“YOU KNOW I DON’T LIKE TO INTERFERE,” Denise Hendrix said as she poured chocolate chips into a bowl.

“If only that were true.” Nevada leaned against the counter and watched her mother mix up cookie batter. “You love to interfere.”

“No. I love to be right.” Her mother smiled at her. “There’s a difference.”

“A subtle one.”

They were in her mother’s kitchen, at the Hendrix family home. Nevada had grown up here. There had been various renovations over the years, the most recent a kitchen remodel, but nothing could ever change the fact that this was the home of her heart.

Her mother took the bowl to the cookie sheets and began scooping batter into neat rows. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“There’s not much to say. The interview went badly. I was expecting Elliot Janack and I got Tucker instead.”

“I thought you liked Tucker.”

Nevada thought about how desperately she’d been in love with Tucker all those years ago. Not real love — but she’d been young and foolish and caught in a world she’d been unprepared for. Cat had been as much a revelation as Tucker himself.

“Liking him isn’t the problem.”

She briefly explained about their short past, the lone sexual encounter, sparing her mother the details. “I was embarrassed about what had happened between us, but he kept bringing it up. I swear, he only wants to hire me now to improve his reputation. I’m not interested in that. The job is a great opportunity, but not under those circumstances.”

“Did he ask you to have sex with him so he could redeem himself?”

“No, but I don’t want a pity job.”