Island Affair (Keys to Love #1) - Priscilla Oliveras Page 0,52
face. “It’s all good.”
“How? It is not good being forced to change your Kelly day, ordered not to come around the station for the whole week. ?Verdad?”
Yeah, she was right, a move like this would look bad if it went on his record. But his captain had stipulated this time off as an alternative to some type of official measure. Something they both wanted to avoid.
Heaving a sigh, Luis reached over to pump the clear plastic soap dispenser when his mami lifted her rubber-gloved hand under the spout. The green liquid pooled to the size of a dime on the yellow scrubbing sponge.
He hadn’t liked it yesterday when the Captain laid down his edict. But today . . .
Strange how a guy’s outlook could change in the span of twenty-four hours.
Since the Captain’s move freed Luis up to spend time with Sara, he now viewed the forced time off as a serendipitous twist of fate.
Not that he planned on sharing his change of perspective with his mom. Or Carlos, who apparently had dialed the Mami 911 line after Luis had stormed out of the airport fire station yesterday. The bigmouth claimed he wanted to warn their mami that Luis was pissed and might need some distracting this coming week.
Oh, he’d found a way to distract himself all right.
More like someone.
A charismatic, sexy-as-hell woman with a sense of humor that sparked his own laughter and a secret he was determined to un-root. If only to make sure she was safe on his watch.
A woman who’d kept him awake late into the night after he dropped her, Jonathan, and Carolyn back at the rental and drove the ten miles up the Keys to his place in Big Coppitt.
When he’d finally fallen asleep, Sara had invaded his dreams like a sexy marauder on the high seas. Enticing him with her infectious smile. Drugging him with the citrusy scent that clung to her soft skin. Driving him crazy with her sweet lips he ached to sample.
“?Qué vas a hacer?” his mother asked, dashing the montage of Sara-themed images that had his pulse pounding.
“What am I going to do about what?”
“About work? Will you go talk to the Captain or the Watch Commander?”
“I’m not going to do anything.”
Pressing a kiss to his mami’s temple, he felt the sheen of perspiration glistening on her skin and moistening her hairline. Between the steam rising from the dishwater and the hot flashes she complained about, the poor woman looked like she’d just finished one of those crazy hot yoga classes his sister raved about.
“What is it you always tell me?” he continued. “What’s done is done. I can’t fight the Captain over this. And honestly, I don’t want to.”
“?De veras?”
“Yeah, it’s the truth.” He drew the sign of a cross over his heart.
“?Por qué?” His mami’s all-knowing narrow-eyed stare, the one feared by neighborhood kids and her own in particular, underlined her sharp “why?”
He hated lying, but no way could he share the truth with her. Like a Florida crawfish scurrying back in its hole to avoid capture, Luis spun away to snag the dish towel hanging on the refrigerator door, avoiding her wily gaze.
Lydia Quintana de Navarro possessed a sixth sense when it came to her kids. Little got by her unnoticed. Good luck if you were trying to pull a fast one on her. No question, she’d catch you. Growing up, Carlos and Enrique had faced countless chancletazos to prove it.
Equally as powerful, her devout prayers seemed to have a direct connection to heaven. Or maybe it was the number of candles she lit each week after mass that made such a huge smoke signal, no way could the good Lord ignore her. What really mattered was if Luis’s mami added you to her daily prayer list, you couldn’t help but feel you had a fighting chance.
When he worked his shifts at the station, Luis counted on those prayers. But today, with the secret he withheld from her, that keen parental radar of his mami’s had him on red alert.
Turning his back on her penetrating gaze, Luis strode to the round breakfast table by the window overlooking their backyard and canal. Outside, his papi bent over a boat engine propped up on a sawhorse where the edge of the green lawn met their property’s concrete seawall on the canal. The engine cover had been removed to leave the motor exposed for repairs.
Always tinkering on something, that man. As a kid Luis had followed in his papi’s