Page 17

CHAPTER 17

Zoey

I ’m not excited about this date at all. While I get ready and take in the outfit I chose, I question if I should just cancel and stay in tonight. I chose a Wednesday night, thinking it put less pressure on it over a Friday or Saturday night. A week night says it’s just dinner, and I don’t plan to be out late. A Friday or Saturday night says I’m open to more than dinner and don’t need to be home early.

I let out a breath, resolved to go because I promised Hannah I would. I grab my bag and head downstairs. Luckily, Henry and Maggie are out tonight, so I don’t need to explain where I’m going. The restaurant I picked is only a fifteen minute drive away. I’ve been there several times before, so hopefully the familiarity will help me relax.

I give the hostess my name, and she tells me my date is already here. Points for being on time. She leads me to our table, and I take in the man seated there. He’s not much older than me, and his dark-brown hair is styled perfectly. Even sitting, I can tell his suit is perfectly tailored to fit him. I can tell he prides himself on his appearance.

The hostess leaves, and I take a seat across from him.

“You must be Zoey,” he says. There’s something in his tone that rubs me the wrong way, but I push it aside.

“I am, and you’re Charles.”

He adjusts the watch on his wrist, pulling my attention to it before he reaches his hand out. I shake it.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Zoey.”

“Likewise.”

He looks around the restaurant, his gaze moving over everything. “This place is—charming.” There it is again, that tone that feels akin sandpaper on my skin.

“It’s one of my favourite local spots,” I say.

He nods, not offering anything else.

We look at the menus in silence, though I already know what I’m getting. I decided well before I left the house, so there was one less thing to make me anxious.

Charles closes his menu and places it in front of him, folding his hands together on top of it. Our server comes and takes our orders, and then Charles’s focus comes to me.

“Hannah tells me you went to law school.”

I take a sip of my water, putting off answering. “I did.”

“Law school is a worthy pursuit.” The way he says worthy pisses me off, like he doesn’t think it’s good enough for him.

“Hannah didn’t tell me much about you. I’m assuming you work in the hospital.”

As soon as the conversation moves to him, his entire demeanour changes. He straightens slightly. “I’m a surgeon. Cardiothoracics. Top of my department.”

Pompous much? Who needs to tell someone they’re on a first date with they’re the top of their department?

“Must be challenging but rewarding work. Holding someone’s life in your hands.”

“It is. There’s nothing like the feeling when you first cut open a patient and know you’re what stands between them and death. You know, cardiothoracics is the toughest specialty. Your heart is one organ you can’t live without.”

Gag. The ego on this man knows no bounds, apparently. Why does he think this is what I want to talk about on a first date? Our food is delivered, and he continues to talk about himself. I would give anything for a fake emergency right now so I could get as far away from this date as possible. As if someone above could hear my prayer, I hear my name being called just before Matt, with Jayden strapped to his chest, is standing beside me. My heart rate picks up. He’s a sight for sore eyes.

“Hey, Zo.”

“Matt,” I breathe out.

“How are you?”

Before I can even answer, Charles speaks up. “Hello. Can’t you see we’re kind of on a date right now?”

It takes everything in me not to roll my eyes. This is probably the worst first date I’ve ever been on.

Matt turns and offers his hand to Charles. “Hey, man. I’m Matt, Zoey’s friend.”

Charles shakes it but looks obviously pissed off as his eyes bounce between the two of us. “Charles, I’m her date.”

Matt looks at me, and I plead with my eyes for him to give me some reason to leave. Anything. He nods slightly, and I hope that means he understands.

“Sorry. My sister sent me to collect Zoey. Something about flooding at Zoey’s place.”

I plaster on a look of shock. “Oh, no. Did she say what happened?”

Matt shakes his head, and I see the mirth in his eyes. He’s enjoying this. “No, just said I should get you over there as soon as possible.”

Jayden starts reaching for me, and I can’t help the smile that stretches across my face.

“Hey, little munchkin.”

He giggles as I boop his nose.

“We should probably get going,” I say.

“You’re not even done eating,” Charles protests.

“I need to go check on my place.”

He sighs.

“Thanks for tonight,” I say before grabbing my stuff and following Matt out of the restaurant.

I’m so grateful to be away from that date that I don’t notice I’ve blindly followed Matt to his car instead of heading to mine. Once he gets Jayden settled in the car seat, he turns to face me.

“Thanks for that save,” I say. I’m not sure what I would have done if he hadn’t of shown up. I was close to sneaking out of the window in the bathroom. But how did Matt know to save me?

He nods, shoving his hands in his pocket. “Of course.”

“How did you know where I was?”

He leans against the car and crosses his arms over his chest as though protecting himself. “I heard you and Hannah set it up after the game on Saturday.”

“So, you decided to follow me?” What the hell is going on right now?

He shakes his head. “No. I only got here a few minutes before I interrupted. I wasn’t going to come. But I was sitting at home with Jayden and something kept eating at me, telling me I needed to be here. When I saw you from across the restaurant, I could tell you wanted to be anywhere but at that table with him.”

I cross my arms over my chest, matching his position, except mines one of defiance. “So, you thought I couldn’t take care of myself on a date and you needed to be my saviour?”

“No. It wasn’t that.”

I push. “Then what was it? What could possibly have you driving out to this restaurant when I’m on a date instead of relaxing at home with Jayden?”

He doesn’t say anything, just stares me down. My skin heats as he holds eye contact.

“Matt.”

He continues to stare, and it’s like I can feel him under my skin now. Goosebumps scatter across my arms and up my neck as I hold back a shiver.

“Matthew,” I say exasperated.

He throws his arms out to the side as he finally breaks. “I didn’t want you to go on the date,” he shouts, and I take a step back.

Pain travels through me. He crashed my date because he didn’t want me to go.

“Why?” I ask, my voice pained. “Why would you not want me to go out and find someone who could make me happy? What’s so wrong with me going on a date?”

He takes two steps closer to me, leaning down until his lips are beside my ear. “I think you know why.”

Oh.

I stop myself from reaching out and clutching the front of Matt’s jacket. I revel in the heat that radiates off him and close my eyes as his breath dances over my cheek and neck, and this time I don’t hold back the shiver that travels through me. His heat disappears, and I open my eyes to see him back at his car.

“Did you drive?”

His question takes me by surprise. It’s like he’s done a complete one eighty. I guess I read too much into this. I feel like I’m experiencing whiplash. My emotions are all over the place, and right now, I want to process them with crying. I hold back my tears as I nod.

“You parked close?”

I nod and clear my throat. “I’m just a couple cars down.”

It’s his turn to nod.

“Text me when you get home.”

I shake my head. “I’ll be fine.”

“Bug. Text me when you get home.”

That nickname. That damned fucking nickname tears at my walls, and I know I have to leave now if I don’t want him to see me crying. I turn quickly and make my way to my car, as soon as the door closes, the tears start to fall, and I bury my face in my hands.

I let myself get my hopes up only for Matt to pull away and be cold.

When I’ve finally gathered myself, I make the drive home, quietly sneaking into the house so I don’t have to face Henry and Maggie. I do text Matt, because the last thing I want to deal with tonight is him calling to check on me.

I curl up in bed and wonder why the hell I did this to myself.

I wake up Thursday morning determined to do something about figuring out what I want to do with my life. Maggie’s working from home today, and I help her with some of her paperwork. She tells me about a gala they’re planning to raise money for the food bank before the holidays.

We work all day, and I realize I’m actually enjoying helping Maggie with this. She tells me I can help her out whenever I’d like. They’re always looking for help around the holidays. Around dinner, I head upstairs quickly and change before I leave to meet the girls for one of our girls’ nights.

We agreed to meet at the Clover, a bar we’ve frequented for years. I’m the first to arrive and order a drink and snag us a booth in the back corner. The girls slowly trickle in until the table is full and we’re ordering appetizers to share.

“A month and a half until you head back to Willow Valley. You excited?” Liz asks Hannah.

Hannah beams. “Yeah. Grayson’s mom and I have been talking and making plans. Dad’s committed to going with us. It’s going to be so nice to have all of our family in the same place for the holidays. I never thought I’d get that.”

“It’s your and Grayson’s first Christmas together. That’s got to be exciting,” Liz adds.

“We’re excited to start our own traditions. Liv, what are you guys planning for Cate’s first Christmas?”

“Josh and I got her a baby’s first Christmas ornament like I got when I was a baby. We want to give her one every year. We’re doing Christmas Eve at my parents’ like usual and Josh’s family is joining. We want Christmas Day to be just us at home. Nice and relaxed.”

“That sounds nice,” I say. “I’ll be spending the holidays with my rowdy brothers, but it should be fun. Henry and Maggie are hosting again, so I won’t have to go far.” I laugh.

“So, you’ll be able to sleep in until they come kick your ass out of bed, then,” Liv says.

“How was your date?” Liz asks, and I roll my eyes.

I turn and face Hannah. “I’m not sure what I did to make you think that horrible man would make a good date, but please, whatever it is, I’m sorry.” I place my hands in front of me in a prayer position. “I’m sorry. Please, never again.”

Hannah and Liv exchange a quick look before they look at me.

“What happened?” Hannah asks.

I shake my head. “How could you not know that man has an ego bigger than his head?”

She shrugs. “I don’t spend a lot of time with him. I more relay test results and patient status than actually talk to him.”

I throw up my hands. “And you thought that was enough criteria to set me up?”

“He seemed nice enough. I was just trying to help.”

I scoff. It sounds annoyed, but it’s to cover my hurt. “Do I really seem so desperate that I’ll date anyone?”

Liz immediately reaches for my hand. “Zo, none of us think you’re desperate. We all just know you’d like to be in a loving relationship and no one can fault you for that, especially these two when they have that already.”

Bailey nods. “I think we sometimes overlook things when we aren’t looking at someone as a possibility to be a romantic partner. I’m sure that’s exactly what happened with Hannah.” Her gaze moves to her, and Hannah nods enthusiastically.

“That’s probably exactly what happened.”

I slump back in the booth. “Why does this feel so hopeless? First Liv’s guy stands me up and then Hannah’s guy was a dud. Maybe I should take a break from dating. I need to focus on figuring out what I want to do with my career. Maybe this is all a sign I should focus on me for a while.”

“Focusing on yourself is always good, and who knows, maybe Mr. Right will just fall into your lap when you’re not even looking,” Hannah says.

“Let’s circle back to figuring out your career,” Liz starts. “Do you not want to be a lawyer? You passed the bar and have the pick of almost any job you want.” Her confusion is evident in her voice. She’s right, I could have the pick of almost any job. I passed my classes with stellar marks, I got a great reference from the lawyer I articled under, and I passed the bar in the top five percent of my group. I’m good at it, but knowing my stuff doesn’t mean I’ll enjoy doing it for the rest of my life.

I run my finger over the rim of my glass. “I’ve decided I don’t want to be a lawyer. I’m not sure what I want to do, but I told Henry, and he and Maggie said I can stay with them as long as I want while I figure it out. I’ve been helping Maggie with some foundation work. She’s throwing a gala to raise money for some local food banks.”

“Oh, Josh got an invite to that. It looks like they’re doing amazing work. He RSVP’d for the two of us. We’re going to make a weekend of it, drop Cate off with his parents.”

Bailey faces Liv now. “Caleb mentioned Josh bought the Cyclone. That’s insane. I can’t even fathom that amount of money.”

Liv’s cheeks pinken. “The team is tanking. They haven’t pieced together a solid season in years, and the previous owners were looking to offload the team. As soon as Josh caught wind of it, he jumped straight on it. He talked to me about it, wanting my opinion, but I kept telling him it’s his money, he should do what he wanted. No matter what I said, he kept pushing that it was ours and he wanted my opinion. I don’t know the first thing about owning a sports team. I told him I trust his judgement and he’s the one who’s going to have to run the damn thing.”

“How many people get to say they own a sports team?” I muse.

Liv shakes her head. “I don’t know, but I do know I plan on going to a few more games now.”

Conversation moves fluidly, and when we call it a night, I’m more set on focusing on myself and enjoying what I do have rather than forcing dates.