Alba had taken off on me after her chat with the reps from Smithson-Napa and five hours later she was still not answering texts or calls. The woman drove me up the fucking wall. One minute she was giving me everything, and the next she was looking right through me. I couldn’t stop thinking about what it had been like to sleep with her in my arms. It was better than I could’ve imagined. But just as I was starting to feel like we were making some progress she’d pulled away.

I wasn’t giving up though. No one had ever felt as perfect as she had, just as I’d known she would. No, it was even better than I’d imagined because this woman that I’d gotten to know in the past few weeks had depths to her I’d never gotten to see in New York. Every new part of Alba I discovered only made me want her more.

“What are you so serious about?” Dani’s voice jolted me back to the busy bar where I’d been waiting.

“What’s up?” I said, standing to greet Dani and the two men I’d come to talk to tonight.

“Gio, Ivan,” he said, waving a hand to me. “This is Theo Ganas.”

“Hey, man, I’m glad we were able to connect,” Gio said. I was a comfortable six foot three and this guy loomed over me. Which was probably why he was one of the most popular point guards in the NBA.

“Thanks for letting me crash your night out to talk business,” I apologized, but Ivan shook his head and leaned in to slap my shoulder.

“Not at all, we’ve been wanting to get a chance to meet with you since your people reached out to us. We’re hoping we can reel you all the way in tonight,” Ivan told me, before he pointed a fist in my direction and rolled it like he was pulling me in with his fishing pole.

“All right, then, hit me,” I teased as we got settled at a table. Both guys rubbed their hands together at my request and I grinned at their excitement. It reminded me of the way Alba looked when she talked about her projects. The kind of energy I hadn’t felt about my own work in a very long time.

“Okay, boom,” started Gio. “Here’s the deal. I know Tom told you about the plan for the permanent veteran housing.”

“Yeah, the tenement model,” I said with a nod.

“Right,” Ivan said, giddy as a little kid and again I thought this was the kind of vibe I wanted to work around. People who used their money and privilege for something bigger than themselves. “We’re going off a program that we saw in Norway. It’s all funded by the government there of course,” Gio said wistfully.