been twenty at the time.
She pushed her sunglasses up on her head as she entered the cool dark interior of Luna Azul. The club was gorgeous with a huge Chihuly installation in thefoyer. The building had once been a cigar factory back in the early 1900s. It was inspired by the success of Ybor Haya’s factories in Key West and Ybor City near Tampa Bay.
The Miami factory had been started by the Jimenez brothers and prospered for several years until cigarettes became more popular and eventually the company went out of business. When Selena had been growing up this factory was a derelict building that was a breeding ground for gang-related trouble.
Seeing it today, she had to admit that the Stern brothers had improved this corner of their neighborhood.
“You must be Selena.”
She glanced up as Cam Stern walked toward her. He was the same height as Justin and they both had the same stubborn-looking jaw, but there the resemblance ended. Justin was simply a better-looking man. Where Justin’s eyes were blue, Cam’s were dark obsidian, and Cam wore his hair long enough to brush his shoulders.
“I am indeed. You must be Cam,” she said, holding out her hand.
He shook her hand firmly and then let it drop. “I’m glad you could come down here. I wanted you to see what we’ve been doing here in the last ten years and why it’s important that we get the Mercado project going so we can revitalize the area the way we did with the club.”
“No one doubts you can pour money into a project and make it successful. I’ve said as much to Justin. The Gonzalez family is concerned that you are going to take away a vital community shopping center and make it an upscale shopping area of no use to the local residents. We aren’t interested in having more of the celebritiesyou bring down here socializing while families are trying to buy their groceries.”
Cam tilted his head to the side. “I can see that you have inherited your grandfather’s fire.”
“I’m flattered you think so, but I’m not half as obstinate as he is.”
Cam laughed as she’d hoped he would. And she realized that Cam was a nice guy. Not because of the laughter but because he’d asked for this meeting. She suspected that he was trying to help her and the rest of the committee understand and see the human face of Luna Azul.
“I grew up here on Fisher Island, Selena—is it okay to call you by your first name?” he asked.
“Of course, I’m planning to call you Cam.”
He smiled at her. “Let’s go up to the rooftop. I want to show you our club up there.”
“I want to see it. My younger brother has told me that he is interested in deejaying here and he has heard that the rooftop club is all Latin music.”
“That’s right. We start each evening with a couple of professional dancers teaching our guests how to salsa. Then we have a conga line to get them out there onto the dance floor.”
“Sounds fun. One thing that Enrique also mentioned is that most of the staff isn’t from our neighborhood.”
“That’s true. We had so much resistance from the local leaders when we bought the club that I didn’t get any local talent auditioning for the roles we had. I had to look beyond Little Havana to find the people I needed,” he said. “But that’s beginning to change.”
For the first time she truly understood how hard it must have been for the Sterns to come in here and try to open this place up. And when they got off the elevatorat the rooftop club she was astounded by the feel and look of it. To be honest she felt like she was stepping into one of her grandfather’s pictures of old Havana.
“This is perfect,” she said. “My abuelito would love this. It looks like the patio where he and my grandmother met.”
“Thank you,” Cam said. “We spent a lot of time trying to capture the feeling of Cuba pre-Castro.”
“You did it. But why did you choose to build here? You could have chosen downtown Miami or South Beach and not
She pushed her sunglasses up on her head as she entered the cool dark interior of Luna Azul. The club was gorgeous with a huge Chihuly installation in thefoyer. The building had once been a cigar factory back in the early 1900s. It was inspired by the success of Ybor Haya’s factories in Key West and Ybor City near Tampa Bay.
The Miami factory had been started by the Jimenez brothers and prospered for several years until cigarettes became more popular and eventually the company went out of business. When Selena had been growing up this factory was a derelict building that was a breeding ground for gang-related trouble.
Seeing it today, she had to admit that the Stern brothers had improved this corner of their neighborhood.
“You must be Selena.”
She glanced up as Cam Stern walked toward her. He was the same height as Justin and they both had the same stubborn-looking jaw, but there the resemblance ended. Justin was simply a better-looking man. Where Justin’s eyes were blue, Cam’s were dark obsidian, and Cam wore his hair long enough to brush his shoulders.
“I am indeed. You must be Cam,” she said, holding out her hand.
He shook her hand firmly and then let it drop. “I’m glad you could come down here. I wanted you to see what we’ve been doing here in the last ten years and why it’s important that we get the Mercado project going so we can revitalize the area the way we did with the club.”
“No one doubts you can pour money into a project and make it successful. I’ve said as much to Justin. The Gonzalez family is concerned that you are going to take away a vital community shopping center and make it an upscale shopping area of no use to the local residents. We aren’t interested in having more of the celebritiesyou bring down here socializing while families are trying to buy their groceries.”
Cam tilted his head to the side. “I can see that you have inherited your grandfather’s fire.”
“I’m flattered you think so, but I’m not half as obstinate as he is.”
Cam laughed as she’d hoped he would. And she realized that Cam was a nice guy. Not because of the laughter but because he’d asked for this meeting. She suspected that he was trying to help her and the rest of the committee understand and see the human face of Luna Azul.
“I grew up here on Fisher Island, Selena—is it okay to call you by your first name?” he asked.
“Of course, I’m planning to call you Cam.”
He smiled at her. “Let’s go up to the rooftop. I want to show you our club up there.”
“I want to see it. My younger brother has told me that he is interested in deejaying here and he has heard that the rooftop club is all Latin music.”
“That’s right. We start each evening with a couple of professional dancers teaching our guests how to salsa. Then we have a conga line to get them out there onto the dance floor.”
“Sounds fun. One thing that Enrique also mentioned is that most of the staff isn’t from our neighborhood.”
“That’s true. We had so much resistance from the local leaders when we bought the club that I didn’t get any local talent auditioning for the roles we had. I had to look beyond Little Havana to find the people I needed,” he said. “But that’s beginning to change.”
For the first time she truly understood how hard it must have been for the Sterns to come in here and try to open this place up. And when they got off the elevatorat the rooftop club she was astounded by the feel and look of it. To be honest she felt like she was stepping into one of her grandfather’s pictures of old Havana.
“This is perfect,” she said. “My abuelito would love this. It looks like the patio where he and my grandmother met.”
“Thank you,” Cam said. “We spent a lot of time trying to capture the feeling of Cuba pre-Castro.”
“You did it. But why did you choose to build here? You could have chosen downtown Miami or South Beach and not
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