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  "What's my name?"

  She shot another quick glance at him. "David Mulder."

  Hal wrote down the name. "Interesting."

  Laila's full mouth turned down in a frown. "My mother asked me when I was watching a rerun of The X-Files. I was caught off guard."

  "Do I look like a David?"

  Traffic had slowed to a stop at a bottleneck, and Laila took the moment to look at him fully. Her gaze was frank and assessing, her expression serious. Now he could see that the eyes he'd so admired were not brown as he'd first thought, but a deep, rich caramel. Why was everything about her reminding him of food?

  "No," she said finally. "You look like a Hal. But for this week you'll be a David anyway."

  "And how did we meet?"

  "Six months ago, you came to a meeting at my office and asked me out to dinner. We've been together ever since."

  He knew, from the information sheet she'd filled out for LoveMatch, that she worked for Concentric Health Care. "So I'm an insurance agent?"

  "Oh, no." Laila shook her head, making her sleek hair bounce around her shoulders. "You're a doctor."

  How was he going to pull that off? "As in MD?"

  "Of course. You think I'd marry anything less?" Her tone was light and self-mocking, but he detected an undertone of sadness to it.

  "Okay. What kind of doctor am I?" Hal's hand was getting a cramp from writing all this down.

  "Proctologist."

  "What?" He paused in his writing. "Never mind."

  "I've given them the idea you're a nice, upstanding citizen, but not much more information than that." Laila sighed.

  I can show them my bar mitzvah picture if they want."

  "Your--" She stopped and gave him a glance. "You're Jewish?"

  "Is that a problem?"

  "No. It's perfect. When you see my family, you'll understand. So what's a nice Jewish boy like you doing as a male escort anyway?" Laila asked as they took the highway out of the city.

  "I wanted the chance to bring some joy into the hearts of lovely ladies like yourself," he said, giving the patent LoveMatch answer.

  Laila snorted. "And your real reason is?"

  "I need the money," Hal admitted. "But don't tell Muriel I told you."

  "Your secret is safe with me."

  He liked her sense of humor. "And I do like meeting women like you."

  He could tell by the way her hands tightened on the steering wheel that he'd touched a nerve. "You mean desperate ones?"

  "You don't look desperate to me."

  Laila sighed. "Well, I am. I love my family, God knows, but I'm just tired of The Question."

  He could hear the words capitalized in her tone. "The Question?"

  "'When are you going to settle down, give us some more grandchildren?'" Laila sighed again, irritably, tapping her fingers on the wheel. "Don't they know it's not that easy?"

  "But you want to get married," Hal offered.

  "Sure," Laila said. "Who doesn't?"

  "Lots of people don't."

  "Don't you?"

  He shrugged. "I'd have to give up LoveMatch."

  Now she laughed out loud again. "Heaven forbid."

  "I was married once," Hal said. The admission surprised him. His marriage to Cassie wasn't something he usually talked about.

  Laila wasn't laughing any more. She cleared her throat. "Oh?"

  "It--it didn't work out," Hal said stiffly.

  Laila knew when to back off. They drove in silence for a few minutes. Hal wrapped up his sandwich. Suddenly he didn't feel like eating any more.

  By the time they'd pulled into the long driveway of the lodge where the family celebration was taking place, Laila's shoulders and neck ached from the long drive. They were two hours late. She never should have let Hal play navigator. Men were notoriously bad at admitting they were lost. Hal, apparently, was all male.

  She parked at the main building, a lovely Victorian mansion hung with twinkling icicle lights. Now her entire body was tense with the thought of actually trying to make this work. She might be able to fool her brothers, and maybe her sister. Possibly even her mother, who was just so glad to hear she had found someone. But fool Bubbe Esther? The woman was eighty years old and still as sharp as a tack.

  "Are you going to be all right?"

  Hal squeezed her hand. The unexpected warmth of his fingers against hers sent a tingling shock all the way to her toes. The kindness in his question made her throat feel thick with teary gratitude.

  She shook it off and extricated her hand. "We might as well get it over with. Are you ready?"

  He nodded. "When you are."

  "They'll probably all be inside...waiting." She made no move to open the car door and get out. Laila leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes, gathering her strength.

  "C'mon," Hal said. "They can't be that bad."

  "You'll see," Laila said.

  Hal's response was gentle. "Not if we don't get in there."

  He was right. She opened one eye to peek at him. "I hope LoveMatch is paying you enough to get through this week."

  "It will be my pleasure, I'm sure."

  His reply could have sounded smarmy or insincere, but Laila found herself believing him. His words sent another warm tingle through her. Despite the way he seemed to attract destruction, she was very glad she'd picked him instead of muscle-bound Rick.

  They got out of the car together and stared up the short but steep flight of stairs to the wraparound front porch. In warmer weather, it would be nice to sit on the rockers up there, but Laila shivered at the thought of sitting outside tonight. It was getting downright cold.

  Laila led the way, readying herself for the onslaught she expected as soon as they stepped through the etched glass doors. I love my family, she reminded herself. And they meant well. And she didn't want to disappoint them, which was why she was why she'd hired Hal in the first place. So why did she feel so guilty?

  Just before they entered the hotel, Hal tucked her hand into his. Before she had time to feel uncomfortable with the sudden, intimate contact, he'd tugged her forward. Inside.

  "Laila, bubbeleh!" Bubbe Esther rose from where she'd been holding court in the luxuriously appointed lobby. "You made it!"

  "Finally," said Laila's brother Eli from his place at the bar. He tipped a mug of what Laila knew had to be cider toward her. "We've been waiting dinner on you for hours!"

  "Hush," Laila's mother Irene scolded her oldest child. "She's here now."

  "Come in, come in," called Zayde Saul from Esther's side. "Warm yourselves up.It's colder than a witch's you-know-what out there."

  Even though her other siblings and their families weren't there, the crowd seemed overwhelming. For a fleeting moment, Laila wanted to turn and run. She'd never make them believe Hal was her fiancé, and she'd disappoint them all. Then Hal slipped his hand from hers and put his arm around her shoulders. Squeezing her. Giving her unspoken support.

  "And so, who's this handsome man with you, huh?" Esther demanded regally. She tipped her head to look over her glasses at him. "Introduce us already."

  "Bubbe, Mom, everyone," Laila said. "This is David Mulder, my--my--" That was it. She was choking on the words.

  "I'm the lucky man Laila has agreed to marry," Hal said smoothly. He stepped forward to shake Saul Alster's hand. Laila's grandfather returned the shake with a hearty clap on Hal's shoulder.

  Her family swarmed around him, descending on him like the biblical plague of locusts. Hal shook hands, endured teasing comments and generally made his way through the massive group by smiling and nodding. Watching him, Laila began to breathe easier. It was going to be all right. Hal was charming them already.

  "I'm glad you finally brought your mystery man to meet us. Mom and I were beginning to think you'd invented him." Laila's sister Ruth smiled to show she was just teasing and gave her a one-armed squeeze. She nodded toward Hal, now being grilled by their brother, Michael, and his wife, Hannah.

  L