“I didn’t realize how many places there were to eat here until I went shopping today,” Victor said.

Small talk? He’s making small talk?

“Where did Dylan take you?” Avery asked.

“The better question would be where he didn’t take me. We grabbed a taxi that took us up the road a good two miles and then walked back. I’m sure the last time I shopped like that my mother had been involved and I was returning to school after summer.”

“Sounds like a good day,” Shannon said.

His voice moved closer behind her.

“I had my fill for the year. I bought enough clothes to last the rest of the vacation and a few things I’m sure I won’t get around to wearing.”

They crossed the street to the jungle side of Tulum’s beach road and approached the hostess at Arca. The five-star restaurant specialized in the unexpected, cooked on a wood burning stove, and had a swanky atmosphere you would expect in the heart of a major city and not the wooded section of Tulum. The entire restaurant was outside, including the kitchen.

Avery spoke to the hostess while Victor and Shannon stood back to avoid crowding the small podium the greeters used.

Victor pointed to a smoldering pot at the entrance to the space framed only by an outdoor bar and the outdoor kitchen in the back. “What is that for?” he asked Shannon.

“I’m guessing the mosquitos.”

He nodded once. “They must have a lot of them.”

Shannon and Avery had practically bathed in repellant before leaving the hotel. On the beach side, with the breeze off the ocean, the nasty little bloodsuckers didn’t stick around. But out here, where the air was still and the forest was thick, they might be in need of a blood transfusion if the insects had their way.

“You put on bug spray, didn’t you?” she asked.

The expression on his face said he hadn’t. “I haven’t had a problem so far.”

Avery waved them over, and they followed the hostess to their table.

Victor took a seat opposite the two of them and studied the wine list. “Would you mind if I picked?” he asked.

Shannon glanced at Avery.

“You know your wines?” Avery asked.

“I’ve tasted a few.”

Not only did Victor know his wine, he knew his food pairing as well. Then he surprised her by carrying much of the conversation with stories about his and his brother’s teenage years.

Unlike Shannon and Avery, Victor had grown up in a middle-income family with financial restrictions that depended on frugality to afford vacations. “A place like this would never have been on the radar,” he told them. “I’ve tried to send my parents on trips, but my dad won’t accept my help.”

“Who suggested Tulum for the wedding?” Shannon asked.

Just the mention of the wedding shifted a little of Victor’s smile. “Corrie.” He paused. “I think. Maybe it was me.” He lifted his wineglass. “I should know the answer to that. Anyway, I encouraged it and knew my parents would come.”

Shannon didn’t want to think that the man had picked his wedding location in an effort to give something to his parents. By shifting Victor out of the selfish category in her brain to the thoughtful side, her equilibrium was thrown off. In fact, she’d felt a little unsteady most of the night. Their dinner came in multiple small courses that had them holding their stomachs by the time they finished off the second bottle of wine.

Shannon swatted at what had to be the fifth mosquito that broke the repellant barrier under the table. “I’m starting to become part of the food chain,” she told them.

“Are you ready to go back?” Victor asked. “Or did you ladies have something else planned for tonight?”

Shannon and Avery exchanged glances. Their plans had been to flirt with the waiter at the restaurant if he was cute enough . . . and he was, now that Shannon thought about it. But that idea hadn’t been put into action. “We’re on vacation, playing everything by ear,” she said.

“I told Dylan and Erasmo I would try and find them at our hotel bar later. I heard there was a band playing . . .”

“I love live music,” Avery said.

Shannon smiled at Avery. Looked like they were going to listen to a band.

Victor stood and smiled. He excused himself to the bathroom while they waited for the bill.

Shannon ducked her head close to Avery’s once he walked away. “Inviting Victor to dinner probably wasn’t the best way to attract another man’s attention,” she told her.

Avery pretended to look around the busy restaurant. “The guys here are barely out of diapers.” An exaggeration, but they were all young. “Maybe there will be someone back at the hotel.”

Shannon moaned.

“He was pretty charming tonight, don’t you think?”

“Victor?”

Avery rolled her eyes. “No, the cook.”

Shannon looked past where Victor had disappeared in search of a bathroom. “He picked a decent wine.”

“Decent . . . it was perfect. I wouldn’t have guessed he had a palate for anything but whiskey.”

Shannon couldn’t argue that.

“You know, for a man without social manners, he didn’t wipe his mouth with the back of his shirt or thank the chef with a burp.”

Now Avery was teasing her.

“Okay, okay . . . maybe he isn’t that bad.”

They both looked up to see him talking with the waiter and pulling out his wallet. “He doesn’t need to do that,” Shannon said.

“Let him. Part of attracting a man is letting them do things for you that you can do for yourself. It empowers them.”

“I don’t know if I want to empower him.”

“Then consider it payment for crashing our dinner. Don’t overthink it.”

Shannon slapped at a mosquito buzzing in her ear and stood when Victor walked over. “I’ll try.”

For the first time in Avery’s life, she was the observer and not the active player in the mating game. Victor buzzed Shannon so loudly an exterminator would be needed to detach the man. Knowing he was humming around made Avery’s life so much easier.

She’d been against Shannon hooking up with a stranger since she’d first mentioned it months before. Even though she hadn’t set out to sabotage Shannon’s efforts, she had every intention to play devil’s advocate for the men who may have suited the baby daddy bill.

Victor was making it so much easier.

He wasn’t the one-night-stand, baby making man Shannon wanted. But with him close by, the other men at the resort, the restaurant, the bars, they didn’t approach. And Avery didn’t point said men out to Shannon when she realized they were watching her friend.

Like now, Avery sat at a small table with Dylan, Erasmo, Shannon, and Victor, talking over loud music. Erasmo had his arm comfortably around Dylan’s back, resting on the chair, Avery sat next to Dylan, and Victor had taken a seat between her and Shannon. A dance floor had been set up in front of the band, and several couples were swinging around on their toes.

Avery zeroed in on the posse of men that had joined the crowd and were searching the guests for single women. Their eyes would settle on Shannon, then slide to Victor, who seemed to always lean forward and say something to Shannon right when someone approached.

The third time a man walked by, eyes trained on Shannon, Victor placed a hand on her shoulder and had her turning around to hear what he had to say. That was when Dylan did the same to Avery.

“Are you watching what I’m watching?” he asked, eyes on Victor and Shannon.

Avery nodded with a smile.

“I didn’t think she liked him.”

“She doesn’t.”

Dylan sat back with a wink.

“Why aren’t you two dancing?” Avery asked Dylan.

“Erasmo doesn’t like to dance.”

“Not my thing,” Erasmo said with a shrug. “I do it for him, once in a while.”

“In the privacy of our own home,” Dylan added.

“I dance for you. Take Avery,” Erasmo suggested.

Dylan sat forward.

Avery leaned in, aware that Shannon and Victor hadn’t noticed their conversation. “Ask Shannon. I’ll ask Victor.”

Dylan rubbed his hands together. “You’re one sneaky friend.” It seemed Dylan was just as sneaky, since he rose to his feet and moved around Victor and extended a hand to Shannon. “C’mon, beautiful . . . let’s dance.”

Shannon turned toward Avery, narrowed her eyes. “I don’t know how to salsa.”

“It’s easy, I’ll show you.”

Victor shifted in his seat. Avery tapped his shoulder. “Can you salsa?” she asked him.

He shook his head.

She stood and extended her hand. “Then I’ll lead.”

The people on the dance floor obviously knew what they were doing, and in order to dance without being stepped on, the four of them stayed on the outside perimeter and started to move. Avery had danced salsa a couple of times in her life and knew the basics, so she grabbed Victor’s hand and spoke loud enough for him to hear. She called out steps and counted each one. Victor seemed to catch on pretty quickly, and it was obvious that Dylan knew what he was doing.