Island Affair (Keys to Love #1) - Priscilla Oliveras Page 0,6

between Phoenix and Key West. If she didn’t find some way to pull herself out of the pit of quicksand she’d inadvertently created, before everyone else landed, this seven-day vacation with her parents, siblings, and their spouses was doomed before it even started. She refused to be the unwanted damper on the celebration of her mother’s recent cancer-free diagnosis. Especially after her dad’s rare edict demanding that they all clear their schedules and not cause any fuss.

“What’s going on?” Luis asked. “You need a ride? Suggestions on a place to stay?”

Oh, if only it were that simple of a problem. “Probably the first, unless I take a cab. Got the second one covered. It’s a little more involved than that.”

Much more involved.

She speared a hand through her hair, despair threatening to override her nervousness. Along with her common sense.

Would Luis say yes to her outlandish idea? Did she really want him to?

Yet the alternative was to disappoint her mother, when the oncologist had ordered her to remove all stressors. Finding out that Sara may have fudged a little about how serious she and Ric had gotten wouldn’t go over very well. Not at all.

Which was why Sara needed Luis to agree with her request. For her mother’s peace of mind. As much as her own.

Cuidado con lo que pides.

Mamá Alicia’s voice whispered in Sara’s ear, as if her beloved nanny stood behind her, reminding Sara to be careful what she wished for. Mamá Alicia had always known the right answer, delivered in a mix of Spanish and English to ensure Sara learned both languages. She’d always given the best advice. Usually over hot chocolate and homemade churros.

Sara pictured the diminutive woman who’d once been a tiny but influential force in Sara’s life. Jet-black hair in a tight bun high on her head, floral apron tied around her thin waist, stern yet compassionate expression as she wagged a finger and spouted sage counsel. Or a needed reprimand. No doubt Mamá Alicia stared down from heaven now doing the exact same thing.

“So, when you say everything’s a mess, define everything for me,” Luis said, pocketing his keys as he strolled toward her.

Crossing his arms, he leaned back against the shiny silver front bumper of what Sara could only think of as a he-man behemoth of a truck.

Scanning the guy’s muscular biceps, broad shoulders, and wide chest, gloriously displayed thanks to the tight gray KWFD tee hugging his upper body, Sara figured the supersize-tired vehicle fit the man. All six foot plus of the raw power and masculinity he embodied should have been intimidating. Only, when she gazed into his friendly dark brown eyes she couldn’t resist believing the open honesty softening the serious expression on his tanned face.

“You want the short or the long version?” she asked.

His lips twitched like they wanted to crack a smile. “I’m in no hurry.”

Too bad she couldn’t say the same.

“Oh-kay then.” Clasping her hands to keep them from fidgeting, she rested them on her suitcase’s extended handle. This pitch had to be as convincing as the one she’d given when she nabbed the initial sponsor for her lifestyles blog. “I’m the first of my family members to arrive for our celebratory vacation. My parents, two older siblings, and their spouses should be landing in a few hours. Only, they’re expecting to meet me at our Airbnb with my boyfriend. Or, um, potential fiancé.”

“Potential?”

“Not really,” she rushed on, worried she might be botching things before they even got started. “But my mother may have been slightly led to think otherwise . . . by me.” Luis’s raised-brow surprise had her quickly adding, “Under duress. And with good intentions.”

A low whistle blew through Luis’s lips, doing nothing to assuage her guilt over not setting her mother straight when she had leapfrogged from Sara’s would it be okay for me to bring someone? to her own Sara’s finally serious about settling down interpretation.

Sara’s therapist had had a field day with that one. It was classic approval-seeking behavior. Sara knew it. Only, she hadn’t stopped it from happening.

“And this boyfriend-fiancé would be the Ric guy you were talking to when I walked up?” Luis asked.

“Yes.”

“The same dude who, if I heard correctly, isn’t planning to show.”

“The one and only.” Irritation hardened Sara’s tone.

Luis bobbed his head slowly. The corners of his mouth tilted down in a frown at the same time a deep V wedged itself between his dark brows. “Sounds like he deserved more than the ‘go to hell’