#Chapter 147 Tyler

Neil We came back from the cruise different. Not in an obvious, someone’s bleeding or missing an eyebrow kind of way, but in the subtle way you notice when two people have crossed some invisible line between strangers and something else. We spoke quietly as we disembarked. He was still clinging to his cup of coffee. I was saying goodbye to the people they'd partied with on the boat. I hung back as he spoke to another group and took a photo with them. The woman planted a kiss on his cheek before leaving. From where I stood, I could see the shift in Dominic’s posture. His shoulders were loose, his mouth tugging into a reluctant half-smile. One of his friends leaned in a little too close, murmuring something I couldn’t catch, and Dominic’s expression faltered. There was a flicker of something that looked dangerously like heat in his eyes before he stepped back sharply, as if burned and glared at the man. The man grinned like the cat who’d gotten into the cream and walked off.