“A box?Seriously?”She chuckled.“Why not on display?”
He merely shrugged.“I know they’re there.People know I have them.”
“Is it at least a special box?”
“It’s special to me.”
“What’s it made of?”
“Cardboard.”He sipped his coffee.“It’s a shoebox.”
Libby snickered, liking the twinkle in his eye.So, he was relaxed enough to be playful and get into the spirit of her slightly unorthodox interview skills?She sat back.
“I grew up overlooking the Pacific Ocean,” she said.“When I was a little girl, I came across this world atlas in our school library.It was a huge, huge book.I loved looking through it, at all the vast lands of North America, the Soviet Union, Asia, and Australia.But my favorite pages were of the South Pacific.This unbelievably enormous ocean that’s way, way bigger than any land mass.The deep blue filled several pages, and you know?I was just so fascinated by the tiny specks of green and yellow that made up the islands.”
“Me too,” Dan said with a knowing smile.“My night light as a kid was a globe.My parents would show my sisters and me where they’d traveled.We grew up listening to them talking about the remote places they’d been to.”
“So, what do you love best about this tiny island?”
For a moment, he kept his gaze steady on hers, contemplating his next words.Then he looked at their surroundings, at the bushes tinged with moonshine.
“I love the peace and quiet,” he said eventually, “and it’s miles away from home.”
Libby zoomed in on his face.“Is that why you nearly killed yourself again getting out here?”
The question earned her a quick, sideways glance.
“I take it the warmup’s over,” he drawled.
“Let’s get to it, Cranky.You’re better than I thought you’d be on camera.”And he was—relaxed, calm, natural.She zoomed out and angled her phone to get herself in the frame again.“Medically and physically speaking, it was a risk taking on such a long journey.You were exhausted.Your body took another beating.”
“And it was worth it,” he said.
“Why?”
“So I could be me again.”
“And who’s ‘me’?Who’s the real Lightning Strike?”
“That’s a good question.”A crease formed between his eyebrows, and his lips pressed firmly together.Libby zoomed in on his profile again.Handsome.Striking.Enigmatic.Then a shadow of a smile passed across his face.“I guess we’ll soon find out.”
The hair on the back of Libby’s neck stood on end as the air turned electric.She stopped recording.
“Well, Cranky…” She breathed, lowering the camera.“That was really great.How do you feel?”
“Stupid.”
“I knew you’d say that.You’re the guy who keeps his hard-won medals in a shoebox.”
Chuckling, he picked up his coffee again.“That was a good warmup.Something tells me being interviewed by Liberta Jones will be an experience I won’t forget in a hurry.”
She smiled up at him as she propped her head on her arm, enjoying the moment.Until she thought about all the things she had to do before their interviews could go live.“You’re not in a hurry to tell the world you’re alive and kicking, are you?It’s going to take me at least a week to get all my platforms optimized.I can only work three, four hours a day max because of Karim.Then there’s all the editing we have to do after we’ve shot our interviews.There’s my website, and both our socials have to be polished, and—” She let out a big yawn.
“You’d better get some sleep first, Libby,” Dan said, standing.“We can talk more tomorrow.”He picked up his mug.
“I’ll take that in,” she told him, and noticed he’d also picked upWhen Love is Betrayed.
“Mind if I hang on to this?”he asked.“I like reading, and this promises to be a”—he peered at the back cover—“a ‘thrilling adventure of the heart.’”
