Page 7 of Her Big Fat Dreamy Billionaire Ex

Felicity slowly nodded. “I could do that.”

“Good.” Aiden relaxed. He could ignore the stabbing pain in his chest for one evening with Felicity. They could avoid any hot topics. And Grams would be happy.

He sat back in his chair and fiddled with the silverware. “So, how have you been?”

“Fine.” She said it fast, like she was throwing it at him in a game of word hot-potato.

“You’re taking pictures full-time now?”

She nodded and picked up her glass. “Yes, my photography business takes up all my time.”

“Nice.”

An awkward silence settled in while they took turns drinking their water and looking at their menus. When the waitress came to take their orders, he smiled with relief at the distraction. But, too soon, they were done ordering and the waitress took their menus. They were back to the awkward silence.

Aiden straightened, determined to get through this without too much pain. “You look nice.” That actually was an understatement. She could have walked off a runway. Her blonde curls cascaded over her shoulders. She had a softness about her, but she held a certain grace. Of course, Felicity always had been that way, stylish and classy. She would blush when he’d comment on how beautiful she was, but it was true. She was gorgeous.

“Thanks,” she said, glancing down at the table. “You look nice too.”

Grams had given him a hard time about the shirt he wanted to wear. He should have suspected something was up. “Yeah, Grams made me wear this.”

Laughter bubbled out of Felicity, and Aiden couldn’t help but join in. “Like, she laid out your clothes for you?”

“No. She just complained about my T-shirt until I agreed to dress up a little.”

“You should have suspected something.”

“I realize that now.”

It was clear Felicity was trying not to smile at him. “This is a bit crazy, isn’t it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Us, here. I mean, Grams went to a lot of work to arrange this.”

He tucked his chin. “I guess she thought we’d never talk to each other again if she didn’t do something drastic.” When Felicity was silent for a moment, he decided to change the subject. They were too close to talking about the past. “I saw the website Grams wants. I have to admit, it will be better than what we have now.”

Felicity nodded and put her hands in her lap. “Yes. I like the theme. I’m looking forward to taking some photos tomorrow morning when the sun is coming up.”

“Sunrises are gorgeous here. My favorite place to watch them is on the deck of my villa. Since my villa is built up a little higher, you can see out farther.”

Felicity seemed to stiffen, so he quickly inserted, “Not that I’m inviting you to stay at my villa tonight.” He wanted to smack himself in the head. What did he just say? Why did that come out of his mouth?

Felicity raised her eyebrows at him but didn’t say anything. She picked up her water and took a long drink. Luckily, their food arrived and they occupied themselves by eating instead of talking.

He tried to think of something to say that wouldn’t bring them back to the past, but nothing intelligent came to mind. In the end, he settled on, “Seen any good movies lately?”

“No.” Felicity gave him a lame smile. “Sorry. I don’t go to the movies much. It’s no fun...by myself.” She said the last two words quietly.

“Oh.” Aiden stuck his fork in his noodles. That was dumb. He really didn’t go to the movies anyway, so why he even asked that was beyond him. He shoved food around his plate for a minute. “How do you like living in Texas?” The second the words left his lips, he regretted asking.

Felicity’s gaze turned cold. “You’ve been checking up on me?”

“No,” he quickly said. “I just heard you were living...there...” He let his voice trail off. Why had he mentioned where she lived? Dumb. He would look like a creepy Internet stalker. He wasn’t that at all. He was simply curious what she’d been up to.

She softened. “I like Texas. The people are friendly.”

“Very different from Chicago.”

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