Cole’s body language changed, telling her she was on to the key. “What if they want a second person involved?”

“Someone else can do it. Troy, maybe. Demetrius. They’re both extroverts who never shut up. Even Carlos. With a little coaching, he’d do great, and probably gain a few female fans in the process.”

“That’s the last thing he needs,” Cole said. “It all sounds okay, but what if we win? There’s no way you can guarantee I can stay behind the scenes then.”

“I’ll tell them you’re off-limits. Maybe I’ll tell them you have a speech impediment,” she said, grinning.

“Next thing we know, they’d want to do a feature on the tongue-tied foreman. Hell no.”

“There’d probably be times when you might be on screen, but I’ll do whatever I can to keep them from interviewing—if we get that far. It’s a long shot and you know it.”

He set his pencil down, crossed his arms over his chest, and sat there pensively, silently. Sierra had more than a little practice with sales techniques, as she was the primary salesperson for the company, so she knew it was time to shut up, to not jump into the heavy pause as she had the urge to do, and to let him think through things.

She sipped her coffee and flipped to the next page in her notebook to double-check the deadline schedule for all three stages, which she already knew, but she was fighting to seem nonchalant.

“You really want to be a TV star?” he asked as he leaned his elbows on the table, his biceps flexing from under the ends of his T-shirt sleeves.

“Not a star,” she said, because that wasn’t the end goal. “But if this is the way to teach more people why old buildings are important, why we should bring them back to life instead of knock them down and throw up a brand-new cookie-cutter version, I’m all in.”

She was itching to spread the knowledge and the passion she’d gotten from her beloved grandpa. And this, she believed, was the best way to do exactly that.

Cole met her gaze, his hard-edged caramel eyes giving no hint as to his thoughts, and she raised her brows in a silent Well?

“Yes, you’re crazy as a loon, and yes, I’ll stand behind you on this, do whatever you need, as long as it’s off camera.”

She didn’t have a chance to celebrate before her phone dinged with a reminder. She picked it up and read the note to pick up her sister, Kennedy, for the bride’s and bridesmaids’ pedi/mani, and with that, she was plunged into the wedding to-do list that would only intensify tomorrow, which was why she was taking a rare day off.