"You're very perceptive. My last boyfriend was a cop. We were together for over a year, talking about moving in together, but he didn't like any of the decisions I made during that time. He wanted me to look the other way, get a transfer, just focus on myself and on him, because whatever I did could damage him, too."
"Sounds like a great guy. Someone you could really count on," he said dryly.
"He definitely revealed his true colors. I understood I was making a choice for both of us. But I couldn't just ignore what I'd seen. I was supposed to be on the side of the law. We all were. That was our job. He told me if I was going to take my partner down, then we were done."
"It was your integrity or him."
"Yes," she said. "He left that night, told his buddies the next day that we were over, that I wasn't someone he could be with. That protected him a little when I went to Internal Affairs. They believed he'd tried everything he could to talk me out of it and to convince me I was wrong. He kept his friends and his job. It all worked out for him."
"For both of you," Max corrected. "You got a better job, and he didn't deserve you."
"He didn't. And I don't regret my decision. I do regret not having seen who he really was before that. It makes me cautious now. I haven't been in a hurry to get back into the dating world. It feels so fake most of the time. And I have a job that I can't really talk about, which complicates matters. I also work long hours, and men don't always understand that."
"Women, either," he commented.
She gave him a quick look. "Does that mean you're also single?"
"Yes. And in no hurry to change that."
"Because…"
"Because I have a job and long hours that would complicate a relationship," he said, echoing her words. "Maybe someday, but not now."
"That's how I feel, too," she said, a little voice inside her head suggesting that she might make an exception for the right man, maybe even the man sitting next to her. But she immediately pushed that thought out of her head. "So, back to the party… My mom and her sister-in-law, Beth, Uncle Danny's wife, will be the worst. They'll want to know all about you, so let me know what you want me to tell them. I can say we're just colleagues, let them assume you're FBI. That should shut them down. Then they'll be off you and trying to set me up with every single guy in the bar."
"Well, since you don't want to get set up, and I don't want to be your coworker, why don't we say we're dating?"
Her hands tightened on the wheel so hard she had to pull back from a speedy swerve. "What? Why would we do that?"
"To save you from having to talk to someone's single friend. And to stop them from asking me about work."
"They'll still ask you about that. They'll want to make sure you're a good catch."
"We'll tell them part of the truth. I work for Dominic Ashford's company, in his security department; keep it vague. A good cover has a few details, but not too many."
"I don't know. I'm not sure anyone would believe we're together, because we're not together."
"We have chemistry. You know that as well as I do," he said pointedly. "And I can be a convincing boyfriend. At least for a few hours. Give me a chance."
She stopped at a light, not trusting the playful smile on his face. "This seems like a terrible idea."
"It will be more fun this way."
"I think you're just missing being a spy."
"Maybe. But I'm doing this for you. Your family will love me, and they'll get off your back for a while."
"It would be nice to go to a party and not be the perpetually single girl. Okay, let's do it. But nothing too over the top. We're just seeing each other. It's casual."
"Casual," Max repeated. "Got it. No grand declarations of love."
"Absolutely not."
"No getting down on one knee."
"Max!" she said with alarm.
He laughed. "Just teasing."
