The Friday before my nephew’s fourth birthday, I was recruited to run errands for my sister. I admit to being pretty put-out about having to leave the office, drive out to my sister’s to get my nephew, only to then drive all the way back to a shop located just two blocks from my office. My sister raved about their stuff, but I’d never ventured in even though she’d been bugging me about it for months.

I agreed to go that night because Emmett, as my only nephew, was my special dude. Also, my sister would’ve given me a purple nurple if I hadn’t. Jamie might’ve been a married mother of three with a fourth on the way, but she would always be my zany older sister. The two of us were best friends, our bond unbreakable after we lost our parents and our little brother Steven in a car accident. I’d been sixteen and Jamie was eighteen when it happened.

Jamie fought for guardianship of me, never once wavering in her decision, not even when I begged her to leave me behind. It had killed me to watch my sister giving up her college scholarship in order to get a job waitressing to support us both. Our parents hadn’t been rich—far from it—so they hadn’t had life insurance or anything left behind to keep us going. The remaining car was repossessed and the lease on the townhome we rented hadn’t been something Jamie could afford to keep up with.

I’d gotten a job as a cashier at the local Walmart in order to help, but it hadn’t made much of a difference since I wasn’t allowed to work near as much as I needed to. My sister had been a machine, her one and only focus being my ability to get a college scholarship. Because of her focus and guidance I had. I was very aware I owed it all to her. It was a large part of the reason I worked like a fucking madman, always anxious to increase my bottom line. Just in case. I was extremely well off, but it never felt like enough. Even after Jamie married a man who was more than able to take care of her, I kept right on working like a fiend. By then it was just habit. I liked the stability of money.

“Guess what?” Jamie asked excitedly.

I knew my sister, which meant I had a good idea of what was coming. Therefore, I said nothing.

“Harrison’s friend Mike’s new secretary is coming tomorrow,” she announced as I belted Emmett into his car seat. “She’s adorable and super single.”

Ding, ding, ding. My sister was like old reliable.

I smirked as I glanced over my shoulder at her. “You’re about as subtle as a wrecking crew, JJ.”

“I’m worried about you,” she replied sternly. “It’s insane to me that you don’t date. I don’t want you to end up alone, Ry.”

“But I like being alone,” I reminded her.

“Come on, Ry, it’s been years,” she huffed. “You have to miss…”

Little ears were listening, so JJ had to spell out the word S-E-X. I straightened up from belting Emmett in and set my arm on the hood of the car as I rolled my eyes at my sister.

“And yet I really don’t,” I shrugged.

“That’s just wrong,” she argued. “You’re twenty-eight but you act ninety. No red-blooded male just forgets about S-E-X.”

“I haven’t forgotten about it, (actually, I thought maybe I had, for all intents and purposes). I just don’t care. It’s only been like…” I trailed off, frowning as I tried to remember how long it had been. Yep. I had forgotten. My career was my life and I put it ahead of everything but my sister and her family. Otherwise, I lived to work and worked to live. There was no room for anything else.

“Four years,” she provided in exasperation.

I tapped my fingers against the roof of the car and shrugged. “It’s not right to date and give people an idea of things that are never going to happen. I’m never getting married or having kids and meaningless S-E-X is gross. I don’t like it. It gave me the creeps.”

It really did, too. I’d never had time for a girlfriend, which meant I’d never had sex with anyone I felt connected to. I lost my virginity my senior year in college. Since then, I’d had a grand total of three partners. There was nothing worse than being skin to skin with someone you didn’t have feelings for. I always found it uncomfortable and depressing, to be honest. I kept my heart protected because it was easier.

The worst thing would’ve been to develop feelings for someone who wanted children. I had never once felt the desire to be a father, which was a big deal to me. I believed being a parent was something you should want with your whole heart. If you didn’t feel it, having children was downright cruel.

“You’re too firm about that meaningless thing,” Jamie argued. “At least it was female contact. Dating your fist isn’t normal.”

“I don’t date my fist,” I answered stiffly.

I didn’t. In fact, I hadn’t taken myself in hand for months, maybe even as long as a year. Not that I gave a damn since my focus was money. I wrote it all off as having a low sex drive. In my opinion, there were worse things in life than not banging my way through the town or jerking it incessantly.

“What’s that mean?” Emmett questioned. “Unca Ry dates his fist?”

I pursed my lips to keep from laughing out loud as my sister gaped at her son.

“Emmett!” She scolded. “That’s not what I said. Don’t listen to adult conversations.”

“Yeah it is. The door’s open, Mommy,” he pointed out with a giggle. “I has good ears.” “Well, I mean, well,” Jamie sputtered and glared at me before looking back to Emmett, “your ears heard wrong. That’s not what I said.”

“Okay Mommy,” Emmett said cheerfully. “Can me go get my bots cake now? Your talkin’ is boring.”

I wanted to high-five my nephew right then. If he hadn’t put the kibosh on it, my sister would’ve talked my ear off for an hour about potential fix-ups. Jamie was a machine where I was concerned. She considered it an absolute abomination that I wasn’t at least engaged.

Emmett chattered the whole way to the bakery about his party and his friends at school, and I laughed a lot at his funny stories. I’d never have any of my own, but I adored my sister’s children. They were all amazing, hilarious and so damn smart.

I held onto Emmett’s hand as we walked from my car—a formerly pristine Mercedes that my nephew had just spilled red juice in—toward the bakery. I loved the kid like crazy but damn was I sad about that juice, especially since the car was only nine days old. Fortunately the interior was black, so the juice stain wouldn’t be obvious. I made a mental note to make an appointment to have the car detailed.

As we approached the store I looked through the window and everything just stopped, including my steps. All thoughts of juice and car cleaning appointments went right out the window.

This was because of the sight before me. There on the other side of the window was a woman wiggling her sexy ass along to a beat as she wiped down the front of a glass case. Her curvaceous rear view was the hottest thing I’d ever seen. I wondered if she was one of those girls who thought they were fat. I found that mindset horrifically unattractive. In my opinion women weren’t meant to be stick figures. As I continued watching her, I discounted the idea that she would be that type of woman, since she seemed quite comfortable in her body. I found that sexy as hell.

I watched as her ponytail moved back and forth while she cleaned. I had an tremendous urge to walk up behind her and wrap my arms around her waist, to set my chin on her shoulder and listen to her talk. It was insane, considering I hadn’t even seen her face. As I got closer to the door I studied her hands as she cleaned, smiling when I saw no rings. It was ridiculous the amount of anxiety I felt even thinking that this woman I hadn’t even met might be involved with someone else.

“Is we goin’ in or what?” Emmett asked as he tugged at my hand.

I nodded, my eyes never leaving the vision in front of me.

“Yeah. We’re definitely going in,” I said as I surreptitiously adjusted myself in my pants.

The low sex drive I was so sure about? It was instantly a thing of the past. I was as aroused as I’d ever been and the only thing I could think about was marking my territory in the most sexual of ways.

A part of me realized that shit was getting real and that I was absolutely out of my depth, but I didn’t care. All I could think about was her.

She was all that mattered.