She should have driven home after dropping Enrique off at his place like she had promised when he balked at her leaving in his car, alone and upset. The detour to Higgs Beach and Astro City Park had been unintentional.
Her mind . . . her memories . . . her heart had led her back to where it had all begun.
Where she and Alejandro had taken that first step. Dios, back then it had felt like such a huge leap. A heady, scary, titillating first kiss that moved them out of the friend zone.
Appropriately, it’d been July Fourth weekend, too.
Perhaps this was a natural place for her to snip the frayed threads of their relationship and begin anew.
Closing her eyes, she gripped the cool metal chains pressing against her shoulders and pushed off the sandy dirt. The flexible rubber seat swung back, then forward, her loose hair and the skirt of her chiffon dress fluttering in the breeze. Legs pumping, arms extended, she leaned backward, willing the swing’s rhythmic motion to calm her roiling thoughts. Dull her misery. The ocean’s familiar, salty-sulfur smell filled her lungs as she compelled herself to finally . . . finally . . . let go.
Of her adolescent dreams. Of her longing for a relationship with Alejandro that simply could not exist. Of the self-inflicted chains that shackled her dreams. Of him.
Sure, she’d have to face Alejandro again before she left for the fitness expo on Wednesday. She owed herself, and him, the chance to say a proper good-bye. Achieve the closure they had promised each other. It’s what she needed to move on with her life, whether her heart agreed or not.
By the time she returned from her trip, Alejandro should be gone, back to Atlanta or wherever his agent booked for him, given his doctor’s okay.
She and Brandon would be full steam ahead planning for their first Key West retreat, looking forward to the fall and scheduling another. With more AllFit events on her calendar and an uptick in online-training clients, she’d focus on all the new opportunities. No longer tied to the past.
Tire’s squealed nearby and she glanced over her shoulder to see a gray sedan speeding around the curve between the Casa Marina and the public tennis courts. The car veered sharply toward the parking lot in front of Astro City, screeching to a halt at an odd angle that took up two spaces alongside Enrique’s SUV.
She scowled at the darkened vehicle, annoyed by the driver’s carelessness. Sure, the park was empty except for her. At 8:30 P.M., the families with young children were long gone and the teens who would hang out until the park and beach closed and the cops kicked them out hadn’t finished their primping at home. Their arrival would be her cue to leave.
Now she hoped the reckless driver would take the cue that a single car in the parking lot probably meant its occupant wanted to be alone.
Instead, the driver’s door opened. A dome light flickered on inside the vehicle, illuminating the occupant. Anamaría’s hands tightened around the swing chains, the curved ridges digging into her palms, when she recognized Alejandro.
What was he doing here?
Momentum carried her swing forward and she stabbed at the ground with her feet to stop herself. Her right ankle twisted on a rock, and she winced at the sharp twinge. Hobbling to a stand, she tucked her hair behind her ears, then squared her shoulders to face him.
Alejandro exited the car and craned his neck over the sedan’s roof to peer inside her brother’s vehicle. He jabbed a hand through his hair and turned toward the park, spotting her immediately.
The air crackled between them. One of the streetlights flickered high above the sidewalk, its yellowish light trembling around them.
Even fifty or so feet away from him, the intensity of his gaze made Anamaría’s stomach clench. Anger, disappointment, and resolve swirled inside her. She grasped on to the resolve, straightening her spine.
In the melding of the evening’s darkness and the wavering streetlights she couldn’t quite make out his expression, but she noticed that he had ditched his crutch and now wore the protective CAM boot over his left dress pants leg. He moved toward her, each step-limp matching her rapidly pounding pulse.
The park equipment and smattering of trees cast long shadows across the patches of grass and sandy dirt, falling over him when he came into their path. He had removed his jacket at some point, and now his white button-down, the sleeves pushed up to reveal his forearms, gleamed under the glow of garish light.
His mouth a thin line, his angular features hardened under a fierce frown, he drew closer.
Anamaría stayed put. Not allowing herself to meet him halfway despite her concern for his injured leg. He’d been the one to leave before. He was the one intent on leaving again. Let him come to her now.
Alejandro stopped several feet away, jaw clenched, his gaze searching hers for answers to questions she more than likely didn’t care to answer.
“You said you’d be back. What happened?” His tone straddled the line between worry and accusation.
“I figured you were busy.” She hitched a shoulder, pretending it was no big deal. “Natalia was selling pieces like fresh coconut water on a hellish summer day. I needed some fresh air.”
Hands deep in his pant pockets, he eyed her intently and took a step toward her. “What’s going on? Talk to me, Princes—”
“Stop.”
Alejandro flinched at her brusque command. His confused gaze bounced between the open palms she held out to ward him off and her eyes.
“You should go back to Bellísima. I’m sure your familia and friends . . . your fans . . . are wondering where you are.”
“I don’t care about them.”
Exactly! That was the problem. All he seemed to care about were his goals. His dreams. No matter where they took him or whom he left behind.
Part of her knew she was being unfair. Their new relationship dynamic had been her idea. She was the one breaking the rules this time. But that didn’t make it hurt any less, and she couldn’t seem to stop herself from lashing out at him.
“You should care about them. And I should be home packing for my trip. This—” She gestured back and forth between them. “Our friends with benefits arrangement has been . . . I don’t know, fun?” She nearly choked on the lie.
“Don’t do that. Don’t cheapen what we have.”
“Ha!” she scoffed, air whooshing out of her in a harsh, disbelieving breath. “What we have? And what exactly is that? Other than something whose time has come to an end.”
Despising the weakness inside her that ached for him to refute her words, Anamaría shifted to stare at the empty tennis courts across from the Casa Marina resort. Everywhere she looked held memories of them together. From the resort where they’d held their senior prom to the tennis courts’ tiny darkened parking lot where they’d shared their first kiss under a firework-lit sky to their picnic spot on the darkened beach across the street. Ages and heartaches and dashed dreams ago.
She sensed him approaching, then caught his shadow spreading across the sandy ground beside hers. Doggedly she kept her gaze turned away from him, afraid he’d see the pain she wasn’t sure she could hide.
“Our time together hasn’t been some tawdry affair. Not to me,” he said.
Her eyes fluttered closed, her head refusing to believe what her heart wanted to easily accept.
“Every moment we’ve shared this summer has been a thousand times better than any I’ve dreamed about over the past decade. And believe me, I’ve spent many restless nights dreaming about you. My subconscious is unable to deny how much you mean to me, even if I try.”