierra when it came to her favorite subject.

It’d been nearly three weeks since they’d started sleeping together, nearly twenty-one days of one-day-at-a-timing it. It made him sweat a little to think about how many of those nights had been a yes, some at his place, some at hers. Probably too many to be considered casual or a non-relationship. So he made a point of not thinking about the big picture and instead focusing on the moments. Because the moments with Sierra were so damn good.

He’d taken her to Sunshine’s to meet Winona, who’d of course loved her. And contrary to what he’d feared, Sierra had embraced both Winona and her dim, outdated bar with its rough patrons.

Work-wise, they’d been swamped and spread thin. The Draper project, thanks to every kind of unforeseen challenge you could think of, had run a week and a half longer than planned. Sierra felt strongly about starting the next project, a full renovation of a historical bank building, on time, so they’d divided the crew between the two, with Cole overseeing the Draper site and Sierra at the bank.