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I knew I wasn’t in danger, though. Athena would never let me go on this date if she knew it put me in harm’s way.

Once I finished getting ready, I grabbed my coat and my purse. I said goodbye to my parents and walked toward the front door. Athena waited for me with a sly look on her face.

“Here,” she said and handed me a small box of condoms. “You’re gonna need these.”

“Athena! I do not sleep with men on a first date.”

What was she thinking?

“Just take them. Better to be prepared.”

“Athena...”

She was gone before I could say anymore. That was her other gift. I swear, she disappeared into a puff of smoke rather than walking away like a normal human being.

Staring at the small box in my hand, I jumped when my mother’s voice sounded behind me.

“She’s right, you know. Better to be prepared.”

“I’m not—”

Stevie held up her hand up. “There is a reason you want to get to know this man. Don’t discount sexual compatibility. It is very important to any relationship.”

I closed my eyes. My mother, ladies and gentlemen.

“Thank you, Mom.” I kissed her cheek and walked out the door before my father decided he needed to add his two cents about my sex life.

“Good evening, Miss Malpas.”

“Good evening, Jeffrey.” My driver held my door open for me to slide in. Before closing the door, he asked, “Where are we headed tonight?”

“Gallagher’s.”

“Very well.” Jeffrey closed the door, and the chill dissipated as he walked around to the driver’s door and got in. I didn’t need a driver, but it had its perks. One being a warm car in the middle of winter, or a cool one in the middle of summer.

Not to mention the benefit of not locating a parking space. Gallagher’s was located around the corner from the Broadway theater.

Jeffrey would drop me off at the door and circle the block until he found a suitable place to wait until I called him at the end of my date. He would then circle back and pick me up at the same door. Or if Athena’s prediction was right, and it always was, he would sign off for the evening and I would go home with Duncan.

The short drive to the restaurant had my anxiety climbing higher with every street we passed. I didn’t understand what had me on edge. Maybe it was the idea that I had met someone on my own who might be everything I was looking for.

Was I strong enough to go against fate and the universe? Could Lucille have gotten it wrong this one time? Or was I rebelling against the very thing I had been waiting for?

Self-sabotage was a real thing. Maybe this was my way of staying in my comfort zone. Everyone saw me as confident, bossy, altogether Freyja Elspeth Malpas.

Inside, I wasn’t any of those things. I was just a girl who had taken on the role of big sister, perhaps a little too seriously, creating a persona that no one really knew.

Not even me.

Chapter Nine

Duncan

It was almost eight o’clock. I sat in the dimly lit restaurant in a quiet corner booth and waited formo bandia. I called in a favor and had Callum make the reservation. New York wasn’t my city. It was now his, though.

I didn’t have the same pull here I had in Boston, but I knew he wouldn’t disappoint me. I would have asked him if he knew anything about my date tonight, but like the fool I was, I still didn’t have her name.

I had her number, though. Giving it to Cian so he could run a check would have been the logical thing to do. But there was something about the mystery of it that excited me.