At least she wouldn’t be alone. Carmen would no doubt be glued to her side now. For the first time that night, she wished she’d refreshed the makeup she’d been wearing since she left that morning. She wasn’t ridiculous enough to think for even a second a superstar like Felix would be looking at her in any other way than professionally, but she at least wanted to look presentable.

“Okay,” Ella said with a smile, letting Nellie’s words sink in.

Felix was looking forward to meeting her? Was that maybe why he’d smiled at her because he already knew who she was and not because she was gazing his way all dreamy-eyed?

“I’ll be here for a while,” she said a bit hopefully. “So just let me know.”

“Great,” Nellie said. She smiled at Sonia and Carmen then glanced back at Ella. “I’ll see what I can do.”

The second she walked away, Carmen did a little running in place thing and looked ready to burst.

“I thought you weren’t that impressed with him,” Ella teased.

“Oh please,” Carmen said, giving Ella her famous stink eye. “This is Felix Sanchez we’re talking about. Tell me you’re not already all weak in the knees.”

Maybe she was a little, and her stomach wasn’t feeling so hot all of a sudden, but she wouldn’t admit that. This was a professional meeting, and she’d behave just so. Once done with the giggling talk of meeting Felix, they got back to business.

“You didn’t tell me about the breast-cancer awareness run,” Carmen said, her eye brows pinching.

“It’s just something I mentioned to Nellie a few weeks back. I gotta remember that woman is a hell of a coordinator. It was something I only mentioned casually, and she called me the other day to tell me all her ideas and what celebrities she can get to show up. Then at the end of the run she wants to have a carnival of sorts with a mini concert. The woman is insane!”

Sonia and Carmen laughed. “Well, I imagine you’d have to be moving nonstop to run a place like this,” Sonia said wide-eyed. “There’s always something going on and TV crews are in here at least once a week.”

As they were today. It was the only hope that Ella wouldn’t get the chance to meet with Felix today, not that she didn’t want to. She was over the fact that he’d caught her staring at him. The man was a celebrity. A perfectly sculpted incredibly good looking celebrity—if you were into the type. He had to be used to being stared at. Ella just would’ve liked to have been better prepared. That’s all.

A little while later, Nellie walked in the room again. “He’ll get a break in about ten minutes. You’ll still be here, right?”

Ella gulped hard. “Yeah, I can hang around a little bit longer.”

Nellie must’ve picked up on how unnerved that made Ella because she laughed softly, touching her arm. “Don’t worry. It’ll be a very informal meeting. I’ll bring him in here so he can check out the class and then meet with you for a little bit, but then he’ll have to get back to his signing. So he’ll be in and out of here quickly.” Ella nodded, trying to act as if were no big deal as Nellie was suggesting, though her heart was already working double time. “And he’s really down to earth. You’d be surprised. Despite everything you hear about him in the paper, he’s a good guy and really cares about 5th Street. That’s why he’s anxious to meet with you.”

Anxious?

Good God. Ella could’ve done without hearing that last part.

Chapter 3

Felix

They finally broke from the spontaneous photo shoot. Hector had happened to come around to ask Abel something, and having all three there in one place had almost caused a frenzy with the fans asking them to pose together. Nellie had already told the crowd they’d be taking a ten-minute break and be back, but she’d disappeared during the frenzy of cameras flashing.

“The kids from the high school paper are asking if they can do a quick interview,” Hector said, leaning into Felix.

“Right now?” Felix asked.

Abel shook his head. “He can’t now. Nellie’s setting up a meeting with him and Ella.”

“Ella?” Hector asked, confused. “For what?”

“Because I’ve never met her. She’s the one who got the self-defense thing going, right?”

Hector’s brows shot up. “You haven’t met her yet?”

“Nope.”

“Dude, she’s been doing this for like almost two years now. Where’ve you been?”

Felix laughed. “I haven’t been away that long, ass. It’s just that every time I’ve come down she hasn’t been here.” He turned to Abel. “Nellie said something about her wanting to start a breast-cancer awareness thing. Like a run we’d do annually or something. I think that’s cool. We should’ve had something like that going on a long time ago.”

“We do all kinds of stuff outside the gym for it,” Abel reminded him. “But I agree this would be directly associated with 5th Street and something that could get bigger every year. Could be a real good thing. And you know Nellie. She’s already all over it.”

Hector laughed. “Yeah, I heard her talking about a carnival with a mini concert and contacting some celebrities to do appearances. She’s nuts!”

Abel gave him a look and Felix had to laugh. Hector then turned to Felix. “I’m surprised this chick hasn’t made more of an effort to meet you yet. Two years. Damn.”