Page 70 of Never Let Go

Somewhere in my whiskey-soaked brain, I’d come up with the only thing I could think had caused her reaction. She thought that I’d somehow set her up. That none of it had been real and that I’d been fucking with her.

It had to be that, but I didn’t understand it. At all. It made so little sense to me that I had to wonder if I’d missed something. If there was another reason for her reaction that I just wasn’t getting.

I sighed and rubbed my temples as I stared at my computer, still tasting whiskey on my tongue even though I’d brushed my teeth four times this morning. My head felt like it’d been filled with a wad of cotton wool and I couldn’t focus for shit.

The only thing I could think of was Amanda—Shelby—and how I was going to make her understand that I hadn’t done whatever she thought I had. Even if things didn’t end up working out between us, she needed to know that I’d never do anything intentionally to hurt her and that I thought she was an amazing person.

I’d had the best time with her and I didn’t want to lose her, but it seemed I already had. All that remained now was to make sure she knew I’d never meant to hurt her, even if I obviously had done it anyway.

My eyes stung. I blinked and shook my head at myself. Dehydration and a hangover were the last things I needed to deal with today, and yet, here I was, dehydrated and hungover. I reached for the bottle of water on my desk and swigged down the remaining half of it, desperately trying to give my body whatever it needed to feel better.

I was still moping about an hour later when Hope popped into my office with Porter in tow. They were both smiley and happy, and Hope’s weirdness seemed to have morphed into, well, hope. “How did it go? What did she do when she realized it was you? Tell us everything.”

They were halfway into my office when she seemed to realize that, unlike them, I wasn’t a shiny, happy person this morning. The grin melted off her lips and she collapsed on the chair across from me. “Oh no. What happened?”

Porter dropped into the chair beside hers, glancing back and forth between us until his gaze settled on Hope. She had started chewing her lip and the look in her eyes made her seem guilty as hell. “I think the better question here is, what did you do?” Porter asked.

She looked at him before her gaze darted back to mine. She stared at me with regret shining clear as day from her eyes, and she sighed. “I set him up with the one who got away.”

Porter grunted. “Excuse me? There was a one who got away? When? How?”

I turned to him and arched an eyebrow. “You really didn’t know about this?”

“Didn’t know about what?” His features scrunched up as he shook his head at me. “What have you two done?”

I snorted. “I didn’t do anything. This one is all on her.”

“Uh oh.” He shifted in his seat to face her. “Out with it, baby. I knew there was something going on with you. You’ve been acting so damn weird about Foster’s dates. What did you do?”

“I just told you,” she mumbled unhappily, slumping in her chair without her eyes ever leaving mine. “There was this girl who went to college with him. Shelby.”

“Shelby?” Porter said the name slowly, then suddenly straightened up. “Wait. Hang on. I think I know who you’re talking about now. That nerd you had such a crush on?”

“All of us were nerds,” I pointed out and pursed my lips. “You two still are, but yeah. That’s the one.”

“After Foster told me about her, her profile popped up on the system. She signed up with Sight Unseen and they were a good match, so I set them up.”

Porter whistled between his teeth. “Without telling anyone?”

Her chin dipped in a nod, and her eyes were clouding over with disappointment as much as regret now. “Without telling anyone. I did this. I am responsible and I didn’t want to drag either of you into it.”

“Hope,” Porter groaned. “You should’ve told him.”

“Why?” She spun to face him, flames flickering in her eyes. Her features tightened and she shook her head. “I told Grace about Sharp and she nearly lost him because of it. You and Foster knew who I was all along. So no. I shouldn’t have told him. I thought this gave him a better shot at making it work without almost losing her when she found out.”

She turned back to me. “Obviously, that’s not what happened. So what happened?”

I shrugged, my lips pinching in at the corners. “Honestly? I don’t know. I think she suspects that I set her up as a prank or something, but she didn’t exactly stop to explain herself while she was running away from me in the pouring rain.”

Hope’s nose scrunched up. “Did you go after her?”

“Of course, I went after her.” I scoffed. “It didn’t help. All she did was scream at me that I was a liar and a horrible person. Oh, and to stay away from her.”

Porter sighed, another groan rumbling out of him. He scrubbed his palms over his face. “I guess it’s time to buckle up, then. Put on those boxing gloves and fight for your girl. Good luck. It’s not fun.”

Hope rolled her eyes at him. “That’s why you boys should just stop messing up. It’s not that we want to run, but you do stuff that makes us have to. If fighting is what you need to do to prove yourselves, then I don’t have much sympathy.”

“That would’ve been fine if it’d been true in this case,” I said. “You did this though, not me. I didn’t mess up.”