Island Affair (Keys to Love #1) - Priscilla Oliveras Page 0,104

for familia dinner, something inside him had changed.

Seeing her at ease with his loud, meddling family.

Receiving the me encanta text from his mami—to which he truthfully responded: Sí, I like her, too.

Reading Carlos’s: Hermano, you lucked out with this one. Gina and I approve.

They were consecutive one-two-three sledgehammer blows to the foundation of the guarded reserve protecting his heart. A foundation Sara’s charm, fun-loving spirit, and vulnerability rattled the longer he spent in her company.

Yesterday, the rain had them all lazing around the house. Luis and Sara spending a good chunk of the afternoon in their room. Him, reading a biography of Jacques Cousteau from the rental’s living room bookshelf. Her, answering emails, talking to her agent, and reading over a contract that, if it worked out, would see Sara spending more time in Miami working on her clothing line.

They hadn’t done anything extraordinary, but to him it had felt like an extraordinary day. Because of her.

With her family waiting for them, Luis followed Sara to the boat’s deck where she turned to climb down the removable ladder. Halfway into the water, she paused, squinting up at him.

“I’m going to head to the beach.” She turned toward the large sandbar’s shore.

Luis did the same and found Robin, sitting by herself, the calm ocean lapping at her pale legs. Her parents and Edward strolled along the shore about thirty feet away. Behind them, the sandbar’s dense vegetation awaited those willing to brave a hike through the mass of mangroves teeming with tiny ecosystems.

“Wish me luck.” Sara let go of the handrail and sank up to her shoulders in the crystal green water.

He watched her swim away, marveling at her inner strength. A trait she questioned about herself at times. Yet here she was, taking that uncomfortable first step toward her sister.

While, had the situation been reversed and his prickly brother been waiting on the sand, the timing and situation ripe for a frank conversation . . . Luis would probably still be where he was right now. Standing on his boat. Alone.

* * *

Sara swam toward the shore, lamely batting away a stiff-arm-induced wave of water from her brother as she neared him.

“Leave her alone,” Carolyn chided. The couple stooped shoulder deep in the warm water, Carolyn’s arms around Jonathan’s neck. “We’re trying to have adult time here, remember?”

“Yeah, try acting like an adult, you big lug,” Sara teased her brother.

He made a silly face, their banter fueling her strokes toward the beach and the other sibling she hoped to eventually find some common ground with.

Off to the right, her parents and Edward bent over, peering at something on the sand. A shell or crab or maybe a washed-up sand dollar. Fond of beachcombing, the three of them and Robin attended a yearly medical conference in Tampa. Last year they’d flown down a day early to enjoy a day on the beach.

The pang of jealousy Sara typically felt when thinking of the trips Robin, and often Jonathan, shared with their parents for one medical conference or another failed to materialize.

Progress, her therapist would say.

Yes, it was.

Her mom straightened, putting her hand above her eyes to shield them from the sun as she stared in Sara’s direction.

Sara waved but continued swimming toward her sister.

Robin frowned as Sara neared, a fistful of wet sand drizzling through her open fingers. Behind her a piece of driftwood several feet long, battered and worn by the sun, saltwater, and sand, shifted under the tide’s pull. Wavering between staying on the shore and being swept out to sea again.

Kind of how Sara had spent the past twenty minutes since Luis dropped anchor and everyone else jumped overboard.

“What are you doing?” Robin asked.

Reminding herself that her sister’s brusque tone was the same with everyone, no need to read any slight into it, Sara slowed her swim stroke.

“Nothing. Just figured I’d join you.” She reached shallower water, where she squatted, bobbing in the light waves.

“Suit yourself.” Robin grabbed another fistful of sand, then let it slip away, aided by the lapping ocean.

“It’s been a good trip, don’t you think?” Sara tiptoed into the conversation. No use dive-bombing her sister right away with the hard questions, like why are you always annoyed with me?

“Yeah. It’s good to see Mom getting stronger.” Robin shifted to watch her husband and their parents, slowly strolling farther away, heads bent in search of the perfect shell.

“I agree. Honestly, I was pretty scared there for a while. Afraid we’d lose her. That I might not