And Cole…the guy didn’t need professionals to make him look good in a suit and tie, even with the cut above his eye. There was something about a normally rough-around-the-edges man cleaning up and dressing up. Something irresistible, apparently, as she’d proven this morning.

“Mr. Foreman looks gooood,” Hayden said.

“Yeah,” Sierra said in an exhale, taking an extra couple of seconds to study his face.

In spite of his uptightness as they’d arrived at the reception, his smile in the pic was real and wider than his usual reluctant half grin. It did something to his whole face, and that, in turn, did something to her heart rate, even now, even though it was just pixels on a screen.

“You had a good trip?”

“My trip was fine,” Hayden said of the trade show in Boston. She’d returned late last night, texting Sierra she was home and exhausted and they’d catch up today. “Back to you. And this guy. I want to know everything about Saturday night.”

“Saturday night ended in the wee hours of Sunday morning—”

“Hello. So much for not banging the boys who work for you.”

“I didn’t bang anyone,” Sierra said. “I’m not going to bang anyone.” The second sentence was less sure than the first, and she swigged some more Pinot.

She launched into a play-by-play of the wedding, the reception, her time with Cole, that moment in her apartment with him. She told Hayden about the hospital, his brothers, and how worried sick he’d been about his mom, keeping the parts about his dad to herself. That felt intensely personal, was Cole’s secret.

“It was a whole different side of him,” Sierra said. “All of it. The brothers, their weird dynamics, and his concern for his mom. He usually keeps himself locked up tight at work.”

“It must be terrifying to have your mom rushed to the hospital,” Hayden said. “It’s good you were there for him.”

Sierra nodded, thinking back on his shakiness, the sheen of sweat she’d seen on his forehead, the stark fear in his eyes. “His mom basically died on the table for a few seconds.”

“And he chose to be with you instead of his brothers,” Hayden said, her look turning speculative.

“Like I said, weird dynamic. He says they don’t like him. His oldest brother was kind of distant to him, but I didn’t get that from the other two so much.” She told her friend what she knew of the brothers and the fact that his family was the Norths of the largest sporting goods chain in the area. “Good-looking, every last one of them,” she said. “Well, the ones that were there. One’s in the military and deployed somewhere. I could set you up.” The last part she said to get a reaction out of Hayden, who’d sworn off relationships almost a year ago.