“Hardly any talking from me. More like the questions she asked.”

“So how is it going?”

He heaved a sigh as the light changed, and the cars squealed to their stops at the red. Casey started to walk, but a cab careened by, not bothering to stop. Grabbing her quickly at the waist, he tugged her back.

“Careful,” he said, his heart galloping.

She looked up at him with wide, fearful eyes. “They’re crazy here.”

“Everyone’s crazy. Just watch out, Case.”

“Anyway, so how is Dr. Milo?”

“Here’s the thing,” he said in a clipped voice. While his sister didn’t need to know he was sleeping with his almost-shrink, he didn’t like lying to her. He could skirt the details. “It didn’t work out with her so I’m seeing someone else. A few floors down.”

“Oh,” she said, sounding surprised. “Is the new one good?”

He shrugged.

“Jack,” she said, like a plea.

“I’m trying, but I don’t know that anything is going to make a difference. It happened. I said what I said to Aubrey and she’s dead, and there’s nothing that I can ever say or do to unwind things.”

She grabbed his shirt collar and shot him a rueful look. “Don’t say that. Besides, you need to work on this. You need to fix your head. We have a business to run and a big charity event coming up soon,” she said, her words a reminder of the gala they were supporting to fund breast cancer research. “I got a call from a reporter at the New York Press. She does lifestyle pieces, and she wants to do one on you, a year later.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “I don’t want to do a piece on me a year later.”

“I know. But it would be good for business. The press loves you. And this isn’t Page Six. New York Press does classy pieces. I think it would be good for business, and good for you. You're the Soldier-Turned-Sex-Toy-Mogul, and one of NYC's most eligible bachelors, so get your butt in gear and stop all this self-loathing.”

“I don’t hate myself,” he said, then tapped his breastbone as they neared their office building. “Something in here doesn’t work properly. No shrink is ever going to fix it.”

Besides, everyone was better off if he didn’t try again. If he didn’t get close to anyone, he wouldn’t have the power to wound her. If he didn’t love a woman, he would never hurt that woman by breaking her heart.

She rolled her eyes. “You are going to fix yourself. Because it’s time to move on.”

His phone buzzed with a text from Michelle.

M: I’m going shopping right now.

J: For?

He tucked his phone away, but was eager for her answer.

9

Disguises

She was surrounded by fake schlongs.

“Explain this to me,” her friend said in her crisp, British accent. “How large does a vagina need to be to accommodate this?” Sutton’s eyes sparkled as she held a monster-sized vibrator that might have been as long as her arm.