Page 31 of Rafa's Convenient Wife

“Are we wrong?” Beto shifted in his seat and reached for the bottle of tequila. “I was there, Rafa. I saw you disappear. I saw her disappear. I saw you come back. But she didn’t. She ran away.”

Rafael grimaced but didn’t try to deny it. “I made a mistake.”

“Then or tonight?”

Rafael grimaced again. “I seem to only make mistakes when it comes to her.”

Beto sighed. “Listen, brother, I’m the last man in the world to give anyone relationship advice. I haven’t managed to get a woman to stay with me longer than three weeks.”

“That’s because three weeks is the limit to how long you can ignore your obsession with your boat and the sea.”

“Probably,” Beto agreed. A long silence stretched between them as both men became lost in their thoughts. Eventually, Beto asked, “What’s going on with the judge?”

Rafael exhaled with disgust. “He was letting me know that one of his colleagues in a different department had a run-in with Beverly’s legal team. She tried to file kidnapping charges against Sky and roped in the US Embassy.”

Beto swore nastily. “What is wrong with her?”

“She’s crazy. Jaime always said she was nuts, but I never thought he actually meant she was mentally unwell.”

“Maddie told me about her childhood,” Beto confessed. “She and Jaime were out with me on the boat after their engagement. Jaime was knocked out below deck because he’d covered himselfin seasickness patches.” Beto laughed at the memory. “So, Maddie and I just drank beer and fished and talked. The things she told me....”

“That bad?”

“Terrible,” Beto confirmed. “Her mother was always a little unhinged, but I guess after her father had that affair and left Beverly for Sky’s mother? Well—she went over the edge. It’s why Maddie ended up in a private boarding school. Her dad didn’t trust Beverly to keep her safe, and he traveled all the time. It’s the same reason Sky ended up there after her mother killed herself.”

“It was an accident, I thought. Sky’s mother? She drowned during a party?”

“According to Maddie, she was high and fell asleep in the pool after the party.” Beto hesitated. “It was Sky’s birthday party.”

“What?” Rafael bolted upright. “Are you sure?”

“That’s what Maddie said. Sky found her the next morning.”

Shocked, he sat there trying to digest what he’d just heard. “I didn’t know. She never said.”

“I get the feeling she plays things close to the chest. I doubt Maddie would have told me the truth if she hadn’t been four Tecates deep.”

His stomach churned at the realization that there was so much about Sky he didn’t know. “Does Lola know?”

“No idea. If she does, she’s never said.”

If Lola did know, she wouldn’t reveal that secret to anyone. She had always been good about staying quiet.

“I think she wants to belong, Rafael. Your wife,” Beto clarified as if he didn’t know. “I think she’s afraid of being alone or having people dislike her, so she runs to save herself from that pain.”

Rafael stared at his brother’s shadowy profile. He suddenly better understood why Beto had run off to find himself. “Why did you run?”

“I didn’t run.” Beto finished his cigar and left it smoldering on an ashtray he’d brought to the patio table. “I sailed.”

“Alberto!” He used his brother’s full name in exasperation.

“You want to know why I left?”

“Yes!”

“I had to find my own place in this world, Rafa. I’d always been Joaquin’s youngest son. Don Pedro’s youngest grandson. I wasn’t the heir. I wasn’t the spare. You were raised to take over the business. Jaime was raised as your backup. Me? I’m not as brilliant as Dina. I’m not gifted with plants like Lola. I couldn’t even cut it in the fields as ajimador.”

“To be fair, you cut plenty in those fields,” Rafael reminded him. “I don’t think I ever saw Abuelo speechless until he found you surrounded by massacred agave.”

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