“Not too shabby,” he mused. “I mean, I’ve got some great photography skills if I do say so myself.”
“¡Ay, nene, por favor!” She dropped her head back to groan up at the sky. “The ego on this one. Unbelievable!”
“Here. Let me show you something.”
He pressed a button and the screen filled with a collage of tiny images. They blurred as he toggled quickly through them, finally stopping and tapping on one. “Sí, esta. This one’s my favorite. You have to post it. Or let me.”
Alejandro’s request should have prepared her. She, more than many, knew how seriously he took his work. He would not give his praise lightly. Especially when he was such a tough critic of his own work.
Still, when she peered at the screen, her breath hitched when she saw the photograph.
In the background, the baby blue sky was a watercolor painting of muted early-morning peachy orange and bloodred with cotton ball white clouds. She must have just tossed her head and the ocean breeze spread her long ponytail in a dark fan behind her. Fists on her hips, an I-got-this tilt of her chin, a determined gleam in her eyes, a mischievous quirk at one corner of her mouth completed her don’t-mess-with-me expression.
She looked . . .
Coño, she looked pretty badass. Empowered. Confident. Brimming with a ready-to-take-on-the-world energy she encouraged others to adopt with her.
It was the AM Fitness brand come to life. Exactly what AllFit had mentioned appealed to them. And Alejandro had captured it in one frame.
Overwhelmed, she covered his hand with hers on the camera. “Thank you,” she murmured.
“For what? The pictures?” His shirt sleeve brushed her bare arm with his no-big-deal shrug. “It felt good to work again. You did me a favor.”
She blew out a breath and shook her head at his humility, unwilling to let him downplay what he had done for her today. “For seeing me this way.”
Her thumb grazed the image on the tiny display screen. Alejandro looped his over hers as if they were playing thumb war. Only the emotion tightening her chest wasn’t playful. More like blown away.
“This is you, AM. It’s why so many people here in Key West love you. Why AM Fitness is growing. Why AllFit offered a contract. Why Brandon freaking Lawson flew down here to be part of your first shoot. There’s no Photoshop or editing here. It’s raw, real footage. Of you.”
He glanced at her, pride swimming in his dark eyes. She blinked up at him, moved by his candor. Her knees suddenly weak, she sank down to perch on the raised pavilion’s floor ledge, the metal railing cool against her back.
They sat in companionable silence for several moments. Absently, she drew an arc back and forth in the sand with her sneaker toe. At a loss for words after his heartfelt ones.
“We had some good times over there, didn’t we?” His softly spoken question, nostalgia weaving through it in a rough stitch, drew her attention.
Lips rolled between his teeth, Alejandro stared across the street at Astro City Park, where a young woman chased a toddler around the base of the slide. His profile was all sharp cheek angles and planes above the several days’ beard growth, his squinty eyes accented by laugh lines.
The boy she had loved, now the man she was trying to befriend, while also working to convince herself she no longer desired him.
“Yeah, we did,” she answered, her throat tight with regret for what they hadn’t been able to hold on to.
A seagull swooped over the volleyball net, snagging her gaze. It glided in front of them to land on its spindly feet about ten feet away where a couple in bikinis lounged on a yellow-and-blue-striped beach blanket. One of the women held a sandwich out to her partner, who leaned in and took a bite. They shared a chaste kiss; then one gently combed the other’s brown hair behind her ear with an intimate smile.
A fond kinship warmed Anamaría’s chest. There’d been a time when a picnic on this same beach had been one of her and Alejandro’s favorite ways to spend a lazy afternoon together.
“Can I ask you a question?” Alejandro looped his camera strap around his neck, then grasped his crutches in one hand before lowering himself to sit beside her on the small ledge.
She slanted a cautious look at him. “Sure. Doesn’t mean I’ll answer, though.”
“Fair enough.” He rubbed a hand over the scruff darkening his jaw. “You got certified as a trainer while working on your EMT and paramedic training, then finished your degree in nutrition online while on the job with the fire department, what . . . five, six years ago?”
She nodded, wondering where he was going with this.
“How come you haven’t ramped things up with AM Fitness sooner? I mean, listening to you talk with Brandon about what you do outside the fire station, not to mention all the volunteering and fundraising my mom talks about you doing in the community. . . it’s clear you love everything AM Fitness stands for.” He held up a hand like he anticipated her objection. “Not that you don’t like being a paramedic. I saw the other day how much your job and the people you try to help affect you. But this . . .” He drew an open-palmed circle in the air in front of her. “Your cooking videos, live classes, and virtual clients, the excitement when you talk about going to race expos and giving exercise demos as part of AllFit’s team. It feels different. You talk about it with a different energy. Why not pursue AM Fitness full-time?”
His insightful observation, one few made, caught her off guard. Her familia had encouraged her when it came to her interest in nutrition and athletic training, but as a side hustle. Her position alongside her brothers and Papi in the familia business, as they liked to call it, had never been questioned.
At least, she had never questioned it out loud. Definitely not with others.
“You know the job can be demanding. Some shifts take their mental, physical, or emotional toll on you. But it’s what we Navarros do.” Elbows bent, she gave an it-is-what-it-is shrug. “Exercising has always been a way to blow off steam. When people started asking me for workout advice, I educated myself. Learning about nutrition became important to me after Papi’s heart attack. Then I found I could combine athletic training with my nutrition degree to help others, like I had with my dad. But taking it to another level? I wasn’t sure I wanted to turn what helped me refill my well into a job job.”
At least, that’s what she had always told herself. Before she’d been able to admit that she’d been subconsciously waiting for something. Someone. Holding herself back, settling rather than pushing herself.
But even with this strange sort of truce she and Alejandro were trying to navigate together, she couldn’t bring herself to reveal the full truth to him.
“What made you change your mind?” he pressed.
She took her time answering, weighing how much she wanted to say. “A little over two years ago I had a kind of eye-opening experience. A few months later, my cousin Vanessa and I had a frank conversation. And quite a few margaritas.” She paused at his laugh, her mouth twisted with chagrin. “Believe me, the hangover the next morning was not fun. But, that night, I promised myself I would stop hesitating and go for it.”
“Good for you.”
“Yeah, it was. And kudos to Vanessa for giving me the kick in the pants I needed.”