Island Affair (Keys to Love #1)(93)
“Things. Things,” he muttered under his breath. Grabbing one side of the open flap on his bag, he jerked it wider as he rummaged inside. “What things are you talking about? We had fun together. Achieved what we set out to do last Friday. I killed some time. You made progress with your family like you wanted. Missions accomplished. I mean, I’m assuming they’ll forgive you for the lie; that’s what families usually do.”
“Except for you with Enrique, right?”
“No. Nu-uh.” He backed away from the bed, shaking his finger at her as if she were one of his nephews in need of scolding. “I told you from the beginning, we’re not bringing my family into this.”
“But they already are.”
“Don’t go there.” Luis continued backing up until his hamstrings hit the shelf desk behind him. A framed photograph of the rental home’s owners standing on a sunset beach tipped over, clattering onto the desk. He ignored it.
Sara stepped toward him, gut instinct driving her to press. Make him confront the problems he brought to the table but ignored. “Your issues with the past, they’ve been in this room. On the beach, in your truck. Wherever we’ve been together, those issues have been there, too. Doing their part to hamper our chances of getting close. Truly close.”
He blew out a harsh laugh. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
A derisive grimace twisted his lips, but she saw it . . . the flash of recognition in his dark eyes before he turned away.
Sara prayed, harder than she’d ever prayed for anything, that he’d open up to her now. Instead, when he deigned to look back at her, it was gone. Pushed down, buried where he didn’t have to deal with the past.
Anguish knifed deep into her chest with a poison-tipped blade.
“Tell me, what did Carlos mean about you having forced time off?” she asked.
Luis glared at her with his don’t-mess-with-me scowl. He should know by now that it didn’t work on her. She wasn’t afraid of him. Only of his inability to let go of whatever kept him chained to the past.
“What did he mean?” she repeated, refusing to back down. This was too important. They were too important.
“Nothing. He’s always talking without thinking.” Luis crossed his arms, nudging a shoulder forward in an annoying whatever shrug. “Joking around. Gina complains that he—”
“Stop it!”
Luis’s mouth thinned, his jaw muscle ticcing.
Hands on her hips, she tilted her head to stare through the skylight in the angled wall above him, seeking wisdom, guidance, anything that would help her break through this wall he had suddenly erected between them.
All she found was another gorgeous Key West sunset. The ball of fire had already begun its descent, leaving its breathtaking watercolor display across the sky in its wake. Right now, tourists and locals were gathered at Mallory Square, marveling at nature’s artistic ability. Like she and Luis had done together not even a week ago.
Their relationship had skyrocketed into something amazing since then, only to dip in a nosedive set to end with a fiery crash and burn.
Sorrow clogged her throat as she stared back at his imposing figure. Legs spread in a wide stance. Impressive arms still crossed defiantly in front of his broad chest. Rugged face set in a stern mask marred by the disillusion in his dark eyes.
She swallowed, fighting the prick of hot tears.
“Please, don’t do that,” she pleaded, her voice raw with regret.
“Do what?”
“Deflect. That’s what you’re doing, right? It was our game plan. Deflect when someone asks a question we want to avoid or don’t want to lie about.”
He rolled his lips in as if holding back a response.
Sara spread her hands in front of her as if laying out all her cards. She had no Ace up her sleeve here. She only had her belief that when it came down to it, this kind, compassionate, good-hearted man would be honest with her. Because he valued honesty.
Luis sank down onto the shelf desk, anguish hollowing his dark eyes. “What do you want from me?” he rasped.
“The truth.”
“The truth is that I’m not capable of going all in with something that is, or has been, based on lies. Not again.”
“This situation is completely different. What you and I have shared, especially in here, in this room, has never been based on lies.”
He shook his head, denying her claim, and Sara drew back, wounded by his rejection.
Horrified, she sank onto the edge of the bed as something new occurred to her. What if she was wrong? What if for him this had just been about killing time while he was off work? And he was fine ending things when she left on Friday. Which meant, unlike for her, it was no big deal to him if they ended things early.
“Maybe, maybe not,” he said, neither confirming nor denying the terrible thoughts attaching to her brain like a nefarious vine. “But I can’t risk it. I’ve done that once already. Taken a chance on a woman I thought I could help. Only, I got too involved, in too deep to see the truth. And nearly drowned in the end.”
Each phrase he uttered was like a supersize sledgehammer pounding her hopes for their future into a fine dust the ocean breeze easily carried away. She wanted to rail at him to wake up. See what was right in front of him. Recognize the damage he was doing to his family, to himself, to the two of them because of his inability to move on from the past.