And there was therealreason he was up here. She’d gone through a lot of the “let’s improve the relationship between you and your mom” guys. Too many. “I’ve just been busy. In fact, I have to head out now.”
He frowned. “Your café only opened half an hour ago.”
“Perks of being a boss with employees. It was nice seeing you. Have fun in Bozeman.”
She grabbed the coffees that her barista had just finished and popped some almond croissants into a paper box before rushing out of Bloom.
She’d taken coffee and food to Joel and the guys a couple of times in the last month. A small gesture to show them how much she appreciated the work they were doing to find this killer.
She parked beside one of the five trucks in the dirt parking lot. Her gaze lingered on Ethan’s truck for a moment, Maggie popping into her head. Maggie, her best friend. The woman who she shared every aspect of her life with.
Only, she hadn’t told her about the fact she wasstillsleeping with Joel.
Guilt gnawed at her insides. The same guilt that had been there for weeks.
Before she could talk herself out of it, she lifted her phone and called her friend.
Maggie answered on the second ring. “Hey. I was just thinking about you. Are you at Bloom?”
“No.”
There was a pause before Maggie laughed. “Okay, are you at home?”
“I’m at the old firehouse.”
“You are? To visit Joel?”
“There’s something I haven’t told you.”
“Should I be scared?”
Her nose wrinkled. “I didn’t just have sex with Joel the one time.”
“O-kay. How many times have you had sex with him?”
“A lot. A month’s-worth-of-sex kind of lot.” She scrunched her eyes shut.
There was another pause, and she could almost hear her best friend thinking. “Wow.”
“Yeah, wow.”
“Are you?—”
“No. Not dating. Just sleeping together.”
“Huh.”
Polly’s eyes flashed open. “What does that ‘huh’ mean?”
“Nothing.”
“No, that was a loaded ‘huh.’”
“Well, I mean, you never sleep with the same guy for this long. You barely have asecondnight with the same guy.”
Her fingers tightened around the cell. It was true. It was how she protected her heart. “I know.”
“I’m guessing you didn’t tell me before now because you weren’t ready to hear what I thought.”
