Island Affair Page 9

  “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 stranger home for dinner without expecting the Cuban Inquisition from the rest of the familia. Odds were better his mami would serve hot dogs and mac ’n’ cheese, a meal he doubted she had ever cooked, instead of her go-to picadillo, black beans, and rice that Anamaría’s date would leave unscathed.

  Still, the reticence Luis felt like heat waves in the air around them wasn’t just about her family sizing him up.

  Even when Sara and her father had joined the group, the siblings’ reunion had been subdued. Sara had shared an awkward hug with her sister, one less awkward with Jonathan, who ruffled her hair playfully and called her kid. Then Sara had seemed to crawl into a shell of the outgoing, vivacious woman she’d been with him at the beach.

  Ruth’s cheeriness, comfortable and genuine when Luis had arrived, felt a little unnatural with the others. As if she were trying a new dress on for size. Except for with her husband, who doted on her and more easily navigated around their kids.

  Sara had mentioned having a closer relationship with her dad growing up. Luis figured as much based on their private welcome home when he’d come inside with Ruth. Evidently Charles was the connector between them all.

  Luis sipped his beer, thinking of the difference when he showed up at his parents’ house. Inside, there’d be several conversations going on at once. Music, food, and kinship held court. Disagreements inevitably cropped up, but never got in the way of familia time. Even long-standing ones like his and Enrique’s.

  When it was time to leave, there was always the inevitable round of hugs and cheek kisses with everyone. People often joked about the need to start saying your good-byes at least fifteen minutes before you actually had to hit the road. If not, by the time you made the rounds you were late.

  His mom had been known to stand at the door and yell at him to come back inside and hug a tía he’d skipped. God forbid he be seen as disrespectful to his aunt.

  As it was, his mom had texted twice in the few hours since Luis had left his brother at the fire station. If he didn’t get back to her soon, the next message from her would be a lament about his lack of regard for the woman who’d given him the gift of life.

  “Sara mentioned you’re in community development.” Robin scooted around on the edge of the pool to face Luis. “I’m wondering how a real estate developer from Miami meets a social media butterfly from New York.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, Luis noticed Sara’s fingers tightening their grip on the edge of her armrest. Thus far they had managed to keep the conversation on local vacation hot spots and the itinerary Ruth had planned for them. Easy topics with no need for him to worry about mixing up their story.

  Looked like the time clock on their reprieve had expired.

  “Mutual friends in Miami were hosting a cocktail party. Lucky for me I was in town that weekend,” Luis answered. He reached across the small end table in between their chairs to cover Sara’s hand with his.

  Sara’s blue-green gaze slid his way. Hesitant. Worried.

  He rubbed his thumb along her delicate wrist bone, hoping to calm her worries. “I knew right away she was someone I wanted to get to know better.”

  Stick as close to the truth as possible.

  The last part of his story was certainly the truth. From the moment she’d spun around and bumped into him at the airport, he’d been charmed.

  At his wink, the tension in Sara’s shoulders eased. She twisted her hand so they were palm to palm, then linked her fingers with his.

  “You travel for work a lot?” This from Jonathan, still sprawled on the double ottoman, beside his wife.

  “Not like Sara does. Though I spend as much time here in the Keys as I can.”

  “Mom mentioned you have family in the area, right?” Jonathan asked.

  Sara’s hand squeezed his in a death grip.

  “Yeah, I do. Three siblings, my abuelos on my mom’s side, and some extended familia. My parents actually live up the Keys a little ways.”

  “Are any of them firefighters?” Robin asked.

  Sara’s soft gasp drew his attention. He continued his gentle caress with his thumb along the side of her hand, then turned back to her sister. Robin pointed at him, and it took Luis a few seconds to realize she indicated the KWFD logo on his T-shirt.

  “Oh yes, they are.” He focused on remaining calm in this first test of threading the truth into his fake backstory. Knowing Sara counted on him. “It’s pretty safe to say that firefighting is our family business. Ever since I was a kid, there’s pretty much been a”—he barely caught himself before saying Navarro—“been one of us on shift practically every day in the city or county.”

  Dios, he didn’t know how people did this. People like his ex, Mirna, straddling the line between truth and lie. Sweat beaded his brow. The knot in his gut twisted uncomfortably. The running list of details he and Sara had conjured up made his head throb.

  So much for enjoying the relaxing atmosphere.

  “I guess you and Sara have that in common then.”

  Luis figured his frown matched the one puckering Sara’s brow at her sister’s strange statement.

  “Bucking the family business. Going off to do your own thing. Not that dealing with the real estate market has much similarity to being some kind of internet sensation.” Robin’s foot swirled through the pool, lifting to send a splash across the water’s surface. “I’m still scratching my head at the idea that social media influencer is actually a viable career.”

  Sara jerked back as if her sister had slapped her.

  “Robin!” Charles’s and Ruth’s sharp cries signaled a parental warning.

  “What?” she complained. “It’s the truth in this millennial-driven society.”

  At the other end of the pool, Jonathan vaulted to a seated position. Carolyn put a hand on his forearm, her lips moving as she murmured something in his ear. He glared at his older sister, lips pressed together in a pissed-off line.

  From the branches of a lush geiger tree in the corner of the yard, a warbler trilled in the tense silence. The bird’s sweet, high-pitched whistle was answered by another, and a tag-team harmony ensued.

  Robin swished her foot in the pool water, clearly nonplussed by her blunt jab
.

  Hell-bent on supporting Sara, his tag-team partner in this oddly dysfunctional dynamic, Luis lifted their joined hands to press a kiss against her knuckles. “Sometimes you have to go out on your own to find your way. Find yourself. And if you’re lucky, the road home is easy to traverse. No roadblocks or danger ahead warning signs making a return more tricky.”

  Sara’s wobbly smile tugged at something in his chest. At the same time, the sting of his own hypocrisy lanced his side like a sharp blade.

  Shortly after Mirna’s death, when his own brother had finally decided to give up his dreams of being an artist and go to fire college instead, Luis had hoped he’d stay away. Take a job in Miami, where Enrique had friends from art school. Instead, Enrique signed on with the city of Key West. Luis had to admit, if he could have hammered a Road Closed sign where US 1 entered the Keys the day Enrique was scheduled to drive back home, he would have.

  Instead, Luis forced himself to make peace with the fact that he and his brother would never be as close as they’d once been. Not after Enrique’s betrayal.

  But Sara?

  Unless their Twenty Questions game had been cut short too soon and she had left out an important detail when it came to her relationship with her sister, Sara had done nothing he was aware of to warrant Robin’s taunt.

  “As for her business, Sara’s pretty much killing it, if you ask me. I mean, she’s easily up . . . What is it now, babe, close to five hundred thousand followers?” He tilted his head toward her in question, knowing full well the answer but wanting her to own it.

  “Over,” she said, that spark of sass that drew him flickering in her ocean-water eyes. It heated him up in ways a simple look never had before.

  “She may have over five hundred thousand followers,” Luis stressed the word, keeping his gaze locked with hers. “But I’m her number one fan.”

  “Oh my goodness!” Sara rolled her eyes, her pale shoulders shaking with her laugh. “That is so cheesy!”

  Maybe. But it wiped away the hurt clouding her expressive eyes.

  He kissed her knuckles again, waggling his brows at her.

  Shaking her head, she turned away, but Luis caught the pink blush climbing her cheeks.

  “Suck-up!” Jonathan yelled out. Carolyn swatted his shoulder playfully.

  Luis raised his beer bottle in salute. When Jonathan did the same, Luis figured he might have found an ally.

  The fact that he liked that idea subdued his good mood. This was temporary, he reminded himself. Nothing more.

  “You’ll have to get in line behind us for that number one fan moniker,” Ruth warned.

  The older woman swung her thin legs off her lounger and set her empty smoothie glass on the low end table. Angling her head, she shot her husband a secretive smile. Charles stroked his wife’s slender back, his expression attentive and loving as he nodded at whatever question he read in her gaze.

  “Your father and I recently came to a decision,” Ruth announced. “We plan to be more focused on each other, on our children and their partners.” Her gaze slid pointedly to Sara and Luis, then Robin and Edward still seated at the shallow end of the pool, then on to Jonathan and Carolyn. “And our grandchildren. Life’s too short. We have missed out on far too much. That stops right now.” She tapped her knee, emphasizing her point. “With us spending more quality time together, starting this week. Really getting to know one another better.”

  Beside Luis, Sara stiffened. She shot him a sharp, slightly panicked look out of the corner of her eye.

  If he guessed right, the last thing she wanted was her parents poking into their sham relationship.

  He sandwiched her hand tightly with both of his, hoping she understood his we-got-this signal.

  “You may want to rethink some of that togetherness when you have to sit through Susan’s dance recital. Twice!” Jonathan’s playful warning had his wife and parents chuckling.

  Luis liked the guy’s sense of humor. Plus the fact that he’d started to come to Sara’s defense when their older sister bared her fangs.

  “Says the man who was mouthing the steps to his daughter’s routine from his seat in the auditorium,” Carolyn threw in. “I thought he was about to volunteer to dance in the wings with their instructor, helping preschoolers struggling to remember the next step.”

  Jonathan shrugged good-naturedly. “What can I say, my little girl has me wrapped around her pinkie. I could have easily filled in for the teacher.”

  “Now that I would have liked to see. I’m sorry I wasn’t feeling well that day,” Ruth said, sliding her feet into her black sandals. “Next year, I’ll do my best to be there.”

  “Me too,” Charles chimed in. He and Ruth exchanged another secretive nod before he continued. “Robin, you’ve done such a fine job covering for me while I cared for your mother. While we’re here, I’d like us to discuss keeping this division of duties permanent. If you agree, we’ll talk with the hospital when we get back.”

  Surprise widened Robin’s gray eyes at her father’s announcement. Her jaw dropped, leaving her mouth a shocked oh that smoothed the rough edges of her caustic personality.

  Beside her, Edward clumsily patted her thigh, his mouth tilted in a crooked smile his orthodontist skills might not be able to straighten but that showed his pride for his wife.

  “Dad, are you sure?” Robin asked, her abrasive tone tempered with awe and uncertainty. “Stepping back, permanently, that means—”

  “That means more cases for you. More responsibility and leadership expectations. You’ll be the Dr. Vance that’s paged first for difficult consultations, not me. If you’re ready for it.”

  “Yes! Of course, yes!” Pulling her feet out of the water, Robin hurried toward the shaded porch. A trail of darkened wet footprints marked her steps across the bricked deck. Charles rose from his seat on Ruth’s lounger to wrap his oldest in a bear hug.

  “This is what you’ve worked for, and I’m happy to hand over the reins to you. Just like—” Charles pulled back to grasp Robin’s shoulders. He peered down at her, the same authoritative expression he’d aimed at Luis and Sara when they’d first arrived. “Just like I’m happy for each new follower person or sponsor opportunity Sara garners. Or each patient you and your brother save. And especially any dance recital moves Jonathan teaches us this week.”

  “Which could possibly happen tonight, if we all hurry and freshen up.” Ruth checked the dainty gold watch encircling her left wrist, then rose to stand beside them. “It’s nearly five thirty. If we plan to eat before sunset at eight, we’ll need to get a move on.”

  Jonathan and Carolyn strolled over to join the rest of the group. Luis stayed in his deck chair, waiting to take his cue from Sara. While their banter had eased her discomfort earlier, she didn’t appear in a hurry to congratulate her sister. Instead, she gazed at her family standing in a huddle, without her.

  The longing on her face made Luis want to wrap his arm around her, make their own circle of trust, and reassure her that everything would be okay.

  He was used to being the voice of calm and reason with many victims on the job. Only, this pulse-racing urge to hold and comfort Sara wasn’t something he ever felt for the random strangers, even the locals he knew, who relied on him for aid. Not by a long shot.

  “This is an unexpected move, Dad. But a good one,” Jonathan said.

  Father and son shook hands; then Jonathan one-arm hugged his mom, cautiously tucking her slender body against his side with care.

  Luis wished he’d known Ruth before her body had been weakened by cancer. Then again, it seemed the weakness of body may have precipitated a strength in spirit in a whole new way. One her family was only getting used to. Her children anyway. She and her husband appeared to be on the same new page.

  “And you,” Jonathan told his older sister, nudging his chin at her over Ruth’s head. “I’d tell you to make sure you do the Vance name proud. But you’re so damn hard on yourself, I figure you’re already menta
lly giving yourself a tougher speech than I would.”

  Hands clasped at her waist, excitement contained and her reserved demeanor reestablished, Robin gave her brother a brisk nod. “You are correct.”

  “Let’s be clear, though,” Jonathan said. “Two Vances will continue practicing at Phoenix General. So, it could very well be my Dr. Vance page you hear.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind the next time you call from the ER, needing my expertise.” Robin’s haughty reply was tempered by a smug smirk that had her brother barking out a laugh.

  Throughout the exchange Sara remained apart from the others. Brows knitted with a frown, silently watching her family in their tight circle. One she had admitted she didn’t quite fit into.

  Still, Luis had trouble reconciling the information Sara had given him back at Higgs Beach with what he’d learned after spending time in the company of her parents and siblings.

  It was a little strange studying the Vances all together. They spanned nearly three separate generations between parents, oldest siblings, then Sara. It was understandable that she might feel like the odd man out with the others paired off in age groups. And clearly Robin’s bluntness may not always be easy to deal with.

  But it was more than generational differences. Luis sensed a stronger undercurrent of disconnect going on here. At the same time, Sara’s parents were pretty clear they wanted to steer their family boat in a new direction. One with warmer waters between them.

  Unfortunately, when it came to family dynamics and making up for past mistakes Luis knew firsthand it was easier said than done.

  For Sara’s sake, he hoped she could find her way across whatever impasses lay between her and the individual members of her family. So she no longer felt stranded on one side, alone.

  Once again, Luis made a mental promise to do whatever he could this week to make that happen.

  “Okay, everyone, the clock is ticking,” Ruth announced. “Twenty-minute warning. You’ll get another with ten to go.”