Not the Plan

Praise for Getting His Game Back “A thoroughly satisfying love story with a big, beating heart.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “This book is emotional, steamy, and sweet—a triple threat! De Cadenet tackles mental health, gender stereotypes, and interracial romance with care and creativity. I loved it!” —Chantel Guertin, author of Instamom Not the Plan is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Copyright © 2022 by Gia de Cadenet Book club guide copyright © 2022 by Penguin Random House LLC All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Dell, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. Dell is a registered trademark and the D colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC. Random House Book Club and colophon are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: De Cadenet, Gia, author. Title: Not the plan / Gia de Cadenet. Description: New York: Dell, [2022] | “A Dell Trade Paperback Original”—Title page verso. Identifiers: LCCN 2022014870 (print) | LCCN 2022014871 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593356647 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780593356654 (ebook) Subjects: LCGFT: Novels. Classification: LCC PS3604.E12253 N68 2022 (print) | LCC PS3604.E12253 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022014870 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022014871 Ebook ISBN 9780593356654 randomhousebooks.com randomhousebookclub.com Cover design: Cassie Gonzales Cover illustration: Cannaday Chapman ep_prh_6.0_142435907_c0_r0 Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Chapter One: Isadora Chapter Two: Karim Chapter Three: Isadora Chapter Four: Karim Chapter Five: Isadora Chapter Six: Karim Chapter Seven: Isadora Chapter Eight: Karim Chapter Nine: Isadora Chapter Ten: Isadora Chapter Eleven: Karim Chapter Twelve: Isadora Chapter Thirteen: Isadora Chapter Fourteen: Karim Chapter Fifteen: Isadora Chapter Sixteen: Karim Chapter Seventeen: Isadora Chapter Eighteen: Isadora Chapter Nineteen: Karim Chapter Twenty: Isadora Chapter Twenty-one: Karim Chapter Twenty-two: Isadora Chapter Twenty-three: Karim Chapter Twenty-four: Isadora Chapter Twenty-five: Karim Chapter Twenty-six: Isadora Chapter Twenty-seven: Karim Chapter Twenty-eight: Isadora Chapter Twenty-nine: Karim Chapter Thirty: Isadora Chapter Thirty-one: Karim Chapter Thirty-two: Isadora Chapter Thirty-three: Isadora Chapter Thirty-four: Isadora Chapter Thirty-five: Karim Chapter Thirty-six: Isadora Dedication Acknowledgments A Book Club Guide By Gia de Cadenet About the Author _142435907_ CHAPTER ONE Isadora I can do this. Isadora Maris took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and maneuvered her luggage into the San Diego airport. Bags checked and through security, she stopped at a coffee shop before heading to her gate. Flying is no big deal. How many times a year do I fly? Nothing bad has ever happened. She had a few moments, so she took a seat at one of the small tables in front of the shop. Maybe she should buy a magazine. Something light and fun to read? She popped the lid off her cup and tried to ground herself with the aroma and taste of the latte. She was safe, she was fine. Everything’s cool. I’ve got this. If I can handle stonewalling senators and aggressive lobbyists, I can handle a flight. “Babe, I would totally die for you.” Isadora caught a man’s voice murmuring a table over. She glanced at the couple just as his blond companion let out a kittenish giggle. “Kenny, sweetie, you are so dramatic,” she said. Isadora suppressed an eye roll as the couple leaned into each other open-mouthed. It wasn’t that she was averse to public displays of affection. But how long had it been since someone looked at her like that? Touched her like that? It didn’t matter; right now she had too much on the line. This time next year, her boss, Daniel Etcheverri, would be president pro tempore of the state senate, and as chief of staff, her hard work and drive had helped get him there. From there, she’d manage his (hopefully) successful race for U.S. representative and she’d reach her childhood dream: congressional aide in Washington, D.C. “You know,” the guy said after smacking his lips, “after last night, the plane could fall out of the sky, crash and burn, and I’d die a happy man.” Isadora choked on her coffee, a wave of terror charging over her skin from her scalp to the soles of her feet. She wrenched her phone out of her bag, unlocked it, and tapped on an icon on her home screen. She scrolled down to the most important line in the article. The odds of dying in a plane crash are one in eleven million. The odds of dying in a plane crash are one in eleven million. “If we crashed into the water, we—” Isadora had to get away from these people. She grabbed her phone and the cup, pushed her chair back, took one step, and promptly collided with something tall and warm. She watched in slow motion as her latte shot out of the cup, arced into the air, and exploded against a white dress shirt. “Dammit!” came a low, deep voice above her. “Oh! I’m so sorry.” She grabbed some napkins out of the dispenser on the table, fingertips clumsy and buzzing. When she glanced up at the man’s face, she stopped dead. Green eyes framed by dark hair stared back through nerdy-cute glasses. He was well over six feet tall, had sun-kissed olive skin, and was hot. Cover model hot. She’d just scalded the sexiest man she’d ever seen. “Here.” She offered him the napkins. “You must be in a hurry,” he said, taking them and dabbing at the coffee. “No. Well…I mean, yes.” “Maybe watch where you’re going next time.” Just her luck, the demigod was pissed at her. “Maybe you should watch where you’re going,” she snapped. “The tables are right there.” He narrowed his eyes at her, looking her up and down. She wasn’t going to give him a pass to talk to her any kind of way, just because he was gorgeous. “If you’ll excuse me, miss, I need to go get