Page 94 of His Secret Gift

I shake my head. “Maybe not. But that also speaks to his character. I don’t trust cheaters.”

By the look in his eyes, I know he wants to fight me on this further, but he knows me better than to think he can change my mind. Once I’ve decided something like this, I very rarely go back on my word.

“Speaking of cheaters,” he says, pointing his drink at the corner of the bar.

It’s Harper, and she’s accepting two bottles of booze from one of the bartenders.

“Thank you,” I can hear her say in the mostly empty space.

I wonder what she had to do in order to get those.

“Ugh.”

“Still no leads on how she found out about us being here?” Bryant asks after taking a sip.

“No idea. But I don’t care. Tomorrow, it’s back to Safi and then off to Greece. She can’t follow us there.”

“Unless she does.” He takes a napkin off of the bar and blots at his mustache.

“She’s desperate. But not that desperate.”

His eyebrows raise. “No? If I recall correctly, she tried to convince you she was pregnant, even though you know that isn’t possible.”

After a moment, we both howl with laughter.

“Touché.”

When the bartender approaches and asks what I want, Bryant looks at me out of the corner of his eyes.

“Just a water, please.”

I see his body relax, and I pat him on the back. “Don’t worry. I’m taking it easy for the foreseeable future.”

“Good.”

With that, I know that I owe him an apology.

“I apologize for the way I acted last night. Thank you for having my back.”

He nods. “Of course. I always will. I just wish you would’ve told me about Kayla before.”

I sit back and fold my arms. “Need I remind you that you stole a note you found on my bedroom floor?”

“I—I assumed it was an unrequited thing. That’s why I increased the cleaning duties… I wanted whoever she was to be too busy to interact with you again. I mean, girls aboard are always having their little crushes on you.”

“And you.” He seems to always forget that.

“Agh.” He flicks his wrist at me. “I don’t know about that.”

I roll my eyes. “Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you for taking care of my drunk ass, and I’m sorry that you needed to.”

“It’s okay, bud. We all have our nights.”

“Just seeing her dance with all of those buff and attractive Moroccan guys really did a number on me.” Then, I realize she could be doing the same thing in Gwen’s room, for all I knew. Sure, we admitted to liking each other, but we didn’t have any talk about boundaries.

“Will you excuse me?” I suddenly ask.

“Sure.”

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