Page 29 of Under My Skin

But one thing I did know? My heart was breaking for Dani. I couldn’t even imagine doing what she was doing. Caring for Isaac while at the same time grieving for his mother. Being reminded of her every time she looked at him. Constantly wondering if she was making the right choices and doing what her sister would have wanted.

“And then it did,” I said, unable to keep the emotion out of my voice, as I backed out of my parking space and pulled out of the parking lot.

I saw her nod out of the corner of my eye as I started navigating the hellish downtown Orlando traffic. Thankfully, La Terrasse was only about a ten-minute drive from her apartment, so at least we didn’t have to get on the highway with all the distracted tourists looking for the exits to Disney World and Universal Studios.

“It was so fast,” she sniffed. “Like, she seemed fine and then I fell asleep. And when I woke up, she wasn’t breathing.”

Letting go of the steering wheel with one hand, I reached to squeeze her shoulder. “I might not know a lot about being aparent, but what I do know is the most important thing that little man needs is love. And I can tell you’re giving him that.”

“Thanks,” she sighed. “I needed to hear that. Especially tonight. I’ve never left him this late.”

“What did you say to him when we left?” I wondered. “Que…something.”

“Que sueñes con los angelitos. It’s a Spanish way to say ‘sweet dreams,’ especially to kids. The literal translation is, ‘Sleep with the little angels.’”

I smiled. “See, why don’t we have cool phrases like that in English? That sounds so much better than ‘sweet dreams.’”

“Mar always used to speak Spanish to him when she was pregnant. She said she wanted him to know about his Cuban heritage.”

“The only thing I know about Cuba is that it’s famous for fried plantains and rice and beans. Oh, and Cuban sandwiches,” I chuckled.

Dani snorted. “If that’s all you know about Cuban food, you’re missing out on the good stuff.”

“Maybe I can talk you into making merealCuban food sometime.” The words were out of my mouth before I even thought them through.

When Dani didn’t say anything, I quickly glanced over at her. She was wearing the same deer-in-headlights expression she’d had earlier when she saw me holding Isaac, and I didn’t understand why. I knew this wasn’t a real relationship and that I was paying her to play a part for the press, but why was it such a shock that I actually liked her and wanted to spend time with her and get to know her?

“Or not,” I said quickly. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“It’s okay,” she mumbled. “This is all just kind of overwhelming.”

As I pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant, I had to stifle a groan. I’d known Vicki was going to drop a hint to a few photographers and news outlets that I was bringing a girl here tonight, but it seemed like every single paparazzo in the city was at this restaurant tonight, hanging around the front entrance. I honestly didn’t know why the restaurant hadn’t made them move, because this couldn’t have been comfortable for customers whoweren’tpublic figures.

“Oh, my God,” Dani breathed. “I…I wasn’t…”

“I wasn’t expectingthismany photographers either,” I sighed. “I’m sorry, Dani.”

“Don’t be. This is why we’re here, right? To let people take pictures of us and get the press talking?”

“Well, yeah, but I thought there’d be two or three of them, not twenty.”

“Still, this is what I signed up for.” She glanced at me, uncertainty written all over her face. “What do you want me to say?”

I knew we were supposed to be trying to feed the press a story, but doing it like this just didn’t feel right. Especially not when she was clearly uncomfortable with this many paparazzi. Plus, it was better to leave them guessing at first. The less we actually said, the more the press would eat our “relationship” up and speculate about it…which was what we wanted.

“Right now? Nothing. Hold onto my arm as we walk in and let them take pictures, but don’t answer any questions. Just keep looking forward until we get inside. Maybe once we’re done eating, some of them will be gone and we can answer a few questions on the way out.”

Taking a deep breath, she nodded. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

DANIELA

Braden gotout of the car and quickly walked around to the passenger side, opening my door for me.

“Milady,” he said with a wink.

Despite the knot that was forming in my stomach at the thought of walking through the sea of paparazzi at the door, I couldn’t help chuckling as I climbed out of the car. He shut the door behind me, and I took a deep breath for fortitude and linked my arm through his as we started to walk toward the door.

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