Page 6 of Rafa's Convenient Wife

Soaking wet and irritated, Rafael rang the doorbell again. He glared back at the street where one of Jaime’s jackass neighbors had blasted through the flooded street and thrown murky water all over him. His carry-on bag seemed to have been spared the worst, but his shoes and suit were ruined.

The door finally opened, and he swung back toward it, hoping it was Maddie and not Jaime, who would roast him relentlessly for showing up on their doorstep looking like a drowned cat. But, as the door opened fully, Rafael realized he had made a terrible mistake.

Sky?

Sky wasn’t supposed to be here today. She was supposed to be on vacation. He wouldn’t have come otherwise.

His heart stammered wildly in his chest as he locked eyes with Sky. The same eyes that had been tormenting him since the excruciatingly awkward baptism of little Jasper. He had beentrying to convince himself he could handle seeing her again, but he was wrong.

Those green eyes made his brain melt, and he couldn’t think of anything else but running his fingers through the loose blonde waves that fell around her shoulders. All these years later, he could still remember the soft touch of her pouty lips. He could still feel the flutter of her heartbeat beneath his fingertips.

She was the biggest regret of his life, but never for the reasons she believed.

“Rafael?” She flinched at the sudden crack of thunder and opened the door wider. “Come inside before you get zapped.”

“Thank you,” he said, finally breaking free from the stupor of seeing her again.

“Oh, you’re soaked!” Sky held up both hands. “Wait here. I’ll get a towel.”

She rushed off, and he slipped out of his suit jacket. He removed his boots and wet socks, leaving his bare feet cold on the vintage tile floor. Sky returned with some bath towels and held them out to him. “Did you swim to the front door?”

“One of the neighbors was driving like an idiot down the street. Churned up a tsunami of water with that stupid lifted truck.”

“Brent,” she said with a scowl. “He’s one of the Greene boys. They gave him that truck for his seventeenth birthday, and he’s been acting like a fool ever since. That big crack in the windshield? That was your brother. That little jerk decided to roll coal at Maddie and Jasper, and Jaime pelted his windshield with a Yeti tumbler.”

Rafael snorted. “Yeah, that sounds exactly like something Jaime would do. How much are they coming after him for?”

“Nothing,” Sky said, and that surprised him. “Bob made Brent come apologize. Not that he learned anything.” She gestured to his soaking-wet pants. “You better go get cleaned up.”

“Where’s Jaime? Are he and Maddie out on a date?” The house was too quiet, and he was sure that meant his brother and sister-in-law were gone for the afternoon.

“They’re on their way to Miami and then Punta Cana in the morning.”

He frowned. “That’s this week?”

She nodded and glanced at her watch. “They’ll be in Miami soon if you need to speak with Jaime.”

“He’s flying?”

“Yes. For the Miami leg, at least.” She glanced toward his brother’s office tucked away at the end of the hall. “The flight plan is in his desk if you want to check.”

“There's a tropical storm in the Gulf.” Rafael tried not to worry about his brother. Jaime had been flying planes since he was a teenager and had logged thousands of hours. He wouldn’t do anything reckless with Maddie in the cockpit next to him. “Where is Jasper?”

“Asleep.”

“Upstairs? By himself?” Rafael frowned. “Shouldn’t you be watching him?”

Her expression hardened. “I was watching him on the monitor until you rang the doorbell.”

There was an even louder crash of thunder, and seconds later, Jasper wailed. Sky turned toward the stairs, leaving him dripping wet and making a mess in the entryway. He shouldn’t have second-guessed her babysitting choices. Jaime only had good things to say about her and how she cared for and loved Jasper.

Why do you always say the wrong things to her?

That question troubled him as he mopped up the floor and gathered up his shoes and socks. Once upstairs, he went straight to the guest room at the very end of the hall. He ignored the whimpering cries as he passed the nursery and Sky’s gentle voicesoothing their nephew. If he ducked in to check on them, she would think he didn’t trust her with Jasper. Nothing good would come from that.

After he changed into jeans and a shirt from his luggage, he placed his suit on a hanger and left it in the shower to drip. It needed a trip to the dry cleaner. Maybe Sky could help him out with that.

Wearing socks and no shoes, he made his way back downstairs. He found Sky in the kitchen making a bottle of formula for Jasper, who had calmed down and now noisily sucked his fingers. Startled by the sight of her looking so maternal with a baby in her arms, his heart raced. She was the wild child who had run away to travel the world and live out of a suitcase. She would have been the last person he would have chosen to be a nanny to a little one, but here she was, proving him wrong again.

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