The Best Man's Problem


 
 
 
 “You are always thinking, thinking, thinking.”
 Étienne’s voice was hypnotic. “Never a step taken without calculating the consequences.”
 Rafi shook his head. “That’s not true.”
 “Isn’t it?” He traced a thumb over Rafi’s eyebrow, hitching onto his cheekbone before sliding down his face. Étienne’s thumb was on Rafi’s jaw, his large hand cupping his chin, light enough Rafi could pull away if that was what he wanted.
 Étienne lifted his face. “Tell me one time you did something without thinking about it first.”
 Rafi’s breath came out, ragged and broken and barely enough to sustain him. “You know.”
 Étienne gave Rafi’s chin a slight squeeze, like the release of a pent-up tremor. “I want to hear you say it. I want to know that I did not dream it.”
 Something deep in Rafi sundered, splitting in half those flimsy threads of self-control and duty and fear that he’d believed could hold him together, keep him intact and away from this aching want.
 “Say it,” Étienne insisted, his fingers firm but still gentle.
 “When...when we kissed.”
 
 
 Dear Reader,
 Thank you for returning to East Ward and the Navarro family!
 Sometimes, there’s a trope that a writer loves to write (for me, it’s enemies to lovers). Sometimes, two characters jump out at you and demand attention. And if you’re very lucky, the trope and the characters show up at the same time.
 This is what happened as I was writing A Delicious Dilemma, my debut novel. Rafi and Étienne jumped off the page, clamoring for attention. Who was I to say no?
 In The Best Man’s Problem, Rafi is devoted to his family, especially his sister, Val, who helped their father raise him and his younger sister after their mother died. Now that she is getting married to her fiancé, Philip, Rafi will do anything to make her wedding a success. Even if that means helping the best man, Étienne Galois, fulfill his duties, despite sharing a kiss months earlier, after which a panicked Rafi ghosted Étienne.
 What starts as a face-off between two opposites turns into grudging respect that blooms into something deeper as both men struggle to cast off their first impressions of each other to see the real person. All while managing to fulfill their responsibilities to the people they care about without losing their hearts in the process.
 If you want to know about upcoming projects, sign up for my newsletter or check me out on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook in that order.
 Happy reading!
 Sera Taíno
 
 
 The Best Man’s Problem
 Sera Taíno
 
 
 
 Sera Taíno writes Latinx romances exploring love in the context of family and community. She is the 2019–2020 recipient of the Harlequin Romance Includes You Mentorship, resulting in the publication of her debut contemporary romance, A Delicious Dilemma. When she’s not writing, she can be found teaching her high school literature class, crafting, and wrangling her husband and two children.
 Books by Sera Taíno
 Harlequin Special Edition
 The Navarros
 A Delicious Dilemma
 Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
 
 
 For Charles Griemsman, my mentor and friend. I will forever be grateful to you.
 Thanks to Stephanie Doig and the entire Harlequin Special Edition team for your patience and support.
 And for my sons. Art is art and love is love. You are the place where they intersect.
 
 
 Contents
 Chapter One
 Chapter Two
 Chapter Three
 Chapter Four
 Chapter Five
 Chapter Six
 Chapter Seven
 Chapter Eight
 Chapter Nine
 Chapter Ten
 Chapter Eleven
 Chapter Twelve
 Chapter Thirteen
 Chapter Fourteen
 Chapter Fifteen
 Chapter Sixteen
 Chapter Seventeen
 Chapter Eighteen
 Chapter Nineteen
 Chapter Twenty
 Chapter Twenty-One
 Chapter Twenty-Two
 Chapter Twenty-Three
 Chapter Twenty-Four
 Chapter Twenty-Five
 Chapter Twenty-Six
 Epilogue
 Excerpt from For the Rancher’s Baby by Stella Bagwell
 
 
 Chapter One
 Rafi
 As had become Rafael Navarro’s habit over the last several months, he nearly caused another irreversible catastrophe, all because he had butter on his fingers and Étienne Galois on the brain.
 Served him right. No one had ordered him to make out with the man, and then ghost him for months. He’d made his bed, and tonight, karma was going to make sure he lay in it.
 “¡Ten cuidado!” His father’s warning to be careful came as the cake balanced between Rafi and the baker, his friend Simon Santiago, veered at a vertiginous angle.
 “Got it, Señor Navarro,” Simon said, rescuing the cake from certain disaster without damaging a single sugar flower.
 Rafi was weak with relief. “If we ruin this cake, Val will pin us to the wall with her cooking knives.” In fact, if anyone dared ruin Rafi’s oldest sister’s engagement party to her fiancé, Philip Wagner, they’d have to move out of East Ward altogether. It would be easier than dealing with her when she lost her temper.
 “Que dramático,” Papi said, smiling indulgently.
 Maybe Rafi was being a little dramatic, but then again, Papi wasn’t going to have the night he was about to have.
 Simon wiped their brow. “I haven’t stopped for more than five minutes. November is the start of our busiest period, with the holidays just around the corner.” Simon’s family owned Pan Dulce, the neighborhood bakery where the Navarros—and almost everyone in East Ward—ordered cakes and pastries for every occasion. Cold weather was not a deterrent when it came to celebrating life’s most important milestones.
 For Rafi, the school year gave shape to his life. Classes were in full swing, and Rafi did what Rafi always did with a precision he’d honed to perfection: Woke at five-thirty to hit the gym before teaching high-school math for exactly 7.45 hours. Graded for another hour before taking the bus home, stopping to check on his father who lived in the same building as Rafi. Relaxed to one of his theoretical-math books or, if he was too brain-fried, watched his favorite show. Helped out at Navarro’s on Saturday, the restaurant his father owned with Val, followed by