Island Affair (Keys to Love #1)(9)
“Meaning.”
“In their eyes, my career lacks stability.” She waved a hand nonchalantly, as if their disregard didn’t matter. She knew better. “They think it’s time I settled down. Found a partner with a more reliable career. Preferably someone who meets with my parents’ approval, who they think can take care of me. Which I don’t need but does lead to my current predicament. And you.”
She tipped her head toward him.
Luis squinted up at her. The strong and silent bit she’d found appealing earlier now had her anxious and uncertain. The man’s even-keeled demeanor made it very difficult to tell what he thought about the gross amount of oversharing she’d practically word vomited at his feet.
Rolling her suitcase off to the side, Sara stepped closer to him, desperation pushing her to up her persuasive game. “Here’s the bottom line. My invincible mom has been battling a nearly invincible foe for a while now. But she finished her chemo and was recently declared ‘cancer-free.’ Her doctors have ordered rest and relaxation. Two things she’s not the best at doing. Ever. For some reason this health scare has made her up the pressure on me to find someone steady and reliable. Someone I would invite to a family vacation celebrating my mom’s good news. Someone, maybe like—”
She broke off, her bravery suddenly failing her.
Instead, she pleaded with her eyes, her gaze locked with his. Praying the good-guy vibes Luis Navarro emitted were for real.
Over in the secure area of the airport, voices called out. Two airport employees sauntered past on the other side of the chain-link fence. Sara followed them until they moved out of sight, mainly because she was losing her nerve here.
The gravel crunched under Luis’s boots, his long shadow stretching across the ground as he rose to his full height. Even at five foot nine she had to tilt her chin to meet his gaze.
“You can’t possibly be thinking what I think you’re thinking. Are you?” Disbelief colored his tone, stamped his angular features.
Sara stared back at him, resolute in her bid for him to say yes. “I need a pretend boyfriend for the next seven days. Maybe less if we invent some business trip you suddenly have to take. This will keep my family off my back, and allow my mom to have the relaxing, stress-free vacation she deserves and needs. The one my dad, who is never the heavy when it comes to my parents, practically threatened the rest of us to attend. At the end, they’ll all fly home to their busy lives in Phoenix.” She flung out her arm, emphasizing her point. “And I’ll head back to New York. After a few weeks, I’ll simply tell them things didn’t work out with Ric and me.”
Luis scrubbed a hand over his closely cropped hair, the muscles in his arm rippling with the motion. “Wow, you’re actually serious.”
“Yes, I am.” Seriously tired of being the bane of her family’s expectations.
“No puedo creer esto,” he murmured.
That made two of them. She was having a hard time believing she’d concocted this crazy plan herself.
Luis shook his head. She hoped more in disbelief than in rejection of her idea. “This is like something out of a movie my kid sister would watch.”
Probably The Wedding Date. Sara had seen the rom-com multiple times. Only, her real-life version didn’t involve a male escort and a huge family wedding, thank God. And she certainly wasn’t counting on the Hollywood-style romantic comedy ending.
“What if we think of this more as a business transaction?” she suggested, rushing on before he could flat out reject her. “I hire local photographers and stylists all the time when I’m traveling. This could be the same. A simple contract job, and I’ll pay y—”
“Eh-eh-eh!” Luis swiped a hand in the air between them, effectively stopping the flood of words pouring out of her mouth like a hose without a spigot on the end. “I have never been paid to spend time with a woman in my life. And I do not plan to start now.”
Sara blanched, embarrassed by the crassness of her offer when he put it like that. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you.”
His mouth a grim line, Luis stared at her for several heart-stopping seconds before turning to gaze out at the strip of runway visible between the fire station and airport on either side of them. The muscle in his square jaw tightened, and Sara cursed the nervousness that had made her blurt everything out so rashly.
God, she needed him to say yes.
She could not spend the next seven days feeling as if once again she’d brought worry and discord into her family circle. It was one thing to be the person who didn’t fit in. The surprise baby born thirteen years later who sometimes wondered if the stork had dropped her on the wrong front porch. The child raised and mothered by a nanny because of her parents’ time-consuming jobs and her siblings off at college before she even hit kindergarten. But it was quite another to be the adult child stressing her parents out because of her eating disorder. The one who, even now, after years of therapy, still couldn’t seem to get her personal life on track.
She might not make it through this vacation without backsliding under the pressure of not measuring up, and that was simply not an option for her. No, she’d do whatever it took to convince Luis to say yes.
“You already mentioned that you have a few days off,” she said, working to keep a measure of calm. A little less the sky is falling doom in her voice. “I’m not sure how many that is or if you have other plans. But, as crazy as this sounds, and I will admit that it does, I’m asking. I have to ask. Would you consider pretending we’re a couple? Just while I’m in town.”