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Chapter One

“I’ll be your date to the wedding”

Words I had never—not even in ination—conceived of hearing from that deep and rich tone reached my ears

Looking down at ns of noxious substances floating around That would at least explain as happening But nope

Nothing Just as left of my Americano

“I’ll do it if you need soain

Eyes groide, I lifted ain

“Rosie …” I trailed off, the word leaving me in a whisper “Is he really there? Can you see hi?”

Rosie—ue in InTech, the New York City–based engineering consulting company, where we had met and worked—slowly nodded her head I watched her dark curls bounce with theher otherwise soft features She lowered her voice “Nope He’s right there” Her head peeked around htly before her attention returned to ht behind you”

Lips parted, I stared atat the far end of the hallway of the eleventh floor of the InTech headquarters Both our offices were relatively close together, so thelocated in the heart of Manhattan, in the vicinity of Central Park, I had gone straight to her office

My plan had been to grab Rosie and plop down on the upholstered wooden ar clients, which were usually unoccupied this early in theBut we never made it I somehow dropped the bomb before we ever sat down That was how much my predicament needed Rosie’s immediate attention And then … then he had materialized out of nowhere

“Should I repeat that a third ti downthe blood in my veins

He wouldn’t Not because he couldn’t, but because what he was saying did notsense Not in our world One where we—

“All right, fine,” he sighed “You can take h ”

My spine locked up

My shoulders stiffened

I even felt the satin blouse I had tucked into my camel slacks stretch with the sudden motion

I can take him

To