Page 27 of Eat Your Heart Out

A zip of electricity rushed through my skin, but I took the box and opened it. “It’s a bracelet,” I said, taking it out.

“It’s a charm bracelet. This way, when we stop in each port, we can look for a charm to add to it, and you can remember your year with me forever.”

My arms ached to hug him. Maybe his mom had taught him how to talk to women and this was just natural for him. I reached for his hand, and a spark rushed in my veins. “That’s really sweet, Gerard.”

He didn’t take his hand away, and his eyes locked with mine as he said, “I like that you think so.”

The spark continued through me to my toes. The way he looked at me wasn’t lustful. Gerard seemed to see inside me.

I inhaled. “My mom used to collect postcards. She hung them all around the house when I was growing up and told me about the places she’d been before she had me.”

“That sounds pretty. I could just picture this restaurant in the Maldives being on a postcard. I want to take you to it. It has flowers hanging all over the balcony.”

Wow. Mom would have loved that. The thought weighed on me, and I took my hand back. I grew colder as I said, “My mom was the best. Every day, I wish she’d lived through the accident.”

“I’m sorry, Ali.”

His words cut into me. If he knew the real me, he wouldn’t be so nice.

Tears formed in my eyes. “Me too. I need a minute to clean my face.”

He nodded. “Meet me on the top deck so we can swim.”

“Sounds perfect,” I said fast.

Letting myself open up to him was probably a bad idea. Yet I was pretty sure the longer we spent together, the more I would tell him. And I wasn’t sure how to stop myself.