Island Affair (Keys to Love #1) - Priscilla Oliveras Page 0,13
way I made it through college.” She tucked her hair behind her ear, nonplussed. Like they were discussing studying for some kind of test. Not preparing to try to pull a fast one over her family.
“How about I ask you some basic questions to get us started while you drive?” she suggested.
The pen clicked under her thumb; then she spread the notebook open on her lap. He watched her write his name at the top of the page in a neat script, following it up with a definitive line underneath.
The sane part of him that had been thinking maybe she’d reevaluate her offer over lunch and together they’d come up with a Plan B shriveled up like the potted plant his mami had saved off his back porch last week. He’d been ready to toss the plant in the trash, but his mom had balked. Something about it needing water, food, and conversation. Silly him, he’d thought he’d bought a fern, not a metaphor for a date.
Forget the fact that in recent years his dating life had the same mortality rate as any fern, ivy—hell, even the aloe—he brought home.
A car honked behind them, alerting Luis that the light had changed. He eased his foot from the brake to the gas pedal and turned left onto Flagler. The farther they got from the airport, the higher his reservations mounted. But he’d made a commitment.
“One small problem,” Sara said, tapping the top of the pen against her chin.
“There’s only one?”
Her give me a break glare had him chuckling. He liked the fact she felt comfortable teasing him, which made their banter more fun.
“Thinks he has a sense of humor,” she mumbled, writing the words in her book.
“Hey now, don’t knock my jokes. They grow on you. You’ll see.”
“Uh-huh, I can only hope.” The playful twist of her lips softened her dry tone.
He grinned, something he found himself doing often around her. Despite their bizarre situation, Luis realized he’d laughed more with her in their short time together than with anyone else in ages.
Edging his truck around an older couple pedaling a tandem bike, he snuck another glance at Sara.
Her plump lower lip caught between her teeth, she scribbled in her notebook. Sweetly studious. The type of study partner that had a guy imagining all kinds of non-scholastic shenanigans in the library.
Yeah, there were quite a few things about Sara Vance he found appealing. And he wanted to know more.
“Any chance your middle name is Ric, or some derivative?”
“Excuse me?” Luis did a double take at her question. “Why?”
One of her slender shoulders lifted in a casual shrug. “Thankfully, I’ve learned to share very little about my dating life with my parents, so they don’t know much about Ric. Except his name”—she counted the list on her fingers—“that he’s in community development, and we met in Miami.”
Luis digested the info, thinking of ways they might tweak it to suit his life. “The closer to the truth we can keep this, the better. Less chance we’ll slip.”
“Ooh, smart. We definitely don’t want any slipping.” She pointed the pen at him, nervous energy humming off her again.
“That’s something else you should write down about me. I’m smart.”
Her eyes narrowed, but her pink glossy lips twitched before stretching into a smile that chased away her reservations. Good. Nervous meant mistakes. Something every rookie had to learn on the job.
“Time to hit pause on your note taking. But you’ve already got some stellar-boyfriend-material facts about me.” He flipped his blinker, signaling his intent to wait for a car pulling out of a space on White Street. Ahead on the left, Sandy’s red and white awning welcomed customers.
“You know, for someone all serious and stern, it’s interesting how much of a comedian you think you are.”
“Serious and stern?” Was that how she saw him?
Damn, that made him sound more like his papi when he or his brothers or sister crossed the line. Those were not the words a guy wanted an attractive woman who snagged his interest to use when describing him. Talk about ego deflating.
“What makes you say that?” he asked, relieved he kept the hell out of his question.
“Oh please.” Fingers splayed, Sara swished her open palm through the air from his head down to the seat as if encompassing all of him. “Don’t try and tell me you have no idea about this whole Vin Diesel tough-guy vibe you’ve got going on.”
Luis’s foot nearly slipped off the brake at his surprise. “My what?”