Her head rolls on the back of the couch, and she narrows one eye at me, looking ridiculous instead of intimidating. “You know I’m right. But I also know that you overthink everything. It’s time to stop that shit. If you need a little more time, then take it, but don’t question him or his motives until he gives you a reason to. A current reason to, I should add. Forget the rest of it and just give him a chance.”

“You’re right,” I begin, but I’m forced to stop talking when her finger hits my lips to silence me.

“Of course, I am. And now that you’ve listened to reason, I think you should sleep with him and get that silly thought it won’t be explosive out of your head. Since you’ve already established you’re horny for his dick AND you know damn well that you’re holding on to your crazy excuses about his motives as a shield of protection, drop it and be the one willing to take risks this time.”

“You don’t think it’s too soon?” I wonder out loud; it’s something that’s been on the back of my mind since I did just get out of a relationship, even if that relationship had been very short-lived.

“Too soon?” She snorts and starts to cackle loudly, slapping my thigh as she cracks herself up. “You’ve been in love with the guy for forever. You’ve known him forever and you’ve been dreaming of having him—in every way possible—FOREVER. Too soon? More like it’s about time!”

I roll my eyes.

“Don’t be a brat. You know I’m right … again. If he doesn’t text you back today, call him tomorrow or go see him at Dirty. Make the move. No one says you have to wait on him to do it.”

“Okay. You’re right,” I say with a slight shake to my voice. I take another sip. “If he doesn’t text me by tomorrow night, I’m going to him.”

“That’s my girl!” she screams, and we both start giggling.

God, I love my best friend.

I DRAG MY FEET AFTER softly closing my truck door and try to keep my eyes open. I’ve been on my last ounce of energy for the last two days, not that I’m complaining, but things have been so busy at Dirty that I hardly had time to even eat. Not to mention, I’ve been spending every second either at Dirty or passed out after I finally manage to drag myself home. Now that things are starting to move along, I’m confident that Shane is ready to handle the nightly operations himself, especially since we’ve already promoted Denton to give Shane the coverage he needs to have time off himself. I can’t fucking wait to be able to go in during daylight hours to handle office shit and only have to stay a few hours at night.

If it hadn’t been for a text earlier from a certain woman that has plagued my every thought for a week, I might have passed out behind the bar hours ago.

I need you, she had said. Well, she had said a bunch of other shit too, but nothing stood out more to me than seeing her say she needed me.

Those three words had lit a fire under my ass, and I had been busting tail in order to get out of there before closing. Thankfully, Shane was there to close because if I had to wait a second longer, I was going to come out of my skin.

I lift the mat in front of the door, and sure enough, a shiny silver key catches the moonlight. I snatch it up with the mental note to spank her ass for leaving a key there. She might as well put a big neon sign telling every lowlife motherfucker to come on in.

I enter the house silently, only briefly looking at the woman sprawled half on and half off the couch, the TV muted as some late-night infomercial plays on the screen. Nikki looks about as uncomfortable as can be, but judging by the drool pooling under her cheek, the girl is out cold.