“Come on, I’ll teach you.”Christopher Mac yanked on Dan’s arm.
Dan groaned, grateful to have the excuse of Karim on his lap, but then Libby lifted him off.
“Seize the day,” she said, “and this is just the happy content you need, remember?”
“How could I forget?”Every time he laughed, Libby was there with her camera.She called it Happy Content.He called it the No More Misery Pie campaign.“All right, Chris, show me how it’s done.”
Dan stepped out onto the dance floor and watched Christopher Mac move his skinny legs in the same scissor-like motion that the men had done on stage.
“That’s how you do it,” the kid said.
Dan tried—but his knee screamed no and his hips just wouldn’t work that way anymore.Then the big guys from the stage came over.So did the women.And in minutes, it seemed like the whole island had gathered around him.Waiting.Watching him fail.
“Like this,” one of the big guys said and dipped his hips.The drums beat on, and the women shimmied their skirts.“Go low and move like this.”
Come on, Jones…
Performing under pressure was in his DNA.He could do this.But when he dipped his hip just like the big guy, pain shot through him.“That hurts too much,” he said.Big Guy’s eyes dipped to Dan’s scarred knee.
“No worries, mate,” he said in a broad Aussie accent.“Do this instead.”Half squatting, Big Guy slapped his shoulders and then his thighs.It was a warrior dance, like the Haka that the New Zealand rugby players perform before a game.“That’s it,” Big Guy said, and more men joined in, chanting.Soon, they were in formation.As Dan tried to copy the others, his movements were clumsy and jagged.But…the strangest thing happened.He didn’t care.
And by the looks of it, neither did anyone else.
It felt good to move his body like this.
As everyone clapped to a steady beat, Christopher Mac stepped out in front of the formation, performing his impressive scissor-leg move.He then grabbed Dan’s arm and dragged him out front too.Out of the corner of his eye, Dan clocked Libby.Holding Karim on her hip with one hand and her phone with the other, her face beamed.
“Show them what you can do, Cranky,” she said above the clapping and chanting.That spurned him on to dance just how he wanted, jigging his hips as much as he was able to, pulsing his shoulders with the steady drum beat.Christopher Mac high-fived him.Everyone cheered and clapped.Then a rush of fun and excitement burst through him.He jerked his body, a flash from the past, and—boom!His fist punched the air.
“Yes!”Libby whooped.“The Lightning Strike is back!”
They were the only two people on this whole island who knew what that meant.Their connection was like coming home.Like he’d found another piece of himself.He threw his arms around her and Karim and hugged them tight.
And that’s when the room really erupted with applause.
Chapter 20
Fromheadtotoe,inside and out, Libby was buzzing.Tonight had been more fabulous than she’d ever imagined.As they walked back toManui, she was practically skipping alongside Dan, who was carrying her very sleepy baby against his chest.
That image alone, of Dan holding her child like that, made heat radiate from her heart deep into her belly.Reining in that particular sensation, she refocused on what they’d just been talking about.
“That was golden Happy Content back there, Cranky!”
“I only did it to amuse the kids.”Chuckling, Dan shook his head.“Now they’ll all think I’m as odd as the colonel.”
“And little do they know that you’ll soon be blowing up the internet with that move.”Libby’s mind raced.“Just when people thought you’d given up…lightning strikes.”
“You think?”
“Dude, what I’ve caught on camera is dynamite.When everyone in the UK sees Dan Jones dancing, they’ll go wild.”
“Thanks to you.”
“Thanks to us,” she corrected.
Over Karim’s head, he smiled.“We make a great team, Libby.”
Oh, man.His soft, British accent.The way he looked.The way her child slept against him, like it was the most natural thing ever…
