“And you’ve got enough traction now to attract the sponsors you need?”
“You bet!”
Karim joined their huddle, wanting to be part of the excitement.Libby picked him up and danced around the kitchen with him.“We did it, honey!We did it.Yay!”Her baby had no clue what was going on, except that he loved being bounced around, and she absolutely loved hearing him laugh.
Dan ruffled Karim’s hair.“Your mother is a legend.”
“Not as big a legend as Daniel Jones.”
“Cranky Jones!”Karim shouted with a cheeky grin.
Dan chuckled.
“Sorry.”Libby bit her lip.“I guess I really should stop calling you that now, too.”
“As my dad used to say, You can call me anything except late for my dinner.”
Libby giggled at his silliness.“Speaking of dinner…” She kissed Karim’s forehead.“We’re still covered in sand, baby.We’d better wash and change.”When she looked up at Dan, he was still smiling.Her heart pooled at his feet.“Your mother and Malek will be here soon,” she said.
“It won’t take me long to get ready, so you two go first while I read these reactions.I’ll fill you in at dinner.”
Libby grabbed a change of clothes for herself and Karim, then headed into the bathroom.This feeling of success was intoxicating.Dancing on air, she sang to Karim as she washed sand away from behind his ears.
When they were both dressed, she stepped out and halted at the sight of Dan.
“Wow,” she breathed.He was wearing a light-blue shirt patterned with dark-blue flowers.The thin fabric pulled in all the right ways across his chest and biceps, and he’d left the top three buttons undone.“You look good.”
“You look good yourself.”The slow drift of Dan’s gaze up and down her body had her almost trembling.“I like that dress on you.”
It was her plain yellow sundress again.She’d worn it several times, but he was acting like this was the first.That deep heat in her core ramped up again.“We’d better go meet your mom,” she said.“Karim is getting hungry.”
“He’s not the only one.”Dan’s gaze dipped to her cleavage again, and his jaw flickered with a kind of formal restraint she found insanely sexy.“After you.”
Libby hooked her bag over her shoulder, and Dan took the stroller.When they got to the end of Tia Rosa’s garden, Carina and Malek had just reached the gate too.
“Any news?”Carina asked.
“Yes,” Dan said with a smile.“We’ll tell you all the details at dinner.”
“It’s good news, though,” Libby added.“We made the national headlines in the UK.”
Carina shrieked with delight and clapped her hands.“This is cause for a pre-Christmas celebration, then!Let’s go.”
“Wait.There’s something we need to do first,” Libby said.She picked a pink frangipani from the bush they were standing next to and handed it to Carina.“You put it behind your left ear,” she told her with a wink at Malek, “because you’re spoken for.”
Carina laughed, and Dan looked like he was about to spew.Shooting him an innocent look, Libby tucked her own flower behind her ear—her right one.
Dan’s eyebrows quirked.
“Because I’m not spoken for,” she explained, her gaze steady on his.
His eyes widened—in question or challenge?Libby didn’t know which.
But the heat between her legs told her it would be fun to find out.
Chapter 23
“I’vealwayswonderedhowit would feel to go viral,” Libby said.She looked amazing when she smiled like that, her eyes sparkling with excitement and what Dan recognized as accomplishment.He hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her.She really was sunshine and rainbows, powered with a generous soul that soothed him and a gorgeous body that he ached to touch.He’d be forever grateful to her for what she’d made him address, for what she’d made him see about himself.“My subscriber count has gone wild,” she continued, practically dancing on the spot.They were on the beach now, watching the sunset as waiters prepared their table a few meters away.Libby was glowing, and not just because of the setting sun.
