Page 6 of The Texan's Secrets

“Busy?”

“And how.” Paris cocked her head to one side. “Why’d you move the plant?”

Emilia had forgotten about the photo setup. “More sunlight.”

Paris’s gaze narrowed. “You’re going to leave it sticking out in the middle of the room like that?”

“Just for a couple of days.” Emilia squelched her guilt. She hated lying to Paris, even about something innocuous.

“Hope it helps. We had this couple in the restaurant celebrating their fiftieth anniversary. They had a huge table, over forty people there to celebrate.”

“Fifty years?” Emilia couldn’t even imagine staying with one person for that long.

Paris nodded.

“Did they look happy?”

Paris chuckled at Emilia’s doubtful expression. “Don’t be so skeptical. Yes, they looked happy. They were over the moon. They had seven great-grandchildren.”

“That’s got to be rare.” Abandoned when she was young, Emilia didn’t remember her own parents. As a foster child, she hadn’t seen a whole lot of happy marriages.

“Rare, maybe. But far from impossible. You have to have a little faith, girl.”

“I have faith,” Emilia said staunchly. “In myself, my career and my independence.”

“I don’t want independence.”

“You wantdependence?”

“I want happily ever after with someone who adores me. I mean, eventually. After I have some fun along the way. I’m too young to settle down yet.”

Emilia tried hard to hide her skepticism. “I wish you nothing but good luck with your long-term plan.”

“I could even meet Mr. Right at k!smet’s D-Night. It’s coming up fast.”

“D-Night is definitely coming up fast,” Emilia acknowledged.

Luckily, Paris was working again tomorrow night. Emilia promised herself she wouldn’t get distracted this time. She was determined to pick out a great guy for her friend and increase the odds of Paris’s happily ever after.

“As inhappily ever after?” Nico asked incredulously.

His sister, Misha, quickly backtracked. “I’m not suggesting you use k!smet for real. I mean—” She fought a smile. “I’ve known you way too long to think that.”

“We’re talking about data collection, pure and simple,” Maggie Del Rio added. “The marketing team wants to do a deep dive into the Surprise Me! function and the IPO event.”

The three were sitting on the deck of his penthouse apartment overlooking downtown Royal. Unseasonably warm for January, it was coming up on five, and the rush hour traffic hummed below them.

“We’ll make you a fake profile,” Misha continued, making it obvious the two women had been plotting together for a while on this. “We can call you Nick.”

“Nick?” Nico wasn’t crazy about the idea of going undercover on k!smet.

To learn anything meaningful, he’d have to go out on a date or dates. He’d been careful to keep his presence in Royal under wraps. And unlike the no-strings dates he sometimes went on in Dallas, the women of k!smet were looking for a relationship. They’d try to get to know him. And that was the last thing he needed.

“It’s not like either of us can do it,” Maggie said reasonably. “Everyone in town knows who we are.”

“Plus, you’re both attached,” Nico pointed out.

It was obviously impossible for either of them to take on the task.

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