Chapter 26 #2
“That’s mad that you’re also a Jones, Libby,” Gabrielle said, bringing Libby’s attention back to the call.
Like everyone else on the screen, Gabrielle wore a thick sweater.
It was cold and dark in England. Fairy lights twinkled on the wall behind her.
“What are the chances of you having the same surname?”
“That’s exactly what your brother said when he found us in his room.”
They all laughed at the coincidence, except Dan, who simply half-smiled and shook his head. “Man, I was feeling rough that night.”
“Good!” Femi shouted. “It served you right for disappearing like that.”
“I still can’t believe you did it,” Gabrielle added.
“He had his reasons,” Carina said evenly, “and he’s sorting himself out now.”
Dan’s knee nudged Libby’s thigh. “This is the part where my mum and sisters talk about me as if I’m not in the room.”
In the background, one of his brothers-in-law snickered, like he knew how that felt. Libby smiled. Then everyone started talking over each other again, like they’d done at the beginning of the call.
Dan’s sisters were transfixed on him, their eyes wide and adoring—even when they were nagging him about the way he’d left England.
But there was something else, too, in their eyes.
Something that took the heat out of their words.
With their banter and easy smiles, children clambering over their laps, Libby recognized it as relief. His sisters had their brother back.
“And you’re posting your first video tomorrow?” Femi asked.
“That’s right,” Dan said. “It’ll be early morning for you.”
In a day and a half’s time, the UK would wake up to Part One of Dan’s story.
Oh, god. Had they done enough preparation? Was she ready for that amount of exposure to her two-bit channel?
“I hope everyone likes it,” Libby blurted out loud.
“Of course they will!” Dan’s sisters and Carina said at once.
“Everyone will love seeing Dan again,” Gabrielle said. “You were hiding out far too long. If you hadn’t run—”
“Yeah,” Dan said, “we’ve gone through all this already, Gabs.”
“And as for Isabella,” Femi said, “you didn’t mind me giving her your new number?”
“No, it was fine.”
For the briefest of moments, no one spoke. Then Femi gushed about their videos again. “Everyone’s going to love seeing that you’re okay, and that’s the main thing.”
“Too right,” Gabrielle added. “And you’re somewhere exotic, your videos will be perfect.”
Libby had to hand it to Dan’s family. They were just like Dan in sweeping the subject of Isabella to the side right in front of her.
Because Libby was certain that if she hadn’t been on this call, they’d have been talking about Isabella freely.
After all, Isabella was due to be part of this family—she had been a part of the family.
Did they miss her? Were they still friends?
And surely they would have mentioned that her song was top of the UK charts.
That was major! Like Dan winning gold after a record-breaking sprint.
The traffic on the internet for Isabella would be immense today, and the pop star was also following and sharing Libby and Dan’s videos, which was, again, immense.
Didn’t anyone want to acknowledge that today?
“What about your parents, Libby?” Femi asked. “Do they celebrate Christmas? Are they in the States?”
“No, and yes,” Libby said. “They’re not big into Christmas at all, but yeah, they’re still in California. I’ll call them later.”
And guaranteed, her call with Mom and Dad would be different from this one.
It would be more like an interview with two stern-faced bosses, like some sort of audit on how she’d been living her life in oblivion and denial of all the things that were really happening under her nose, kept secret by the authorities.
Libby must’ve been a test-tube baby, where the petri dish had been swapped with someone else’s.
But maybe all families were odd in their own way, and as the banter and chatter continued between Dan’s, she realized that maybe his family’s unspoken agreement not to mention Isabella was done out of kindness and diplomacy.
His family was a tight-knit unit. And maybe that’s how tight-knit families behaved?
Libby had no firsthand experience. Working for Hot Gossip was the closest she’d ever gotten to being part of a tight family, though now she understood that they hadn’t been a family at all.
More like a bunch of sewer rats, feeding off the secrets and scandals they’d scavenged.
Family and what it meant stayed with Libby for a while after the call with Dan’s sisters.
Carina and Malek returned to Are Moana—they’d arranged to meet at the beach later—and Dan went to work out in the yard.
Libby prepared a picnic and then got Karim’s beach things ready.
When she’d done everything, she sighed and braced herself for a call with her parents.
“Merry Christmas, Dad!”
Dad huffed. “It’s freezing, and you’re wearing next to nothing.”
“It’s the tropics here, and it’s beautiful. Look!” She angled the phone toward Tia Rosa’s yard but forgot that Dan was working out.
“Who the hell is that?”
Oh, no. Bare-chested, Dan was lifting some timber that he’d found in the yard above his head like a dumbbell. Libby whipped the phone back to her and Karim. “That’s the gardener,” she said quickly. “He works here.”
“Even on Christmas Day?”
“Well, you know more than most, Dad. Christmas is fake, and not everyone celebrates.”
“Damn right.”
“Is Mom there?”
“Hi, Liberta.”
“Hi, Mom. How are you?”
“Cold, and there’s nothing on TV except shmaltzy, Christmas-is-magical bull crap.”
“I guess it’s the time of year for it. Here’s Karim. Say hello, sweet cheeks.”
Karim waved, and despite all odds, Mom and Dad actually waved back and smiled. They cooed a little too, told him he’d gotten bigger, and were generally not as negative as they could have been, telling him only once that he could easily drown in the ocean if he weren’t careful.
When the call was over, Libby didn’t feel as exhausted as she usually was after speaking with her parents.
Probably because the call had been less than five minutes long, but mostly because she’d positioned herself so she had a full view of Dan, half-naked in the yard, his pecs bulging and sweating in the most mouthwatering way.