“Staying busy,” Cole answered as he jabbed a forkful of potato.

“Judging by your boss’s reaction to learning you blew off business from us, I’d say maybe not busy enough,” Mason said, and Cole straightened, ready to light into him.

“Stop baiting him,” Gabe said to Mason.

Mason shrugged. “I would’ve liked to be able to do business with her. She’s building up quite the rep for quality work.”

“Easy on the eyes too,” Drake threw in.

“Don’t go there,” Cole warned around a bite of burger.

Gabe eyed Cole from the side, and Cole realized snapping at Drake like a pissed-off Doberman was a bad move. But just the thought of Drake eyeballing Sierra had a jealous fury beating through his blood.

“Seemed like there was some chemistry between you and Sierra at the hospital,” Gabe said.

Cole let out an edgy laugh. The phrase chemistry between you sounded benign and harmless. He’d been longing so hard for Sierra for the past forty-eight hours that it was a physical ache. There was nothing benign about it, as it was ruling just about every minute of his damn life.

“She’s my boss,” Cole said through a tense jaw.

“I was in the same room with you for approximately three and a half minutes,” Drake said. “Seemed like work positions were a nonissue.”

“You can’t help who you’re attracted to,” Gabe said, and he was lucky he was sitting too far away for Cole to reach him without getting up.

“There’s no sense in denying the attraction,” Mason said matter-of-factly. “It is what it is.”

“I’m not denying there’s an attraction,” Cole said, all of his frustration, both physical and otherwise, exploding out of his voice. He made an effort to level himself before saying more. “What I’m trying to do is have some ethics and not sleep with the boss.”

“You could find a new job,” Drake suggested as he lifted his feet to one of the empty chairs.

“I don’t want a new job.” Cole jabbed a potato with too much force, his fork scraping across the plate.

“If you worked at North Brothers, you’d alleviate the problem,” Gabe said casually, too casually.

Cole scowled as he dragged another forkful of potato through the olive oil and seasonings that had puddled on his plate. “You two have never wanted me working at North Brothers.” He kept his voice casual and matter-of-fact too.

A scoff came from Mason as he set his burger down and then wiped his mouth with a napkin. “We would’ve taken you in a second if you wanted to work with us. You never wanted to work with us.”

Cole expelled a disbelieving snort, then looked at Gabe to see if he was playing along with the farce.

“It’s true,” Gabe said, his light blue eyes piercing into Cole.