Page 56 of His Secret Gift

“Great.” I’m standing in the bridge and watching as he and the others around him navigate.

“Then, Denver arranged for tickets on a train to Marrakesh.”

“How long should that take?” Of course, I know that Marrakesh is where most of the action is, so it makes sense that we’d set up shop there for a while.

“It’s 138 kilometers.”

“Meaning?”

“Oh, sorry. About an hour and a half.”

“That’s not so bad.” One of my hands slides into my pocket, while the other one is grooming my short facial hair.

“No.” His eyebrow is raised high above his eye when he turns away from the console. “Are you going to go with them?”

“I might, yeah.” I don’t want to miss out on all the fun.

“Really? Huh.”

“What?”

Frowning, he shakes his head. “I’m just surprised.”

“You’re coming too, no?”Come on, man. You promised me you’d have a good time.If anything, all this anal cleaning has only proven how much he needs to get out.

He smacks his lips. “I guess.”

Yes!I get closer to him and take his shoulders. “Thatta boy! You won’t regret it.”

“That will remain to be seen. Anyway,” he does one of his classic throat-clearing coughs, “After a few days in Marrakesh, we’ll travel back to Safi and then head out for Greece once and for all.”

Good.I’m practically dying to finally meet up with the infamous Yannis Drakos. Each day that passes with his smaller publishing house mishandling his marketing, it feels like a part of me—or at least my bank account—is dying.

Just thinking about everything I could do to help his career makes me feel frothy at the mouth.

However, while I wait for us to dock, I go back to my room and review my pitch for him. I don’t think I’ll be getting much work done once we get to Morocco.

“Good afternoon, everyone,” Bryant’s booming voice comes over the loudspeaker sooner than I anticipated. “We are moments away from docking.”

I hear the faint echo of chanting.

That’s normal, being cooped up on the same vessel for so long is kind of soul crushing.

“Once we do, please form an organized line as you depart the ship. Jack and I will be first, and then you may follow.”

With that cue, I get my bag together for the next few days.

When I stepon shore, I can hardly believe my eyes.

Of all the places I’ve been, Morocco has always been on my bucket list. And what I can already see so far is absolutely gorgeous.

There’s so much golden-brown sediment, and it’s hard to tell where the hills and the buildings start and end. There is also the most heavenly smell in the air.

I’m standing in amazement when I notice some red fabric blowing in the breeze out of the corner of my eye. When I look to see it more clearly, I find that it’s a sarong or cover up around Kayla’s matching swimming suit. The fabric is tied around her waist, and she has a jean jacket to cover up the upper half of her body.

Her light hair is down, and there are yellow sunglasses pushed on top of her head.

She looks as beautiful as ever.

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