“Tio Ale, tiene an owie,” Lulu announced. Like the Frankenstein contraption encircling his leg wasn’t clue enough.
“Yes, he does have an owie,” Anamaría answered. “A pretty big one. But your abuela and abuelita are going to take good care of him. Just like they do with you.”
“Will you come pway wif me soon?”
“I hope so. I need me some Lulu time.” Anamaría hunkered down and tugged one of Lulu’s curls, eliciting a sweet giggle from the child.
The closeness between the two—the niece he’d only seen the one time Ernesto and family had visited him in Atlanta and the woman who’d basically said he wasn’t enough—felt like a poisonous lance in his side. He may not fit in here, but it was obvious Anamaría still did. Without him.
Holding her baby doll tightly against her chest, Lulu skipped back to her parents. “Anamawía gonna babysit me!”
“Not today. But we’ll see when.” Ernesto gave his daughter’s butt a nudge to help her clamber onto the loveseat.
“Text me, Cece, and I’ll let you know when I’m free. I’m sure you two could use a date night before your bundle of joy arrives.”
Cece circled a hand over her huge, beach ball-sized belly that stretched the material of her soft blue, short-sleeved top. A tired smile tugged up the corners of his sister-in-law’s wide mouth as she murmured her thanks.
Anamaría sent Lulu a wink and rose from her haunches.
His shock waning, Alejandro allowed himself to take in her figure, on gorgeous display thanks to a pair of form-fitting black leggings and a tight pink tank, the words AM Fitness in a black scrawling font across the front. With her matching black and pink Nike sneakers and slicked back high ponytail, she looked primed for an athletic photo shoot.
The active teenager he’d known and loved had matured into a vibrant woman. All lush curves and honed muscles, the latter no doubt hard earned from her work as a firefighter paramedic and fitness trainer.
She would have fit right in gloriously with the models for the Women’s Health spread he’d shot in the Bahamas last year.
Without acknowledging him, Anamaría made the round of hello kisses and hugs with Ernesto and his family, even tickling Lulu’s baby doll under the chin, eliciting another precious giggle from his niece.
The scent of the tropical lotion Anamaría had always preferred tickled his nose when she stooped to brush a kiss on his abuela’s wrinkled cheek. The two exchanged warm smiles as his abuela patted Anamaría’s hand with a murmured, “Dios te bendiga, nena.”
The age-old wish for God’s blessing may be a trite phrase easily tossed out by many. But in this house, with the mini altar in the far corner, its pillar candle lit during his abuela’s daily prayer of the rosary, words of blessing held weight.
His mami had already stopped at their altar earlier, giving thanks for her answered prayers for his return.
Anamaría hugged his mami, waved off the offer of a drink, set her black backpack on the tile floor next to the coffee table and finally, finally, turned to him.
It wasn’t easy, but he fought to maintain a neutral expression. To hide the anger, lingering pain, and disillusion of their past. All the while he catalogued the features he had conjured in his dreams.
Her oval-shaped face with its high cheekbones, expressive hazel eyes, and roundly pointed chin remained as beautiful as ever. The faint crow’s feet lightly raying out from her eyes added to her allure. Telltale signs of laughter and days squinting under the bright Key West sun. The serious slant of her full lips made him ache for the enticing grin she’d so readily flashed at him in years past. And now easily shared with others in his familia instead. The circular, dark brown beauty mark an inch below the right corner of her mouth made him itch to press a kiss to it. Only, he was no longer free to do so.
That right had been taken away from him the moment she changed her mind and chose to stay here. Refusing to follow him to Spain after her papi’s health had improved as promised.
The fact that he hadn’t been enough for her had gutted him.
“So, I hear someone needs a little medical attention.” Hands fisted on her hips, Anamaría got down to business, not even wasting time on a hello. Fine by him. The faster they got this unwanted reunion over, the better.
“I’m fine. No need for you to be here,” he told her.
“Alejandro!” His mami’s shocked gasp was accompanied by a slap of his thigh. “No seas rudo!”
Anamaría smirked, the quirk of her lips reminiscent of times she had teased him for getting in trouble in the past. “No worries, Señora Miranda. Making house calls and dealing with rudeness is in my job description. Lucky for Alejandro, I’m in a generous mood.”
Generous?
Please. It wasn’t like she was the one who’d been wronged here. Instead of the one who reneged on their shared dream. Then pushed him away.
Seeing as how she was about to poke around the leg that had started to throb like an alien had implanted itself under his skin and decided this was the perfect time to burst out, Alejandro kept his accusation to himself.
The sooner they got this over with and she left, the sooner he could go back to reminding himself that he was better off without any of the pressures and recriminations being back in Key West presented. Better off without her.
Anamaría bent to peer at his leg. Her cool hand touched his left knee above the top external fixator ring, a soft caress that sent heat searing through him. He tensed. His breath trapped in his lungs.
Her sharp, intuitive gaze swung his way.
Something dark and primitive passed between them.
Proof that while some things had changed in his absence, his instant reaction to the only woman he had ever loved remained brutally the same.
Anamaría slid her glance away, breaking their connection
