Island Affair (Keys to Love #1)(46)
Ruth shook her head and pivoted, crossing the wooden flooring to perch on the end of one of the rattan rockers. She rubbed her palms up and down her thighs, a nervous gesture that stretched, then bunched the navy and white wavy-patterned material of her short-sleeved sundress.
Figuring he would have been given the boot had their fake relationship been exposed, Luis dropped his bag by the front door, then crossed to sit in the rocker beside hers.
“She left the house at seven thirty to go for a short run.” Ruth crooked her elbow to check the time on the gold watch circling her tiny wrist. Her lips thinned. Her brows angled even closer as her frown deepened.
“The island’s beautiful in the morning,” he mused. “Sun rising over the ocean. Quiet early AM sounds like our famous stray roosters crowing. Less hustle and bustle of tourists clogging the streets. Maybe she decided to extend her run.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of. Aren’t you?”
He drew a blank on how to respond to Ruth’s question. Personally, he enjoyed a long morning run around the island when he finished a shift.
“I’ve tried calling, but her phone goes direct to voice mail. Doesn’t that worry you?” Ruth’s concerned, slightly accusatory, gaze pierced him.
It was obvious Sara’s mom thought him privy to some kind of info Sara herself hadn’t felt the need to divulge. The only answer he could guess was the mystery sickness she was supposedly recuperating from.
“Sara has assured me, all of us”—he placed his hand on Ruth’s forearm, stalling her agitated motion up and down her thighs—“that she’s feeling fine.”
There was that damn word again.
“Yes, she has. But recovery can be so precarious. I’m sure with your paramedic training you’re aware of the dangers. How easily someone can slide back into obsessive habits.”
The words recovery and obsessive habits in reference to Sara caught Luis so completely off guard, he blinked at Ruth in surprise.
Case studies from his training and real-life experiences on the job filed through his mind, with him quickly cataloging and searching for similar signs he may have missed in Sara. With each symptom or side effect he recalled, Luis came up short. The only hard facts he had to go on were her family’s odd behavior at dinner last night, the mysterious “health situation” Sara had alluded to but didn’t care to discuss, and now Ruth’s comments.
It wasn’t nearly enough information, and his bid for answers came up frustratingly empty.
Luis stared back at Ruth, her high cheekbones and pert nose so like Sara’s etched with pain. The older woman’s fear was a needle pricking his skin, jabbing at his innate need to soothe another’s discomfort.
“I promise you that I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure Sara’s safe.” As soon as he uttered the words, he winced with regret.
It was an empty promise at best. One he wished he could snatch out of the air like a pesky mosquito. Life had taught him the inevitability of shit happening. Of his inability to stop others from making a wrong decision or duping him by keeping something illicit or painful hidden.
Just like Mirna had. And his brother.
Annoyed he’d let them color his thoughts, Luis swiped the memories away. Sara wasn’t his ex. They were completely different people who shared no similarities.
Other than a disconnect with their families.
A secret they withheld. Deeply rooted issues he wasn’t fully aware of.
And him thinking he could ride in on a white horse, or his white dive boat, to save them.
?Co?o! Luis bit back the curse. First his mom, now Sara’s, stirring up memories and doubts he preferred to bury.
Ruth sucked in a shaky breath. Her eyes drifted shut as she patted his hand where it lay on her forearm, leaving him uncertain whom she sought to comfort. Herself or him.
A tiny warbler glided out of the poinciana tree branches spanning from the neighbor’s yard into theirs, the tree’s green leaves adorned by the delicate flaming red flowers. The little bird’s wings flapped, his spindly legs stretching out to catch him as he landed on the white verandah railing with a stutter step. The bird trilled a high-pitched, musical hello.
“I’m so happy you joined us this week.” Ruth’s voice, thick with emotion, drew Luis’s attention. She offered him a shaky smile, and he was relieved to find the turbulent storm in her gray eyes had quieted.
“One of the lessons I learned over the course of my battle with cancer was the importance of having a loved one by your side,” she told him. “Seeing you with Sara, knowing she has someone else in her corner, brings me a wealth of relief and hope.”
The repercussions of his and Sara’s duplicity taunted him in the face of Ruth’s genuine sincerity. Guilt soured the saliva in his mouth, and Luis struggled to swallow it along with the truth he owed it to Sara to not reveal.
“I’m happy to spend this week with you,” he finally answered, speaking from the heart.
As for what came after, Luis could only hope that, by then, Sara would have repaired the unraveled threads that bound her and her family. Doing so would make the guilt and their lies worth it.
“I’m sure Sara has a perfectly good reason for being gone a little longer. If it makes you feel better, I’ll try reaching her when I take my bag upstairs,” Luis offered.
“Thank you,” Ruth murmured, her faint smile tinged with sorrow. “Maybe my daughter will answer your call. She tends to avoid mine sometimes. Actually, often. Probably retribution for my neglect when she was younger.”