“I do! You know what?” Dani said rhetorically as he pulled his phone from his pocket. “I’m meeting them for drinks. Rocco and Tariq are coming too. I can introduce you.”

“That would be great, man,” I said, feeling like this was meant to be.

“We’re not invited because ladies are not allowed!” Salome said in a singsong voice. She was grinning so I didn’t think it was too much of an issue.

Rocco laughed and Dani shook his head. “You’re not invited because it’s José’s birthday and you all blackballed us.”

“True,” Salome acknowledged in that sort of shameless way she had. I really liked her. Fuck, I liked all these people.

“If you wouldn’t mind me talking business in the middle of a night out, I’d love to join you.”

Dani waved that off. “I’m happy to help you all connect.”

“This is amazing!” Julia cried and leaned over to squeeze my forearm. “I didn’t know you did that kind of thing in your company.”

“We used to,” I said, finger tracing the rim of my beer bottle. “Alba reminded me the other day of a program I was involved with before I took over for my dad. I thought this might be a good time to try something different. Rewrite some of that master plan,” I told her with a wink, and she smiled wide.

“If you need anything at all in terms of figuring out trauma-informed programming let me know. Anything I can do.”

“Thanks, Julia.” I turned to Dani and extended my hand. “Thanks, man. I appreciate you.”

“No big, I’d love to see that project get off the ground finally. And we wouldn’t mind you finding excuses to stick around,” he joked, but something about the way that Salome and Julia looked at each other told me they were down for that plan. Which Salome confirmed a second later.

“We’re working on Alba too. We like having the two of you here.” Something hot spread through my chest at the casual way Salome said the two of you. It was unsettling how much I wanted that. I’d always had such trouble envisioning my personal wants beyond what had to get done for swimming, for my education, for the business. The only time I’d ever prioritized what I wanted had been this scheme to come after Alba. But now the idea of building something here in Dallas, on a different path than the one my father had set for me, was a very enticing possibility.

“Sticking around for what?” Alba’s voice cut through the air and we all turned at once to watch her walk onto the patio. Every gear inside me started to turn faster. Her mere presence lighting up my entire system. There was no idling, no autopilot, when it came to this woman. She engaged every molecule in my body the moment she was near.