Libby squeaked.Three million?Three…million?She needed to breathe.She needed to fist pump the air and whoop.But all she could do was gawk at him.
He kissed her nose.“I’ll play with Karim while you do what you need to do.”
Danusedtoleavesocial media stats to his agent—but he had to admit that three million sounded like a pretty cool number.And not only did it make Libby very happy, but it was also a step closer to sticking it to all those reporters who’d made his life hell recently.The headlines about him had already changed from miserable to hopeful.He felt hopeful too, and not just because he’d spent the night having sex with Libby.
Although what they’d done together was certainly making him smile—and wanting more.
As he pushed the ball across the grass to Karim, he glanced through the open doorway at Libby on her laptop.Her eyes were narrowed in concentration, focused on the screen.One hand on the keyboard, the other moving the mouse.Yet he could only see her naked, reflected in the mirror last night as she’d come in his arms.
Something whacked him on the head.
“Ball!”
“Hey,” Dan chuckled.That served him right.“Good shot, squirt.I’ll pay attention now.”
And not think about your mother naked in my bed.
Karim dive bombed him.Dan rolled flat on his back on the grass and raised the boy like a twenty-kilo weight.The ache in his shoulder radiated up his arm as he extended, but it was a good kind of ache.An ache that meant his muscles were being pushed, sayingBring it on, rather thanNo way.
Karim’s giggles were worth the aches, anyway.
“Let’s bench press,” Dan said, and between the wiggling and laughter, he pushed the kid up and down as best he could.
The game quickly turned to horseback riding.Dan’s knee wasn’t loving it, so he switched to giant spider back riding, crawling along the grass on his hands and feet instead of his knees.Karim clung to him, squealing.Whenever Dan felt him slipping off, he’d lower himself to the grass and pretend to collapse in a heap, saying the spider had fainted.This would make Karim jump on him again to wake the giant spider up and tug his arm so that the game would start all over again.
It was a surprisingly tough workout in the sticky morning heat, but they were both enjoying it.
On the third round, Dan’s new phone slid out of his pocket onto the grass.He pushed it aside so it wouldn’t get crushed, and after the fifth or so round, he collapsed beside it.
That was when he noticed a message had come through.Probably one of his sisters again.They’d been messaging constantly since he’d given them his new number.
Dan played again, but when more messages bleeped through, one after another, he said, “The spider needs a rest.Let’s throw the ball now.”
Karim ran off to fetch it, and Dan grabbed the spare moment to tap on the notifications on his phone.The messages were from an unsaved number and one from Femi that simply said,Sorry.But Isabella really wanted to talk to you.
He tapped the messages from the unsaved number, recognizing the last four digits immediately.Sure enough, it was Isabella.
Femi gave me your new number.
She told me about your phone.
No wonder you didn’t reply to any of my messages.
Where are you?
I hope you’re okay.
He slipped the phone back into his pocket.
Because hewasokay.More than okay, actually.
Until she’d contacted him.
“Thissmellsdelicious,”Libbysaid as she sat down to the evening meal of salad, rice, and fish that Dan had prepared.
Busy juggling work and motherhood all day, the only chance she’d gotten to talk to him was when she’d fired quick questions to get his opinion on how she’d edited their interviews.This morning, she’d put the finishing touches to their videos while Dan played with Karim.Then, when she’d taken Karim to the beach for the afternoon, Dan had stayed at the hut to work on his social media.She’d given him a crash course on how best to build engagement, and surprisingly, he had a far from cranky eagerness to learn.He’d been watching tutorials too, learning as much as he could about social media strategies, which was something he always used to leave to his management company to deal with.It pleased her that he was venturing away from depending on other people to manage his own public profile, but if those people were now begging to sign him up again, where would that leave her?
“Have you decided yet, about your agent?”she asked.That must’ve been on his mind all day.Because it had certainly been on hers.If Dan signed with his agent again, the dynamics of their plans would change—plans that had been agreed on a handshake in a forest and far from legally binding.She didn’t believe for one minute that Dan would leave her high and dry—and she owned the footage she’d shot of him—but still… She’d need his full consent to post it.“Having your agent again is one step closer to getting your old life back,” she added.
