His Secret Gift

Kayla

You know how they say you have to be careful about what you wish for? Well, perhaps no one knows that better than me. 

I was just a bored, aimless woman from a small town in Indiana who lived vicariously through the contestants on her favorite reality TV shows. Well, that is until I got the bright idea to turn my dreams into a reality and applied for a stewardess position on a yacht.

After a brief interview with the captain, I was hired and told to pack my bags for the long trek to Karpathos, Greece.

Upon telling all of this to my best friend, Molly, she just about lost her mind. You see, she’d grown up in a more affluent family than me, and all that privilege and freedom somehow translated into her being more open and uninhibited, we’ll say, when it came to the dating world. So, of course, her mind first went to me meeting and hooking up with a bunch of eligible bachelors. 

Regardless, that wasn’t my plan . . . or at least I didn’t think it was until I met The Marina’s owner, Jack Shelley. Unlike I was expecting, he wasn’t some stuffy, old man. Instead, he was young, vibrant, and handsome. Oh, god was he handsome. There was just one thing—he was also completely off limits, according to Captain Bryant’s rules.

We were all told by Captain Bryant that Jack preferred for us to be seen instead of heard. However, after a few brief encounters with the allegedly stuck-up boss, I learned that all the rumors may have been carefully placed around him to protect him from further heart break. 

But I had a mission to see those walls fall. 

Jack 

My objective of the trip was simple: meet with Yannis Drakos, the esteemed author of the historical romance, ‘Til the War Starts, and convince him to sign on with my publishing company.

Then she came along.

I asked, rather pleaded, with Bryant not to hire another female crew member.

After my previous experience, I would’ve preferred to escape going down that rabbit hole altogether again . . . But far be it for him to listen to a word I had to say.

Alas, there was Kayla with her bright smile, heart-warming green eyes, and perky ponytail that was held up with a bow.

As much as I tried to resist her, it was only a matter of time before a combination of my damned, forsaken will and fate brought us together. 

Despite all of that, there were also plenty of obstacles in our way. You see, my drunken antics got me into trouble, but at the end of the day, I wanted nothing more than to give her my heart, and perhaps arguably something even more valuable—the last memento I had of my dear, departed mother.