He sighed, “I don’t want to hurt Carrie, Blaire. You know that.”

“Then don’t act like an ass. Ax spent his whole day with us at the zoo yesterday. Then when it was time for us to leave his apartment last night, Carrie cried for him.”

I could hear the distress in my brother’s voice. “She cried? Fuck, why did you have to tell me that?” He had a soft spot for crying females, especially his niece.

“Because I want you to understand who you’ll really be hurting if you pull your macho bullshit. They’re nuts about each other, and she deserves to get to know him, Beau.”

I heard a deep huff expel from his lungs. “Fine. Whatever. I’ll be… polite. For Carrie.”

“That’s all I’m asking,” I told him with a smirk that I was sure he could hear in my voice. “Now, since Evan is out of town and Carrie will be with Axel, would you like to take your favorite sister out for dinner before I go in for my night shift?”

“Aw, I wish I could. I have to wrap up some stuff here at the office after I drop Carrie off. Why don’t you ask one of the other guys? I think Bode should be done by then.”

Lisette, the nurse in charge of prepping patients, stuck her head in the door and signaled that my first patient was ready, so I told Beau I would talk to him later. I shot off a quick text to Bode to ask him about dinner and headed toward the exam rooms.

I was meeting Bode at Applebee’s after work, and as I was stuck in traffic on the way, I received a call from Evan. I answered it on Bluetooth and said, “Hey, Evan! How is Cali?”

“Sunny,” he replied. “The conference is going great. I’m speaking tomorrow, so I’m about to go back to the room and review my notes.”

“You’ll be wonderful,” I assured him. I heard a man speaking in the background, and I asked, “Who is that?”

“That’s, um, Steve.”

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. Evan had dated a man by that name earlier this year, but they broke up recently. It was a pity because I had thought he might be the one for Evan. He was the only boyfriend Evan had ever introduced me to.

“As in Steve, Steve?”

He laughed. “That’s the one. Hold on… let me get somewhere quieter.” I could hear movement, and then the background noise dropped off. “Okay, I’m back. So, you know we stopped dating last month, but Steve called me while I was at the airport yesterday. I told him I was in LA, and he texted me this afternoon and said he was at my hotel.”

“Wow, Ev. So, he flew all the way to California to see you? Sounds very romantic,” I sang.