Dylan could admit he wasn’t real happy Bliss had betrayed his word not to view Ivy as anything but a sister. He didn’t care that he’d forced the promise from Bliss when they’d both been tenderfoots. He didn’t care that Bliss had obliged him for years even though he’d been sweet on Ivy since the day he met her. He didn’t care that Bliss was a grown man and Ivy a grown woman and the two were perfectly capable of making up their own minds. Dylan didn’t like the union one bit.

While he tried to tell himself it was because Bliss had shared affections with Ivy, Dylan knew he wasn’t fooling anybody, not even himself. The simple fact was, Dylan hadn’t wanted his friend to leave him behind. Stuck in Chicago. Stuck in a life he’d never planned. Stuck in the downward spiral of destruction and deprivation.

“Can I see you after you’re done with work tonight?” the woman asked, her tone hopeful.

Dylan buckled on his revolvers, refusing to turn and see the expectation sure to be radiating from her eyes. Had he been out with her before? Or had last night been the first time? And where in the blazes had he met this woman?

Yep. He was a lowlife piece of scum twice over.

“You could come by the store again.”

The store. His mind began to clear, and memories sauntered back. This was Katherine, the young woman from Olson’s Grocery Store. Mostly so far he’d indulged in harmless flirting and stolen kisses. How had the sorry likes of him gotten carried away with a good girl like her when he barely knew her?

Katherine. But her sister had called her Kit.

“I’ve told Papa all about you,” Kit said. “He wants to meet you. Now that we’re engaged, I can introduce you to him and Mama and the rest of the family.”

Distant shouting filtered from somewhere in the building along with the echo of pedestrians already about on the summer morning. He glanced out the window, noting familiar businesses and signs. Kit’s tenement—or her sister’s—wasn’t far from the boardinghouse he’d lived in since he’d moved out of Bliss’s dad’s home. And it wasn’t far from the police station where he worked.

He buttoned up his shirt, his fingers moving faster. He needed to get out of the tenement before Kit wrangled another promise from him. Even though he had the day off, he’d head over to the station like he did most days.

As he shoved his arms into his oversized sack coat, she chattered about how her family wanted to meet him, how she’d told them about him, and how they already liked him.