Page 8 of Never Let Go

I laughed. “A fluffy demon? Uh, that sounds great. If that’s true, I can’t wait until it’s my turn.”

She grinned. “Neither can I, but you’ll see. It’s exciting. Torture but exciting torture. At least, it’s exciting for me. How are you?”

I shrugged. “Nothing much going on here. Certainly not anything as torturously exciting as the wedding planning. Tell me about it. How can I help?”

Ashley’s eyes lit up as she started talking about her upcoming nuptials. Mentally, I wiped my brow for having successfully diverted her attempt to talk about me. The woman was like a force of nature.

If Ashley so much as caught a whiff of a man being on my mind, she wouldn’t rest until we were planning a wedding for me as well. It had never been a problem in the past, but since I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Foster, distraction seemed like my best defense tonight.

While I did my best to listen to my friend, I was also still thinking about him. Ever since the moment he’d left my office, I’d been second-guessing my decision about pretending not to know or remember him.

It just seemed so much sillier in hindsight than it had in that moment, but we had another meeting coming up soon. Perhaps I’d tell him the truth then. I just couldn’t figure out how to do that without seeming even sillier.

Around and around I go. Damn it. Why and how do I get myself into these situations?

I swore, I had chronic foot-in-mouth, uncomfortable duckling disease. Isn’t that supposed to cure itself as we grow older? For fuck’s sake.

“Shel?” Ashley’s voice filtered into my thoughts. When I refocused on her face, she was frowning at me, a worried shimmer in her eyes as she reached across the table to squeeze my forearm. “What’s up with you? I asked about six times if you’d like something to drink.”

As I blinked myself back into reality, I realized there was a waiter standing next to our table and that even he seemed worried. Giggling, I flashed him an apologetic look and didn’t even glance at the menu to check what else was on offer.

“I’ll just have a Coke, please. Thank you.”

“A Coke?” Ashley frowned. “We’re celebrating. I’m having champagne. How about a glass of that with your soda?”

I nodded dutifully. “Yes, of course. Champagne and Coke. Thank you.”

The waiter gave me a weird look, but he shrugged it off and nodded, then left me to my interrogator, who had now definitely caught onto the fact that I was beyond distracted. Ashley gave me a long look and then suddenly grinned from ear to ear.

“Well, I think you’re hiding a man from me.” She arched a knowing eyebrow. “I’ve been around the block a few times. I know what this is all about when a woman has that hopeless look on her face and that sparkle in her eyes. Who is he?”

She practically shouted the question as her eyes grew huge, and she leaned forward so fast, she nearly knocked the whole darn table over. “Why didn’t you tell me? Seriously, answer the question. Who is he? Where did you meet him? When did you meet him? What does he look like, and most importantly, is he going to get along with Chase? Because our men need to be friends, Shel. You hear me? They need to get along as well as we do so that we can raise our children together and vacation together at least twice a year.”

I groaned and scrubbed my palms over my face, peeking out at her between my fingers and knowing full well that the jig was up. She knew, and if I didn’t give her the details, we would never move on.

“Well, uh, okay. You’re right. There is a man, but I didn’t tell you about him because there’s nothing to tell.”

She shook her head firmly. “Nope. That’s not it. There is something to tell. What’s his name?”

“Foster, but nothing happened between us and it’s not going to. He’s just a guy I knew back in college who happened to walk into my office yesterday. No big deal.”

She pursed her lips, her gaze sweeping across my face before she lifted both eyebrows at me. “No. There’s more to it than that. He was your college sweetheart, wasn’t he? Perhaps even your first?”

My face burst into flame. “No! It wasn’t like that. He wasn’t my sweetheart or my first.”

God, I’m dying a little bit inside. How can she just ask that kind of thing so casually? Undeterred by my humiliation, she nodded at me to continue. I groaned softly, but since I already knew there was no getting out of it, getting it over with fast seemed like my best option.

“He was just some guy in my dorm that I had a crush on. A big one, but still. It was nothing.” I fanned my face, but she didn’t break her intense eye contact with me. “Honestly, he was just a friend. If it was even that. We hung out occasionally, but that’s it. He never asked me out. Then he graduated and he was gone. End of story.”

“End of story until he walked into your office yesterday.” She grinned like a cat who had gotten all the cream. “So what happened? Did you confess your ever-lasting love, or did you just grow a pair of lady-balls and finally ask him out?”

“Neither,” I admitted, my nose wrinkling because if I had been her, that was exactly what I would’ve done. Instead, I’d pretended I didn’t even know who he was. “It’s complicated. He’s a client now. I’m handling his grandfather’s estate and it’s a huge account for the firm. I had to remain cool, calm, and professional.”

She snorted. “Oh, so he’s rich now? Please tell me you threw yourself at him. Your college crush who reappears over a decade later, still as hot as ever and loaded? Now that’s a wet dream come true.”

“Stop,” I protested. “How do you know that he’s as hot as ever? Or that he was ever hot, for that matter?”

She sniffed before she winked at me. “Girl, I’ve known you long enough to know you’ve got good taste. He’s hot and I’m betting all that time apart only made him hotter. Are you going to bring him as your date to the wedding?”