Free Belize: Bad Boys on the Beach Book Two by Kimberly Fox Page A

he’s seen and the pain and terror that he must feel when he’s over there. He’s amazing to live through that and still be relatively normal. I’d be a crying mess.
    “Is it bad over there?” I ask, gliding my hand on the surface of the water.
    Chase sighs, keeping his eyes closed as he floats. “Just feel lucky that you were born where you were. Don’t take it for granted. Even a day. You have to treasure every day. Any of those people over there would do anything to have what you have.”
    I take a deep breath, imagining what their horrible reality must be like. Constantly worried about their lives and the lives of their loved ones. “It must really put things into perspective for you.”
    “Yeah,” he says, letting his feet sink down to the sandy bottom. “It makes me want to slap people. All of the time. America is a country of spoiled babies. We don’t realize what we have. Over there I met a six-year-old in an orphanage who lost his whole family in a rebel bombing. He lost an eye in the explosion and has scars all over the right side of his body. I made him a toy action figure out of some twine that I had in the truck and he was so happy.”
    Thinking of the poor boy brings tears to my eyes but I hold them back for some reason. I hope he’s okay.
    “So yeah,” he continues. “It really puts things into perspective when you walk into a coffee shop and see a middle aged baby freaking out because there’s not enough whipped cream on his eight dollar coffee.”
    “I get it,” I say, thinking about his words. We float in silence for a while, letting the gentle waves lift us up every few seconds. “But come on,” I say, breaking the comfortable silence. “Not enough whipped cream on your coffee. That would get anyone angry.”
    Chase laughs and the sound makes my heart pang. “What was I thinking?” he asks with a smile.
    A family on a sailboat passes and the mother on board keeps glancing at Chase as they sail by. He waves to her and she breaks out into a wide, goofy smile.
    “So what do you do when you’re not touring the world as a stunning model?” he asks.
    Ugh . Just thinking of work makes me want to sink to the bottom of the ocean and not come back up. “I work in a law office.”
    He jerks his head over and gives me a look. “You’re a lawyer?”
    “No,” I say with a laugh. “I’m an underling that gets bossed around by the lawyers.”
    “Any fun?”
    I drop my head back, dipping my head into the ocean. My curly brown hair spreads out in the water around me. “If you like drowning in paperwork and getting yelled at by stressed out, overpaid attorneys than it’s great.”
    “Sounds magical,” he says.
    “Yeah,” I laugh. “It’s straight out of Hogwarts.”
    “What?” he asks, looking confused.
    “Harry Potter,” I answer flatly, unable to believe that someone on this planet doesn’t know about Hogwarts. “I’m guessing you don’t get a lot of American culture over in Iraq.”
    Chase scratches his head. “Is that the dorky kid with the John Lennon glasses?”
    My blood starts to boil as I shake my head. “You have a lot to learn.”
    Something brushes up against my ankle and I jump up and scream.
    “Look,” Chase says, his eyes fixated on something under the water.
    A school of colorful fish swims by heading straight for him. Even the fish are attracted to this guy.
    “Oh right,” he says, reaching into his pocket. “I forgot.”
    He pulls out a handful of tortillas and the fish go crazy. They multiply, coming out of nowhere trying to get the pieces that he’s breaking off and tossing into the water. I glance around quickly making sure there’s no fin approaching. Do sharks like tortillas?
    “Try it,” he says, handing me a tortilla.
    The fish bob their bright yellow and electric blue heads out of the water, reaching for the bread in my hand. I toss a piece in and they swarm on it, slapping each other with their fins, trying to be the lucky one to get a