Sure, Sadie, ramble. That’s convincing and doesn’t sound at all weird.

“Okay,” he said slowly.

“Don’t say it like that. I’m fine. I don’t sleep with guys. I like my space, just like you do. And we made rules. Rules on the street corner. In front of God and everyone.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Sadie.”

Two days in a row. That was intense. It was, she realized in that moment, a violation of her usual relationship conduct. She’d never been in a relationship where she felt the need to have sex that often. It was healthy and good to have nights alone, and to have time to herself and...and...he was talking sex tomorrow. Probably the next day, too.

And she was going to say yes.

“Okay. Tomorrow. Do you work?” she asked.

He nodded. “Yeah. I’ll be patrolling the highway mainly, but I always come to town for coffee and lunch.”

“I was going to stop in on Alison again. So I’ll be in town tomorrow, too.”

“Maybe we can run into each other when I get coffee,” he said.

“Elevenish, right?”

He nodded.

She shouldn’t be making a coffee date with the guy. She shouldn’t even have made an immediate follow-up sex date with him. And now there would be an additional meet-up. But she wasn’t going to tell him no. She might not show up to coffee, though. She might not.

Toby started rubbing against her legs and she looked down at him. “What?” she asked, and got nothing but a blank cat stare in return.

“See you,” Eli said.

“Yeah, bye.”

He walked out of her bedroom without even kissing her goodbye, and she stood there, naked, until she heard the front door shut behind him. And she became acutely aware that she was standing naked in a room with a cat leaning against her legs, watching the blank space where Eli had been.

She shuffled to the bed and flopped onto her stomach, then shrieked when Toby followed, jumping onto the bed and walking across her back, the pads of his feet cold on her skin.

“Boundaries!” she shouted, mainly at Toby but also partly at herself.

If this Eli thing was going to work there would have to be boundaries. Because he’d left her feeling hollow and emotional. She rolled to her side and curled her knees up to her chest, her heart thudding dully.

It was all because she’d been celibate for too long. She was out of practice. The sex had been easy. More than easy, it had been so much better than she’d ever remembered it being. But the surrounding stuff all seemed harder. Deeper. Weirder.

But she would work it out. They would work it out. Because this was way too good to give up.

But she was not meeting him for coffee tomorrow.

* * *

She could not believe she was meeting Eli for coffee. Sadie frowned deeply so that she would appear as angry with herself as she felt and tugged on her sweater sleeves, crossing her arms beneath her breasts as she stormed across the street and into the coffee shop.

Where he was not.

Well, eff him and his effing coffee break. Was he not coming? Was that the game? Make Sadie think you were coming to coffee and then not come to coffee the day after you banged her senseless and left her curled up alone in bed with a cat?

As if he could make her feel more pathetic.

No, she wasn’t pathetic. And he wasn’t allowed to make her feel pathetic because she forbade it. She withdrew permission. She was the keeper of her own life, blah blah blah.

She leaned against the counter, tapping her fingertips together while she looked over her shoulder at the closed door, then into the empty dining room.

There was a girl who had to be in high school working behind the counter, pulling espresso shots and chatting with another boy who really was no more than an infant. Or...sixteen, but whatever.

They were flirting. Ugh. Well, someday he would leave her standing in an empty coffee shop. So flirt away, little children.

Bah.

Sadie didn’t know how Cassie, the owner of The Grind, could stand to be around the heady teenage hormones all day. But there she was, smiling away at the register and seemingly un-annoyed by her employees.

It was because Cassie was in love herself, probably, as Sadie had learned during her frequent visits to get coffee. Because Cassie was so in love, she radiated joy and spent much of her time talking about her man, Jake. That love nonsense seemed to blind otherwise rational people to related stupidity.

The door behind her opened, the wind rushing in. She turned and the breath rushed out of her. Eli. He was here. He hadn’t stood her up.

And it shouldn’t matter.

Feeling a bond with him post-sex is okay. It’s not like you’ve ever done it quite like this before.

Ah, yes, her running internal monologue had a point.

Before him she’d always been in an actual dating relationship with the men she slept with. And with that had come companionship and coffee dates and nice talks. And it had all gone a long way in reinforcing her and her ego.

But this was different and so the fact that she didn’t have a firm handle on it really was understandable.

There, pep talk managed. And now she would just enjoy her coffee.

“You came,” she said.

“I’m on time.”

Yes, dammit, he was. And she had been flailing around for no reason at all.

“Of course,” she said. “Coffee?”

“That’s what we’re here for.” He walked to the counter and Cassie smiled.

“Deputy Garrett, the usual?”

“Yep,” he said. “And whatever Sadie would like.”

Her eyebrows shot upward but she didn’t say anything. He was buying her coffee in public. That seemed like a...thing. Like a public declaration, even. Or maybe it was just coffee. Probably it was.