Faking It by Dorie Graham

great. I’m happy to hear that.” He pursed his lips. Though he preferred not to discuss his own family, he couldn’t resist the urge to get her to talk some more about hers. “Tell me about them—your mother and sisters and anyone else.”
    “I’m not sure what you want to hear,” she said. “My oldest sister, Nikki, is a veterinarian. She has her own practice. My other sister, Tess, owns a nursery. And my mother…well, she’s an artist, though she…may be retiring soon. She’s spent a lot of her time traveling all over the world.”
    “They don’t sound so unusual.” Except that she’d failed to mention their not-so-normal sexual-healing capabilities. Did that mean that was at the root of her discontent?
    “I guess they’re not.” She shook her head. “Except… Well, they have some unusual beliefs. They’re into the whole metaphysical scene.”
    He straightened. “And you’re not?”
    “I fail to see what all this new-age-woo-woo fuss is about.”
    He should tell her. He should admit right now thathe’d heard all about the McClellan women and their magic touch. “Erin, I—”
    “I mean, they actually believe they heal men by sleeping with them. Can you imagine that? How nuts can you get?” She raised her hands in surrender. “There you have it. The dark secret of my family. They’re crazy. Stark raving lunatics.”
    “Why do you say that? I’ve been looking into the metaphysical scene and I find a lot of it quite interesting.”
    Her shoulders heaved and she looked suddenly tired. “To each his own. I just don’t need to be around all that craziness. I need a more…normal grounded-in-reality kind of life. I’m tired of people looking at me askance because I’m one of them. I could never…do what they do—that whole sexual-healing thing. That isn’t what I want in a relationship.”
    Guilt filled him. “There are worse things to build a relationship on.”
    Her gaze narrowed. “Do you know that men still seek out my sister, Tess? She’s settled with Mason. They seem to be living that elusive happily ever after. She’s not looking for a new relationship, yet men still seem to come out of the woodwork to woo her. Maybe not as many as before, but she still gets the occasional guy.”
    She shuddered. “It’s creepy. They hear about herfrom a friend of a friend—Tess has more friends than you can shake a stick at—then they approach her all hopeful and expectant. I think I would truly lose it if that happened to me. Thank God nobody knows me. I’m the younger sister, the forgotten one. Believe me, in my family I’m a bit of an aberration, like the redheaded stepchild, only I’m the blonde.
    “I get that from my father, whom I’ve seen pictures of but have never met. We each have different fathers, you know—my sisters and me. Maggie, our mother, never stayed with one lover for more than a few months at a time. Somewhere along the way she decided to have the three of us, or so she insists. I’m thinking at least one of us had to be an accident, possibly all three, though she would never admit it—just moved us along from lover to lover, house to house. Nikki hated it every bit as much as I did, but Tess is so much like her—”
    She stopped, her eyes round. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know where all that came from. I tend to talk when I get nervous.”
    “No problem.”
    “The point is that I am nothing like them, especially Tess and Maggie. Nikki wasn’t so crazy about the “gift” until she met Dylan and now she’s fine with it—with him. Me…” She took a deep breath. “I just can’t condone the whole sexual-healing thing. If ever a man came to me wanting me to sleep with him andheal him, I guess I’d have to laugh. The whole thing is really crazy. Don’t you think so, Jack?”
    He stared at her for one speechless moment. How the hell was he supposed to answer that?
    “You were okay last night, weren’t you? I mean after we…you know?” Her gaze