The corner of the other man’s mouth hitched up in a half smile. “I’m on your turf. I get it. Just clearing my shit out. Would have done it Friday, wasn’t expecting you in so early. Don’t worry, I didn’t piss on anything to stake my claim. It’s still all you in here.”

Damn. Caught.

“Sorry,” Lincoln said with what he hoped was a genuine-ish smile.

“No worries,” Nick said, sliding a couple pens and a file folder into his laptop bag. “It’s a great job. You’re right to want it back.”

“You did good stuff,” Lincoln said as he approached the desk and dropped his bag into the guest chair while he waited for Nick to finish clearing out.

Nick’s smile flashed wider this time. Real. “I know.”

Lincoln laughed at the other man’s confidence. “You thinking of asking Cassidy for a full-time gig?”

“Nah. It’s a good place, good people, but I get restless easy. Freelance suits me, and when things get slow, I supplement by bartending. Come by Founders Hotel sometime. I work at the bar there—drinks on me.”

“Sure, thanks,” Lincoln said, shaking Nick’s hand as the other man came around the desk. “And thanks for holding down the fort.”

Nick nodded once before lifting his hand in farewell and walking out the door. A man of few words, then. That worked just fine for Lincoln, who relished the idea of getting back to work.

Strictly speaking, he wasn’t much of a morning person, but he’d purposely gotten here an hour before everyone else would start trickling in. He needed a few minutes to reorient.

He lowered himself to his swivel chair, surprised and a little relieved to see that everything was exactly as he’d left it. Ballantine hadn’t been lying about not pissing on Lincoln’s turf.

He pulled his laptop out of his bag, clicked it into the docking station before turning it on.

Coffee, he realized. He should have gotten coffee on his way in. There was a big old pot in the break room, but this early, nobody would have started it. Guess it’d have to be him.

He pushed back, intending to head to the kitchen, but turning right at the last minute. Maybe he’d see if Cassidy was in. A notorious workaholic, the man seemed to relish being in before everyone else, leaving after everyone else too. Lincoln wondered if married life had changed him.

The office was dead quiet this early, so Lincoln could hear the quiet conversation coming through Cassidy’s open door before he even got close.

His footsteps slowed and then stopped altogether as the female voice slammed into him. He’d know the low whiskey-rasp anywhere.

Daisy.

It was Daisy’s voice.

Before he could think better of it, his footsteps had quickened until he was all but dashing into his boss’s office door. He didn’t know what she was doing here, didn’t know what he’d do when he saw her, but he had to see her. Had to tell her—

Lincoln skidded to a halt in the open doorway, as his pounding heart slowed to a disappointed thud.

Cassidy and Emma turned to him in surprise.

Emma.

God damn it. Of course it was Emma’s voice he’d heard, not Daisy’s. Of course it would be the twin who was married to his boss who’d be in his office, not the twin who was in North Carolina probably resenting the hell out of him.

He’d never been quite so disappointed to see his friend.

But then Emma was smiling, moving toward him and throwing her arms around his neck in such a warm—and unexpected, given Emma’s usual reserve—welcome that he couldn’t help but smile, even though she wasn’t quite the twin he’d hoped to see.

“You’re back,” she said, pulling back and beaming up at him, hands on his shoulder.

“Looks like,” he said.

“Mathis, mind getting your hands off my wife,” Cassidy said. But he too was smiling. Lincoln extended a hand to him, but Cassidy shocked him even more than Emma had by using the hand to pull Lincoln in for a one-armed hug. “Damn good to see you, man.”

“Sorry about the longer-than-expected absence.”

Cassidy waved it away and went around to his usual throne behind his desk. “Don’t. Come. Sit. Talk.”

Lincoln and Emma exchanged a look at his bossiness. “He’s a control freak, Em. I don’t know how you do it.”

“Easy. I ignore the commands in all places except the bedroom, and there I give as good as I get.”

Lincoln winced. “Really?”

She laughed and patted his cheek. “Sorry. It’s good to have you back. I’ll leave you boys to talk.”

Emma was almost out the door when Lincoln called her back.

She turned. “What’s up?”

Shit. Fuck. Was he going to do this? Hell yeah he was.

“How’s your sister?” he asked.

Her eyebrows lifted. “She’s good. Quite good, actually.”

His chest tightened, and he hoped that Daisy being “quite good” wasn’t due to a change in her romantic status.

“You haven’t talked to her?” Emma asked.

He swallowed. “No. Haven’t been in touch since I left.”

“Since you ran away, you mean,” Emma corrected.

“Emma,” Cassidy said in a warning tone.

“No, it’s all right,” Lincoln said to Cassidy, his eyes never leaving Emma’s candid stare. “I did run away.”

“Do you regret it?”