“Nonsense. We’re looking forward to getting to know you.” Sara’s mom linked her arm through Luis’s. Another friendly gesture atypical for the woman who used to work harder than she played and rarely loosened up unless it involved charming hospital benefactors.
Until she’d faced, and beaten, cancer.
“Obviously, we don’t want to take you away from visiting with your loved ones. I understand how important that is,” Sara’s mom went on. “But it would mean a lot for you to join us as often as you can. Right, Charles?”
The speculative frown on her father’s lined face eased into a caring smile for her mom. “Whatever makes you happy, dear.”
Whether he intended the subtext or not, Sara understood her dad’s meaning. She and her siblings had been given their directives: ensure their mother relaxed, rested, and enjoyed their time together.
While her parents made goo-goo eyes at each other—another unexpected, if endearing behavior—Sara mentally telegraphed a message to Luis. Please, go along with me here.
Luis’s jaw muscles flexed. His nostrils flared on a deep breath that Sara didn’t think was as soul cleansing as her mother had implied earlier. Finally, blessedly, he gave Sara the tiniest of nods.
She sagged with relief.
Without a doubt, she owed him for this. Big-time.
“I appreciate your hospitality,” Luis said, his amiable tone hiding the misgivings she felt certain he was uncomfortable with. “If you’re sure, I’ll see about bringing my bag with me in the morning to join you.”
“We’re sure. Anyone who’s special to our Sara is special to us. I am delighted you’re here.” Her mom patted Luis’s forearm affectionately. “Perhaps you’d like to invite your family to join us one—”
“No!”
Sara’s outburst startled her parents and had her dad, once again, giving her and Luis his formidable stare-down.
Trepidation marched like a row of army ants across her shoulders. She and Luis hadn’t even made it through the front door and her father already suspected something. This did not bode well.
“I mean, the last thing we want is for Mom to feel like she needs to entertain,” Sara hedged. She swallowed nervously. “Let’s just play that part by ear, okay?”
God help her, if her parents insisted on meeting Luis’s, this plan was doomed. With a capital D! Luis had already made it clear that he refused to lie to them. He’d been adamant about that point.
While she, on the other hand, fully anticipated lightning to strike her down in retaliation for all the bad energy she was putting out in the world thanks to the whopping lies she planned to feed her loved ones.
Self-confidence personified, Luis eased over the awkwardness by leaning toward her mother to mock-whisper near her ear, “Our super-secret plan is to pamper you, Ruth. Make sure that when you leave Key West next Friday, you’ll feel rejuvenated, already planning a return trip.”
“I like the way that sounds,” she said, a rich chuckle Sara couldn’t remember hearing before underlining her words.
Sara shook her head, feeling like somehow her mother had morphed into the mom she had always longed for. Warm, accepting. Ready to greet her with open arms. Only, now it was Sara whose actions might force a rift between them.
“This week is shaping up rather nicely.” Her mom leaned into Luis as if they were old friends.
“That’s our master plan.” He winked, and Sara swore her mother sighed like a schoolgirl. Not that she blamed her.
Damn, he was good. From the sexy little half smile that gentled his strong features and chiseled jaw to the enticing mix of sincerity and strength in his deep voice. It all had Sara wishing he’d lean over and whisper something in her ear. Or maybe nibble on it.
“Shall we?” Gesturing toward the front door, her mom continued her Martha Stewart impersonation, ushering Luis arm in arm into their home.
“Ruth, Sara tells me you’ve been busy researching the island and planning your itinerary.” Luis continued laying on the charm. “What do you say we go over everything together, see how I can best serve as your guide?”
“We’ll be along in a minute,” her dad said to them.
Her mom nodded over her shoulder; then the door slid closed behind her and Luis.
Once they were alone, Sara’s dad stepped to the edge of the verandah, where he rested a hip against the wooden railing. Behind him, the same couple who’d been walking their puppy earlier strolled by again, hand in hand. By now the puppy had slowed, having lost some of his stamina after their long walk.
Staring down at his open palm, Sara’s father rubbed his thumb over his gold wedding band. “Your mother seems quite taken with your young man,” he mused.
“Luis tends to have that effect on most people.”
Herself included.
“That’s good to hear. Sara, I know this week away, rearranging your schedule, is a lot to ask—”
“No, it’s not,” Sara rushed to assure him. “Having us all here, supporting mom, is important.” Though stressful.
Moving to join him, she pressed her stomach against the railing and leaned over the edge. The hard wood bit into her hip bones, the sharp pain grounding her in the reality of the turbulent outcome if this ruse she’d set in motion was exposed.
Out on the street, a beat-up sedan rumbled past at a leisurely island-life pace. Salsa music played through the open windows, carrying on the humid breeze. The rapid beat matched the pounding in her chest. The desperation over her desire to be seen as an equal and connect with her siblings and parents. A desire Luis had easily pinpointed.
“I’m glad we’re here,” she said. “We haven’t done something like this in . . .”
She trailed off, realizing they had actually never taken more than a long weekend away all together. Usually Robin or Jonathan or one of her parents were unable to break away from the hospital for longer. Or didn’t want to. Once, everyone else had attended a medical conference in Mexico, but Sara had signed a contract with a sponsor and the shoot date hadn’t been flexible.
Even their family holidays were a mash-up with someone on call or covering for a colleague. Christmas and Thanksgiving dinner often became lunch or brunch, sometimes a day early or late.
This week . . . everyone under one roof . . . it set a precedence that could prove monumental for them all. She’d do anything to ensure it did so in a positive way.
“We’ve missed quite a bit,” her father mused, melancholy weighing his words.
Regret pinched his wide brow and broad cheekbones when he angled his head to gaze down at her. He’d aged over the course of her mother’s illness. The grooves along either side of his generous mouth were more pronounced, his hair now more salt than pepper.
Sara’s gut clenched with an answering sadness.
“Focusing on our careers. Not enough on each other, or you kids. When we found out about your disorder”—his gaze slid back to his palm, where his thumb continued worrying his ring—“I knew I had failed you. In the previous years, in that moment. And since.”
“Dad, no.”
Aching at the sight of the pain rounding his proud shoulders, Sara covered his hands with one of hers. She curled her fingers around his palm tightly.
Her father’s blue-green eyes glistened, the crow’s-feet at their edges deepening with his grimace. “I know this will always be a struggle for you and I could be, should be, doing more. Your mother’s sickness . . . it overwhelmed me in a way I never expected. And . . . and I haven’t been there for you. Helping you find your way to recovery. Making sure you stay healthy. Mentally and physically.”
“I’m a big girl, Dad. As much as you might still think of me as your little Sar-bear who climbed on your lap to snuggle when you finally made it home after long shifts at the hospital. Or the sorority girl who knew something was wrong but was too afraid to verbalize it until Mamá Alicia confronted me.”
His eyes squeezed shut as if he sought to block out the past. Sara wrapped her other arm around
him, willing him to feel her love. Her newly found strength.
“I’m not any of those anymore. I mean, I won’t lie, you’re right, it hasn’t been easy. And it was really hard when Mamá Alicia died, then Mom’s diagnosis hit us all. But I work at it every day. My therapist helps. As do the tools I’ve learned. I’m okay, dad. I’m gonna stay okay.”
The vow was an affirmation to herself, as well as him.
“And Luis, he’s good for you?” Her dad gazed down at her, hope mingling with a father’s conviction. “He supports and cares for you, like you deserve?”
The question pierced her chest with a poison dart that sent guilt burning through her. Unable to look her dad in the face, she pressed her cheek against his shoulder.
“Luis is a good man,” she told him, certain it was the truth. “Right now, what we have works for me. That’s what I’m focusing on.”
Her dad was silent for a few moments. Then he pressed a kiss to the top of her head like he’d done when she was a child. Her heart warmed.
“Okay then,” he murmured. “If you’re happy, then I’m happy.”
Content in this rare father-daughter moment, Sara sincerely believed that Ric Montez showing his true colors today by standing her up had been an act of divine intervention.
In the end, she’d swapped one ruse for another but come out for the better.
With Ric, she’d been kidding herself. On paper, they may have seemed like a match. But other than their desire to do well in their careers and traveling in the same social networking circles in Miami, they had very little in common on a personal level. She would have spent the next week pretending his braggadocious manner wasn’t a drag. That the self-confidence that had appealed to her in the beginning stages of their long-distance relationship hadn’t mutated into an egotistical arrogance that often rubbed her wrong.
And yet the guy could schmooze like the best of them. The skill served him well in commercial development. No doubt he would have been at his most masterful with her parents and siblings, maneuvering conversations to his benefit while bowling them over. In truth, though, she found being around him for too long draining.
On the other hand, there was no pretending about wanting to spend time with Luis.
This afternoon, hanging out at the beach, trading serious and silly questions, laughing with each other, being herself. No watchful eyes assessing her. The kiss that hadn’t been anything more than the whisper of his lips against hers, but had still made her pulse race and her insides quiver with anticipation.
Only, taking things further with him could prove disastrous.
Luis was here as a favor. Seven days from now she’d fly back to New York, nose to the grindstone, determined to close the deal with Foster Designs. Bringing her one step closer to collaborating on a new line of clothing with her own brand. One step closer to finally making her mother, her entire family, proud of her accomplishments. Gaining their confidence that she could indeed take care of herself.
When this was all over, at best she and Luis might wind up as friends who stay in touch. Maybe reconnect should their paths cross. She hoped so anyway. But allowing herself to fall for her own charade would be foolish.
“I guess we should head inside before they come searching for us.” Her father pushed off the railing, and Sara dropped her arms from around him.
She turned to take a last look out at the front yard, teeming with rich foliage and vibrant color. Rising onto her toes, she lifted her face to the sky and soaked up the sun’s rays as they warmed her skin.
If you’re happy, then I’m happy.
Her dad’s words rang in her head. Words she hadn’t heard often growing up. Especially from her mother. The fight against cancer and her mom’s recent good news had shifted the dynamics of their relationships. Sara hadn’t quite figured out exactly how yet, but if they were fortunate enough, this week could help them reach a new place with each other.
“You coming, Sar-bear?”
She swiveled on her heel to find her dad holding the brightly painted door open for her. The warmth on his face reminded her of Luis. The gentle giant of a man who, so far, was setting the bar pretty high for when Sara decided to get back in the dating game.
First, she had to concentrate on doing her best to make it through the next seven days without blowing their cover. All while not falling for the lie she had fabricated.
Easier said than done when right now inside, Luis was probably winning over her family with his unique mix of calm, easygoing assurance. The same way he’d done with her.
As Sara slipped through the door, she made a quick sign of the cross, ending with a kiss of her fingertips and a roll of her eyes to Mamá Alicia in heaven. She had a feeling she’d need all the assistance, divine and otherwise, she could get this week.
Chapter 7
“I don’t mind dropping everyone off at Mallory Square, then hoofing it back to catch up with you if we can’t find parking,” Luis offered after Sara’s family had decided to catch sunset on the pier along with dinner and music at El Meson de Pepe. Two activities that topped many tourist Must Do lists while visiting his island.
“Nonsense, after that long plane ride, it’ll be nice to stretch our legs,” Ruth answered. “A body can only take so much lounging, even in paradise.”
She waved an arm Vanna White–style to indicate the backyard oasis.
“I don’t know, Mother; this place makes even the non-loafer feel like loafing around!” Sara’s sister, Robin, called out.
Tall and slender like Sara, Robin wore her blond hair cut short in a wash-and-wear style. She and her husband, Edward, sat at the shallow end of the pool nearby. Robin’s tan sandals and Edward’s boat shoes had been shucked and neatly set aside. Now their bare feet rested on the wide first step leading into the water.
Luis ran through the facts he knew about them one more time. Not that there were many. Sara hadn’t provided much during their cram session. Robin was a cardiothoracic surgeon like their father. Edward punched his time clock as an orthodontist. No kids. Both career driven. Robin’s decisive personality balanced by her husband’s somewhat nerdy, yet equally intelligent, one.
During their conversation, Luis had already discovered a new piece of information for his and Sara’s sibling fact-finding mission. Apparently the couple enjoyed hiking in the mountains around Arizona. According to them, it allowed for requisite mind and body rejuvenation.
While he might prefer the open ocean to the mountains, Luis had to admit Robin was right about this backyard.
The rental homeowners had spared little expense in designing and landscaping the courtyard. Although Key West had much to offer in the way of history, nature, arts, and entertainment, the soft splash of the rock waterfall cascading into the deep end of the rectangular saltwater pool, along with the thick palm trees, potted ferns, and splashes of vivid color in the birds-of-paradise, yellow and red hibiscus, and fuchsia geiger tree blossoms, created the perfect ambiance for relaxation.
It definitely gave visitors a luxurious welcome to Key West.
Barring an emergency call, Luis rarely visited a place this upscale. His crowd hung in the older homes located in Midtown and up the Keys. Enrique had moved into an apartment off Duval after fire college in Ocala, but Luis could count on one hand the number of times he’d been there.
Sitting back against the sunset red cushion plumping his deck chair, he propped his work boots on the matching footstool and admired the view from the raised porch.
Along the main house and master bedroom wing, the shady porch with wide plank wood flooring made an expansive L shape, its white support beams and eaves tangled with flowering vines. Several dark gray rattan loungers and the chair set he and Sara occupied were situated down the length of the master bedroom side. A distressed-wood table allowed for casual dining in the area that opened off the living-dining room and kitchen.
A few stairs led down to the redbrick pool deck where two more loungers called to sunbathers
. Near the pool’s far end, by the waterfall, Sara’s brother, Jonathan, an ER doc, and his wife, Carolyn, a stay-at-home mom, sat together on some kind of newfangled ottoman with a collapsible shelter cover. The design of the opaque, sun-reflecting material reminded Luis of a convertible car’s top providing shade from the intense mid-May rays. Still pretty strong as the sun made its late afternoon descent.
Jonathan and Carolyn huddled, heads close together, on a video call with their two young children named . . . coño, Luis mentally fumbled through the info on his cheat sheet, trying to recall Sara’s notes.
“William and Susan have specifically requested videos and pictures while we’re on the Conch Tour Train,” Jonathan alerted everyone, inadvertently answering Luis’s question. “Susan’s hoping for a picture of Grandmother holding a starfish at the aquarium.”
“I can probably arrange that,” Ruth answered from where she lay in one of the rattan loungers by the master bedroom.
“And William wants it to be known that he is bummed, his word,” Carolyn added, hunkering closer to the cell screen to make a silly face for her kids, “that he’s missing a day out on Luis’s motorboat.”
“We’ll take him next time.” The offer slipped out before Luis could stop it.
Sara choked on her water. Leaning forward in her deck chair, she covered her hacking cough with a fist.
“But I’m sure you’ll get away to another beach location as a family sometime, and he’ll have a chance at a boat ride then,” Luis amended. He rubbed a hand on Sara’s spasming back until her coughing quieted.
Chin to her chest, she tilted her head his way. Eyes wide, she sent him a clear are-you-kidding-me glower. Luis hitched a shoulder in a tiny shrug. The offer was a natural reaction for him. Obviously, he’d have to be more careful. There wasn’t going to be a next time visit to Key West for the Vance family that involved him.
Thankfully, Jonathan and his wife didn’t catch anything amiss and they went back to their video call, promising to bring home a surprise for each kid before hanging up.
Over on her lounger, several feet down from Luis and Sara, Ruth took another sip of the pukey purple protein and vitamin smoothie Charles had whipped up for her.
Island Affair Page 8
