Instead, she set her alarm for half an hour earlier than usual, which would give her enough time to run by the clinic before picking up Daisy and Galen from Cicero. She hadn’t expected to toss and turn all night, but she should have. She really hadn’t been sleeping well at all. When the alarm sounded, she ignored it for fifteen minutes, then dragged herself out of bed. She had to rush, including skipping her morning coffee, and as a result, she was a little frazzled and quite grumpy when she carried the first of three cardboard boxes into the clinic. Discovering Sage there, lying in wait and wearing a scolding expression, didn’t cheer her up one bit. Once her sister opened her mouth, Rose got downright cranky. Sage demanded, “What’s wrong with you?” “Excuse me?” “I hope I can. Are you consciously trying to sabotage your relationship with Cicero?” Rose momentarily went still, then tried to recover with a breezy, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Sage spat a word that would have earned her son, Racer, a spanking had he said it.
