Lantern Reach

When Tess Harlowe finds her best friend's secret wedding on Explore, she walks into QuietVow, the elopement studio that staged the ceremony, and reads the terms of service aloud to its founder. Gideon Vale is thirty-seven and very good at hiding other people's joy. Tess is thirty-four, and she runs a friendship crisis consultancy called Soft Landings.

The board hires her to audit the company for ninety days. Tess agrees, on one condition. Gideon will date her in public, twice a week, and will write every outing, every bill, and every mint into a weekly email to everyone they both know.

What begins as punishment becomes a private relationship the contract was never written to hold, just as Tess uncovers the one thing Gideon failed to read. In a river city dressing itself for Christmas, two people who make a living from other people's secrets have to decide what they are willing to tell first.