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    Brett leaned his chin on his fists and stared across the bar. His drink sat between his elbows, untouched. At the moment, he couldn’t even remember what he’d ordered. Duke and Scott were dividing up the meat, but Brett couldn’t summon the interest to even check out the girls they were talking about.
    He was supposed to be at the hotel with Tessa. Six o’clock had come and gone a long time ago. He should have just picked her up as if nothing had happened. Pretended he didn’t care. They could have been wrapped around each other right now.
    I can’t have Brian so I’ll take you?
    Fah-uck.
    A trio of girls who appeared to be traveling together were trying to catch his attention from the dance floor. He should take them home and do nasty things with them.
    Nah. None of them looked like they had Tessa’s chops in bed. They wouldn’t be bossy. They’d be all about pleasing him and, surprisingly, that shit got old.
    “I’m feeling like a couple of blondes tonight.” Duke grinned.
    “I’m thinking about going Neapolitan,” Scott said, eyeing the trio.
    “Going what?” Duke asked.
    “Neapolitan. You know, one of each flavor.”
    Brett looked at the girls again. A blonde and two brunettes, all three white. Scott didn’t know what the fuck he was talking about.
    “What about you, Brett?” Duke stared at him. “We gotta get the party out of our system before we head to West Virginia.”
    “To record with Jason Callisto.” Scott raised his glass, and Duke toasted with him. “Seriously, bro, Jason doesn’t allow shit to go down at his house. It’s going to be a party-free environment the whole time we’re there.”
    “I know. I’m looking forward to it.” Brett scowled. “I want to get down to fucking work.”
    Scott and Duke exchanged a look across the table. Great, another pep talk coming in for a landing.
    “Dude,” Duke said. “You gotta get over her. She’s married.”
    Brett shot him a dirty look. Idiot. Tessa wasn’t— Oh, Suzi. Suzi was married. Brett stared into his drink. It was brown, which didn’t give him any information on what it was. For a year after Suzi had disappeared from his life and reappeared engaged to Brian Ellis, he’d tried to replace her by taking home every female he could get his hands on. Hell, while she’d been at his house, he’d been bringing home women because she was in the next room and he couldn’t have her.
    This past week he hadn’t even made an effort to replace Tessa. Last weekend, he’d taken her out to the hotel in an attempt to exorcise the memory of Suzi and ended up with an even bigger ghost. Since he’d walked out of Tessa’s office Monday, there hadn’t been another woman. He’d come here every night to check out the scene, spent the time sulking into a drink he didn’t taste, turning down everybody’s party favors and going home alone by way of Tessa’s house. He’d cruise down her street, talking himself into ringing her bell so he could ring her bell, but then would chicken out.
    “We all mourned a little bit when she said ‘I do,’ but it’s not like any of us ever had a real chance.” Scott shrugged. “But why sulk over the toy you can’t have when there are so many other toys you can play with?” He gestured at the bar.
    “Because they’re all toys. I don’t want toys anymore,” Brett snapped. He stood up. “I’m goin’ home.”
    As he crossed to the door, eight girls stopped him to propose carnal acts that would have been really interesting last week. This week? Nada. He took the usual route home, the one that went past Tessa’s house. But this time he pulled into the drive. She had a nice little split-level in the hills, which was entirely dark.
    When he was fourteen, he’d had a huge crush on his dad’s girlfriend, Jennifer, the actress. She would walk around the house in shorts and tank tops, no bra, and brush her fingers through his hair, calling him a cute kid. At night, he’d lie awake getting off