Chapter 14
On the way back from the beach the next morning, it was Rellina wearing sneakers ten sizes too big who made Libby stop and stare. The little girl was shuffling like a skier across the road.
“Nice shoes,” Libby called out to her.
“They’re not mine,” the little girl said. “They’re your husband’s.”
“He’s not… Oh, whatever.” So Libby had seen those sneakers before. “Do you know where he is?”
“At the Cabins.”
That must be the Atiu Cabins. Very nice accommodation, Cranky. Much better than the budget hostels she stayed in.
Her gaze dipped to Rellina’s feet. “And you’re wearing his shoes because…?”
“They’re very soft inside.”
“They’re also very big, don’t you think?” Libby rummaged in her bag. “How about I trade you the shoes for these cookies?”
The little girl’s eyes lit up. “Thank you.” She kicked off the shoes, took the cookies, and ran back home barefoot.
Libby picked up Cranky’s sneakers. How would she get these back to him?
She should take them to the Cabins.
Though all she really wanted to do was throw them at his head.
Back at Manui at lunchtime, hurling shoes at Daniel Jones was still on Libby’s mind as she picked at the leftover stir fry he’d cooked last night.
“I think we cut our losses and just drop his shoes off at the Cabins,” she said. “We could leave a note inside. What do you think, honey?”
Karim was sitting on her lap eating chunks of mango, his new favorite food. She brushed hair out of his eyes as he squashed another piece into his mouth. Pulpy mango flesh escaped through his fingers. “I guess I’d better wait a few more years before I ask your advice.”
A waft of loneliness caught her off guard.
When she’d bought their trip out to this island, she’d only had her and Karim in mind, as she always did.
So why this feeling of abandonment now? She’d felt it all day yesterday too, as she’d roamed the island by herself, with only her two-year-old son for company.
She’d tried to cheer herself up by keeping busy.
It had felt good putting on makeup again and interviewing a few of the locals, but then, of course, Cranky had walked by.
This loneliness was all his fault. He’d accused her of worming herself into his life these past few days, but wasn’t that what he’d done to her too?
He’d given her a taste of companionship that she hadn’t realized she’d been craving.
And now, it unnerved her that she…she missed him.
The gentleman version. Not the angry jerk from last night.
“Mamma, look.” Karim pressed his sticky hands onto the table, making prints.
More mess. Excellent. “That’s awesome, honey.
How about we clean your little paws now?
” She reached for the washcloth she always had at the ready during mealtimes and wiped his hands…
and then his face and legs, too. “We’d better get more mango today, kiddo.
In fact, let’s head down to the store now and see what else we can find. ”
And with a bit of luck, Karim would fall asleep in the stroller on the way back, and she’d have time to finish her Parent and Child article while he napped.
She cleared away their lunch things and got Karim ready to go out again. When they passed the next house along, Libby eyed the windows and the empty seats outside. Cranky had stayed there last night? He must have. How else would Rellina have gotten his sneakers?
And now he was at the Cabins. She’d seen them on the map. Knew that they were only a short walk from here. She’d pass by on the way back from the store and give Cranky back his sneakers.
But he’d hissed at her to stay away. The look in his eyes then hadn’t been too different from that politician who’d spat at her all those years ago.
She swallowed back the regret.
But she was Karim’s mom now, and her baby loved her. She was a good person.
And Daniel Jones had no right to make her feel like she wasn’t, especially when he didn’t even hang around to hear her explanation.
She pushed on toward the harbor, and before they reached the place where they’d swum the day before, Karim had fallen asleep. Just as well that he hadn’t seen the water. That would have killed any hope of a nap.
As she stopped walking, Libby gazed at the horizon. The water looked so beautiful, twinkling and glittering like that. Then something caught her eye, floating behind the harbor wall.
Two feet.
Two large, manly feet.
Then the rest of Cranky Jones, sea star shaped, floated by.
Libby pushed Karim to the wide harbor wall, flipped on the brakes, and peered below.
“I had every intention of asking you for an interview,” she said, startling the crap out of him.
Good. “I don’t sneak around. I don’t eavesdrop.
And I helped you when you were sick because you needed help.
I thought I could help you further. I thought I could make you realize that you can still be a hero. ”
She waited for him to look up at her, but his eyes were still fixed ahead, as if she wasn’t worthy of his attention.
“I was wrong,” she said. “You’re not a hero. You’re just a self-centered prick.”
Dan dunked below the surface, water roaring in his ears, but still, he couldn’t drown out Libby’s voice or her scathing words.
Scathing words he might’ve deserved if he’d been the one secretly making notes on her.
A self-centered prick?
What the hell did she know about his life, anyway? She couldn’t possibly understand what he’d been through these past few months.
By the time he came up for air. Libby was gone, and the Christopher Mac Gang stood in her place.
Great. Just what he needed.
“She doesn’t like you,” they said, giggling. They dropped into the water next to him like exploding bombs. Dan swam away from their splashing and sat on the shore.
One by one, dripping children came to sit with him. He lay down. They did too. A line of kids of various sizes flat on their backs, staring at the clear blue sky.
“You need to send her flowers,” one child said.
“Or chocolates.”
“And perfume.”
“Why would I need to do that?” Dan huffed.
“To show her how sorry you are.”
“What makes you think I’m the one who should be apologizing?”
“She wouldn’t have thrown you out of the house if you’d done nothing wrong,” Christopher Mac said.
“I wasn’t thrown out. I walked out.”
Some of the younger kids sniggered.
Dan huffed again and got to his feet. “Okay, let’s go.” The quicker he got these children the ice cream they were waiting for, the quicker he’d be left alone to stew over Libby.
All this time, she’d been using him.
And yet, something chewed at him from the inside out.
Hadn’t he been the one using her?
It had been his idea to jump in the cab with her when Mum turned up with Malek.
It had been his idea to invite her to dinner as a buffer.
But it wasn’t like he hadn’t enjoyed hanging out with her.
That was the thing. He really had liked Libby’s company.
He couldn’t ever remember feeling so comfortable around someone he barely knew.
And all he’d been to her was another headline?
“Does your leg hurt?” the little girl—Rellina?—asked beside him as they all trundled to the shop. Her nose scrunched at the scars on his knee.
“No,” he lied. One way or another, he’d spent most of his life either ignoring pain or pushing through it.
In training and competing, that burn of lactic acid searing through his muscles had become as natural to him as breathing.
And now that was just another part of life that had changed for good, if not disappeared completely.
God, he missed that life. He missed being that person who achieved things.
He missed having success. He missed people looking up to him in awe, eyes glittering with inspiration rather than pity.
The sharpness in his knee caught his breath.
He hissed out the pain. Although it was more than just pain now. It was also damage and loss.
Libby had said he was grieving for his past life, for the person he used to be.
And fuck it, she’d been right.
She’d been so perceptive about so many things. Did that make her a true expert in manipulation? Or a kindhearted friend who simply got him?
“There she is,” Christopher Mac said, his bright eyes alight with mischief.
Dan looked at the dirt track. In the distance, Libby pushed the stroller toward the forest, hips swinging. Angry. At him.
“That’s the road to the caves,” Christopher Mac said, grinning and waggling his eyebrows. “Don’t you want to go after your girlfriend?”
The rest of the gang snickered.
“She’s not my girlfriend.” But at least she’d been demoted from being his wife. As if he could ever be like that turd who’d dumped her, capable of walking out on his family. Although he’d still walked out on her the other night… Dan gritted his teeth. “Do you want ice cream or not?”
“Ice cream!” They ran into the shop.
But Dan stood outside a little longer, watching Libby move farther and farther away.
Where was she going?
And what was she up to now?