Page 28 of His Secret Gift

“Something like that. Anyway, I am sorry. It isn’t very gentlemanly to leave a woman on her own and in a city she doesn’t know.” I can tell by the look on his face that he’s being very sincere.

I reach out and touch his shoulder. “Seriously, don’t worry about it. I just came right back to the boat.”

“Good, good.” He looks behind his shoulder. “I guess I’ll leave you to it then.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I nod.

He turns around to walk away.

“Denver.” I stop him.

“What?” He faces me again.

“Did you get Maria’s number?”

He pulls out a wadded piece of paper out of his back pocket. “I did.”

“Will you please just—just please be nice to her.” I don’t know him enough to discern whether he’s the “hit it and quit it” type of guy or not.

“Don’t worry. I will be.” He glances down at the numbers, grazes them with his thumb, and beams.

“Good.” That’s what I was hoping he’d say.

From there, I wished him good night, and returned to the solace of my little cabin.

Will Jack Shelley be nice to me when he finds out who I am?I wonder.

Chapter 9

Another Chance Meeting – Jack

Ican’t get that mystery girl out of my head as I look out at the water while rubbing at my lips and cursing myself for taking that stupid phone call from my assistant.

“Everything okay, boss?” Bryant asks from behind me.

His voice startles me a bit, but I play it off as best I can that it didn’t.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I finally respond.

“You sure?” We’re both sitting in the bridge, and he’s enjoying the treat I got for him. “You’ve been quiet ever since you got back from shore.”

I turn to face him and slide my hands into my front pockets. “I’ve just got a lot on my mind.” That wasn’t a lie, after all.

He looks at me out of the corner of his eyes. “Okay, if you say so.”

“I do.”

After wiping his face with a white linen napkin, he says, “The engineer said the boat is ready to head out tomorrow.”

“Good.” Now I’m bending the truth. Of course, I’m eager to get going… but I also kind of want to try running into Kayla, that pretty blonde-haired woman from before again.

There’s always time when you get back,I remind myself.

“But before we do, I’d like for you to meet our newest employees.”

Ugh.I resist rolling my eyes. I don’t typically care much for who is or who isn’t working on the yacht. All I care is that theykeep their heads down, mouths shut, and that they do a good job. That’s why I leave all the hiring and firing to him.

“Fine.” Captain Bryant is a dear friend of mine, so I’m often doing little things I find annoying and incessant for him. When it comes to this, however, I reason that I probably should at least be aware of the people around me—especially when trapped out at sea.

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