Island Affair (Keys to Love #1)(63)

Because he’d taken Carlos’s other advice. The one his older brother was smart enough not to mention in front of their conservative, worry-prone mother. No way she would approve her firstborn son’s “shake things up” mantra.

“Ohh! I wanna go fishing! Can we go today, Tío Luis?” José clambered off his chair, running to throw himself at Luis’s side. “?Por favor!”

Luis ruffled the seven-year-old’s hair. “I’m sorry, papito. Not today. I’m busy.”

“?Haciendo qué?”

Everyone at the table zeroed in on his answer to his mami’s sharp question. Luis shifted uncomfortably on the cold metal seat.

“I’m helping a friend who’s in town. Showing their family around a bit,” he hedged, anxious to punch his time card here, then clock out, like Enrique.

“That’s very nice of you,” his mami said, layering the word nice with enough innuendo it became a synonym for interesting. “Is she someone we know?”

Ha! He hadn’t said the friend was female.

Luis caught Carlos’s sly grin. They both knew their mami’s parental radar must be pinging. Alerting her that something was up with one of her kids. If only Carlos knew.

It was ironic. The one brother Luis normally confided in had no idea about Sara. Yet, the one he had lost faith in, had already met her.

Luis’s skin itched with unease. He didn’t want to talk about the station or the accident. He was tired of unsolicited advice about his supposed lack of healthy coping skills, and no way was he interested in answering pointed questions about whomever he chose to spend time with.

What he needed was an excuse to split. If not, his mami’s probing questions would continue.

“Bueno, mijo, who is she?” His mami’s intuitive gaze still glued on Luis, she absently slid a glass of watered-down fruit punch out of the way before one of his nephews knocked it with his elbow.

“It’s not anyone you know—”

His cell phone vibrated in his pants pocket, interrupting him. Luis slid the device out to find a text from Enrique lighting up the screen: Warning, Blondie’s hanging out by your truck.

Surprised, Luis reread the message. After their squabble earlier, he wouldn’t have expected Enrique to give him a heads-up about what he probably thought might be potential female trouble.

Decent move on his brother’s part.

After sending a cryptic gracias in reply—a little more personal than the plain thumbs-up emoji; two could play the let’s-be-nice game—Luis pushed away from the table. The hard rubber grip on the bottom of the chair legs screeched against the linoleum floor.

“Perdóname, Mami, I need to get going.”

“Sorry? Pero you just sat down,” she complained, her round face crumpled with dismay. Under her dark floral blouse, his mami’s shoulders lowered with disappointment. “First Enrique. Now you. What is going on with mis hijos?”

“Your sons have busy lives. But we love you.” Luis bent to kiss her forehead, then quickly made his way around the table doling out cheek kisses and hugs good-bye, adding a shoulder punch for Carlos, who shot him a what’s-up glare. Circling back to his mom, Luis gave her another hug.

“Dios te bendiga, mi vida,” she called to him.

He sent her a wink in reply to her habitual blessing.

No amount of time with her beloved children was ever enough for Lydia Quintana de Navarro. When they were teens, anxious to spread their wings, her mother-henning used to drive them up the wall. By now he had learned to take it in stride. Most of the time he appeased her. Hung out a little longer. Stopped by the house a second time on his day off.

Today, though, there was somewhere else he wanted to be.

With someone else he really wanted to be with.

Someone who didn’t care about his past. Or his inability to let bygones be bygones. Or the fact that since Mirna, he’d never allowed himself to have faith in another woman. Until now.

Around Sara, he felt alive again, in all the right ways.

Since he only had one week with her before she flew back to New York and her real life, he planned to make the most of it.





Chapter 14


Sara pressed the back of her hand to her forehead and upper lip, dabbing the sweat droplets forming courtesy of the midmorning sun and humidity. Even with her standing under the shade of the expansive palm trees at the back of the church parking lot, the day’s heat wrapped her in its clammy arms as she waited for Luis.

A few minutes ago she had ducked behind the tree’s prickly trunk when she spotted his younger brother striding her way. A sigh of relief shuddered through her when he zig-zagged around another car, then stopped at a black SUV a few spots down from Luis’s truck.

The last thing she needed was to draw Enrique’s attention.

She leaned against the truck’s mammoth tailgate, hoping Luis would make it back here before she turned into a puddle of perspiration. A dip in the backyard oasis pool sounded more and more like a great idea.

“Hey, sorry it took so long.”

She spun around at the sound of Luis’s deep voice.

Regret creased a line between his brows as he jogged closer, then rounded the truck’s hood to meet her by the front passenger door. He dug a hand into the left front pocket of his dress pants, and Sara heard the click of the vehicle doors unlocking.