Page 9 of Sweetwater and the Witch

“It’s up to you, Ravenna,” she had said. “If you think you can handle this client, he’s all yours.”

In spite of the negatives, Ravenna had been certain she could match Ethan. Everything about him fascinated her. She was sure the matches she selected would be equally intrigued by him. But there was no denying that something had gone terribly awry on all nine of the dates that she had arranged.

Each of the nine after-action interviews had revealed the same list of complaints. Ethan had been described in various shades of dull,boring,uncommunicative, and obsessed with his small engineering analysis business. Candidate number nine had declared Ethan “a complete waste of time” and insisted that an additional match be added to her contract to make up for the “poor quality” of the Sweetwater date.

For his part, Ethan had been less than helpful. Each of the nine candidates reported that he had ended the date early, saying he had to get back to the lab to finish an analysis of a specimen.

“Obviously you are no longer optimistic about finding a good match for me,” Ethan said. “I get that. But I’m not ready to give up on your services.”

“That’s very gracious of you, Mr.Sweetwater,” Ravenna said. “But you don’t understand. This agency is giving up on you.”

He considered that briefly, frowning a little as if trying to translate her words. Then he crossed the office in a few long strides, leaned forward, and planted both hands flat on the surface of her desk. His eyes heated.

“If you dump me before I get all ten dates specified in the contract, I’ll sue,” he said.

That did it. Now she was getting mad. She smiled her iciest smile.

“No, you will not sue, because when theCurtainand the other local media outlets discover that a member of the Sweetwater clan is suing one of the most elite matchmaking agencies in town because he wasunmatchable, there will be headlines. Again. There will be pictures. Again. There will be interviews. Again. The story of your role in the Kavanagh affair will be dredged up and splashed across the front pages.Again.There will be questions—lots and lots of awkward questions. Your family will not behappy about that. It’s well-known that the Sweetwaters have always gone out of their way to maintain a low profile in the media.”

Okay, she was bluffing—a little—but they both knew that it was all true. The Sweetwaters had a long-standing tradition of trying to keep the family name out of the glare of the media. In addition, it would look ridiculous for a member of the clan to sue over something as humiliating as a failed attempt at matchmaking.

Ethan got a calculating look. “You play a tough game, lady.”

“I am not playing games.”

“Neither am I. You owe me one more date.”

She took a sharp breath and started to rise from her chair, preparing to tell him one last time that she was firing him. That was when the outrageous idea struck with such dazzling force that for a moment all she could do was stare at him.

No, it would be incredibly reckless. Ethan would probably refuse, anyway. But if for some reason he accepted the deal, it just might work.

She sank back down into the chair and did a single staccato drumroll on the desk with her polished nails.

“You’re not going to give up and go away quietly, are you?” she said.

“No,” he said, “but I have an idea.”

“So do I. You want one more date? Fine. You’ll get it. With me.”

He went very still and watched her with his specter-cat eyes. “You?”

“I happen to need a date. A family event. My grandparents’ anniversary. It’s a big overnight affair at the Silver Lake resort in the Silver Mountains. You know what those celebrations are like.”

He grimaced. “Big family gathering and you’re not married. There will be pressure. Lots of it.”

“Yep.”

“I understand, believe me.”

“You, too?”

“Yep.”

On this topic, at least, they were in complete accord, she thought. Family was everything on Harmony. For two hundred years the institution had been woven into the basic structure of society by a rigid network of laws and customs. Sooner or later almost everyone got married, and the only kind of marriage that mattered was a full Covenant Marriage. The pressure to marry became intense after a certain age. The tacky Marriage of Convenience, intended to put a veneer of respectability on what was nothing more than an affair, did not count. MCs were for young people who wanted to spread their wings and experiment before settling down into the real thing.

So, yes, when it came to family pressure, she and Ethan each had a solid understanding of what the other was facing.

He studied her as if she was an unfamiliar specimen of amber or quartz. Maybe he was trying to decide if she had any useful resonating properties.

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