“You don’t want a guy,” Sierra reminded her.

“I don’t want a boyfriend, but being ravaged by the right guy wouldn’t suck.”

“Slut,” Sierra said, grinning as she went for another healthy swig of wine.

“I haven’t had sex for almost a year,” Hayden reminded her. “If I’m a slut, I’m failing.”

“Mason is the CEO of North Brothers Sports—”

“No.”

“Gabe? Friendly guy, good-looking—”

“No.”

“Drake is the baby. I got the feeling he can charm the pants off any girl he wants—”

“God no. We’re talking about you. What are you going to do about Mr. Foreman?”

Sierra grasped the base of her ponytail and slid her hand down the length of her hair, then threw her head back, gazed at the ceiling. “I don’t know. My rule is to not get involved with employees.”

“Sounds like you’re already involved.”

“I could stop it.” Sierra’s voice sounded a lot more confident than she felt.

“So stop it.”

Sierra narrowed her eyes at Hayden.

“You don’t want to stop it,” Hayden said insightfully. “What’s the worst thing that could happen if you and Cole started seeing each other?”

“I lose credibility with the guys. I turn into a female instead of the company owner, their boss, someone they don’t think of as a woman.”

“I’m pretty sure they think of you as a woman, no matter how much they respect you. You have boobs,” Hayden said.

“When things go south with Cole, then there’s drama. With him—how do we work together after that? With the rest of the guys—‘ooh, maybe she’ll sleep with me now that North’s out of the way’…”

Hayden, sitting sideways on her stool, leaned her back against the wall, staring at Sierra expectantly.

“One of us, at least, would get hurt,” Sierra continued, “and how do you work with someone in that situation?”

“Could be awkward,” Hayden admitted. “My take on it? Those are good reasons to not get involved with the guys who work for you. Your personal policy is smart.”

“Thank you.” She’d never doubted the wisdom of it, never had a problem adhering to it before now.

“But…” Hayden straightened again, her face animated, and Sierra recognized that her BFF was about to tell it like she thought it was. And Sierra welcomed it, because she herself sure as hell couldn’t figure out what was what.

She waited while Hayden took a sip of wine.

“But,” Hayden said again, “maybe that policy has outlived its usefulness.”

Sierra deflated. “Not helpful.”

“No, hear me out. How long have you worked at Dunn? Since you were a kid.”

“Grandpa let me start as an apprentice when I was ten.”

“That’s twenty years. And how many times, Cole not included, have you gotten involved with someone who works there, whether you were the owner or not?”

“Zero,” Sierra said easily.