But it wasn’t in Dan’s DNA to stand around like a lemon while others carried a load.He hauled the bag over his good shoulder and only slightly stumbled when he put weight on his bad leg.“I know you’re strong,” he said, “but if my mum and aunt turn up now and see you with the bags, and the pushchair, and the child, they’d really go for me.”
Just then, Karim woke up.“Mamma!”
“Hi, sweet cheeks.Did you have a nice sleepy?”
The kid grumbled, rubbed his eyes, and then kicked his little legs.
“I’ll get you out, honey.”Libby set him on her hip, kissing and cuddling him.“Need a pee-pee?Okay, baby.Mind if we use the bathroom?”
“No, of course not.Go ahead.I’ll see you out the front.”
Libby dashed back into the bungalow with Karim, and Dan did his best to control his breathing as he carried her bag.Bloody hell, it was heavy and packed tight, but he’d pushed weights far heavier than this, and yet, here he was, breaking out into a sweat and puffing like an old steam engine.
When he reachedAre Moana’s reception area, he stumbled the last couple of meters to the window that overlooked the driveway, then dropped Libby’s bag like an anvil at his feet.His left hip screamed, and those dark clouds gathered over his head again.Yeah, the sick bug had zapped his strength, but shit, this new body.He hated it.Busting a gut to get back on his feet again hadn’t been enough.He still had so much more to do.
Accept your limitations.
That’s what his physiotherapist had said last week.
You’re still fitter and stronger than most people.
But that was just the thing, wasn’t it?He wasn’t most people.He was Daniel effing Jones, the Lightning Strike, Olympic Gold Medalist, World Champion Record Breaker.He hadn’t been most people since he’d been sixteen years old.
Anger and frustration rippled through him.
Get it together, Jones.
Mum and Zeezee would be arriving soon.
Taking deep breaths, he closed his eyes and strived to balance his mind, until Libby’s soft accent drifted from down the hallway.She’d stopped to talk to someone in the kitchen.Karim giggled.Cheerful, carefree.Happy.
Could he ever be like that again?
He expelled another breath, and when he opened his eyes again, a cab had pulled up outside.The driver—a big, beefy guy—was pulling bags out of the car, and his mother was admiring the flowering shrubs.
Dan raised a hand to wave, but the car’s empty back seat caught his attention.
Where was Zeezee?
The driver pulled the last suitcase out of the back.Actually, no, not the driver.Because the real driver was an older Maori woman still sitting behind the wheel.
So who the hell was the guy with the bags?
And why was his thick arm draped around Mum’s shoulders?
“Hey,Cranky.”Libbysteppedup to Dan, who was scowling at something out of the window.“Who you staring at?”
“My mother.”
But there were only two people out there—a young, muscly man who looked like he could bend iron with his bare hands, and a very attractive woman with long, dark hair scraped into a braid who…
Who had the same dark eyes as Dan.
“Dude, seriously?”Libby gasped.“That’s your mom?She’s gorgeous and nothing like the grandma I had imagined.And you say she’s had three children?But her stomach, it’s flat!”
“She’s a fitness instructor,” Dan said like a robot.He was still staring straight ahead, still with that deep frown line between his eyes.
Libby glanced back at the muscle guy, who looked like the Incredible Hulk—only not the least bit scary.Nor green.Just extremely hot and sexy as—oh!
