Page 66 of Never Let Go

It was time to go, and I had to be ready for anything. After I grabbed my wallet and keys, I practically ran out of my apartment, eager to see her now that the time had come. I couldn’t wait to finally have a face to put with the voice that haunted my dreams. These last couple of days, I’d realized that I was hoping she was the girl I was going to marry.

My phone rang as I was climbing into my car. I frowned when I saw Hope’s name on the screen. My heart stuttered in my chest, and I took a deep, calming breath, praying to every god out there she wasn’t calling to say Amanda had canceled our date.

“Hello?” I said once my phone had connected to my car. “Hope? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she said quickly. “Nothing is wrong. I just wanted to wish you luck before the big date. How are you feeling?”

“Uh, nervous as shit but excited. Thanks for choosing Outside as the venue, by the way. It’s always been one of my favorites.”

She chuckled, suddenly sounding pretty nervous herself. “You’re welcome. It’s one of my favorites too. I hope it brings you luck, Foster.”

“Thanks. Are you okay? Your voice is kind of squeaky.”

“I’m fine.” She cleared her throat, but it didn’t help much. “I just wanted to wish you luck and to remind you that no matter what she looks like or what her real name is, she’s the girl you’ve had all these dates with.”

I frowned again as I drove out of the parking lot. “Yeah, I know that. Is this a pep talk you give all your clients before the reveal?”

“Uh, no, but I appreciate you and I love you like a brother. I just want you to know that and to remember it. No matter what, okay?”

I sighed, my grip on the steering wheel tightening as I merged with the traffic outside. “You’re being weird again.”

“I’m not being weird. I’m just excited for your date and I don’t want you to blow by it by making snap decisions as soon as you see her.”

“Snap decisions?” I scoffed. “I’ve spent hours with this girl. I know who she is and I have a fair idea about what she looks like. At least, I know how she’s built. I also know she smells like a lavender-vanilla scented dream and that she wants a lot of the same things I do out of life. It’s not a snap decision, Hope.”

“Yeah, I know all about that part. I’m just saying that you shouldn’t make snap decisions when you see her. Sit her down, talk, and work through everything that may come up when you’re face to face, okay?”

“Are you projecting again?” I sighed and leaned back against the headrest. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Porter before, Hope, but it all worked out, didn’t it? I did try to get him to tell you, but he was scared and it wasn’t my place. This isn’t that.”

“Not exactly, no, but it sort of is.” She paused. “Look, Foster, I know you think this is all about my experience, but it’s not. I just don’t want you to be angry at me if this doesn’t work out. I’m the one who made the match, so—”

“So thank you for finding me a girl worth getting to the reveal with,” I said firmly. “No offense, but you’re kind of killing my energy with this conversation, so I’m hanging up now. I’ll call you after.”

“Okay,” she said in an uncharacteristically small voice. “Good luck. We can’t wait to hear how it goes.”

“I’ll call you,” I reiterated the promise and then hit the red phone on my steering wheel, glad to be done with that call.

Hope had been weird about me dating Amanda since the first time she’d set us up, and I really didn’t know what it was about. I wasn’t juvenile enough to think it was because she wanted me to herself or anything like that.

She and Porter were head over heels in love and there’d never been so much as the beginning of a spark between us. When she said she loved me like a brother, I knew she meant it. Ever since the day we’d met, it’d been like that with us.

But that meant something else was going on with her now, and it was frustrating as fuck not knowing what was up. For my money, it had to be that her own experiences with dating Porter and then finding out that he’d been Parker all along were back to haunting her.

She seemed unreasonably nervous about my date and that was the only thing that made sense. Thankfully, that meant it wasn’t my problem.

My brother had made that particular bed. Now he had to sleep in it, fuck in it, and wake up in it. He had to deal with her remembered hurt, not me. I’d apologized enough and I knew she had forgiven me for the part I’d played.

As I drove into the parking lot outside the café, I exhaled a shaky breath and found a spot, but I stayed in my car for a few minutes to clear my head before I climbed out. I couldn’t be distracted by Hope and her weirdness.

Not tonight.

Tomorrow morning, I’d talk to her and Porter about it and maybe buy them breakfast so we could finally put all that behind us once and for all, but tonight was Amanda and me. Amanda with the sweet voice and the lyrical laugh. The girl with the sharp mind and the way of making me think about the conversations we’d had even days after we’d had them. The girl with the soft curves that drove me mad every time we touched.

I smiled into the dusky darkness in my car and reached for the door handle, pumped to get date five done with so we could start dating outside of Sight Unseen. The process had been great, but I was also ready to leave it behind and start seeing her in the real world.

Milena had made a good call with the four dates and then the reveal rule. It was just enough time to get to know somebody and not enough to get bored with the whole “being in the dark” the concept.

Adrenaline coursed through my veins as I climbed out of my car and slammed the door behind me, my heart racing and my skin feeling weirdly electrified. A cobblestone pathway led from the parking lot through a well-tended garden with a canopy of trees overhead to the café, and I slid my hands into my pockets as I walked.