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Are you married?

Do you have children?

Who is waiting for you in San Francisco?

I force all of it down as Ross reaches us. Daniel straightens slightly beside me.

“Kensington,” Daniel says, extending his hand. “Good to see you.”

“Daniel,” Ross replies as they shake hands. “You too.”

Then Ross looks at me. Up close, the years are even more apparent and somehow make him more dangerous rather than less. His gaze moves over my face once, controlled and deliberate.

“Blaire,” he says.

Hearing my name in his voice after all this time hits somewhere I do not permit myself to examine.

“Ross,” I reply.

Neither of us moves for a moment.

I take half a step back before I can stop myself.

His eyes register it.

Of course they do.

Ross does not move any closer.

Instead, he extends his hand.

“It’s good to see you again,” he says.

The greeting is so socially perfect that I almost hate him for it.

I look at his hand.

Then I put mine into it.

The contact is brief.

It is also catastrophic.

Heat shoots through my palm and up my arm with such immediate familiarity that my stomach tightens. His grip is warm and firm, exactly as I remember it, and I have to consciously stop myself from pulling away too quickly.

Ross releases me first, as he quickly glances down at my hand.

“It’s good to see you too,” I say.

The lie comes out beautifully. Daniel looks between us.

“You two know each other?” he asks.

“We worked together years ago,” I reply before Ross can answer.

Ross's gaze stays on me.

“Yes,” he says. “We did.”