Page 102 of Accidental Blind Date

“Thanks,” I nod to her. Of course she left. I’m over an hour late at this point. As I turn to leave, another girl walks up to the host stand, a waitress from the looks of it.

“Who’s he looking for?” she asks.

“The brunette at your table.”

“The one that was talking to that hottie at the end of the bar?”

I stop, turning around. “Who?”

Both girls are just smiling. “A guy that comes here a lot. He was at the bar earlier. He looks kind of like you actually,” the waitress says.

“Yeah. Just less…” the hostess waves a hand over me. “Businessy.”

Less businessy. Awesome. I don’t have time for this. Libby is gone and I can’t get ahold of her, which tells me one of two things– either she’s pissed because I am late (which doesn’t really make sense because I tried getting ahold of her with no success before I was even late) or something is wrong.

I get in my car and try calling again. It rings and rings before it goes to voicemail. So, I try again. Same thing.

Shit.

I call the bookshop and Summer answers.

“Hey Summer, it’s Dax. Is Libby there by chance?”

“No…she’s supposed to be with you,” she answers while still chatting with the person she is ringing up at the counter.

“Yeah. But she’s not. Let me know if you hear from her please?”

“Of course. Is something wrong?”

“I hope not,” I say before hanging up. Then I drop Kai a text. It’s a Hail Mary since the two of them would rather get a tooth pulled without Novocain than talk to each other.

Daxton- Hey. Have you seen or talked to Libby by chance?

Kai- On purpose? I make a physical effort on a daily basis of avoiding that LOL. Why do you ask?

Daxton- No reason.

I leave it at that. It’s probably odd enough to him that I am looking for her outside of business hours and I’m not about to go into that. I rake my hands through my hair, holding them on my head for a moment before I get one more idea.

The phone rings three times and I am about to just hang up when she answers.

“Hello?” Joni’s voice is edged with suspicion when she answers. I have her number because she used to be Delilah’s teacher, around the time Tess died. She helped me through a lotwith the girls’ grief and wanted to be available if we ever needed her. Unfortunately, right now, I kind of need her.

“Hey. Sorry to bother you. The girls are fine I was just wondering…have you talked to Libby recently? I was supposed to meet her at the Irish pub, and I was late, and I can’t get ahold of her and–”

“She’s with me,” Joni cuts me off.

A wave of relief crashes over me.

“Thank God. Is she okay?”

“I wouldn’t say that…” she says, and the relief sucks back into the ocean of worry again.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“You could say that.”

That’s when I catch the tone. Something is up.