Felicity’s fingers trembled as she slid her key card and entered the villa. All Aiden had done was touch her cheek, briefly at that, and it had sent her heart into a frenzy. Her senses came alive. It threw her right back to five years ago, when she couldn’t imagine loving anyone more than she loved Aiden.

They were high school sweethearts. The couple everyone expected to get married, have babies and live happily ever after. Aiden was so charming, and all the girls in high school fell under his spell. But he didn’t have eyes for anyone but Felicity. Her cheeks heated as she remembered the way he’d asked her to the dance.

She’d opened her locker to find about a thousand paper hearts had been stuffed in through the vents. They came spilling out and onto the floor. Each one said, “Will you go out with me?” Each one was signed with his name.

He’d appeared moments later to help her pick them up. His infectious grin was too much. She’d agreed to go to the spring dance with him. All her girlfriends were jealous, except for Amy. She understood. She could see they were meant to be together.

Felicity shook her head. Why was she dwelling on the past? Why was she even staying in Belize? If she knew what was good for her, she’d pack her bags and leave on the next flight out of there. She didn’t need this heartache.

An envelope on the floor caught her attention. Someone must have slid it under her door. She picked it up and opened it. A ticket for a riverboat excursion was inside, along with a note from Grams.

This is an all-day excursion. It includes lunch. Wear comfortable shoes. Love, Phoebe

Felicity walked into the kitchen and set the ticket on the counter. Yes. This is what she needed. She’d spend the day away from the resort. Away from Aiden and all the baggage he brought up. She could get some amazing photos and enjoy the day without the stress of worrying she’d bump into him.

Rolling her shoulders, she tried to get rid of the stress of the evening. It felt oppressive. Maybe what she needed was a walk on the beach to calm herself.

She slipped off her shoes and slid the patio door open. The night air felt good on her skin as she walked down the grassy slope to the beach. The sand was soft and powdery. She walked closer to the water, enjoying the rushing sound of the waves. Just knowing she’d be away tomorrow helped to relax her.

Pulling out her phone, she took a quick picture of the moon reflecting off the ocean water. With a few clicks, she posted it to her GirlsRock Facebook group. She typed a little message to go with it.

Wishing you were here.

Right away someone responded.

Don’t tempt me.

It was Brittany. Newly divorced, Brittany was on Facebook a lot, wallowing. Felicity tried not to comment much on her rants. They’d never been good friends in high school. Brittany was a cheerleader wanna-be but never made the squad. She’d always come across as whiny to Felicity. But Brittany had a class with Amy so they’d become friends.

Felicity closed the app and pocketed her phone. It really was paradise here. No wonder Aiden liked it. She closed her eyes. Why couldn’t she get him out of her head?

Maybe a good night’s sleep would do it. Felicity walked back to her villa and locked the patio door. Tomorrow would be a fresh day.

She rinsed the sand off her feet and dressed in her pajamas. They were blue with little elephants on them. Her father had given them to her last Christmas, and even though they looked kind of juvenile, she loved them.

As she climbed into bed, she let out a moan. It was even more comfortable than it looked...like laying on a puffy cloud. She snuggled under the covers and closed her eyes. Sleep quickly claimed her.

***

AIDEN WALKED ALONG the beach in the dark. A figure approached him and, as he neared, he saw it was Felicity. She wore her hair up and smiled at him. He shook his head and wondered if he were dreaming. He reached out and caressed her cheek. She closed her eyes and leaned into him.

Yep, a dream. But it was a nice one. He pulled her close, breathing in the familiar smell of her. He could feel the warmth of her skin through the fabric of her dress. She looked up at him. “I’ve missed this.”

“Me too.”

She reached up and put her arms around his neck. “Kiss me,” she said, a smile in her voice.

He leaned down and—

“Aiden! Get up.”

Felicity vanished and Aiden woke up in his bed. He rolled over and put his pillow on his head. No, not now. He was just getting to the good part. Wait, what was Grams doing in his room? Man, that woman didn’t know the meaning of privacy.

Grams shook his shoulder. “Come on. We have a problem.”

“Is the villa on fire?” he mumbled.

“No.”

“Then let Derrick handle it.”

She whacked him. “Get out of bed. The riverboat excursion guide is sick, and you need to fill in.”

Crud. Aiden was the only other person who knew that tour. No one else could fill in. He moaned but stood up. “What time is it?”

“Seven-thirty. You’d better hurry. All the excursion guests will be expecting the boat to leave in an hour.” Grams wrung her hands.

Aiden stretched his back. “I know when it starts. I’m the one who formed the tour, remember?”

“Right.” Grams walked toward his bedroom door. “I’m sure you’ll take care of it. I’ll go start breakfast so you’re not late.”

“Thanks, Grams.” The restaurant had a breakfast buffet, but Grams knew he wasn’t fond of their eggs from a box. He liked them fresh, and he paid a local kid to bring him farm eggs every week. He loved supporting the locals.

Aiden closed his door and got ready to take a shower. He’d been unable to fall asleep last night, with all kinds of pent-up energy inside him. He’d gone out to the deck and listened to the ocean for a while. He’d thought he’d seen Felicity walking along the beach. Maybe that’s where his dream came from.

He got in the shower and turned on the hot water. It cascaded down his back, relaxing his muscles. He shouldn’t be dreaming about Felicity anyway; he had to put her out of his mind. She would never forgive him for not showing up to the courthouse, and she wouldn’t listen to his explanation, so there really was nothing else he could do. If she were willing to walk away from a five-year relationship for one misunderstanding, then she wasn’t the woman he’d thought she was in the first place.

After his shower, he went downstairs. Good smells came from the kitchen. “You made bacon and eggs? And toast? It looks like you’re trying to butter me up for some reason. Is this your way of apologizing for last night?”

“Eat up.” Grams gave him a smile which didn’t hide her guilty look.

“Well, you should be apologizing. That was a dirty trick last night.”

She took in a breath and let it out slowly. “You have some anger issues to work through.”

“Wouldn’t you?” He picked up a piece of toast and bit into it.

“Yes. But it’s not healthy to hold it in like you’ve been doing. Promise me today, you’ll try to let some of that go.”

Grams patted his hand and looked at him with such pleading in her eyes, he nodded. “All right. Today will be a good day for pondering. The riverboat tour is long and I only have to talk through the first half.”

Grams kissed his cheek. “Good. Let it all go. Repeat that in your head and you’ll be fine.”

He’d be fine? What did Grams mean by that? He turned to ask her, but she’d disappeared. Whatever. He finished eating, grabbed one last piece of bacon and headed out of the villa. The river was an hour drive from the resort. The tour met at a gazebo where they would all load a bus and he would drive them, while talking about Belize and the people there. The meeting place was only a ten-minute walk, but he was running late, so he ended up jogging half the way.

When he got to the gazebo, he saw Felicity sitting on the bench, her camera around her neck. She was staring off in the distance, looking a bit forlorn. Oh, no. Grams. What had she done? Where were the other people for the tour? He tried to temper his anger.

He slowed as he approached her. Her gaze darted around. “Is this where I’m supposed to be for the riverboat tour?”

“Yep.” It came out sharp, and he instantly felt bad. This wasn’t Felicity’s fault. He shouldn’t snap at her.

“I’m confused.”

Aiden scrubbed a hand over his face. “Grams told me the tour guide was sick. I think we’ve been set up again.”

Felicity didn’t look like that news made her happy. Her gaze fell. “Oh.”

She looked crestfallen, and guilt surged in Aiden. “Look, I’m sorry. Seems she’s determined to throw us together. If you don’t want to go on the riverboat tour, I understand.”

Felicity swallowed and tugged at the strap on her camera. “I need to take some pictures of the tour for the website.”

He rubbed his hands together, resolving to make the best of the situation. “Okay, then. Let’s just go.”

Felicity stood, one hand cradling her camera, the other hoisting a backpack over her shoulder. She wore jeans and a button-up blouse. Dang, she looked good. She motioned toward the bus. “Is that what we’re taking?”

Aiden shrugged. “If it’s just the two of us, we can take my car.”

“Makes more sense.”

“It’s in my garage.”

“Okay.” Felicity snapped a few photos of the bus and then fell into step beside him.

He tried to think of something to say. “Did you get some good pictures this morning?”

“I missed the sunrise. Slept in too long, and then I had to rush to get ready for the tour.” She pulled out a ticket and handed it to him.

“Grams give you this?”

“Yes. Well, not in person. She slid it under my door with a note saying she’d like some pictures of the excursion.”

It figured. She’d probably done that while they were at dinner. He wondered what she’d told the other guests who had bought excursion tickets but decided he didn’t want to know.

Felicity stopped suddenly. “Just a second.” She crouched down and took a few photographs of the villas along the path. Aiden stepped out of her way. A couple of children were playing, and Felicity snapped some candid shots of them.

She stood. “Sorry, it was a good angle.”

“It’s what you’re here for.” The minute he said the words he knew they weren’t true. She was there because Grams thought she could get them back together.

Felicity gave him a weak smile and nodded. She knew the truth as well.

When they got to his villa, he opened the garage. Felicity whistled. “Wow, an Aston Martin?”

He held in a grin. He knew he had a nice car, and a small part of him was happy Felicity was impressed. “Yeah.”

She gave him a funny look but didn’t say anything. He opened the door and she slid in. Then she sucked in a breath. “Aiden. Someone broke your driver’s side window.”

Aiden ran around the car, a panic rising in his chest. Sure enough, the window was gone and there were broken shards of glass on his seat and on the floor of the garage. But something about it didn’t look right. He bent down and picked one shard up.

“This is plastic, not glass.”

Felicity scrunched up her nose at him. “What?”

He opened his door and pressed the button. His window rolled up, intact. Aiden let out a laugh. “Derrick.”

Felicity gave him a weird look.

He and Derrick had a long-standing practical joke marathon going on. And he’d been waiting for it. He shook his head and began cleaning up the mess. “He likes to play practical jokes on me.”

Understanding entered her eyes. “I see. And I assume you join in and play some on him.”

He chuckled. “Last week I taped a ‘For Sale’ sign on his car, which, by the way, was hilarious. He got several phone calls about it before he figured it out.” He walked to the cupboard and pulled out a small broom to get the last of it off his seat.

Felicity shook her head. “Your joking around is going to bite you in the backside one of these days.”

“It’s just harmless fun.” After he finished, he climbed into the driver’s seat. He backed the car out of the garage and clicked to close the door. “How much do you know about Belize?”

“Not much.”

“All right. We can be more informal with the tour. I’ll start by telling you what I normally go over, and if you have questions, feel free to ask.”

“Sounds good.”

Aiden talked about the history of Belize, the Mayan people who had lived there for centuries, and the Spanish conquerors. Felicity asked a few questions, and he was happy he knew the answers. The tension from the previous day lightened. She smiled at him. “You look like you love it here.”

“I really do. The Mayan culture is fascinating. Before I moved here, I didn’t realize the Mayan people still lived here. I guess I thought their people all died, but that’s not the case. Many of their traditions have remained with the people.”

Felicity unzipped her backpack. “Interesting.”

“There are many Mayan temples and structures here in Belize, and they believe only a small portion of them have been discovered. The Mayan people were industrious, and they built all of these things without metal tools.”

He told her a few more things about Belize as she put a new lens on her camera. She pointed to the side of the road. “Do you mind pulling over?” she asked.

“Not at all. Since it’s just you and me, we have a little more freedom.” He pulled off the highway, and Felicity took some photographs of a traditional Mayan home made from wooden poles with a thatch roof. Two small children played in the yard while a woman hung laundry on a line to dry.

After they got back in the car, she turned to him. “Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?”

He hadn’t been expecting that. He wasn’t sure what she wanted to ask, but curiosity got the best of him. “All right.”

“I keep looking around at the resort, and you, and your car, and I’m thinking you must have sold that piece of technology you were working on for so long. How did that go?”

Aiden leaned back in his seat, unable to speak. So, it was true. Felicity hadn’t found out what he’d been doing the day he missed their wedding. She’d never stopped to ask what held him up. He took in a measured breath. “It went well.”

He’d wanted to leave it at that, but Felicity kept looking at him, expectantly. He finally succumbed to the silence. “I sold it for a billion dollars.”

Felicity sucked in air and then coughed. “You what?”

Her reaction might have been comical if he hadn’t spent the last five years regretting his decision to keep the sale a secret. He’d wanted to surprise her. That hadn’t turned out well. His throat closed as the memory of that day surfaced, and how he’d thought she’d be happy. Instead, she left him, not even knowing what he’d done for her.