“I’m telling you, it was awkward.”
“And I’m telling you, it was hot awkward. The best kind.”
I drop my head onto the table with a thunk. “I miss when everyone thought I was boring.”
“You were never boring,” Lily chimes in as she sets down two stacks of pancakes the size of small buildings. “You just had your sparkle dimmed. And look at you now! Back in town, running a kitchen, going viral! We love a comeback arc.”
“Oh no,” I whisper into my syrup. “I’m a meme.”
“Asexymeme,” Dee corrects.
I sigh. “You’re both menaces.”
Lily pats my shoulder with a grin. “That’s how we show love around here.”
And I can’t help but laugh, because honestly? I might be humiliated, overwhelmed, and perpetually one second away from tripping over my own emotions.
But I’m also home.
And pancakes help.
Dee insists on walking me to work like I’m being dropped off at kindergarten after a traumatic juice box incident.
“You’re going to be fine,” she says as we step up outside The Marrow. “You just need to walk in there, head held high, and pretend like you haven’t been turned into Silver Peak’s accidental romantic lead.”
I clutch my coffee like it’s emotional armor. “Easy for you to say. You weren’t caught in a slow-mo dip by Mount Rushmore in an apron.”
“You looked cute.”
“I looked stunned and mildly concussed. And everyone has seen it.”
Dee throws the car in park and leans over to squeeze my arm. “You’ve got this. You’re a badass, Josie Dawson. You left town to chase your dreams, and now you’re back, working in a gorgeous restaurant that smells like roasted garlic and sexual tension.”
“Dee.”
“Don’t deny it. I can smell it. Like pheromones and focaccia.”
Before I can throttle her with my travel mug, the front door swings open, and Knox’s assistant, Nova, steps out. Cool, composed, with an espresso in one hand and a tablet in the other. She’s dressed in a sleek pantsuit and combat boots, like she’s one well-timed thunderclap away from summoning lightning.
She stops when she sees us, one brow arching in greeting. “Ah, Josie!”
“Uh, yeah.” I step forward, try to look like I haven’t just been compared to focaccia, and offer a hand. “Hey, how are you, Nova?”
Nova smiles, a little sideways smirk that says she could run both a Fortune 500 company and a girl gang. “Oh, you know how it is.” She turns her attention away from me. “And you must be…?”
I swear,swear, that Dee stands up straighter as the spotlight turns on her.
“Hi,” Dee says, smooth and casual in a way she absolutely wasn’t two seconds ago. “I’m her sister. Dee.”
Nova’s gaze flicks to her, and there’s the tiniest pause.
“Well,” Nova says, voice warm but a little teasing, “good to know a bright smile runs in the family.”
Dee grins. “Oh right. Thanks.”
Oh,okay then.
Did that really happen?
