Here's some background on my situation, leading up to the dream I had. In waking life, my beloved (but ex) boyfriend and I broke up in March under less than friendly circumstances. We have had no immediate contact since then. We have the same friends and I am close to his family, so they kind of slip it to me how he is.

A mutual friend informed me that he has been checking out my website, which he never did while we were dating. He's also been back in my town to see family, after famously proclaiming in the past that he wouldn't be back for a "long time." (Really, not only were we dating...but we were BEST FRIENDS. However, he's a very stubborn person, so it's no surprise he made no attempt to even say "hi" to me now.)

Anyway, onto the dream I had around the time all of this was occuring. It was a very peaceful, pleasant dream. There was an abundance of light or sunshine. He took my hands and sat down in a recliner chair. We continued to hold hands, and smile. It looked as though we had made peace. I told him that I love him (which I still do), and he said, "Well, it would take a good person to love me," and smiled.

I've had only a couple of other dreams about him: one, in which he told me twice that he cared for me. The other, he said he loved me...and started to cry or choke up.

I typically don't dream about him, and I'm busy with a lot of other things in my life beside this break-up (a move etc). I usually have very weird, disorganized dreams, hah.

Can anyone help me out here on what these mean?

I think you've half explained what it means in your post. If you really love/loved someone you'll always have dreams about them now and again, there's always an attachment of fondness in your subconscious. Sometimes the attachment isn't to the person themselves exactly, but to your ideal image of that person - how you would like them to be, or how you wished they could have been.

It could also be that your mind is playing with the idea of you two being together, seeing as you've heard about him recently in your waking life, just to see how it feels. Sometimes, especially with these sorts of dreams, dreams are a form of wish fulfilment, or just for fun. They don't always have to mean something exactly.