Island Affair (Keys to Love #1)(51)
Suddenly overwhelmed with self-doubt, Sara hurried to the wardrobe, where she snatched her sundress off the round doorknob. The clear plastic hanger clattered against the wood.
“Look, I felt you deserved the truth since you agreed to this farce. But I don’t expect you to be a therapist or another medical professional assessing me. I have enough of those already.”
Jaw tight, hands stuffed deep in the pockets of his khaki walking shorts, Luis eyed her stoically.
“I’ve gotta get in the shower; everyone’s already downstairs,” she said, her voice stiff and uncomfortable. Nervous that by sharing, she’d changed the course of their friendship. Afraid that, as had happened with others, her disorder might wind up causing a rift in their budding relationship.
Without waiting for his response, Sara brushed past him, her shoulder grazing his muscular arm.
“It’s not within me to ignore someone who needs my help, Sara.”
Luis’s softly spoken entreaty held an undercurrent of conviction and promise she couldn’t ignore. Not when his white knight tendency was what had drawn her to him in the first place.
She paused in the bathroom doorway. Staring at their reflections in the medicine cabinet mirror, she met his gaze. Honest, steadfast.
“I know,” she told him, her heart yearning for something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Afraid to even try. “I wouldn’t ask that of you. It’s just . . . Isn’t there some way we can go back to yesterday afternoon? When we were simply a girl and a guy agreeing to be a pretend couple in order to hoodwink her family. You know, normal vacation fun?”
A corner of his mouth curved up in that sexy half grin she found way too enticing for her own good.
“That’s what you want? The Key West sun and fun experience tourists write home about?” he asked.
She nodded, hoping he’d go along with her bid to move on from their argument.
“That I can definitely give you,” he promised.
A promise she found herself excited to help him keep.
*
After wrapping up a short call with her assistant early Saturday evening, Sara strolled into the open kitchen area at the rental house. There she found Jonathan with his cell phone propped up on the granite counter as he video chatted with Susan and William.
“Here’s the mermaid magnet we bought for you at the aquarium today after we rode the train.” Jonathan held up the glittery clay memento along with another one shaped like a pirate ship. “And here’s one for you, buddy.”
Catching her brother’s cheek-splitting grin and the matching openmouthed “ooohs” from her cute niece and nephew whose sweet faces filled the entire phone screen, Sara grinned back. Her father was right; parenthood and marriage to Carolyn had softened her once solely career-focused brother. Oh, he still loved his job, but he now lived for his family. No more jumping at the chance to pull a double shift and potentially get in on an interesting case that came into the hospital’s ER. This was the man who could perform his three-year-old’s ballet routine. Proudly.
This last trait endeared him to Sara even more. It had her thinking maybe it was time she quit distancing herself to avoid being hurt by Jonathan’s old propensity to give her the brush-off. They weren’t the same people anymore. At least, she and Jonathan weren’t. Robin might be a different story.
“Hi, guys,” Sara singsonged, swooping in to press her face next to her brother’s. The image of their matching blond heads, high cheekbones, and blue-green eyes in the smaller box at the top of the screen drew her gaze. Her smile widened.
“Aunt Sara!” William cried, squirming his little body with so much excitement he fell onto his side and rolled out of the picture for a few seconds.
“Aunt Sar-bear!”
Sara’s grin softened at little Susan’s use of the silly nickname her father had gifted her with years ago when she was about Susan’s age. Silly, yet it never failed to warm her heart.
“Are you two staying out of trouble? Not giving your other grandparents a hard time?” she teased.
“Yup!” William crawled back into view, his shaggy hair, the same dark brown as his mom’s, mussed from his antics.
“I’m aw-ways a good girl. Cwoss my heart.” Susan’s tiny finger drew a cross in the center of her chest, a little off from the exact location of her heart, which, had Robin been here, she might have corrected.
“Yes, you are, sweetie,” Sara confirmed. “And William, I know you’re being the best big brother. That’s why I keep telling your dad he has to bring you both home lots of presents.”
“Yay!” Cheers rose from both kids, who clapped their approval.
“Ease up there, Sister,” Jonathan complained, elbowing her in the ribs.
She nudged him aside with a laugh, then stuck out her tongue at him playfully and backed away, waving to her sweet niece and nephew. Feeling lighthearted around her brother in a way she rarely had in the past.
After the misunderstanding this morning with her mom and Robin over Sara’s absence, and the emotional toll of sharing the history of her disorder with Luis, the day had actually gone really well. In large part thanks to Luis and his calm, reassuring presence.
He’d charmed her mother, buddied up with Jonathan, and handled Robin’s rapid-fire questions about the island without batting an eye. To Sara’s immense relief, he wasn’t treating her any differently than before their heart-to-heart.