Page 7 of Rafa's Convenient Wife

“Do you want to hold him?” Sky noticed him lingering nearby.

“Yeah. Of course.” He stepped up to take his nephew from her and marveled at how much he had grown in the last seven weeks. “He’s so much bigger than the last time I held him!”

“Wait until you see how well he crawls, pulls up on furniture, and plays with blocks.” She grinned as she finished making the bottle. “We have so much fun together while Maddie and Jaime are at work.”

She handed him the bottle, and he took it from her. Their fingers touched briefly, and he wondered if she felt the same spark of contact. If she did, she didn’t show it. “Are you hungry? Do you want something to drink?”

“Coffee, if it’s not too much trouble.” He smiled at Jasper, who seemed enthralled by his beard. His chubby fingers pulled at the short hair, and he ran his little palms over the bristly bits and laughed.

“It’s no trouble,” she said, her voice soft. When he glanced at her, she had a look in her eye he couldn’t quite place. It was warm and liquid as if she might have had the same thoughts he had earlier when he saw her holding Jasper. “I’ll bring it to the living room. You’ll have better luck getting him to finish his bottle if you’re sitting and holding him on your lap.”

Grateful for her coaching, he carried his nephew out of the kitchen. When they reached the living room, he picked the chair that was closest to the window and settled into it. Jasper knew the drill and wiggled into place on his lap. The baby reached for the bottle, and Rafael let Jasper take it. He kept his fingers under the bottle, propping it up. His other hand drifted to Jasper’s hair. The dark curls his nephew had inherited from the Farias side of the family felt familiar under his fingers.

Sky placed a travel mug on the table next to his elbow. “It’s safer,” she explained. “Jasper likes to kick and snatch at things.”

“It’s fine.” He didn’t mind drinking from a lidded mug if it meant he could spend time with his nephew.

She placed three almond biscotti on a cloth napkin next to the mug and then moved to the nearby sofa, where she curled her feet under her. She looked effortlessly sexy in her simple black leggings with an oversized Aggie sweatshirt bearing one shoulder and the no-nonsense strap of a sports bra. “He favors your family so much. Jasper looks like a mini-Jaime.”

Rafael abandoned his inappropriate thoughts and focused on his nephew instead. “Jaime was fatter and shorter.”

Sky snorted, and—God help him—he found that even more endearing. “Rafael!”

“What? It’s true! He outweighed me when I was seven and he was four! Instead of hand-me-downs, Mama used to hand Jaime’s clothes up to me!”

“Stop!” Her laughter made Jasper smile, and he dribbled formula all over Rafael’s hand. She grabbed a burp cloth from the back of the couch and tossed it at him. “Here.”

“Thanks.” He dabbed Jasper’s chin and wiped his hand. “That reminds me—do you know if there’s a dry cleaner open today?”

“For your suit?”

He nodded. “It’s a mess.”

“Jaime and Maddie use a service that picks up and drops off every Friday morning. I can Google to see if anyone is open on a Sunday.”

He shook his head. “I’ll handle it.”

“Are you staying long?” She must have realized how it sounded because she winced. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I know I’m not exactly someone you want to share a house with,” Rafael replied, avoiding her gaze by focusing on Jasper who was nearing the end of his bottle. “I’m leaving tomorrow morning.”

“Oh.”

Was he imagining it, or did she sound disappointed? “I have meetings in Dallas tomorrow evening. I thought I would stop in to see Jaime, but I must have gotten the dates mixed up in my calendar.”

“Oh.” This time, her tone got his attention. “You thought I was going to be away on vacation today.”

There was no point denying it. “I did.”

“Well, I won’t interrupt your time with Jasper.” She stood abruptly, and he wanted to ask her to stay but didn’t. “I’m going to make Jasper’s snack and then I’ll be in the library if you need help with diaper changes or anything.”

“I can handle those.”

“Okay.” She nodded and smiled awkwardly before fleeing the living room. He hated himself for making things tense between them. After the wedding, he was just as surprised as everyoneelse when Lola announced that Sky had left the estate before sunrise. No one knew where she was going or why she had left.

Well. Not exactly no one.

As soon as he had learned that she was gone, Rafael had known why she had fled the estate. Embarrassment. Shame. Fear. He should have gone after her and tried to find her, but he had convinced himself that Sky wasn’t his problem. When she had finally turned up in Casablanca, of all places, he had been both relieved to know she was safe and alive but simultaneously terrified she would get into trouble and get hurt.

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