"We don't want you to. Your work is part of why we want you," Mercedes said.

I told Mom I liked the idea, while she wanted to see if there were better offers. "I'll need our lawyer to review this," Mom said. "We are interested." It took a week to close the deal, and the next weekend I was to be in the Bahamas for a shoot.

Amy woke up as I was posing in the surf, and I wasn't there for her.

Our plane flew out of the Nassau airfield on late on Sunday afternoon. The Bodyglove shoot had been exhausting; we had visited a dozen or so locations,...