Libby nodded.“It’s a forty-five-minute flight away.Population four hundred.Isn’t that amazing?I thought Rarotonga would be the farthest Karim and I would ever get from the rest of the world, so this is a dream come true.”
Dan whistled, seemingly impressed.“My sisters say a trip to the supermarket with kids becomes an all-out mission, and you’re doing all this.”
“Oh boy.We have the same missions, too.But that’s just it.Being a mom is hard work wherever you are, whatever you do, and whomever you’re with.”A lesson she’d begun learning the moment Karim was born.“At least while we’re on the road, we can pretty much please ourselves.I’m not looking at the same pile of dishes that need to be washed every night, or the same floor that needs to be swept, and if I don’t like where we’re living—or the company I’m keeping—I pack up and move on.If everything is going well, then we stay.”
“You make traveling with a kid sound like a picnic.”Dan leaned back in his chair and, with a soft wince, stretched his leg out to the side of the table.
Libby’s gaze drifted to the scars on his knee, her big mouth twitching with questions.“I guess life hasn’t been a picnic for you recently, huh?”
“No, it hasn’t.”
“Is that why you came out here, even though your…your plans had changed?”
“Yeah.”Dan shifted in his seat as he gazed out toward the horizon again.
Knowing when to shut up was a skill just as important as knowing when to ask questions.So Libby let the silence stretch out between them.She glanced under the table to check on Karim.He was lying on his stomach, still playing with his cars.Farther down the beach, a gray-haired white couple walked hand in hand along the water’s edge.A moped scooted past along the island road, and music from the café’s kitchen drifted on the breeze.
“They’ve been hounding me for a story for weeks.”
Libby turned back to Dan.
“Journalists,” he added.“Paparazzi.That’s why I came out here…even though myplanshad changed.Keeping the press off my back was becoming a full-time job.”
Whoa.She hadn’t expected such honesty.
Libby swallowed.“Don’t you have an agent to handle all that for you?”
“Not anymore.”
“Oh.”
He shrugged.“But it’s not like an agent is around when so-called journalists climb over my back fence and press their faces against my window.”
“That’s not cool.”Libby studied her nails.Under Juliana’s orders, she’d pressed her face up against people’s windows on more than one occasion.True, those windows mainly belonged to politicians on house arrest, but there’d often been innocent kids and wives in the house too.“That must feel very…violating.”
“It is.But you know, journalists will do anything for money and prestige.”
“I guess.”Libby bit her lip, ashamed of her past.Ashamed of her initial intention to reveal Dan’s secrets.But the new Libby Jones didn’t do things like that anymore.And she’d helped him in the end instead of selling him out.“So…I read a while back that running might be—”
“Yeah, that’s over.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” he said sharply.
“I guess not.”And there was her big mouth again, putting that abrupt tone back in his voice when she’d only meant to change topics away from the journalists he so clearly hated.Damn her stupid curiosity.But double damn—she couldn’t help it.Daniel Jones was so freaking interesting.
She could write a whole series of articles about him!Or even make a whole series of mini documentaries.Lightning Strike: The Highs and Lows of Daniel Jones.How he dealt with the trauma of his accident, what it took for him to get back on his feet.The guy must have guts of steel and an off-the-charts pain threshold to have undergone all that physio.
Though right now, the one topic that would really gather interest in any story about Daniel Jones was what had happened between him and Isabella.Which was the one question Libby could never ask.
Not when she already knew the answer.
Dammit.If only so many people’s lives wouldn’t be affected by that little secret slipping out into the world.Hunter, his wife, their children.Even Isabella.Her squeaky-clean reputation would be ruined, and what message would her affair with a married man give to all those young people who looked up to her as a role model?
The world was full of nasty, salacious gossip.Once upon a time, Libby had been responsible for churning some of it out, but not anymore.From now on, for Karim’s sake if nothing else, she’d focus only on positivity and inspiration.
And that right there was why she found Daniel Jones so interesting.If he ever stopped sulking for more than five minutes, he’d realize his accident wasn’t the end.
