Island Affair (Keys to Love #1)(44)
Oh, he’d found a way to distract himself all right.
More like someone.
A charismatic, sexy-as-hell woman with a sense of humor that sparked his own laughter and a secret he was determined to un-root. If only to make sure she was safe on his watch.
A woman who’d kept him awake late into the night after he dropped her, Jonathan, and Carolyn back at the rental and drove the ten miles up the Keys to his place in Big Coppitt.
When he’d finally fallen asleep, Sara had invaded his dreams like a sexy marauder on the high seas. Enticing him with her infectious smile. Drugging him with the citrusy scent that clung to her soft skin. Driving him crazy with her sweet lips he ached to sample.
“?Qué vas a hacer?” his mother asked, dashing the montage of Sara-themed images that had his pulse pounding.
“What am I going to do about what?”
“About work? Will you go talk to the Captain or the Watch Commander?”
“I’m not going to do anything.”
Pressing a kiss to his mami’s temple, he felt the sheen of perspiration glistening on her skin and moistening her hairline. Between the steam rising from the dishwater and the hot flashes she complained about, the poor woman looked like she’d just finished one of those crazy hot yoga classes his sister raved about.
“What is it you always tell me?” he continued. “What’s done is done. I can’t fight the Captain over this. And honestly, I don’t want to.”
“?De veras?”
“Yeah, it’s the truth.” He drew the sign of a cross over his heart.
“?Por qué?” His mami’s all-knowing narrow-eyed stare, the one feared by neighborhood kids and her own in particular, underlined her sharp “why?”
He hated lying, but no way could he share the truth with her. Like a Florida crawfish scurrying back in its hole to avoid capture, Luis spun away to snag the dish towel hanging on the refrigerator door, avoiding her wily gaze.
Lydia Quintana de Navarro possessed a sixth sense when it came to her kids. Little got by her unnoticed. Good luck if you were trying to pull a fast one on her. No question, she’d catch you. Growing up, Carlos and Enrique had faced countless chancletazos to prove it.
Equally as powerful, her devout prayers seemed to have a direct connection to heaven. Or maybe it was the number of candles she lit each week after mass that made such a huge smoke signal, no way could the good Lord ignore her. What really mattered was if Luis’s mami added you to her daily prayer list, you couldn’t help but feel you had a fighting chance.
When he worked his shifts at the station, Luis counted on those prayers. But today, with the secret he withheld from her, that keen parental radar of his mami’s had him on red alert.
Turning his back on her penetrating gaze, Luis strode to the round breakfast table by the window overlooking their backyard and canal. Outside, his papi bent over a boat engine propped up on a sawhorse where the edge of the green lawn met their property’s concrete seawall on the canal. The engine cover had been removed to leave the motor exposed for repairs.
Always tinkering on something, that man. As a kid Luis had followed in his papi’s footsteps. Asking questions, serving as an extra pair of hands for whatever his papi needed. Learning everything about boating and fishing and living a life on the ocean from the man who’d always been his hero. On the job and off.
Papi had been quiet over breakfast. But Luis knew, if asked for advice, his old man wouldn’t sugar coat his thoughts. At the same time, he’d let Luis, all the Navarro kids, make their own decisions.
Pushing one of the old wooden chairs closer to the table, Luis answered his mami’s question. Carefully sticking to the truth as much as possible. “I’m not going to fight the time off because the more I dig in, arguing that there’s nothing wrong with my state of mind since we responded to that car accident last month, the more Captain Turner pushes back. If I have to go along with this to convince him I’m fit to pull my weight on the team, so be it.”
“And are you?”
“Am I what?”
“Fit, mentally, with everything.”
His knee jerk reaction was to answer in the affirmative.
Since Carlos’s kick-in-the-ass pep talk yesterday, then meeting Sara and getting swept up in something he had to admit had become bigger than simply helping someone, Luis wasn’t as sure anymore.
Through the window, he watched his papi rotating a spark plug wrench with his left hand. He paused to wipe a dirty rag over the engine part, then rotated the wrench again. A normal task Luis had watched and participated in countless times over the years. Only, today, he didn’t feel like his normal self. He felt both off-kilter and energized, uncertain if that was good or not. Unwilling to question it.
Behind him, the kitchen faucet shut off. A cabinet door creaked open, then clattered closed. That would be his mami putting her rubber gloves in the plastic basket under the sink.
A quick check of his sports watch told him he should be leaving in less than five if he planned to make the twenty-minute drive to Sara’s place and arrive by nine thirty. Last night her family had decided to ride the Conch Tour Train today. The seventy-five-minute loop winding through the island streets treated patrons to the highlights of Key West history and lore courtesy of the drivers running monologue. Even though he’d grown up on the island, Luis had actually never ridden the tourist train or the trolley. He was actually looking forward to the activity.