Page 63 of The Texan's Secrets

“Mrs. Yeoh is the best. Trust me, the cake will be both spectacular and delicious.”

“What more could a bride ask for?”

“How did it go at the party with Emilia?”

“Good.” Nico automatically gave the polite answer. Then he considered that it was Rafe who was asking and decided to confess his growing discomfort. “It was mostly good. We did have an argument at one point.”

“Uh-oh.”

“The argument wasn’t the problem.”

“Want to come inside?” Rafe gestured to his open office door.

“Sure.” Nico took him up on the invitation and followed him in.

Contrasting with the more traditional dusky tones of the dining room, Rafe’s office was light and airy with cream-colored walls. His desk was honey oak with clean lines and a low-back chair faced by two light brown leather armchairs.

A bank of windows overlooked a lush greenbelt. It had grown dim outdoors. The sun hadn’t set, but black clouds had rolled up the valley over the past couple of hours, and the first drops of rain now splattered against the windows.

Rafe bypassed the six-person meeting table, snagging a decanter of whiskey before sitting in one of four armchairs in the small conversation group around a low square table.

Nico joined him while Rafe poured the amber whiskey into two heavy cut crystal glasses.

“So what exactly was the problem?” Rafe asked, settling back with his drink as the rain fell harder outside.

“We made up after,” Nico said, taking a sip and letting the warmth spread down his throat.

“Tragedy, that,” Rafe joked.

“This whole thing, it was supposed to be a casual date.” Nico framed his concern. “The plan was for a no-strings, Surprise Me! date with a woman who, let’s face it, I expected to be—” he searched for the right words “—offbeat, quirky, unsuitable. k!smet is supposed to make the good matches. Surprise Me! shakes things up. I should know. I wrote the code. It wasn’t supposed to find me—”

“The perfect woman?”

“She’s not perfect.” But even as he protested, Nico realized he was selling Emilia short. He was hard-pressed to think of anything about her that wasn’t top-notch. “Not perfect for me anyway.”

“I don’t get it,” Rafe said. “So, she’s great. What’s the problem?”

“We’ve had two dates. Plus, we’re collaborating on a video project. We’ve slept together—more than once.” It sounded even more perfect as he listed things off. So, he got to the crux of the matter. “She doesn’t know who I really am.”

Rafe frowned. “You mean she doesn’t know about your prison sentence?”

Nico shook his head. “And that’s not all.”

“Does she know you own AlgoXcell?”

“Not the name of the company. She only knows I develop software.” Nico paused. “And she doesn’t know about Misha. She still thinks my name is Nick—no last name.” Thinking about that, he realized it was miraculous the question hadn’t come up.

Rafe sat back. “When are you going to tell her the truth?”

“That’s the thing. I hadn’t planned on telling her at all, so I don’t have a go-forward plan for this.” Nico downed half his drink and rose to pace across the office. He’d expected to be on to the next date by now, rerunning Surprise Me! To find a new match and gather more real-world data.

“You can stick with plan A and cut it off.”

Cutting things off with Emilia was the last thing Nico wanted to do.

“I can see you don’t like that idea,” Rafe said, sounding amused.

“Even if I did—” which Nico didnot“—she’s one of Maggie’s bridesmaids.”

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