“What did you say?”
Dan pulled back.“What do you think I said?”Pursing his lips, he stared at her guilty face.“Huh.Seriously?We’ve really got to work on your trust issues, Libby Jones.”
“All right, all right, Cranky, I’m sorry.”She went onto her tiptoes and kissed him.“It’s not every day that Olympians chase after me.”
“Then you’d better get used to this one chasing after you.”He picked up her bag and moved to the side to let a woman in a wheelchair pass by.“Look, Libby.I’m definitely not going to marry Isabella, but she needs my help.I’m all she’s got right now.She knows about us, but if her stupid plan has any chance of working, she needs to find a husband immediately.”
“We’ll think of something.Together.”She squeezed his hand.“I want to help her, too.”
Dan kissed her again.Libby’s generous spirit was just one of the many, many reasons he’d fallen in love with her so quickly.With her sunshine and rainbows, she’d opened him up, turned him from a man who ran away and hid from everything into someone who finally knew he’d found his true self.She’d given him the courage to step out into the world again, and he craved spending his life worshipping her.And to prove that he was deserving of being a part of her and Karim’s world.
“I’ve had a wild idea.”Libby turned her head.“I think I might know someone who’d be willing to marry her.”
Her gaze drifted toward the arrivals hall.
“Rick?”Oh no!Isabella was going to hate this plan…“You think he’d do it?”
“If the price is right.”Libby’s mischievous, conspiring eyes met his.
Dan grinned back at her, his very own ray of sunshine.Loving Libby would be his greatest adventure, and although the future was wide open, one thing was for sure.
All those people who’d said he was a lucky man were right.
He had Libby.
Lucky, lucky man indeed.
Epilogue
Britishbirdsongdriftedthroughthe open window.Even on early mornings like this, when she’d been up for most of the night and couldn’t even remember falling asleep, Libby would never tire of hearing it.
Beside her, the bed was empty.Dan’s bunched-up pillow was the only evidence that he’d been there at some point.Fuzzy headed, she crept up the hall, passing Karim’s bedroom and making sure not to trip over the school bag and shoes he’d discarded in a hurry yesterday afternoon.Through the crack in the door, he was still fast asleep and sprawled out on his bed.His duvet was half on the floor, revealing the dinosaur underpants Carina had bought him last week.Eight now, Karim was becoming all legs and arms and loved nothing more than spending time on the track where Dan coached.
A half-cry, half-murmur from the next room drew Libby farther.The soft chair by the window was filled with Dan, his long legs taking up most of the floor space.Like he’d been zapped with a sleep laser, his head lolled back, and on his chest, cradled in the crook of his arm, was Laila.Ten weeks old, and a demon at night.Seriously, this baby was something else.The only place she settled at night was on Dan’s chest.Not that Libby could blame her.It was her favorite spot, too.
Laila stirred and screwed up her face, and before she could scream the house down to demand her milk, Libby eased her from Dan’s chest.He jolted awake.
“Hey,” Libby whispered.“Sorry.I didn’t want Her Highness waking Jamal.”
Jamal, their three-year-old, also displaying Carina’s dinosaur underpants, was still fast asleep in the little bed on the other side of the room, his covers thrown off like Karim’s.Those boys threw out some heat when they slept.
Dan eased himself out of the chair, wincing a little.His body had stiffened up again, not just through the injuries he’d once received, but also from so many years of pushing his body to the limit.Sleeping in the armchair wasn’t good for him, but he insisted he didn’t mind if it stopped Laila from crying.
“Go lie on the bed,” Libby whispered.“We’ve got a couple hours before the school run.”
Dan didn’t need to be told twice.By the time Libby had followed him back to their room, he’d already flopped onto the bed and buried his face in the pillow.
Laila squirmed in her arms, on the verge of her usual meltdown.
“I know, I know,” Libby cooed.“You’ve been kept waiting longer than a second.How dare I?”
“She’s the devil,” Dan groaned.
“Yeah, but she’s so cute, isn’t she?”With her free hand, Libby grabbed the large cushion she kept on the floor and laid it against the headboard.Once she’d settled upright in bed, she latched the baby to her breast.
“Her cuteness is the only thing she’s got going for her,” Dan grumbled.
Libby snickered.Of course, he adored the baby.Just like he adored Jamal and Karim.
