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Libby smiled sadly and thanked her for the sandwich she set on her desk. Judging from the paper wrapping, it was a panini from Sal’s downtown. Her favorite. Too bad there was no way she could eat it.

She swallowed the lump growing in her throat. “I’m going to tell my grandmother to keep you in your position when I step down. You’ve really been invaluable to me for a long time. I don’t want you to go back to glorified intern work.”

Taylor shot around Libby’s desk and grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her out of her melancholy. “You’re not

thinking of quitting, are you? Because of a little public faux pas?”

Libby gritted her teeth and bit back the tears she’d been holding in all day. “It’s more than that, Tay. I’m a fraud!

What kind of reputable love guru gets dumped by her fiancé, doesn’t tell anyone for a year, and just keeps wearing the ring pretending nothing happened? I’ve made such a fool of myself in addition to having torpedoed my entire family legacy!”

Unable to sit still any longer, Libby squeezed Taylor’s hand before getting to her feet. If only she could outpace her disaster.

“I’m not gonna lie, this is definitely not optimal, but you can’t just give up. Everyone here is rooting for you. You know that right?” Taylor hesitated. “And . . . I mean . . . most of us had noticed that Davis stopped coming around and you stopped mentioning him.”

Libby turned away from the window with her arms crossed over her chest as if her own hug might comfort her.

“It’s one thing not to tell my sta about my personal life, but another to pretend to still be engaged to the worl

d.” Her stomach dropped as she glanced at her computer. “I’ve already gotten a few dozen emails from clients asking if I’m some kind of swindler. What am I supposed to tell them?”

She dropped onto the modern couch across from her desk.

“No one wants a single matchmaker in charge of their love life. If I couldn’t figure it out for myself, why would they trust me to help them? I’m ruined, Tay. And I’ve taken my family down with me.”

“I’ve fielded a bunch of those calls today,” Taylor admitted quietly as she crossed the room and sat next to her.

The revelation increased Libby’s nausea. How many people are going to jump ship?

“I have to tell my grandmother. It’s going to break her heart,” Libby muttered to herself. “I don’t know how to fix this.”

“I’ve been reading a lot about crisis management today,”

Taylor said, leaning forward in her seat. “I might have an out of the box idea to keep you in your job and our clients on the books.”

Libby looked up from the painted fingernail she’d been picking at to busy her hands. “If you have a way out of this that doesn’t do more harm to my family name, I’m all ears,”

she replied with a tired, lopsided smile. It was impossible not to feel a little lifted by her positivity. “Does it involve selling my soul to a crossroads demon?” she joked, knowing Taylor would get the Supernatural reference.

She smiled, relaxing her shoulders. “If that’s the ceiling on what you’re willing to do, then you might be way more on board with this than I thought.”

At the prospect of a way out, Libby dared to allow hope to creep into her gut. “What’s one step down from a deal with the devil?”

“Another little white lie to cover up the lie of omission,”

Taylor replied with a grin. “Davis and you ended your engagement amicably, and you have since moved on to a new, serious, relationship. You’re not single. You’re just private. Maybe we can say how the public eye put too much pressure on you and Davis and you didn’t want it to happen again.” She waved a hand and added confidently, “We can work out the kinks.”

Libby considered her idea. “Okay, I see what you’re going for, but there’s at least one major problem. I don’t have a boyfriend.”

Taylor’s smile only widened. “That’s why I have a casting call set up for tonight and confidentiality agreements drafted by legal. All you have to say is yes, and I’ll have forty-five

guys here ready to roll. And before you ask, I didn’t call all the talent agencies, just Janice. She won’t breathe a word of any of this.”

“She and Rick just celebrated their second wedding anniversary, didn’t they?”

Taylor wiggled her eyebrows in response. “Yep, and I didn’t even have to remind her what a life-changer you are.

She o ered to sign an NDA just to give you peace of mind, and hand-selected every candidate herself.”