“What feels like sand below your feet is actually calcium from the sides of the cave,” Leo told them.

Shannon reached down and brought it to the surface, rubbed her hands in the gritty substance.

“Exfoliating?” Victor teased.

“Hey, for all we know the cure for cancer is down here somewhere.”

They ended their tour with a lunch cooked by the locals. Fresh fish tacos on homemade tortillas, rice, and fresh fruit. They each drank a beer with lime, which seemed appropriate for where they were.

Back in the car, she sat on a towel and covered her shoulders with her cover-up.

Victor poked her arm with one finger. “Looks like you got too much sun.”

She was a little pink.

She poked him back. “You did, too.”

The ride back to the hotel was a lot more relaxed than it had been driving away.

With soggy hair, fried skin, and a few more mosquito bites to add to the equation, Shannon felt her shoulders relax.

They somehow fell into a conversation about their siblings. She told him about her sister.

“Your sister is in the Peace Corps?”

“That’s what I said. You wouldn’t think joining would make her the black sheep of the family, but for my parents, it did.”

“How’s that possible?”

“They didn’t approve. They wanted us to marry up and add our family name to more guest lists.”

Victor considered her from the seat across from hers. “Is that why you married a governor?”

Should she deny it? “He wasn’t a governor when we married.”

“I’ll pretend you didn’t avoid answering that question.”

There was no way she would directly. Let him guess all he wanted. “For what it’s worth, I didn’t want my marriage to end. But things happen and we split.”

There was a brief pause in the conversation. “Can I say something and risk it sounding like a pickup line?” Victor asked.

“Go for it.”

Victor looked her in the eye. “He’s an idiot.”

She should have expected his words.

She didn’t.

Unexpected moisture gathered in her eyes. “No accounting for taste.” She blinked away her emotions.

“I mean it.” Victor looked away, giving her the ability to hide her instant response to words so many had said before. “I know you and I didn’t start out on the best footing . . .”

“To say the least. I fell in your lap.”

“. . . and blamed me.”

She rolled her eyes, feeling laughter instead of pain. “Whatever.”

“But today was good,” Victor said.

“Don’t forget the salsa dancing. If we can call it that.”

“I’m ignoring the bruise on my instep.”

“You do not have a bruise.”

Victor lifted his foot to prove her wrong.

Shannon saw sand, but nothing else. “I don’t see anything.”

“It’s on the inside.”

They laughed together.

Thirty minutes into the ride back to the hotel, Victor put his head back and closed his eyes. “For the first time in a long time, I feel like I escaped the rat wheel of my life. I owe that to you,” he told Shannon.

“Even rats need to recharge once in a while.”

“Yeah.” He turned and watched the landscape outside the window. “I’ve been thinking about your question earlier. About working too hard.”

“Your explanation told me a lot about you.”

He shook his head. “It made me sound like a saint. I’m not. I like the perks, the money . . . the path to decent tables at restaurants and first-class seats on airplanes. My ego gets a charge quite a bit with this company.”

“There is nothing wrong with enjoying the benefits of your labor,” Shannon told him.

He shrugged. “Until it’s not enough. I need more of this. Days where I don’t have a phone to my ear and my biggest worry is if the big fish looks at me as if I’m lunch.” Just saying the words made him envision their snorkeling adventure taking a turn for the worst. “I need balance.”

“Was that what Corrie was?”

Her question couldn’t have been more spot-on.

“My attempt, I guess.”

Shannon must have sensed he was sorting out his own feelings on the topic and gracefully changed the subject.

Leo pulled up to their hotel a short time later, and Victor gave him a generous tip.

It was just after three, and the beach party was in full swing. “I had a good time today. Thanks for stepping in for Avery,” Shannon told him.

“I hope she’s feeling better.”

“I’m sure she’s fine.”

“Thanks for inviting me out,” Victor said. “And for listening to my . . . well, my current drama.”

“I’m a therapist on the side. I’ll send you my bill,” she teased.

“I’ll look for it.”

The awkward goodbye lingered above them. “I need to get out of this suit.”

Victor lifted an eyebrow. “That’s a damn shame.” He hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

Backing up, she lifted her hands to the air, a mischievous smile on her lips. “Okay, I’m gone.”

“We’ll touch base for dinner,” Victor called after her.

“If Avery’s up to it,” Shannon said as she continued to walk away.

He didn’t say goodbye, and neither did she.

But his eyes followed her as she left his sight.

Chapter Fourteen

Avery had recovered but spent the day on their deck nursing a headache. Shannon joined her outside and received the inquisition.

“Did he hit on you?”

“If you’re asking if he made a pass, the answer is no.”

“No inappropriate touching?”

“Nope.”

Avery frowned. “What about comments? I’m sure he had something to say about that swimsuit.”

“He had plenty to say about the suit.”

Avery smiled. “Give it up.”

Shannon looked down at the suit she had yet to take off. “He said it should be illegal.”

“That’s something.”

“He was a surprisingly good sport with all of it. It was obvious that he hadn’t snorkeled in a while, or at all. But he kept a smile and made a good show without complaint. The cave was incredible. We have to come back here and bring Trina and Lori.”

Avery rubbed her temple. “But no pass.”

“No. But it isn’t like I gave him the opportunity. I’m enjoying the flirt, like you suggested. No one said anything about physical contact.” Although the more she thought about it, the better it sounded.

“We still have three nights left. I’ll be sure and leave you alone with the man to give him an opportunity.”

Shannon glared. “Don’t you dare, Captain Obvious.”

“You’re right, you’re right,” Avery backtracked. “If he wants it, he will create his own opportunity.”

She thought about his confessions about work, about his life. There was a lot more to the man than she first thought. Not that she was going to reveal any of that to Avery right at that moment. Doing so would get the woman going more than she already was.

Shannon pushed up off her chair to walk inside. “I’m taking a shower and a nap before dinner.”

“Good idea. Rest up before the night comes, in case you need your energy.”

Shannon walked away shaking her head.

Avery was like a dog with a bone.

A bone named Victor.

Victor kicked back on his bed, wrapped in a towel. The air conditioner and the fan spinning above him were the only sounds in the room.

He’d purposely left his phone behind for the day, and in fact was making a concerted effort to avoid logging into the real world or risk being sucked into his normal life. Except a text from Corrie waited for him when he returned to his room.

In the off chance you care, I thought you should know I’m not dead in a ditch somewhere.

Her words evoked a desire to immediately text her back to let her know he was quite aware she was alive and well, that her parents had informed his parents, who had told Justin, who revealed the information to him.

What was the point?

His conversation with Shannon about balance had him rethinking why he’d asked Corrie to marry him in the first place. She was a beautiful girl . . . woman, he corrected his thoughts. Except now when he thought about her, he realized she was immature in many ways. Just like her text suggested. She and her friends liked to hang out in clubs and wake up late. Things he learned when he called her early in the morning and found her sleeping in after stumbling in past two.

He didn’t see Shannon doing those kinds of things. Even in Tulum, the lady didn’t overindulge. And her friend Avery obviously didn’t drink all that much if she was getting sick after their wine at dinner and maybe one cocktail. Comparing Shannon to Corrie was like the apple and the orange.

Corrie accepted his need to overwork.

Shannon challenged it.

Corrie had openly flirted with him when they first met.

Shannon blew him off.

Corrie ran off.

Shannon stayed.

He supposed the last part wasn’t truly for or because of him. But Victor owned it anyway.