She also didn’t think about sex. Ever.
“—and inform him of the prospective match. If he agrees to move forward—and he will—he’ll travel here to meet you. You’ll confirm that you’re both willing to proceed, and then you’ll sign the marriage contract and we’ll perform the ceremony.”
Lady Marianne smiled at her, warm and reassuring.
“Your family will be proud of you, Iris.”
Iris couldn’t resist that idea. She’d never made her family proud. Her whole life, she’d been a disappointment to her parents and an embarrassment to her sister. She had been nothing but trouble.
If she had actually been the daughter her parents wanted, she could be sitting here right now smiling back at Marianne. And she wouldn’t feel frozen, unable to even pretend to be happy.
This was what she needed to do. As far as she was concerned, the old Iris had died in that car crash. It was time to bury her in a new life.
“I’m ready to move forward,” Iris said. “Please contact him, my lady.”
2
“Imay need a few daysoff,” Keith said.
His boss, Chief Deputy Cooper Dawes, looked at him in exaggerated shock. “You’re taking a vacation? You tried to come in when you had walking pneumonia.”
“It was ‘walking,’” Keith pointed out for the hundredth time. “I could walk.”
“You stumbled around like a zombie and then conked out on my couch.”
“It still counts,” Keith said.
“It really doesn’t.” Cooper drummed his pen against his desk. “Well, you’ve got a mountain of leave time saved up, so as far as I’m concerned, you can take however long you want. So where are you going? What vacation spot tempts the guy who doesn’t relax?”
For a split second, Keith thought about just picking a place at random. Rome. Bali. The Grand Canyon. He could hide out for weeks where the Silver Council would never find him.
But he wasn’t that guy. He had changed a lot over the years, but he hadn’t changedthatmuch.
He said, “I have to go home for a wedding.”
Cooper lit up, and he automatically glanced at the picture frame on his desk. It showed him and Gretchen, his wife and mate, cutting into their enormous wedding cake. Keith remembered that cake: it had been a delicate lemon.
