Vance shook his head and said, “You’re a wild guy, Ivan. Your weakness may be wild adventures.”

Ivan chuckled. He asked Jacari, “Are you dressed and everything yet?” He now felt overdressed. What if she was only wearing jeans and a wrinkled T-shirt? He said, “You don’t have on jeans and a T-shirt, do you?”

“No, you’ll see. I came back with a whole lot of things from Italy. And I can’t wait to wear some of them.”

That made Ivan look forward to it. He said, “Well, here’s what I need you to do so we don’t lose any time together. Meet me in the Waldorf-Astoria lobby, and then you can wait there for me while I change into something to run the town in.”

“Okay. I know where that is. That should only take me fifteen minutes.”

Ivan joked, “Well, bring some reading glasses and a book so the guys’ll leave you alone while you wait for me in the lobby.”

She laughed and said, “That won’t work. Then they’ll bother me more to find out what I’m reading.”

So far, Ivan liked her wit. He said, “Okay. Just come as you are, then.”

When he hung up the line with her, Vance asked him, “Does she look like a lot of the other girls I see on your website?”

Ivan nodded to him. “Now I have to see her in person to make sure.”

Vance nodded back and joked, “Maybe your weakness is pretty women.”

Ivan said, “Oh, now, in that case, that’s a lot of guys’ weakness.”

WHEN THEY PULLED UP to the curb at the historic Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, bellmen promptly approached the limo to collect their bags from the trunk, then escorted the four men to the registration counters. They then piled the bags on the wheeled luggage carts for the elevators.

One of Vance’s assistants looked to his right and asked Ivan, “Is that your lady friend there?”

Ivan looked past him and spotted Jacari in a black and brown leather skirt, brown leather flats, an off-white top, a giant brown leather belt around her waist, and a wide, soft brown leather hat that fell over the sides of her long, dark hair.

Vance Wellings eyed her himself. “Good gracious,” he commented. “Now, she’s a beauty.”

“And she’s full Native American,” Ivan told him.

“Is that right?”

As Ivan moved in her direction to greet her, he wondered how hot she would be in so much leather clothing during the summertime. Did it get that cool out at night in New York?

He approached her with open arms for a hug, as if they had known each other for years.

“Jacari,” he greeted her in a warm embrace. Ivan had learned to become a much better greeter with women than he had been in the past. It was all a part of comfortable business.

“Ivan,” she responded, embracing him back.