4. Chapter Three
Chapter Three
“ S hould he be eating those?”
Sky closed her eyes and clamped her mouth shut as Rafael yet again questioned her ability to care for Jasper. Glad she was facing away from him at the stove, she exhaled slowly and then brightly said, “Yep! It’s perfectly safe for him to eat sweet potatoes.”
“I meant the size,” he clarified, his voice tinged with worry. “Will he choke?”
No, but I’m about to choke you if you don’t get off my case!
“They’re steamed and squishy.” Sky turned away from the stove, smiling even though she wanted to scowl. “See. He’s already mashing them up with his hands.”
Looking both horrified and amused, Rafael watched Jasper destroy his dinner. “Does any of that even get into his mouth?”
“Some of it,” she said, carrying two plates to the table to join them. “Maddie plans out his meals with me, and we make sure he gets plenty of options throughout the day, plus his formula or breast milk.” She placed Rafael’s dinner in front of him. “You said yourself that he’s grown a lot since you last saw him.”
“Right.” Rafael seemed abashed and turned his attention to his plate. “This looks delicious. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” She sat beside Jasper’s highchair and redirected the spoon he was waving toward his mouth. When the sweet potatoes and peas he had been smashing made it into his mouth, she exaggeratedly exclaimed, “Yummy!”
Jasper smiled, baring his two little teeth and a mouthful of orange and green. “Mum-mum-mum-mum.”
“Yep! That’s right! Yummy!” She pretended to understand his babbling. As she returned to her own meal, she noticed Rafael watching her with a strange look. “What?”
“You’re a natural at this.”
He wasn’t the first to tell her that, but it still made her proud. “I didn’t think I would be,” she admitted, cutting into her seasoned chicken thigh. “I never even had a puppy or a kitten. I wasn’t sure I could handle a baby.” She shrugged. “But, once Maddie handed him over to me so she could shower, I realized how easy it was to snuggle and love him. The hard stuff is what Maddie and Jaime do. I get to hand him back at the end of the day, but they’re in this for at least eighteen years.”
“At least,” Rafael agreed. “It seems most kids stay with their parents even after college now.”
“Student loans, crazy high rental prices, inflation,” she listed off the most common gripes of her friends forced to move back home. “It’s wildly expensive to live right now, especially when you’re just starting and have nothing.”
“Jaime wants us to offer student loan forgiveness programs for our employees here.” Rafael reached for his beer. “We already have a reimbursement program for our employees in Mexico. I suppose it would make sense to do it here, but the cost?” He made a face. “It’s steep.”
“Jaime told me that your grandfather was the one who started paying off employee student debt.”
“There was a chemist who worked for us. Maria Elena Cruz Garcia,” he said, his tongue rolling over the syllables in a way she found fascinating. “Abuelo found her waiting tables on the weekends to pay off university debts. He was embarrassed and angry, and on Monday morning, he handed her a check to cover her school loans. After that, he made it a point to care for our people.”
“Your grandfather sounds like a wonderful man.”
“He was.” Rafael used his fork to push another cube of steamed sweet potato toward Jasper. “Eat your papas.”
Jasper babbled happily as he squished the sweet potato between his messy fingers and then smooshed it into his mouth.
“You’re going to have to hose him off before his bath,” Rafael remarked and plucked a bit of smashed peas from Jasper’s hair. “He’s going to make soup if he’s got all this food on him.”
Considering how squeamish he looked about picking food out of Jasper’s hair, she decided not to tell Rafael about the other surprises that sometimes happened during bath time. Instead, she asked, “How is your mom? Jaime mentioned she had fallen off her horse the other day.”
Rafael’s expression darkened. “She’s lucky she didn’t break a hip. She’s too old to be galloping across fields on that horse.”
“She’s sixty-one, Rafa. That’s hardly ancient! Besides, the more active she stays, the longer she’ll live and be more independent. I saw it all the time when I was traveling. Heck, I once had a lady celebrating her 76 th birthday on the Fimmv?rduháls hike I was leading. Talk about life goals!”
“The what hike?”
“Fimmv?rduháls,” she repeated slowly. “It’s a two-day 25-kilometer hike in Iceland. Waterfalls. Mountains. Volcanic craters. Glaciers. Valleys. I can’t even begin to describe how incredible the views are, Rafa. It’s, like, otherworldly.”
“Sounds dangerous,” he remarked.
“It can be,” she allowed, “but if you take your time and are prepared, it’s basically just a long walk through some of the most beautiful scenery on earth.”
“You almost make me want to give it a try.” Rafael smiled at her in a way that made her insides feel all wobbly. “I envy your wanderlust. I wish I could drop everything, all my responsibilities, and go.”
Sky tried not to take his words as an insult. She knew he didn’t mean it that way. He wasn’t calling her irresponsible and reckless and flighty. Yet she couldn’t help but wonder if maybe, deep down, he thought that.
“I didn’t mean—.”
“I know,” she interjected with a forced smile. “It’s fine—and you should take a vacation. Jaime says you haven’t had a day off in years.” She hesitated. “He worries about you, Rafa.”
Rafael avoided her concerned gaze and sipped his beer. “I know my limits.”
“Do you?” she wondered.
Rafael frowned. “You sound like my mother.”
She winced. “Sorry.”
“No, I didn’t mean that in a bad way.”
“You sure? Because you frowned when you said it.”
“I frowned because I feel guilty about making people worry.”
“Oh. Well,” she said with a little sigh, “I can relate to that.”
Rafael gave Jasper a bite of the rice she had served with their dinner. He had been trying to reach Rafael’s plate, but his short arms held him back. After the spoon was already in Jasper’s mouth, he froze and asked, “Is this okay?”
“Yes.” She smiled at his paranoia. “He usually throws the rice on the floor, so I didn’t give him any tonight. Which, of course, means he suddenly wants it.” She dramatically narrowed her eyes at their nephew. “You trying to make me look like your mean old aunt who won’t let you have tasty things?”
Rafael whispered something in Spanish to Jasper in a conspiratorial tone, and Jasper laughed as if it were the funniest thing he had ever heard. As Rafael grinned at his nephew, he asked, “Do you think he understands Spanish as well as English?”
“Probably? Maddie and Jaime are raising him bilingual, but they’re focusing mostly on English. Maddie read a book about introducing two languages to children and how they sometimes have language delays. But there was something about introducing one language as the main one and then adding in the second as they become more proficient in the first. I think.” She made a face. “I haven’t read the book yet,” she confessed. “I should probably do that while they’re gone.”
“You afraid she’s going to quiz you?” Rafael teased.
“Knowing Maddie? Yeah. If I fail her pop quiz, she’ll make me write a book report.”
“Do you hear that? Tia Sky says your mommy is bossy!” Rafael made Jasper smile, and the rest of their dinner passed in smiles and laughter.
After tidying up the kitchen, she carried Jasper upstairs for his bath and bedtime routine. Rafael followed, but this time, he wasn’t hovering. He wanted to help, and she welcomed an extra set of hands.
While he undressed Jasper, she filled the tub with warm water and bath toys. She took Jasper from Rafael and placed him on his yellow duck bathmat. Even though he had been sitting up unassisted for months, she kept one hand on his back.
As she started his bath, she realized her routine had been interrupted by having Rafael in the bathroom with her. “Rafa? Can you grab a washcloth and towel?”
“Here.” He knelt next to her. He was so close she could feel his body heat, and she was taken back to the garden and their forbidden tryst.
Embarrassed by the blush burning up her neck and face, she focused on cleaning Jasper. He was just as wiggly in the tub as he was out of it. Normally, she stood nearby to help if Maddie or Jaime needed an extra hand. It was nice to have Rafael there to distract Jasper while she washed his hair and scrubbed his grimy little fingers.
She let Rafael wrap him up in a hooded towel and take him to the nursery while she emptied and wiped down the tub and ensured all the bath toys were in the net to dry. When she walked into the nursery, she found Rafael struggling with a pair of footie pajamas. She squashed the urge to rush over and fix the problem. Instead, she waited the same way Maddie had with her in the early days of helping with Jasper.
“Why does it zip backward? From the top down?” Rafael asked, exasperated.
“Nighttime diaper changes,” she explained, moving closer to the changing table. “You only have to unzip the bottom half, so he won’t get as cold or wake up all the way.”
He made an annoyed sound. “I guess.”
She smiled at his frustration. “Wait until you try to get him into a church outfit.”
Rafael snorted. “I’ve seen the tiny suits Mama sends for la misa . Hard pass on being the one to get him dressed for that.”
“Your mother does send the cutest outfits, though. Jasper is always the fanciest baby at Mass.”
“You go with them?” He seemed surprised, and she couldn’t figure out why.
“Well, yeah. I always attend Mass, even when traveling. It seems there’s always a Catholic church nearby.”
“Even in Iceland?”
“Even in Iceland.”
“Huh. I wouldn’t have thought there were many Catholics there.” He carefully picked up Jasper, who had started to suck on his fingers, a sure sign that he wanted his bottle and pacifier.
“If you want to read him a book in the rocking chair, I’ll get his night bottle.” She plucked a clean pacifier from the drawer where Maddie kept them and handed it over. “In case he gets cranky.”
“Is there a specific book he likes?” Rafael stared at the bookshelves that were neatly arranged by color.
“ Hop on Pop is his jam right now. He’ll expect you to read it at least four times,” she warned before darting out the door. She returned a short while later with a warm bottle. Rafael rocked Jasper while reading him the story. Just like her nephew, she was entranced by Rafael’s voice and his smooth accent as he spoke.
As much as she wanted to stay and listen, she handed over the bottle and backed out of the nursery to let Rafael have some bonding time with Jasper. She went to the living room to tidy up the mess Rafael and Jasper had left behind. Once the toys were all put away, she wiped down all the new sticky spots and vacuumed up the crumbs left behind from their snacks.
Satisfied she would start the day with a tidy house, she checked the alarm, made a cup of chamomile tea, and retreated to her favorite spot in the library. She glanced at the baby monitor app on the tablet and noticed Jasper was snoozing in Rafael’s arms. He had such a gentle, tender look on his face as he gazed down at the baby, and she couldn’t help but imagine him as a father.
It had shocked her that in all the years she had been gone, he hadn’t found a woman to marry. She had heard from Maddie and Lola that Soila had been actively matchmaking. Sky tried not to show interest when they spoke of Rafael’s love life, but sometimes, she broke down and Googled the women. All the women Soila picked for her son were successful and intelligent, beautiful and poised.
As much as it pained her to admit, Sky would never measure up to those women. She had a high school diploma from a fancy private school and that was it. She hadn’t even managed to finish one whole day at college. She had never even moved into her dorm at A&M. She had fled to Casablanca a week before school was scheduled to start.
And a career? Taking care of Jasper was the most stable “job” she’d had in six years, and it wasn’t even really a job. Sure, Jaime and Maddie paid her, but it wasn’t as if taking care of her nephew was real work. She adored him and would have done it for free.
So, no, she would never be the sort of woman Soila chose as a date for her son. She would never be equal to a man who had done his MBA at Harvard and who headed up a billion-dollar enterprise. She was a nobody. A no one. A reformed wanderer with no future.
“Does he always go to bed that easily?”
Startled by Rafael’s voice, she found him leaning against the door frame. He looked ridiculously sexy standing there, and she hated the way her heart fluttered at the very sight of him. How much longer was she going to nurse this ridiculous crush?
“Not always,” she said, tearing her gaze away from him and all the sinful thoughts he inspired. “I think you wore him right out with all that horsing around in the living room.”
“I need to clean up the mess we left.”
“I already did.” She sipped her chamomile tea and prayed it would slow her racing heartbeat.
“Thank you. Next time, leave my mess for me. It’s not fair for you to handle everything.”
“I’m holding you to that,” she warned, wondering whether he really understood what sort of chore that would be. “Will you need a workshop on how to use the vacuum?”
“Funny,” he muttered and came into the library. He wandered over to the bar cart and poured himself a bourbon. As he carried his glass to the nearest chair, he asked, “When you were traveling, did you see our tequila and beer?”
“I did.” Why did he have to make drinking bourbon look so sexy? Could he not go five minutes without making her think dirty thoughts? “It was very popular in Asia, especially Japan. I saw the tequila in most of the bars I visited in Australia and Iceland. Not so much when I was traveling through Africa and the Middle East.”
“No, we’ve struggled with market penetration there.” He leaned his head back against the chair and sighed.
Desperate to turn their conversation away from all thoughts of penetration, market or otherwise, she said, “Enedina’s ranch water in the can was a big hit overseas. It was interesting to see how that rollout worked as I was traveling. I always made sure to snap photos of the displays and sent them to her.”
“Dina has a knack for that sort of thing.” He smiled warmly at the mention of his sister. “She uses Instagram and Pinterest to share all those recipes for spicy margaritas and smoked margaritas and whatever else she dreams up in her kitchen. Lola’s TikTok presence helps so much. I was so hesitant to make a lower priced line of tequila, but Dina was right about appealing to customers who are new to the taste. It’s our largest growth sector company wide.”
“Sounds like you should listen to everything Dina says.”
“Now you really sound like my mother,” he muttered before taking a long sip of bourbon. He set aside his glass and reached into the pocket of his jeans to retrieve his phone. “Speaking of my mother....”
Certain he would want privacy for his call, she picked up the tablet and her tea. “I’ll be upstairs in my room if you need anything.”
“You don’t have to go.”
She might have imagined it, but it sounded as if he wanted her to stay. As much as she wanted to, she knew nothing good would come from it. “I’m pretty beat. I think I’ll shower and turn in for the night.” She gestured with the tablet and said, “If Jasper wakes up, I’ll settle him back down.”
“I can try,” he offered.
“You’re welcome to if you hear him.” She wasn’t about to turn down help in the middle of the night. “Good night, Rafa.”
“Good night, Sky.” As she reached the doorway, he called out, “Did you hear from Maddie or Jaime yet?”
“No.” She gave a little shrug. “I just figured they got to their hotel and, well, you know .”
“Yeah,” he agreed with a slightly uncomfortable laugh. “I know.”
“Night.” She left the library and climbed the stairs to the second floor. She tiptoed into Jasper’s room and made sure he was secure in his crib. Rafael had done a nearly perfect job getting him into bed, but he hadn’t known about the nightlight or the noise machine. Once they were on, she backed out of the room and went to hers across the hall.
She read a chapter of the latest Freida McFadden book and finished her tea before taking a quick shower and changing into her pajamas. She turned off the lights and slipped between the covers, glancing at the baby monitor one last time before closing her eyes and thinking sleepy thoughts.
But her dreams were tormented by visions of Rafael. She dreamed of his hands on her body, his mouth pressed to hers. She dreamed of Beverly calling her a whore and Soila sobbing with embarrassment. She dreamed of Maddie throwing her out of the house and Jasper crying uncontrollably as she ran away into the night.
A loud and insistent knock woke her from those fitful dreams. She sat up in bed, her heart racing, and glanced at the clock. It was seven after two in the morning. Wondering if she had missed Jasper crying, she looked at the monitor, but he was still sleeping peacefully.
“Sky?” Rafael called softly from the other side of her door and rapped his knuckles against the wood a little harder. “Sky?”
“Hang on,” she said, her voice rough from sleep. She threw back the covers and hurried across her room to open the door. He loomed above her, his face contorted with fear and panic and something else she couldn’t quite pinpoint. He was dressed in only pajama bottoms and no shirt, but she wasn’t interested in the expanse of chiseled chest right now. She was only interested in his eyes, and the terrifying realization that he was on the verge of tears. “Rafa?”
“It’s Jaime and Maddie,” he croaked. “Their plane never made it to Miami.”
And just like that, her entire world turned upside down.