Thank the full harvest moon that was over.

The mood among the group she’d led along the trail had been a mix of annoyance and interest. Now the campers were headed off to zipline or make crafts or just hang by the lake, and Penny had a few hours free before she had to help serve dinner.

She plopped down on the folding chair someone had put at the trailhead for Zinnia. She’d kept her promise to Michael Tully, and now thankfully Diego Ramos seemed to have disappeared. He had sent her smoldering looks all through the hike.

Mixed signals much?

After judging her because of Jeffrey London’s bias this morning, he’d ignored her at lunch.

She should still be mad at him. But if she was honest, she was hurt more than angry. However he seemed open to her corporate farming project so she couldn’t afford to piss him off. And damn him, he’d certainly looked sexy during the bingo hike.

The walkie-talkie at her hip squawked. “Penny, can you check the trail to make sure no one got lost?” Tegan requested.

Penny wanted to roll her eyes. “Who’m I looking for?”

“Mister London is looking for his assistant.”

“She ran back the way we started when we heard a frog.”

Tegan snorted.

They weren’t supposed to laugh at the guests. Of course they weren’t. But Penny laughed anyway. She wasn’t an employee of the camp, and Mister London’s assistant had been completely rude while Penny had been speaking. She’d talked through her entire speech. “Apparently, she’s not really a nature girl.”

“Make sure she isn’t lost on the trail?”

“Sure.” Penny pushed to her feet. She’d really been hoping for a nap.

Diego jogged up beside her, looking far better than any guy had a right to. “I’ll come with you.”

How did he know where she was going? “Not necessary.” Her tone was clipped.

He sidled closer to her. “Didn’t you emphasize the buddy system before our hike?” His words puffed against her neck. A chill shivered over her skin and peppered her arms with goose bumps.

She flushed. “Fine.”

They retraced the hike from the beginning. Penny walked briskly, trying to race through the re-walk. She doubted Sherry was still on the trail. The faster she got through this, the faster she could ditch one Diego Ramos.

“How old were you when you discovered kids didn’t always have three meals and a snack every day?”

Nine years and nine months old. Near this very spot. Fudge. She did not want to talk about this. She kept walking, now practically sprinting. “Ten? Eleven? I don’t remember.”

“Bullshit.”

She jerked to a stop. “What?”

“You know exactly when.”

Not touching that one. “What do you care?”

After all, he was the one who’d judged and juried her when it became apparent that Jeffrey London had a problem with her very existence.

She wanted to hold on to that resentment. Yet, she had to play nice because based on what Alma Fuentes had relayed, she was very interested in being one of Penny’s first customers.

“What I meant to say was, I have high hopes for the program starting a movement.” She kept her tone even and her words measured. But she didn’t look at him.

She was doing a decent job of masking her frustration. But she seesawed between her passion and commitment to this project and her conflicted emotions after sleeping with him and then getting rejected. Ugh. It had been years since she worried about her reactions and her words. She’d left all that behind, and yet here she was. But the project was worth her hurt feelings and having to hold in a few choice words.

“Penny.” Diego grabbed her hand. Halted her in her tracks.

His hand was solid, a little rough, as he curled his fingers around hers. She remembered him cupping her face so very gently. All those lovely pheromones flooded her body, lighting up her nerve endings and fizzing through her bloodstream.

“Yeah?” she rasped.

He tugged her around so she faced him.

His dark eyes were serious, his expression gentle. “I think it’s a great idea.”

Warmth flooded her, filling her heart with an unexpected joy. “Oh, well, thanks. Me too.” She stumbled through gratitude.

He stood strong and resolute. The forest was alive with the clicks and clacks and chirps of birds and squirrels. Dappled sunlight hid and revealed his heated expression.

They were probably the only humans around for several miles.

If this were a Disney movie, this would be the moment when the birds and wildlife fluttered around the couple and dropped a crown of flowers on their heads, singing while the characters kissed and the music crescendoed.

In the hushed air, anticipation shimmered between them.

Her heart thudded in her ears, drowning out the sounds of the forest. Her blood slowed, chugging when instead of letting her go, he stepped closer.

She was mad at him. Wasn’t she? She still wasn’t quite over the accidentally-slept-with comment.

And he was mad at her. Illogically, she might add. Wasn’t he?

Diego tipped his head. His hand came up, his thumb caressing her cheek.

“What—” she said faintly “—was that for?”

“You had a smudge of dirt on your cheekbone.”

“Oh, um, thanks.” Penny flushed. She always seemed to be dirty around him.

“For how perfectly pristine you were as a kid, you certainly have changed,” he murmured.

There was a subject she’d rather avoid.

“Why the face?”

“I was expected to stay clean, perfect.” And yeah, a psychologist would probably have a field day with her obstinate refusal to adhere to those expectations anymore. Her parents had insisted Penny always be above reproach, clean, put together, not a speck of dirt anywhere. Her resentment at their standards bubbled through her. “Apparently, embezzling money wasn’t a problem as long as the Hastings’ appearance standards were met.” Her bitterness seeped into her words.

She hadn’t heard from her parents in over eleven years. You’d think she’d be over it.

She was mostly resigned to the fact that her parents were assholes. But sometimes she still wanted to scream about it.

* * *

Diego studied her. “Didn’t mean to bring up a painful subject.” His missed her earlier joy. She’d been animated, happy, while wandering through the woods and teaching the crowd about nature. His careless observance had smothered that delight.

She shrugged. His palms slid over her sun-warmed skin. The scent of coconut and bug spray mingled with something floral. “It’s a fact of life.” But she grimaced. “But they aren’t here to release my frustration on, so sometimes I let my abandonment issues get the better of me.”

“You never heard from them again?” Her parents had left her alone to face the scandal?

“Nope.” Penny closed her eyes and tilted her face toward the sun. The muted rays filtered through the canopy of trees. The expression on her face had relaxed into her normal cheerfulness. “What can you do? You go on.”

He had so many questions, but she had exuded a peaceful, natural vibe, until she talked about her parents. And he wanted to bring back that joy.

Diego rubbed his jaw. The slight dusting of stubble was now the full-on beginnings of a beard. He should probably shave. But he found the texture beneath his hand soothed him.

She inhaled deeply and he tried, he really did, not to notice how her breasts lifted. And he remembered how she’d filled his hands.

She didn’t need him creeping on her right now.

A smile spread over her upturned face. “I can seriously hear you thinking right now.”

“Hopefully not completely.” The unfiltered words tumbled out, surprising him. He never spoke without thinking first.

She laughed, and opened her bright green eyes. “Inappropriate?”

“Maybe.”

Her smile was contagious, and Diego smiled back.

“As much as you’re giving me a hard time about changing, you’re a lot different than you were as a kid.”

He was curious what she’d thought of him. “How so?”

“You’re very…focused.”

He could be. Lust simmered between them.

“What I remember about that summer is how angry you were.”

True.

“Now you’re so….”

He raised an eyebrow.

“Respectable.” She snorted.

Diego had worked his ass off to become a respected businessman. He made all the right connections, dated all the right women, contributed to all the right causes. Every single decision he’d made since finding the breakfast club had been geared toward success. “I try.” And yet, he’d thrown that all to the wind when he’d had sex with her without vetting her. So unlike him. “And yet, I am still impulsive on occasion.”

“Turning a negative into a positive?” She waited.

“About that.” He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry.”

She blinked, tilted her head, assessed him. “For what?”

Shit. This was a frickin’ minefield. He knew it and yet he could only answer one way. “For yelling at you all those years ago.”

She flicked her hand. “I was a spoiled b—”

“Baby.” He finished before she could. “You were a child. And I never should have yelled at you.”

She shrugged, a half lift of one shoulder. “We both got over it.”

“That is true,” Diego said. “But I should also thank you.”

“Thank me?”

“You opened my eyes to another way of looking at life.”

“Same.”

That regretful lump that settled in his breastbone whenever he thought about their clash dissolved, just flowed away like oil into the garage drain.

Before he could tell her how profoundly grateful he was for that confrontation, she beat him to it.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today if you hadn’t made me see the world differently.”

Well.

Her look was provocative. And that joy was back. She wasn’t mad anymore. And that he was able to prod her out of that mood sparked something in him. A little pop of satisfaction his chest puffed with a weirdly inordinate pride. He’d done that.

They stood in the middle of the forest, staring at each other.

The moment was fraught with an importance that suffused them both. Diego edged closer to Penny. The burden of that weight now gone, he was lighter, more hopeful.

In the hushed forest, the only sound was their breathing. A thick soup of regret and gratitude and relief and joy simmered in the air around them. Those emotions morphed, and the attraction that they’d managed to suppress roared back to life.

“So that’s how you ended up as CEO of your own company?”

“Well, there were a lot of factors, but it all started when you opened my eyes to possibilities.”

“That’s a nice way of couching my naïveté.”

“Maybe. But you also didn’t think twice about believing that I could become more.”

“More what?”

“More than I was. That started my journey.”

“That’s still a pretty big leap between a kid who needed a new whatever car part, and CEO,” Penny said, prodding him to tell his story.

“I always thought I’d be able to apologize to you later,” Diego said.

“It’s later.” She smirked.

“The next summer,” he clarified. “But I ended up learning how to fix cars in my uncle’s shop instead.”

“Zinnia’s dad?”

“Yep. And Raul’s.”

“You still haven’t explained how you got from there to here.”

“About six years later I was trying to sneak into a seminar for young entrepreneurs—”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” He ducked his head. “I didn’t go to college. No money. No time. But I read about this thing taking place at Harvard so I was going to try to sneak in.”

She clapped. “So you got in and the rest is history?”

“No.” Diego shook his head. “The attendees had these laminated passes and I didn’t have one. They wouldn’t let me in.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“Best thing that ever happened to me.”

“Why?”

“When I didn’t get in, I went to this diner across the street. There was a group of the people who’d broken out of the lecture and I ended up meeting these guys and we…hit it off, and formed our own little club.”

“What does your club do?”

“We ah, share business ideas, information, brainstorm through challenges, and generally support each other.”

“That’s…wonderful,” she said softly. “It’s so great that you have that support group.”

“Yeah.” Diego smiled. “They’re an amazing bunch. And we’ve been there when each of us reaches milestones.”

“So you see each other often?”

“Once a month we meet for breakfast.” He laughed.

“That’s really…great.”

“I never would have the courage to approach them if I hadn’t taken your words to heart.”

“What words?”

“I figured out how to turn the failure into a success.”

“My dad’s words,” she said bitterly. “Too bad he didn’t follow his own advice, or maybe he did.”

“I’m sorry about your parents.” Even though he didn’t necessarily have anything to apologize for, he continued. “I’m sorry London was being…difficult.”

“That’s a word for it.” But Penny blinked.

“And I’m really sorry that I gave you a hard time. It wasn’t fair of me.” Something he prided himself on. He could see the hesitation in her eyes. He deliberately stepped forward into her personal space. “I unleashed my frustration with myself on you. Forgive me?”

“Yes.”

Her breath caught. The lime green lace from her bra peeked out from beneath the thin tank top. Diego was fascinated with the smattering of freckles across her chest. He traced his fingers from one to the other, enthralled as her body vibrated beneath his light touch.

He followed the edge of the skimpy top until his fingers dipped into the valley between her breasts. Her heart thudded beneath his touch.

In complete accordance, they stood there. His breath a soft exhalation as he stared at his darker skin against her lighter skin.

Her hands were at his waist. She burrowed her fingers beneath his T-shirt, her nails scraped the taut skin of his stomach.

Diego leaned his forehead against hers, staring into her eyes as if he would find the answers to the universe.

In complete harmony, they breathed together.

His eyes drifted closed, committing this moment to memory. He bent his head, savoring the anticipation of their kiss. This intimacy somehow seemed more important, more profound, than the sex they’d had this morning.

The walkie-talkie squawked.

Penny jumped away from him.

“Crap. Sherry.”

Tegan’s voice confirmed Sherry had been found.

But the mood had been broken. “Got to go,” Penny muttered.

Within seconds he was alone in the woods. She practically ran away and he had to wonder.

What just happened?