Island Affair (Keys to Love #1) - Priscilla Oliveras Page 0,31
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 . . . co?o, 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.
“You don’t know what you’re missing,” she told everyone, tapping the side of her glass. “Best eight ounces of energy-packing punch.”
Luis had passed up her invitation to join her for a glass earlier, saying yes instead to the bottle of Stella Sara’s brother-in-law had held out to him.
“And we’re saving it all for you, dear.” Charles, who sat on the end of Ruth’s chaise with her feet in his lap, stretched his arm to clink his beer bottle with her glass.
“I smelled that concoction, Mom, no thanks!” Jonathan called out. “If I drank that, Carolyn might not want to kiss me. And, at the risk of over-sharing with you people, let me say, we are kid-free this week, so I’m hoping to get lucky.”
His cheeky announcement earned him a swat on the arm from his wife and a laugh from the rest of the group. Even Robin and her husband, who hadn’t contributed much to the fun and games conversation thus far, cracked smiles.
It was strange really. The atmosphere among Sara’s family was different from what she had described. He’d expected stuffy, even snotty doctors filled with that inevitable God complex he’d run up against dropping patients at the hospital.
Earlier, after stowing Sara’s suitcase in one of the upstairs bedrooms, Luis had followed Ruth out back where the rest of the family had already settled. Robin and Edward had greeted him with the polite hellos and pleasure-to-meet-yous Luis expected based on his notes. Jonathan and his wife, on the other hand, came across as more approachable, a little more down-to-earth.
For the past hour or so they’d all shot furtive, and not-so-furtive, glances Luis and Sara’s way. He figured they were reserving their judgment on the interloper in their private family vacation.
He completely understood. Let his sister, Anamaría, try bringing a