Theairportwasbusy.Carrying Karim, Libby pushed through the throng and checked the monitors for the arrival time of Rick’s flight.It had landed five minutes ago.Perfect!She found a spot to wait close to the taxi line and sent him a message to tell him where they were.
Then her eyes snagged on Dan’s name in her text list.
Still no word from him.
What was he doing with Isabella?Was she crying for forgiveness in his arms?
Dan had said he’d never turn away a woman who was crying at his feet.Was that why he’d so willingly followed her into the bungalow?
And more importantly, why had Libby slunk away so quickly back to the hut?Why had she allowed herself to be pushed aside as if she wasn’t a part of Dan’s life?
If she’d stuck around, she would’ve gotten some answers.And if she hadn’t been so stubborn earlier and simply called Dan to ask what was happening, she’d have gotten some answers then too.
Why had her big mouth failed her when she’d needed it most?
Without wasting another second, Libby tapped his name on her phone.The call connected.
It rang and rang.
And so did her bag.
What the…?
“Stay close, honey.”She put Karim down, sheltered from the road by a large planter, and kneeled on the floor beside him so she could rummage in her bag.And there it was, tucked right at the bottom under a spare T-shirt—Dan’s phone.“No wonder he didn’t call!”
Should she laugh or cry?
“Oh, honey,” she sighed, sitting on her butt on the floor and slumping against the planter.“Mommy has not been thinking straight at all today!”Karim jumped into her lap like a puppy, and she couldn’t help but smile then.“I’ve been a coward,” she told him.Not that he was listening.He’d found his favorite crackers in her bag and was happily munching on them, oblivious to what a scaredy cat his mother had been all afternoon.
Isabella turning up like that and fawning over Dan had been an elbow shove in Libby’s ribs.She’d stepped aside without a fight.Without questions.Thinking—assuming—the worst of Dan.That he’d tell her to leave by the end of the week.
Thanks, Elliot.
Isabella hadn’t shoved her in the ribs at all.It was Libby’s low self-esteem that had delivered the blow.Her confidence had been shattered before, but she’d be damned to let the scars of her emotional abuse—as Dan had put it—affect anything else in her life.
Her gaze caught on Dan’s name in her message list.The top line preview of the last message he’d sent her beamed at her.The link to his Part Five clips.
“Well, here goes nothing.”She clicked on the link that Dan had sent.When his face flashed up full screen, she hit Play.
“Part Five,” he said.
Karim turned to look at her screen, too.“Dan-Dan!”
“That’s right, honey.Let’s see what he has to say for himself.”She angled the phone so he could see better.
“Okay, people, let’s talk about Part Five…” Dan rubbed his lips together.His breath hitched, like he was changing words before he’d given himself a chance to speak them.“Part Five… So… I…” Then he exhaled and mumbled something—probably a curse word, knowing him.“All right, here’s the thing.No one really knows what their Part Five is going to be like.”The angle of his phone shifted to show only his feet.He was walking.Grass and shrubs turned to white-yellow sand.The camera angle changed again, and his profile, glazed in orange evening sunshine, filled the screen.“So, what does Part Five look like for me?”he said, staring out to sea now.Another long pause.His lips pursed.“No one really knows for sure how their Part Five will turn out.We make plans, dream.Hope.But life can change in the blink of an eye…good and bad.”
As the airport bustled around her and Karim munched quietly on more crackers, Libby remained glued to Dan as he revealed his hopes, plans, and dreams.Coaching athletes, sports commentating, more physio so his left leg and hip didn’t jam up.Spending more time with his family—his mom, sisters, nieces, and nephews.Starting a podcast where he interviewed other people who’d suffered life-changing injuries.Working for the Get Living campaign, doing charitable work.His list went on.
Way to go, Cranky!
Just like she’d urged him to do on Atiu, he was realizing he was still alive, that he had so much more to give.
But there was no mention of relationships.Of love and romance.
And that was fine.Dan had always said that his love life was his private business.Simply knowing that he’d begun to make plans for his future made her happy.
“So that’s it, folks.My Part Five…”Dan wrapped the video up.
