Paige was smiling too much. She’d smiled through nearly her entire workout this morning. Probably looked like she’d lost her marbles, but Paige didn’t care and couldn’t stop. Didn’twantto stop.
Graham was the most amazing man she’d ever met, and despite only knowing him for a few hours, she was looking forward to seeing him again.
Yes, it might all fizzle into nothing. But spending time with him last night had been…she sighed. Not like any evening she’d ever spent with a man before.
He was fascinating, funny, full of crazy stories that he told with the verve of a practiced raconteur, and he had the kind of manners that were almost nonexistent in today’s world. He was afind. A gem of a man. The kind of catch that some women never encountered. She’d certainly never thought she would.
That British accent didn’t hurt either.
As she sat in her living room, working on her phone to edit today’s TikTok post, she was hesitant to include Graham. For purely selfish reasons. She didn’t want to see a single negativecomment about him. Didn’t want to give anyone the opportunity to speak ill of him or knock the air out of her very full sails.
She wanted this feeling to last. Was that even possible?
She uploaded the first post, which was strictly about bingo and included the little good-luck charm footage she’d taken.
Then she watched the part where he’d leaned and said hi. Itwascharming. But then, everything about him was charming.
She especially liked the way he listened. He focused so intently that it was as if no one else existed in that moment. As if she was the only person who mattered.
It was far more intoxicating than any drink she’d ever had.
Should she include him in her next post or cut that part of the footage out? She kind of wanted to share this amazing man who’d entered her life and he’d said he was fine with her doing that.
Her audience would think he was just another of the men who came and went so quickly in her posts. Very few had ever shown up more than twice. Maybe a few had appeared three times, but never in succession.
She’d decided after her divorce that she would never be seriously involved with a man again. It was a decision made when she was hurting, but it had come from a very real place.
One evening with Graham and she was reconsidering that decision with such intent that it seemed like a red flag. Even when she didn’t want it to be a red flag.
Graham was special. She felt it in her bones.
There was no reason not to post him, or the video she’d taken at dinner. Neither of those would be off-brand for her. It was a big part of what she usually put up.
But she’d never felt protective of a man before and she definitely felt that way about him. What was going on with her? Had he really turned her head that much?
Apparently, he had. She put a finger to her lips. “Hmm. How about that? I guess it’s good to know my heart isn’t completely made of stone.”
She laughed, but if she was being honest, part of her had thought herself too scarred from the divorce to even think about a relationship.
It was why the decision not to get involved again had been made so easily. Now this man had shown up and she was rethinking everything.
Life was funny.
She thought a moment longer and decided that she would share Graham. She had at least three more posts’ worth of stuff that had come from last night, so if she didn’t use that content, she’d have to come up with something else for today.
And if anyone said a word against him, she would delete their comment. Maybe even ban them from her channel.
Until proven otherwise, Graham was something special and deserved to be protected. He’d probably laugh at that. The man had been MI6, after all. By his own words, just a civil servant stationed at the British embassy in Washington, D.C., but still. He wasn’t exactly some average Joe off the street.
She knew it was also entirely possible that everything he’d told her had been said expressly to impress her. If so, he’d done a great job. If it was the truth, he had lived averyinteresting life. He’d seemed very genuine.
Graham had spent over thirty years in intelligence, which according to him meant working mostly in diplomacy and security analysis, nothing at all, he’d assured her, like the Bond-style danger most people imagined.
He’d lost his wife, Judith, to cancer five years ago, and had decided to stay in the States. He loved Florida’s sunshine, the antidote to London’s perpetual chill, and besides, his son was already here.
Andrew lived in Manhattan, where he worked as a corporate attorney for a major international firm, primarily representing British clients.
She could tell Graham worried about him — not because Andrew wasn’t capable, but because Graham saw too much of himself in his son. He was ambitious, and by Graham’s assessment, too willing to sacrifice life for career.
