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Her smile told me she saw right through me. “Apart from a few decor changes and a menu overhaul, it was exactly the same as it is now.”

She slid the menu toward me on the table, her perfectly manicured fingers graceful as she pulled away. “Order whatever you like,” she told me, lifting her own menu.

I picked it up and opened the soft leather cover.

I was greeted with something I’d never seen in all my time going out to eat.

“Are these…?” I paused, bringing the menu closer in case Iwasmisreading. “This is a menu of allergy-friendly food.”

Hayden glanced at me before going back to her menu. “That was the menu overhaul,” she said, flipping to the next page. “The restaurant had already begun catering to people who suffered from food allergies. All I did was expand on that.”

“Why?”

“Because, Frankie,” she said, my name like honey on her tongue. She leaned forward as if she was sharing a secret and, mirroring, I leaned forward too. “I believe that people should be able to eat wherever they go, regardless of their dietary preferences and requirements.”

For a brief, fluttering moment, I remembered what she’d been like the night she chased my date off. Charming, seductive, effortlessly funny, and dangerously intelligent. I never imagined she’d be compassionate enough to build an empire around food allergies.

Reluctantly, I began to look at her in a different light.

“Do you have a food allergy?”

She chuckled softly, the sound settling somewhere low in my gut. “No, but a dear friend of mine suffered from allergies.”

“Are all the restaurants you own like this one?” I asked, and she shook her head.

“A lot of my initial investments were purely made for capital gain,” she explained through a smirk. “I couldn’t really change the culinary world without money, could I?”

I guessed not.

“So, that’s why my parents’ store interested you,” I deduced, a little slow on the uptake. But she smiled, and I willed the blood to stop from rushing to my face.

“Precisely,” she crooned, and I hid my bare arms under the table, trying to rub the goose flesh away. “Your parents were pioneers and have amassed a great deal of loyalty. They filled a need that many people relate to, and that’s something that has an infinite amount of potential.”

I understood, albeit reluctantly, but it still wouldn’t sway me. I opened my mouth to reply but she beat me to it, perhaps seeing the defiance in my eyes.

“But today isn’t about business,” she purred and, Goddamnher for it. I squeezed my knees together. “Today is just lunch.”

‘Lunch’ turned out to be Hayden asking me questions while I offered up stiff, monosyllabic answers.

I left a little while later after Hayden was called away to work, and I was…

Conflicted.

I finished my shift at the store in a daze. My mind was trying to fit the different sides of Hayden together like a puzzle but they wouldn’t fit.

By the time I got home my feet dragged across the threshold, exhausted. I flopped down face-first on my sofa, my face squished in the colorful throw pillow Mom had gifted me when I moved in.

My eyelids grew heavier but my phone buzzed in my back pocket, interrupting my well-deserved nap. Without getting up, I fished it out and answered it without looking at the Caller ID.

“Hello,” I mumbled, stifling a yawn.

“You sound like shit, you okay?” Nikkie asked, sounding concerned.

“Fine.” I sighed. I pushed off the pillow and sat up, kicking my shoes off. “Just super tired. How’s your trip going?”

“It’s amazing,” she gushed. “Malta was so beautiful and we’re heading to Sicily tomorrow so I thought I’d call before I left. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, it’s just this new boss,” I admitted.