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The bite of pain in her voice actually soothed my ruffled feathers It reminded me that Cat was a sister who loved her brother and she was just looking out for hi to hurt him, Cat”
She looked back toward her boys, not saying anything for a while
My whole body was tense, waiting for her to decide if she was going to accept me in Cooper’s life or not
Finally she said, “Sadie Thomas was in my year at school She likes sex and doesn’t care what anyone thinks about that”
“And Cooper ith her,” Iwith someone else It was ridiculous! It wasn’t as if I hadn’t been with other men
“One night” She sighed “Unfortunately I don’t get the sa about my brother’s sex life We live in a sh a lot of woht for sure you were going to be just another one of those wolasses so I could see her eyes “You’re not, though He talks about you a lot”
Warmth suffused me “Yeah?”
She smiled reluctantly “Yeah”
“I really care about hiive him a little happiness He deserves it”
“He deserves soavelook that turned a little sad “There’s soer on itbut it just doesn’t sit right I don’t trust you”
Well, crap
That stung
I blew out a shaky breath “What can I do to change your mind?”
She shrugged “Stick around Only time will tell”
“So Uncle Cooper says you were a surgeon?” Joey said around a mouthful of sandwich
He and Cooper had returned fro their sand castle They had a ton of pictures to capture the moment they broke their sand castle record (it was a pretty epic sand castle), and finally they came back to relieve the tension between me and Coop’s sister
“I was,” I said in reply to Joey’s statement
“A head surgeon or a heart surgeon?”
I s to an eight-year-old about this? “Neither I hat you call a general surgeon”
He scrunched up his cute little face “What’s that?”
“It’s a surgeon who helps fix probleus”—I pointed to all the places onnot to duallbladder, and pancreas”
“Huh” He frowned in thought “I don’t knohat some of those are” He seemed put out by this “What’s an eso” He trailed off
“Esophagus”
He repeated it until he felt it sounded like what I was saying
“It’s the tube that connects our throats to our stomachs”
“Oh” He nodded “Was it yucky? Being a surgeon?” He ht
Cooper chuckled beside hed “For some people it is a little yucky But it never bothered me”
Joey shook his head “I once saw the inside of a dog I didn’t like it”
I raised an eyebrow
Cat gave ot run over last year Joey found her”
“Oh no” I was a dog lover We’d had a beautiful Lab, Hazel, when I was a kid and I was heartbroken when she died of old age I hated any sad stories about dogs
“You like dogs, Doc?” Cooper said softly
I nodded
His eyes smiled at me “Me, too”
“Why don’t you have one?” I re on the beach I could see hi the shore
Cat grunted beside uess”
Confused, I shrugged at Cooper and waited for his”
“And kids,” Joey said, piping up
Cooper and his sister tensed on either side ofto ask, however, with Joey around
“So”—I hurried to change the subject—“I hear that you are soenius”
He shook his head, very serious and grown-up “I ah”
I bit back rinned atfrom him “Well, I would love to hear you play You know, Bailey has a piano at the inn”
“I know” He nodded, his eyes lighting up “She lets me play on it”
“Well?” I looked to Cat and Cooper “Would you mind?”
It turned out they didn’t mind at all and were, like any proud faood Joey was
“Well, this is a surprise,” Bailey said as we strode into the inn She moved from behind the reception desk and i Joey, who patted her on the back like a forty-year-old man
When he pulled back he grinned at her “Jessica would like to hear me play”
Bailey s to you, kid The piano”—she gestured to the Steinway upright she had in the front room of the inn—“is all yours” ite of pain in her voice actually soothed my ruffled feathers It reminded me that Cat was a sister who loved her brother and she was just looking out for hi to hurt him, Cat”