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investment in real estate”—but Justin didn’t see the point in paying more money for more rooms he wasn’t going to use.
    Besides, his apartment was conveniently located near the hospital—which he particularly appreciated when he had the early-morning shift. And the late-evening shift. And especially after a double shift.
    When he was home, he felt comfortable in his space. It was his sanctuary from the craziness of the world. Four days into the New Year, he was enjoying that sanctuary—until his phone rang, indicating a visitor downstairs. He scowled when he glanced at the monitor and recognized the young woman in the lobby, curiously looking around the foyer as she waited for him to respond to the buzzer.
    “Yeah?” he said, his tone deliberately unwelcoming.
    “Girl Scout cookie delivery,” she responded cheerfully.
    “If you expect someone to buy that story, you should wear the uniform,” he told her.
    “Is that what it takes to get an invite to your apartment—a short skirt and a sash?”
    “Jeez, no. I’m not a perv.”
    “You’re also not opening the door,” his unexpected visitor pointed out.
    With a barely suppressed sigh, he punched in the code to release the lock so that she could enter. A few minutes later, there was a knock on his door.
    “What are you doing here, Nora?”
    His half sister moved past him into the apartment. “You’re not a believer in traditional Southern hospitality, are you?”
    “Please, come in,” he said, his sarcasm contradicting the invitation of his words. “Let me take your coat and offer you some sweet tea.”
    Ignoring his tone, she took off her coat and handed it to him. “Sweet tea would be nice.”
    He hung her coat on one of the hooks behind the door. “Sorry, I’m all out.”
    “A glass of wine?”
    “Are you old enough to drink?”
    “You know I’m only eleven years younger than you.”
    He snapped his fingers. “That’s right—I was playing Little League when my father was screwing your mother.”
    “Which isn’t my fault any more than it’s yours,” she pointed out.
    He sighed, because she was right. And because he knew his mother would be appalled if she ever found out that Nora had come to visit and he’d been less than welcoming.
    His mother was another innocent devastated by her husband’s infidelity, although she had forgiven John Garrett a long time ago—before anyone knew that the affair had resulted in a child. And even after learning about the existence of her husband’s illegitimate daughter, Ellen had gone out of her way to make Nora feel she was a part of their family—efforts that the woman in question had mostly resisted.
    “Red or white?” Justin asked her now.
    “Red, please.”
    She followed him into the kitchen, settling herself on a stool at the island while he uncorked a bottle of Napa Valley merlot. He slid a glass across the counter to her and decided— what the hell? —he wasn’t on call, and poured a second glass for himself.
    “Thank you.” She took a tentative sip, then set the glass down. “I’m looking for a job.”
    “And you want to cash in your DNA results for a cushy office at Garrett Furniture,” he guessed.
    She shook her head. “I have no interest in your father’s company.”
    “Isn’t he your father, too?”
    “Well, yes, but that was more by accident than design.”
    He nodded in acknowledgment as she sipped her wine again.
    “Besides, an office job would bore me to tears,” she told him. “I like to work with people—that’s why I became a registered physical therapist.”
    Which he already knew but had no intention of revealing to her, because she’d then want to know how and why he knew it, and he didn’t intend to share that information. Yet.
    “Where’d you go to school?” he asked, pretending he didn’t know the answer to that question, either, as he lifted his own glass to his lips.
    “The University of Texas at San Antonio. Graduated with honors.” She