Abel

Chapter 6 - Part 1

"Not on your life, Abel Ayala." Nellie said as she snuck a peek at one of the brochures Abel had taken from the hotel lobby.

"Hey!" Abel smirked, moving it out of her sight. "You're not supposed to be peeking. I told you I wanna surprise you."

"Well, I'll tell you right now." Nellie shook her head defiantly. "St. John will bend a finger the day you or anybody else gets me to bungee jump."

"What!" Abel laughed.

"Yeah." A small smile broke through despite her sudden alarm that Abel might actually try to get her to bungee jump. "My mom says that a lot. Only she usually says it in Spanish. It probably makes more sense that way too."

Abel shook his head, still laughing, and then kissed her softly. "What does that even mean?"

He stared at her bright-eyed, his big gorgeous smile taking her breath away. She felt silly suddenly, though the way he was looking at her made her heart flutter. "You know St. John the Apostle? Most depictions of him have him extending a finger or two up in front of him like this," she lifted her fingers in front of her, feeling so silly about using her parents' outdated saying that she felt her face warm.

Glancing at her fingers then back at what Nellie was sure was now a red face, Abel took her fingers in his hand and kissed them. "You're adorable." First, he kept insisting she was beautiful; now she was adorable? Her heart felt ready to burst. "Say it in Spanish. I'll use that on my mom as soon as I get a chance."

Now she laughed softly as she tried to remember exactly how her mom said it. "Cuando San Juan se agache el dedo."

Abel smiled, staring at her lips. She was beginning to feel a difference in the way he looked at her and spoke to her, but she dare not give it too much thought or get her hopes up. He was so young and had his entire life ahead of him. It would be no ordinary life either. Already he was rich and slowly becoming more and more famous. This fight would be life changing for him, and she completely understood why he'd want to be free to enjoy it as the single wealthy hot celebrity he was quickly becoming—just like Felix Sanchez, the first one of his boxer friends whose fame had reached another level. Felix was all over the magazines with a different starlet or famous female athlete every week.

Abel leaned in, slipping his hand behind her neck, and kissed her, this time a little longer than when he'd called her adorable but just as sweet. "Okay, no bungee jumping," he said, still speaking against her lips. "But you said you wanted to live it up. So we're doing something exciting today."

After ordering room service and having another amazing morning in their room, they explored Fisherman's Wharf. They couldn't leave without trying the famed clam chowder, something Nellie always had when she and Rick would visit, but she'd never enjoyed San Francisco as she had today. And now Abel was telling her the fun had only begun? With her heart hammering away, she wondered how much more excitement it could take.

***

Instinctively ducking, even though Abel assured her she didn't have to, Nellie thought about another thing she was sure her mom would say if she were ever asked to get on a helicopter. Ni a patadas. As nauseated as she was beginning to feel about doing this, she'd already turned down bungee jumping, rock climbing, and paragliding. She'd teased Abel that just because she wanted to try exciting things didn't mean she had a death wish.

A helicopter ride around the bay seemed relatively safe when she'd agreed to it. Now she was seriously having second thoughts about this whole letting-loose-and-really-living thing. Maybe she just didn't have it in her. It took a certain type of person for that kind of lifestyle, and she wasn't feeling it. Just because she'd managed to transform her outer appearance didn't mean she wasn't still the same ole play-it-safe Nellie on the inside. For as much as she talked about wanting to really live and let loose since her divorce, she'd only done a few things out of the ordinary in her free time that diverged from her usual curling up with a good book and a glass of wine on a Friday night. She'd been perfectly content doing so too.