Page 70 of His Secret Gift

Then, a group of men approach him.

One of them asks, “Where’d your girl go?”

“Kayla had to go back to the hotel with her friend. But she said we’d meet up again tomorrow night.”

My ears start tingling. “I’m sorry. Did you say Kayla?”

He turns to face me again. “Yeah?”

“Kayla Allen?”

He shrugs his shoulders. “We didn’t exchange last names, man.”

“Really pretty, in her early thirties, light hair that comes down to about here.” I demonstrate with my hand.

“Her hair was up, but yeah, that sounds about right. She’s from Indiana.”

Yep. That’s my Kayla. “My?” What am I even saying?

My emotions are conflicting. Amine has always had a lot of charm and influence when it came to women, so if she was dancing with him, she was probably already on her way to falling for him. However, it also means she likely didn’t go home with a man—as she probably would’ve done so with him, if anyone.

“Excuse me for a second.”

He nods. “Sure thing.”

I go back in and find Bryant being a wallflower.

“I’m going to head back.”

He sighs. “Oh, thank god.” He then gulps the rest of his drink, we both say goodbye to the others, and head back to the hotel.

“Well, did you have a good time?” I ask in the car.

He cocks his head in my direction. “What do you think? What about you?”

“I did. I saw an old friend from home.”

“A friend from Ohio, here?” His surprise is warranted.

“Yeah. We went to Ohio State together. He’s originally from here.”

“I see. But still—what are the chances?”

“I know, right?”

He rolls the window on his side down a bit. “Well, why didn’t you want to stay and talk with him.”

“I’d rather catch up over a dinner. It was so noisy and chaotic there.”

He nods. “That’s fair.” Then, leaning closer, he says, “It sure looks like Jenkins and Tyler were having a good time.”

“Yeah.” Tyler I could care less about, but I hope Jenkins doesn’t make a mistake he’ll regret for the rest of his life. “Maybe we should’ve made him come back with us.”

“Those are his decisions to make.” Right away, I can tell he knows who I was referring to.

“I know. I just—I don’t know.”

“He’s a smart man. I doubt he’ll ruin his family in one night.”

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