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“Dune, right?” he didn’t wait for her to confirm. “I saw him leave. He won’t be back, at least not anytime soon.”
“I should go then. He’s waiting for me.”
Bryant put his hand on the table, almost as if he would try to stop her if she got up. “I just need a moment of your time.”
“For what?”
“To fill you on how things really are in Seaport.”
“Do you always talk in circles?”
Bryant smiled and ducked his head in a lame attempt at flirting. Caroline huffed and gave him a pointed look. If he had something to say, he needed to spit it out and move on. She had places to be, and Dune was waiting for her.
He leaned forward and held his mug with both hands. “Do you know you’re the tourist of the month?”
“Excuse me?” Caroline blanched.
“Sorry, usually it’s the tourist of the week club when it comes to Dune Carter. But you seem to have held onto a bit longer than most, making you the tourist of the month.”
“I . . .” She closed her mouth and tried to clear her thoughts. There were so many of them rushing through her mind like a tidal wave, she couldn’t find the right one to bring up. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Bryant slid his phone across the table and tapped the screen. Methodically, he swiped the screen, moving through photo after photo of Dune with other women, until she looked away.
“I don’t know what you’re playing at or trying to do here. Clearly you have something against Dune, otherwise you wouldn’t be here right now. And I find it rather creepy that you take photos of unsuspecting people.”
“No, you’re just his flavor of the month and once you leave for the summer, you’ll never hear from him again.” Bryant leaned back and crossed his hands in front of him. “You can think I’m a creep, but that doesn’t negate the fact that I’m here to warn you. Dune Carter is using you. Once you’re gone, he’ll move on, and you’ll be nothing but ancient history. Consider this your wake-up call to get out before you get hurt.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but words failed her.
“Normally, his flings are weekly. Start on a Sunday or Monday, over by Saturday night. Rinse and repeat. There’s a reason he’s known as Captain Blue Balls.”
“Yes, he’s told me.” She hadn’t meant to say anything, but the words came out and did so quietly.
Bryant chuckled. “Did he now? Did he tell you he hooks up with countless women, or did he leave that tidbit out?”
Caroline looked out the window, unable to look at this guy anymore. Deep down, she believed him, even though she didn’t know him from the next guy. She had a feeling about Dune when she met him but didn’t want to believe someone as sweet as him would be such a dog.
Maybe that’s how he became the sweet man he was—because he knew how to wine and dine unsuspecting women—and could make them bend at will.
“Why are you telling me this?” she asked quietly, praying he didn’t hear her. Caroline truly didn’t want to know, yet needed to know.
“Because what you’re about to go through, leaving here thinking he’s going to wait for you. He did it to my sister. He did it to many women. All who thought they had something special with the local Romeo. They were nothing to him. You’re nothing to him. Just another notch on his bedpost. You have time to get out before you’re in too deep.”
Too late.
“I don’t believe you.” She shook her head.
He tapped his phone again and began scrolling through the photos of Dune and the other women. Bryant stopped on one in particular. “This woman was here for spring break. Fell madly in love with Dune. She came back at the beginning of the summer, but he wouldn’t see her. Acted like he didn’t know her.”
Caroline thought back to the beginning of the summer; they were together, sort of. They were at least hanging out, flirting, and saying things to each other that led down the path they were now on. Then the night he didn’t go out to dinner with the rest of them came into her mind. Had Dune gone to break things off with another woman? Had he gone to see her to tell her things were over?
This man sitting opposite her confused her. And she didn’t understand why he would be so cruel to say these things to her. She was already on edge about leaving, about never seeing Dune again, and then this guy, who clearly had issues with Dune, just showed up and hammered the point home—Dune and Caroline were nothing more than a summer fling.
Caroline finally got up from the table and left without saying goodbye. She stepped outside and looked to the right, to where the park was that led to the marina, where Dune would be waiting for her to show up for work to take people snorkeling with him. Straight ahead and down the long cobblestone road was her cottage, the place she loved from the moment she stepped inside. To get there, she’d have to walk by the park and Dune would see her. She needed some space, some breathing room to decipher everything Bryant not only told her but showed her as well. Photo after photo of Dune with other women.
