Page 55 of Give Me Forever Love

Jace laughs. “No. They’re smoke shops. Weed,” he says. “You can’t go there and not visit a coffeeshop.”

I look at Bryce who shrugs.

“Have you been here before?” I ask Jace.

“I’ve been a lot of places. Army, remember?”

“Right,” I say.

Bryce shakes his head. “Enough of this shit, why haven’t you answered my phone calls?”

“Been busy,” Jace replies.

“Doing what?” Bryce asks.

“Nothing you need to know about.”

“Why the fuck not?” Bryce says.

“Look, you don’t need to know everything I do. Y’all have fun. We’ll talk when you get home. Harrison, don’t let Darrell Downer ruin your time.”

I snicker at his nickname for his brother.

“Yeah, fuck you,” Bryce says, but he isn’t being ugly. He lightly grins and hangs up the phone, but I can tell it bothers him that his brother is keeping secrets.

“Darrell Downer,” I say, picking at him.

“Don’t start,” he replies, putting his phone up. “I want to know what he’s doing that he can’t tell me.”

I don’t say what I want to say, because I don’t want to put it in Bryce’s head, even though I’m sure it already is. Jace is messing with Harlow behind our backs.

But the good thing is, he isn’t getting into any trouble…that we know of anyway. The car comes to a stop and Bryce opens his door. I slide across, getting out behind him. The driver opens the trunk and retrieves our luggage.

“I’ll carry this up for you, sir,” he says.

“’Preciate it,” Bryce replies, reaching for my hand and walking ahead. I look around me at the brick buildings and busy streets. There are bikes everywhere, leaned up against trees and bushes, light poles and bike racks.

He enters a key code and we walk through a brown wooden door into a stone gray lobby. A staircase is to the right of us, and an elevator hangs in the back behind it. We bypass the stairs and go for the elevator.

“So, no hotel?” I ask.

“I figured we could Airbnb.” The doors open after he presses the button. I look behind us, thinking we should wait on the driver. “He won’t ride up with us,” he says, stepping inside. I do the same, just before the doors shut.

“What made you pick New Amsterdam?”

“The coffeeshops. Duh,” he says playfully.

I smirk and hit my shoulder against his arm. “Your brother is one of a kind.”

“He’s something,” he says under his breath.

We exit the elevator and walk a short distance to another wooden door, but this one is black. Bryce lifts the mat up in front of it and there lays a key.

“You really planned this out,” I say as he opens the door for me to walk in first. “Private jet, Town Car, Airbnb. I mean, you got it all done.”

He grins. “I’m glad you’re impressed.”

“I am,” I say, taking in the gorgeous apartment.

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