“You remember Senator Niassen, don’t you, Kate? He has a son a few years older than you. Blair’s age,” my mother murmured, a flawless smile on her lips.

Oh god, she was matchmaking.

“Mmm hmm.” I tried to keep my tone noncommittal. I did know Senator Niassen’s son, and I’d once watched him do lines of coke off of a girl’s ass at a high school party. Not exactly the stuff dreams were made of.

That said, even though her matchmaking was as annoying as fuck, I felt kind of sorry for my mother. In the last year, Blair had really distanced herself from our parents, including my mother’s desire to dress her up like a doll and micromanage every aspect of her life. I had no idea what the woman did for entertainment now, but if she thought I was going to take Blair’s place, she was sadly mistaken.

“I think I’m going to go to the ladies’ room,” I murmured, needing a moment to remove the fake smile from my face. I set the champagne flute on a nearby table, turned, and froze.

One of the benefits to not going out in society anymore was that I no longer ran in the same circles as Matt’s family. After everything, the thought of seeing Matt’s parents was really hard. I’d tried to prepare myself for the possibility that they might be here tonight, but nothing quite compared to the real thing.

And then James Ryan saw me, and I couldn’t escape it anymore.

He walked toward me, a smile on his face, Matt’s mom nowhere to be seen.

My heart hammered.

I could do this. I could be fake. I could get through this, if only because it put me one step closer to saving his son. I figured the role of the grieving fiancée left some room for me to be awkward in his presence, and I totally took advantage of it.

“Mr. Ryan.”

“Kate.”

He leaned forward, pressing a kiss to my cheek, and it took all of my willpower to keep from recoiling at his touch.

What have you done? Did you have your own son killed? Or did you just try to cover it up? How in bed with my father are you?

“How have you been?”

I gave a little shrug, figuring the truth worked better than any lie. “You know how it is. Okay, I guess.”

The worst part was how much Matt looked like his father. They had the same tall, powerful build. The same dark eyes, dark hair. It hadn’t been as noticeable when he’d been younger, but the more Matt had grown into himself, the more he also looked like his dad.

Matt’s father had been an officer in the Navy—a Seal—using his military connections and his father’s connections as a U.S. senator to found Intech, a private security company that had grown into a multibillion dollar entity with its hands in conflicts all over the globe.

Matt served because he believed in his country; his father had served as a stepping stone to more power, more influence, more wealth.

Not a day went by that I didn’t worry about Matt, wonder about him, that I didn’t fear that something had happened to him, that he was lying dead in a ditch somewhere in Afghanistan while I shook hands and exchanged fake fucking smiles and tried to get closer to the snake who wanted him dead.

“It’s hard with him gone,” James commented with an expression so practiced that I couldn’t tell where the truth ended and the lie began.

I nodded like his words didn’t piss me off, like I had somehow magically forgotten that Matt’s parents had basically freaked out and disowned him when he’d enlisted in the military. It had been one thing for his father to join after graduating from Princeton, for his military service to be tied to building his own empire. But Matt had enlisted, his only agenda the desire to help people and serve his country. He hadn’t gotten the shiny Ivy League diploma or lived up to the expectations his parents had for him.

In our world, love came with so many fucking strings.

James smiled again. “It’s nice to see you well, Kate.”

I nodded robotically, trying to find the right words and coming up short; I just couldn’t be fake about this.

He left me standing in the corner, my nerves frayed, stomach in knots.

I went to the bathroom and threw up all of my champagne.

My work phone rang and I paused the broadcast I’d been listening to so I could answer it. My boss had me working on an intelligence memorandum on the current situation in Syria. My part would be a small contribution in what would eventually grow to a thirty-page research paper which he would author. Writing was a huge part of my job. We regularly published articles on security issues within our region, and while I wasn’t senior enough to write my own, I was learning how to get there eventually.

“This is Kate Reynolds.”

“What the hell is going on with you?”

I winced at the sound of Blair’s voice shouting at me through the phone. It had been a week since my unofficial “debut” with my parents at the Kennedy Center benefit, and apparently the news of our reconciliation had made it all the way up to Boston. Or Jackie had called.

“What were you thinking? I mean, seriously, what the fuck were you thinking?”

The old Blair, the Blair I’d known most of my life, had rarely, if ever cursed. The new, I-only-have-so-many-fucks-to-give Blair dropped f-bombs with a regularity I wasn’t sure I could get used to. It was almost like she was me or something.

I swallowed, digging deep for a plausible excuse.

“You know, after the whole mugging thing, I just realized—”

“Oh, save it,” Blair snapped. “I know you. You did not have some come-to-Jesus moment where you realized that you actually wanted to have a relationship with our parents. What’s going on with you?”

I sighed. “You know that conversation we had when you told me that you couldn’t support me in all of this, that you needed to step away so that you could find peace in your life?”

“Yes.”

“You need to step away so that you can have some peace in your life. Trust me, you don’t want to get involved in this, Blair.”

“I thought you’d moved on.”

“What?”

“I thought you’d moved on. What happened with the guy?”

Ahh. The mythical guy who I was supposed to be banging and using to forget Matt. Fuck, I’d totally forgotten about him. Maybe I needed to start writing all of my lies down to keep them straight or something.

“Oh. Um. Yeah, we’re not really seeing each other anymore.”

“What happened?”

With this, I stuck as close to the truth as possible.

“I don’t think he wanted a relationship; he was just looking for something casual and I wanted more.”

I wanted everything.

“I’m so sorry, Kate. He sounds like a dick.”

Considering how worried and pissed I was that I hadn’t heard a word from Matt, I wasn’t going to argue that point.

“There are a ton of great guys out there who would be so lucky to have someone like you,” Blair continued. “Why don’t you talk to Jackie and Will? They might set you up. Or, there was this guy, Adam, in my law school class at Hannover. He was really nice and funny; we still keep in touch sometimes. I think he’s still single.”

I stifled a groan. Blair would hate the comparison, but she really sounded like our mother right now.

“I’m not really interested in dating,” I hedged. “I think I just have to find someone that I’m naturally attracted to. You can’t force these things.”

“True, but I don’t think it would hurt you to get out and start dating. I didn’t want to rush you before, but now that I know you’re open to meeting someone else, it would be good for you to put yourself out there.”

“I really don’t think—”

“I’m going to call Jackie and see if she and Will know anyone. Talk to you later. Bye.”

I heard a click on the line before I even had a chance to respond.

Fuck me.

I liked Will a lot, and I knew my sisters were just trying to help, but the last thing I wanted to do was be set up on a blind date.