“Neither,” I laughed. “Apparently this trip I’m Mrs. Jared Ryel.” The words rolled off my tongue like I had spoken a beautiful foreign language. It felt strange to say the words together, yet it was familiar somehow.

Jared’s eyes brightened. “Well…pretend if you like. There’s only so much longer you can do that.”

I frowned. “Don’t remind me. Only five days left and we haven’t even started, yet.”

“I didn’t mean for the remainder of our trip, sweetheart. You can’t pretend to be Mrs. Jared Ryel when you are Mrs. Jared Ryel.”

“Oh,” I said, processing his last sentence.

He looked down at me with the softness in his eyes that he reserved only for our sweetest moments. I took in a deep breath and let a broad grin spread across my face. As talented as I had become over the years at false impersonation during vacations, I couldn’t pretend not to be overwhelmingly besotted by his sentiment.

“What do you say we walk down to the village?” Jared suggested. Sliding his hands down my arms, he took a few steps backward and pulled me along with him.

“I say yes,” I chirped, still high from the euphoria I had felt just moments before.

At a leisurely pace, Jared and I walked hand in hand down a dirt road—it wasn’t even a road, really, more like a double path that had been worn by bicycles, scooters, and the occasional vehicle.

We approached a fork in the path that bore a sign directing us to the nearby village.

It wasn’t long before the small huts and aluminum buildings of the village came into view. There were clusters of locals at each one conversing and watching us walk past. Some were smiling at us and some were eyeing us indifferently before returning to their various conversations.

I didn’t see a single tourist shop, although there were craftsmen selling various items.

We entered a hut that appeared to be a combined blacksmith and jewelry stand. Jared watched me look over the rings, necklaces and ear rings, some with shells, some with gems, although roughly cut and not one of them held with prongs or soldered. One ring in particular caught my eye. The band was silver, and at first glance there seemed to be tiny shells fastened to it in decoration, but when I looked more closely, I could see the two dozen or so miniscule gems appeared to be rough, uncut diamonds fastened to the ring with a tiny wire.

“You like that one?” Jared asked.

“It’s very unique,” I said, still staring at the indentations of the band.