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a proud mama. She actually felt the sting of tears welling in her eyes at the thought that this club was born of her ideas.
    Zara swiped the back of a hand across her eyes and sniffed, tried to get a hold of herself as she watched Quincy and Zack come from the back room, each with an arm around the other’s waist as they looked into each other’s eyes as if no one else existed.
    She smiled, glad to see them happy together.
    In a way, they had been her first assignment, her first match. Granted, she’d handled their case all wrong, had been a little too self-absorbed and selfish, to be sure, but she was here now to work on her modus operandi. She was in training, like she had told Patryk.
    After only one meeting, she already liked him. There was something so sweet and wholesome about him, not jaded like she used to be, or like some of her friends still were.
    She liked Keir, too, for totally different reasons. He was self-assured and confident, a born boss and leader, someone she would have admired in her former life, someone like Quincy.
    Zara choked up again when she remembered all she had lost and what she had been willing to do to claim what she thought was hers.
    She’d almost killed her brother!
    But you did not, child. Time to think about the future and not the past.
    Time to move on.
    Jamaereh always knew just the right thing to say to make Zara feel better and, of course, he was right. It was time to move on.
    Zara took a deep breath and wiped at her eyes, determined not to be a marshmallow, determined to focus on her mission.
    She could see why Micah and Jamaereh wanted to get Patryk and Keir together, and it wasn’t just the whole opposites attracting dynamic. No, this was more, something deeper and elemental. She could feel how and why they’d make a perfect match.

    34
    Gracie C. McKeever
    There was something in Patryk that needed what Keir had to offer and vice versa.
    Zara thought she had seen the same something in Quincy and Zack, the give and take, the commander and the dutiful.
    Stop playing pop psychologist and get back to work, human!
    God, did Micah know how to make a girl feel needed.
    Just remember what your assignment is. It is not your job nor necessary for you to like anyone. You are just in charge of ensuring that Patryk and Keir get together.
    “And once I do that?”
    The rest will take care of itself.

    Zara wasn’t so sure, determined now to stick around and make sure things went as planned. She wanted to see Patryk and Keir get their happily every after the same way Quincy and Zack had.
    Well, maybe not exactly the same way.

    * * * *

    Keir sat before an easel and a blank canvas for the first time in three years with the inspiration to paint.
    The passion to create, more specifically to paint, had burned inside him since he was a kid no more than five or six. His passion had been so ingrained and longstanding, in fact, he couldn’t imagine not engaging in some form of creative expression in his life. Which was why when the passion had evaporated, it left Keir incredulous.
    He’d tried picking up the brush, sketching, even photography, his second love, but after Elijah had wrapped his car around a utility pole on the highway, Keir couldn’t bring himself to put anything down on the canvas that didn’t resemble twisted metal and carnage in some way.
    Until now.

    Ingenue’s Choice
    35
    He closed his eyes and immediately saw Patryk Andrews’ face, breath hitching in his chest at the vivid memory of the chiseled jaw and cleft chin emphasizing the looks of a Greek god with a lean-muscled body to match.
    Keir had felt the breadth of Patryk’s shoulders encased in the expensive fabric of his starched white shirt, had sensed the subtle but raw strength emanating from beneath the conservative suit and tie when he leaned across the bar to kiss Patryk.
    He opened his eyes to stare at the canvas again before he mixed the colors he needed to convey all the images he’d come away with the