Island Affair (Keys to Love #1) - Priscilla Oliveras Page 0,85

before meeting her gaze, resignation haunting his face. “I was engaged once. About six years ago.”

The admission took Sara by surprise. Not wanting any reaction from her to make him shut down, she worked to school her face into an open expression.

“Not for long, though we dated for almost two years before I proposed. We actually knew each other as kids. She graduated high school a few years after me, with Enrique. Who—”

He broke off. Frowned. Cleared his throat as he shook his head and looked away again.

Sara stroked her fingers at his nape, giving him the silent space to take his time, along with the reassurance that she was listening.

“Who it turns out was the brother she really wanted.”

Sara’s fingers stilled. Shock at the idea of some woman not recognizing her good fortune in possessing Luis’s love and devotion knocked rational thought away.

In the next moment, despair and anger surged in Sara’s chest, blocking her throat with tight-fisted empathy. She knew what it felt like to be compared to a sibling and come out the loser. To know you weren’t considered good enough.

Above them, the sun slipped behind a cloud, casting a dull shadow across the water’s surface. A breeze skittered over her wet shoulders, and Sara shivered. Luis dipped them lower into the warmth of the water, thinking of her comfort even in the midst of his difficult admission.

She hugged him, their cheeks pressed together for the sweetest of moments. When she pulled back to offer him an encouraging nod, his frown deepened to a scowl that hinted more at confusion than anger.

“I was too focused on being her savior,” he continued. “Convinced I could show her that she was more than the troubled teen from a broken family who’d grown up to become a woman unaware of her potential, deserving of good things. But really, she’d said yes to our first date out of curiosity, thinking it’d make Enrique jealous. Then stuck around because . . .”

He scoffed with such harsh self-derision Sara’s heart broke for him.

“Because I made her feel good when my brother wouldn’t give her the time of day. Enrique knew she wanted him. Hell, they slept together after she and I first started dating.”

“What?”

The outraged question slipped out before Sara could stop it.

“I’m sorry,” she offered, not wanting to influence him in any way, especially if it would stop him from sharing. “It’s not my place to judge.”

“Why not? I have.” Luis’s mouth twisted with contempt. “Enrique was in Miami for art school at the time. I’m not sure if he knew we were an item. But he didn’t confess once he found out. After he graduated and moved back home, then decided to go to fire college, she propositioned him again. Even though we were engaged by then. When he finally manned up and threatened to out her, she freaked. Left a beach party up at Bahia Honda in no condition to be driving.”

Despair and disillusion clouded his dark eyes. The sad emotions painted the angles of his handsome face and Sara wanted to rail at the other woman for her stupidity. And his brother, for the hand he’d played in hurting this wonderfully generous man.

“Mirna survived a couple days after her car accident. Long enough to make peace with her erratic mom, say good-bye to the abuela who raised her. And admit the truth to me. She wanted absolution. As hard as that was for me. As betrayed as I felt, I had to . . .”

His lips trembled and he pinched them together. Sara gently cupped his jaw, willing him to sense her empathy, maybe find inner strength from it.

“I gave it to her because she needed it,” he murmured, his tone a heartrending mix of disgust and defeat. “She needed peace before she passed. But my brother? He didn’t even bother to come to the hospital. Then he showed up for the funeral and tried to bug out five minutes into the wake. Told me she didn’t deserve to be mourned.” Luis’s jaw muscle ticced, his pain palpable. “Our fight on Mirna’s abuela’s front lawn was not my finest moment. The little shit didn’t even fight back when I tackled him. I got two solid punches in before Carlos and Anamaría pulled me off him. I didn’t see Enrique until familia dinner a week later, but the shiner I gave him didn’t look half-bad.”

He reached up to grab his Ray-Bans, then dipped his head backward in the ocean, as