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“I’m gonna say this once.”

My brows went up. Oh, boy. I knew that tone. Someone was close to getting an ass whoopin’.

“My sister is off limits.”

What the actual fuck? That was the last thing I’d expected to hear.

Listening closely, I waited to hear what the other person was going to say, when I heard his voice.

Nightmare.

“I’m watching her like she’s my own little sister,” he replied evenly. “You got nothing to worry about.”

I stumbled back a step. A little sister? I knew he wasn’t interested, but that’s all he saw when he looked at me?

“Good man,” I heard my brother say.

Good man?

Fuck them both, but especially fuck Nightmare.

No—actually—I owed him. I needed to hear him say those words out loud. It was the kick I needed to start putting myself first.

I wanted to be happy. I wanted a family of my own, and I was going to start taking the steps to make that a reality.

Setting the trash bag down quietly beside the door because I’d be damned if I let either of them know I’d heard their little conversation about me, I went back inside with my head held high.

“You okay?” Ian asked, eyeing me funny. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“I’m great,” I lied.

I wasn’t great, but I would be because I was going to broaden my horizons. “Ian,” I said.

“Yeah?”

“The trash is still outside the door. Can you grab it in about five minutes and put it in the dumpster?”

Again he looked at me funny, but didn’t argue. “Sure thing, Boss Lady.”

It was hours later that I found myself at the Southside Animal Hospital with my back against the wall and my heart in my throat, listening to Dr. Walker—Ben, that’s what he kept asking me to call him—give me the rundown.

After my shift and the gut punch of overhearing my brother and Nightmare in the alley, I’d gone upstairs ready for a massive glass of wine and a long, hot bath in my soaking tub.

Only I never made it that far because when I walked in, I was met with a limping Murphy.

I wanted to believe that it was nothing. He was nine years old after all, and he was a hefty boy. Big dogs slow down. That was just how it went. However, I was also going to seek a medical opinion to verify my assumption because Murphy was like my child.

“Easy, buddy,” Ben murmured.

He was on the floor too, in his navy scrubs with my soul dog’s enormous head on his lap, running his big hand down Murphy’s back while Murphy groaned like it was the best back rub he’d ever had. That was my boy. Super dramatic to show he loved the attention.

“Well?” I asked, biting my lip.

“Okay,” he said, finally, giving Murphy’s ear a rub before he looked up at me. “So here’s what I think is going on.”

I wiped my palms on my jeans. “Okay.”

“His hips are bad. You already knew that.”