Island Affair (Keys to Love #1)(89)
“Believe me, I get it.” Robin laid a comforting hand on Sara’s shoulder. “I’ve been there. The key to remember is where you are now. You’re in a better place, physically and mentally. Sounds like you’re kicking ass with your business. And you have time to make peace with Mom. Who is really wigging me out with her whole kumbaya movement.”
“So, I guess I shouldn’t ask if you want to hug it out then?” Sara teased.
“Oh my god, you too?!” Mock horror widened Robin’s eyes before she surprised Sara by throwing her arms around her.
The hug was tight and tender and over quickly.
Robin pushed to her feet, wiping sand from the back of her bathing suit bottom. “Now don’t get used to these heart-to-hearts. I think I’ve met my quota for at least the first half of the year. Deal?”
Sara grinned. “That’s what you think. Mom might have other ideas.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me.” Together they turned toward their parents. The beachcombers were headed back in their direction.
Edward held something in his palm, and Sara’s dad peered down at it, their dark heads dipped close.
As if she sensed her daughters talking about her, Sara’s mom lifted her gaze from the sandy shore to them. She raised one of her talented, highly trained hands, the ones that had saved and improved the lives of countless children in her OR for decades, in a tentative wave. The hopeful smile trembling on her lips belied the concern creasing her thin face.
“What class of mollusk did you find?” Robin asked, raising her voice to be heard over a boat approaching their slice of paradise. “Any luck spotting a cephalopod?”
“No. But I discovered a few intact bivalves,” Edward called back. He held out his hand for her to investigate.
Robin traipsed through the shallow water toward her husband, their scientific identification of the shells Sara would have identified as peachy or creamy or simply pretty proving the veracity of Robin’s earlier claim—she and Edward “got” each other.
The right partner could do that for a person.
Robin assumed Luis might be the one for Sara. There’d been plenty of times over the past five days that made her believe perhaps it could be true. But . . .
But as giving and passionate as he was when they made love, despite their private, intimate conversations, she couldn’t squelch the niggling sensation that he still held part of himself back.
It was there when he deflected her question about what Carlos meant the other night when he whispered about fate and shaking things up. And the serendipitous timing of her visit coinciding with Luis’s mandated time off.
Mandated?
According to her and Luis’s game plan this entire week, they were supposed to deflect questions they didn’t want to lie about. To others. Not between them.
What was he keeping from her?
Had all they shared only been a simple distraction to Luis?
Had she set herself up for disappointment by jumping into something too fast, aga—
Stop!
The command screamed inside her head. Halting the negative thought spiral. Don’t go looking for bad, focus on the good, she repeated her therapist’s advice.
Eyes closed, Sara tipped her face to the hot sun. She listened to the singsong call of birds from the sandbar’s lush vegetation melding with a boat engine’s rumble and Luis’s excited, “I got it,” as her brother tossed him the football. Underneath her feet, the sand shifted with the tide’s pull. Warm water lapped at her legs, wrapping a piece of seaweed around her shin.
She soaked in all the details like a thirsty sea sponge. Snapped a mental picture memory she would carry with her, always.
Focus on the positive.
Today had been a great day, and there was more to come.
Chapter 20
“Today was a good one, huh?” Luis paused at the top of the steps leading to the rental home’s front porch.
Wanting one last moment with Sara before meeting back up with her family, he guided her away from the thin rectangular windows outlining the front door, toward the rattan rockers where he could steal a kiss or two without being seen from inside.
“Yeah, it was,” she said. Her smile brimmed with a joy that brightened his day like the morning sun peeking over the Atlantic’s horizon.
“I’m proud of you,” he told her, his hands on her shoulders drawing her closer.
“Me too. My talk with Robin went better than I thought. Should have done it sooner. Which I’m sure my therapist will tell me.”
But she’d done it. Faced her fear of being honest and baring her pain with her sister. Shame slithered in Luis’s chest.
Doggedly he ignored it, concentrating on Sara and the amazing progress she’d made with her family this week.
“You’re incredible, you know that?” He dipped his head to brush his lips against hers. Craving more.
The straw beach bag hanging from her left wrist knocked against his hip when she wrapped her arms around his waist, going up on her toes to meet him stroke for stroke. Her moan of pleasure encouraged him. Hungry for all she offered, he cupped her butt, brought her lower body flush with his. Showing her exactly how quickly she aroused him.
If only her family weren’t waiting for them inside.
Reluctantly Luis pulled back to nip at her chin. Take a couple love bites of her jawline. Sara lolled her head to the side, giving him easy access to her slender neck and the sensitive spot behind her ear. She smelled of sun, surf, and sweat . . . a heady combination that had him addicted to her. For her.