He was as respectful of her as anyone before Darrow had ever been, except perhaps Gray and Michael (in his own way). Carla had been a friend, yeah, but she'd always been concerned and maybe offended about what Nikita didn't say. Nikita always felt like she was searching everything to determine whether Nikita was hiding something. And of course, she always was.

She felt like Cole knew she was hiding, but only wanted to know what he could. He never pushed. Ever. Even now, he was giving her a way to avoid it. She'd known what she was saying when she said it, and he still let her avoid it if she wanted to.

She didn't. Well, she did, but she didn't.

"God, if only," she replied with a dark chuckle. "I'd take a million customers who were convinced they'd ordered their burger without cheese when they actually asked for extra cheese today."