“Ella doesn’t seem that type,” Abel said, frowning. “She’s a real nice girl. It doesn’t surprise me meeting Felix hasn’t been high on her list of priorities.”

Felix smirked, wanting nothing more than to piss off his already irritable-looking friend. He knew these kinds of events running too long made Abel grumpier than a toddler in need of a nap.

“So is she cute?”

As expected, Abel’s face soured immediately. “Don’t start with that shit. This is business and—”

“I’m just asking a question.” Felix laughed, holding his hands up in front of him. “Geez! Kill me!”

“I will if you come in here messing with the trainers and staff.”

One glance at Hector and Felix had his answer. He was shaking his head.

“Not a looker, huh?”

Abel turned to Hector with that ever-present scowl. “She’s not ugly.”

“I didn’t say she was ugly,” Hector said. “But she’s way too humble-looking for this guy’s taste.”

“What are you talking about?” Felix laughed. “I grew up in East L.A.”

“Let me put to you this way,” Hector explained. “She’s no Athena or runway model like you’re used to now. She’s not ugly but just . . . kind of . . .”—Hector glanced around—“on the plain side. She’s a typical Hispanic girl, no different from anything you see around here on any given day.”

Felix glanced around, remembering he’d seen a face or two just tonight he might consider his type.

“Well, none of that matters anyway, all right?” Abel’s tone warned. “She’s a hard worker, and Nellie said she has a lot of passion. She’s exactly the kind of person we want involved with the gym. Don’t go fucking things up by messing with her.”

“Whoa!” Felix said, attempting to sound offended. “Ease up there, big guy. I was just asking.” He smirked in Hector’s direction. “Kind of plain-looking nice girl with a lot of passion. Probably has a real nice personality too.” He winked at Hector. “Gotcha. So far it sounds like you got nothing to worry about with this one.”

Abel rolled his eyes as Nellie walked up to them. “Do you have a moment now, Felix?”

“For you? Always, sweetheart.”

“Good, because Ella is here, but she doesn’t have a lot of time,” Nellie’s tone warned.

Hector laughed and Nellie turned to look at him, curiously. When he offered no explanation for his laughter, she went on. They started in the direction of the rooms in the back, leaving Abel and Hector behind.

“She’s had finals this week, so I didn’t think she’d be here today or I would’ve—”

The building jolted suddenly. Nellie stopped midstride and reached for Felix’s arm, squeezing it. There were gasps in the room, and then everyone around seemed to hold their breath for a moment as the wave of movement subsided.

“Was that an—?” Nellie started to ask, looking back at Abel who’d suddenly caught up to them as the building rumbled again but not as hard as the first time.

Felix looked around and waited with baited breath as he knew everyone else was doing to see if there’d be more, but it settled into a slow wave until everything was back to normal. That’s when all the buzzing and talking started, and the gym suddenly went from eerily silent to a loud drone with everyone talking all at once.

“Are you calling my mom?” Abel asked as Nellie brought the phone to her ear and nodded.

As Southern California natives, they’d all experienced worse tremblers than this one, but Felix knew these two had a toddler and an infant they were overly protective about. Felix looked around as Hector approached him with a smirk.

“You okay, buddy?” Hector asked as he brought an arm around Felix’s shoulder playfully. “Need a change of pants?”

“Shit.” Felix laughed as he waited on Nellie to get off the phone. “I don’t, but you better check with your brother over here.”

Hector turned to Abel, who was listening intently to Nellie, who was still on the phone. The look on Hector’s face went from playful to mildly concerned. “The kids and mom okay?”

Nellie nodded in response, giving him the thumbs up, and Abel seemed to let out a slow breath. As soon as she was off the phone, she kissed Abel, saying something to him in a hushed voice. Abel walked away with Hector, patting Felix on the shoulder. Before turning away completely, Abel gave Felix the lifted brow warning look, at which Felix laughed.

Nellie looked at Felix weirdly then shook her head and smiled. “I’m not even gonna ask,” she said, rolling her eyes playfully.

“Thank you.” Felix chuckled.

“Well,” Nellie said as they started toward the back rooms, “now that the unexpected excitement is over, let’s go meet Ella. You have had a chance to sit in and watch some of the self-defense classes, right?”

“I have. The last time I was here I peeked in for a few minutes. I think it’s awesome that we offer this here now, and I’m gonna try and get my mom and sister to take a class.”

“Yes, we get a lot of that—mothers and daughters enrolling together.” They took the escalators up then walked down the corridor, walking past a few kickboxing classes and some of the private training rooms. “I like that it creates some good mother-daughter bonding time while at the same time giving them some invaluable tools to empower themselves. And Ella—well, both her and Sonia, but Ella has really been the driving force behind all this—her passion is incredible, especially for someone so young. It’s what caught my attention when I was following the story about her brother beating that guy to death a couple of years ago. So when I saw them interview her about putting together the classes at the local high school and trying to raise money—because she was determined that everyone would have the opportunity even if they couldn’t afford them—that’s when I knew I had to meet her and bring her here.”