“Did you give him a piece of your mind?” Sawyer asks when I crack the door to William’s bedroom open.

William’s asleep in his crib. He’s wearing a fresh diaper, and he looks happy, all snuggled up in bed.

I say nothing and plop myself down in the chair at the corner. I’m spent. I don’t even have the energy to lift my finger.

Sawyer twists over his shoulder to look at me. His face falls. “Oh, shit. Something happened, didn’t it?”

“I told him to leave,” I mumble.

“You told him to leave?”

“Yeah.” My voice shrinks into a thin whisper. “I told him to never come back.”

Sawyer raises his eyebrows and pauses. “You know when I said he was petting a dog, I wasn’t a-hundred percent sure? It was just my first impression, and I could’ve been—”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Maybe he was helping an injured dog,” Sawyer suggests. “He could’ve been holding a bandage in his hands, I don’t know.”

Even as tears prick my eyes, the corners of my lips pull up at the thought of Adam bandaging up a big, confused, sleeping, yellow Labrador and turning it into a canine mummy. As tears stain my cheeks again, laughter escapes my mouth.

I wipe my tears with the back of my hand, and when I open my eyes, Sawyer’s leaning against my couch, looking at me with concern.

“Are you okay?” he asks in a more serious voice.

“Yeah. I’ll be fine.” Sobbing, I add, “I know I don’t sound like it right now, but I’m okay.”

“I know.” Sawyer smiles. “I was just asking to be polite.”

“Asshole.” I laugh.

“You really broke up with Adam?” he asks.

I nod.

“Wow.” Sawyer lets out a low whistle. “Do you know how much that guy’s worth?”

“No, and I don’t want to know.”

“You have a private investigator as a brother. Why not use that fact to your advantage?” he asks, half-jokingly.

“I don’t know . . . My brother’s not very good at his job, for starters. He couldn’t even find me for his client, even though we saw each other almost every day.”

“Did it occur to you that maybe I was protecting you?” Sawyer asks.

I squint at him. “Were you?”

“Nah.” He grins. “But seriously, it wasn’t as simple as that, okay? When I search for people, I don’t start by asking myself, ‘Hmm . . . Who do I know who fits those criteria?’

“I started with all the women in their twenties in the city. Then, I filtered this pool of women by ethnicity, height range, and name. I also approached The Succubus, but—”

“But they don’t keep employee data,” I say.

“Yeah.” Sawyer shakes his head. “I still can’t believe you worked there.”

I laugh. “Yeah. I did some pretty crazy things.”

“Do you miss it, being young and carefree?” Sawyer asks.

I consider his question. I was young and carefree, but I was alone, too. I had Sawyer, of course, but he was always busy with work. I kept myself busy, working and partying, until I didn’t have to spend any time with myself.

Now, I have William. He’s more exciting and more precious than anything I’ve ever come across. He gives me purpose. I don’t feel alone now.

“No,” I answer Sawyer honestly. “I don’t miss it.”

“Good.” Sawyer ruffles my hair like he used to do when we were younger. “You’re a strong woman, Katie. I know you’ll be okay. You’ve always taken good care of yourself, but let me know if there’s anything I can do, okay?”

“Okay.”

“I like Adam. I think he’s a good guy and a generous client.” Sawyer chuckles. “But you’re my little sister, and you come first.”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

“Seriously, though, I hope you didn’t break up because of my dog-petting comment. I don’t think I judged the situation correctly,” Sawyer says.

I let out a small laugh. “Oh, my god, stop worrying about the dog. I know what happened. Adam told me.”

“Okay. Cool. It’s just that I was kind of angry when I said that, and I’ve been feeling like maybe I overreacted and got things a little more heated up than necessary, and—”

“Sawyer. Shut up about the dog already. It had nothing to do with that. It was going to happen, sooner or later,” I say, although inwardly I start to wonder if maybe I overreacted and got things a little more heated up than necessary, too . . .

“He’s a good guy, and I was hoping you guys were going to work out,” Sawyer says quickly, as if he’s afraid I’m going to cut him off again. “There. I said it.”

“I was hoping we were going to work out, too,” I say with a deep, sorrowful sigh.