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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
THENEXTMORNING, Bastien was still conked out after she had taken her shower and gotten dressed. She let him sleep and closed the bedroom door on her way to the kitchen.
“Morning,” Jace said from the kitchen table.
Every muscle in her body froze. “Hi,” she said brightly and then, because she couldn’t think of anything else to say, made her way to the espresso machine.
“So, you and Bastien, huh?” he asked. Jace had a huge bowl of cereal in front of him and was watching something on his phone.
“Yeah,” she said. “Where have you been these past few days?”
“We did an overnight in Cuba.”
“Cuba?” She blinked. “You are aware that travel to Cuba is prohibited, right?”
“That’s why we didn’t tell Bastien. He’d never agree to it and now he can’t be held responsible if it comes back and bites us in the ass. It’s also why I didn’t ask you to arrange it for us.”
“Out of curiosity, how did you do it?”
“Canadian registered boat. Paid cash. Max is a stringer for the Washington Tribune. Shane’s a professional photographer. We went under the journalistic activity general license category.”
“That was risky. Dangerous.”
“Have you been to Havana?”
Mikelina shook her head sadly. “I missed my opportunity. I was waiting for the cruise ships to get out the kinks and the tourism to build up a bit.”
“It’s amazing. We took a vintage car tour around the city. Went to a rum museum. Snorkeled in the Bay of Pigs. Saw a cigar factory. It was great.”
“I’m jealous,” she said with a smile.
“And I’m bummed I can’t share the pictures on Instagram.”
“If it’s not on social media, did it really happen?”
“Exactly. We want to keep it on the down low, though. So we’re going to go old school photo albums. Do you think you can get us some?”
She nodded. “If you save the pictures to my Dropbox, I’ll have them printed out for you.”
“Sweet,” he said. They exchanged information. “One for each of us.”
“Even Bastien?”
“Maybe not for him.”
“He probably would have liked to have gone.” She didn’t want to sound like she was scolding him, but she wanted Jace to know that he’d hurt Bastien’s feelings by being so selfish.
Jace shrugged. “He wouldn’t have lied to go to Cuba. He’s too much of a straight arrow. At least, I thought he was.” He waggled his eyebrows at her.
Oh, was that how he wanted to play it? “I bet Kitty would have liked to have gone.”
“I would have taken her if she had been here.”
“If you asked her, would she have come?”
Jace stared at her, thinking about it. “Come to my bachelor party?”
“Shared a forbidden trip to Cuba with her fiancé?”
