"These Miami boys sure are hot," Kaileen said, eyeing one of the baristas.

I elbowed her. "Kaileen! Shh. Isn't he a little young for us?"

"So?" She raised a brow.

"Jayda?" the young girl at the counter said. "Here's your mocha frap, extra whip, extra chocolate."

As she put the cup on the counter, she looked up at me, and her jaw dropped.

I knew then that she had recognized me. It didn't happen often, but it was always kind of sweet and weird when it did.

"Omigosh," she started. "You're Jayda Jenkins, like the Jayda Jenkins, who wrote Chassidy Rising!"

I smiled, a little embarrassed but also flattered. "That's me."

"I adore your books. Please, please, please tell me when the next one is coming. You left off on such a cliffhanger. I'm dying."

I had to laugh at her enthusiasm, but Kaileen took over. "Well, dear, I'm her agent, and her next one is supposed to be in by the end of the year. Then we need to edit and all that stuff. So it might be a whole other year."

Her face fell. "A whole year?"

I nodded. But really, I had just released the last one a few months ago, so I didn't feel all that guilty about it. But I certainly understood what it felt like to have to wait on something you loved.

"Sorry, sweetie," I said. "I'm working as quickly as I can."

She sighed. "I understand. I'll just keep re-reading."

Her face suddenly lit up as she looked behind me at something. Curious, I turned around to see what had caused that reaction and bumped right into a solid wall of muscle.

Oh, whoops.

Glancing up, I took in a chiseled jawline complete with sexy stubble and sensual, full lips before my eyes peeked all the way up into a pair of soulful, brown eyes.

Those eyes. I knew those eyes. What on earth?

Those eyes went wide, and my gut clenched while my heart nearly leaped out of my chest.

Alex Hernandez! Alex Hernandez stood in front of me!

My mind went blank, and I felt my jaw go slack. My gosh, he looked hot, even hotter than in high school when I'd been so madly in love with him all four years.

"Jayda?" he asked.

I nodded, still not able to speak. Somewhere in the back reaches of my brain, I could sense Kaileen staring between us. But my heart couldn't calm down enough to pretend to have any manners for introductions.

"Wow," he said with that deep, sexy voice that made my knees wobbly. "I can't believe it's really you. I haven't seen you since graduation night."

Taking a shaky breath, I tried to speak, but nothing came out.

"You must be here for the reunion, right?" he asked, his eyes searching my face.

What? What was he even talking about?

"Reunion?" I heard Kaileen say.

That finally snapped me out of my stupor. "Um, no," I managed to utter.

Those stunning eyes grew wider once again. "You're not?"

Had I maybe heard disappointment in his voice or just imagined it? "I had no clue there was even a reunion going on."

He smiled at me, and my heart did that fluttery thing I'd attempted to capture with words so many times in my books. "Yes, tonight," he said. "And if you don't have plans, I think you should be my date."

What in the world was going on? Was the Alex Hernandez asking me on a date? Was I hallucinating? Or had I entered into some other dimension? My brain just seemed to get even dumber, and I had no clue what to say. This couldn't really be happening.

"She'd love to go," I heard the slightly amused voice of Kaileen say.

"W-what?" I sputtered in her direction. "Don't we have, you know, things to do tonight?"

She gave me a look that I instantly recognized, like she was scolding her toddler. "No. We do not have things to do tonight."

"Great," Alex said. "Hey, if you have a second now, maybe we could catch up."

"Um, um," I said. Yikes, I was acting like an idiot. Seeing this god was transporting me instantly back to my dorky, insecure teenage self.

"Yes, she has a second," Kaileen said.

Why was she answering all of his questions? "Um, Kaileen, can I talk to you for a minute? Over there?" I pointed to a quiet, empty corner.

She nodded, then said to Alex, "We'll be right back."

We huddled in the corner, and now, I really felt like a damn teenager—whispering and giggling with my friends while staring at Alex Hernandez.

She gave me that look again. "What is going on with you, Jayda? Why are you acting so weird all the sudden?"

How could I even explain it? "That guy... that guy right there?" I resisted the urge to point as I my eyes darted back and forth between Alex and Kaileen.

"Yeah?" she asked in an exasperated voice.

"He was the hottest, and I mean hottest, most popular guy in our whole school."

One perfectly groomed eyebrow shot up. "So?"

"So I can't go on a date with him," I tried to explain. "To my twenty-year reunion, no less."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because..." I sighed in frustration. "Because I get completely tongue-tied whenever I'm around him, whenever I even see him. And apparently, twenty years hasn't changed a thing. You saw what an idiot I turned into."

She gave me an epic eye-roll. "Yeah. It was hard not to see that."

I felt my right eye twitch. "So you see? There is no way on earth that I can go out with him."

She put her hands on my shoulders, capturing all of my attention, her gaze burning into mine. "Get yourself together, girl. You are a grown woman now, a mom, a hugely successful novelist. You are not an insecure teenager anymore. You owe it to the teenage girl still inside you to go on that date. You are going, and I will not take no for an answer."

I closed my eyes, trying to imagine it, walking into whatever big room and seeing all my old classmates. Oh, God, I didn't think I could do it.

"Did you go out with him in high school?" she asked, interrupting my momentary panic.

"Are you kidding me? He never would have asked me on a date. We were friends, though, and had quite a few classes together."

"Well, as your agent and your best friend, you are going. You'll have a few drinks, and you'll be totally fine," she said, waving her hand in dismissal.

I sighed again because I knew there was no chance of winning this argument, and a part of me kind of did want to go. I hadn't turned out all bad. Plus, didn't a petty side of me want to go to see how all the super popular girls had fared, in hopes that they hadn't aged well?

"But I don't even have a dress," I realized, mentally rifling through my suitcase for the writers' conference I was mentoring at this weekend.

Kaileen pointed to an upscale outdoor shopping center nearby. "See that? I'll go there and get a head start shopping while you have your coffee with Mr. Hot and Popular. Then you can meet me there. Okay?"

Nodding, I released a pent-up breath.

"You can do this, Jayda. God knows, you really need this. After everything you've been through, you deserve to have a little fun. Just remember who you are now and not that teenage girl you used to be. Okay?"

I nodded again as she shoved me forward in the direction of Alex, who was sitting at a small table near the back.

"Wait," she whispered, making me pause. "Should I make an appointment with a hair-ripper?"

"Excuse me? What?"

Her eyes traveled up and down my body. "You know, to get things taken care of, just in case."

I felt my face turning crimson at the thought of what she was not so subtly implying. "No! I just went a few days ago as a little splurge before this trip. Besides, that is not going to happen."

"You never know," she said, wiggling her eyebrows at me.

I laughed, shaking my head at my crazy friend. "You are unbelievable."

She pushed me back toward Alex, saying, "You go get that fine specimen of a man."