22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

ALEX

T his might be the best thing I’ve done in a long time. Why the hell did I fight this for so long? My memories of last night were the best. I could play them over and over in my head all day. Roman is going to help me with my project, he made a dinner that was amazing, and we did fine dining in our sweats. I thought that was a nice touch but felt really under dressed for that room. I mean, it’s a gorgeous room, but it’s formal.

Dessert was my favorite part. We had dessert in the living room, in the hallway up against the wall, before moving it to the bedroom. I’m not sure we got a whole lot of sleep. We topped it off with dessert for breakfast around two in the morning. Now it’s time for the gym.

Roman rolled over and grumbled, “Good morning. How’d you sleep?”

“Not sure I did, but I’m so excited that I need to work off some of this energy at the gym.”

“We could workout in bed,” he winked.

I laughed and gave him a little shove. “I have a team coming to the office this morning and I don’t want to be late or unprepared, so it’s gym time, shower time then work time.”

“Okay, okay. I’m going to try out your schedule for a few weeks to see how it goes for me.” Is he excited or am I excited? This can’t be only my energy I’m feeling.

As he was heading into the bathroom I asked, “Babe, are you excited about all this?”

He groaned, “Of course I am. I love getting up at 5:00 am after three hours of sleep and going to the gym.”

“Maybe not that part, but us?” I said a little louder since he was in the bathroom now. He came back over to the bed and grabbed my face, planting a kiss on my lips.

“This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me, so yes.” I smiled and there was my answer, but I really needed to get this energy out of my body, and I knew that at some point I was going to crash from this high without sleep. I had training tonight too.

Shit, I’ll seriously need to take a nap before that, and it’s at four.

Today is going to be a short day at work. I don’t think Shay or Darius will mind if I cut out at two. Maybe I can see if Roman can give them something to work on today, too. Maybe Shay had some other clients she needed to work with.

Damn it, too much to do and too little time.

I made it to the office by eight to get everything set up in the conference room. I had to make a plan for this neighborhood and figure out where we’re going to start.

Roman came in and asked me if I’d like some coffee.

I jumped up from the table. I needed something mundane to do to calm me down, like making coffee. “Yes, show me where it is so I can get it myself. You don’t need to do that for me.”

“I was just being polite because Amelia’s not here today.” He nudged me with his shoulder.

“Oh no? Where is she?” Why does that sound familiar? Did I know she wasn’t here?

“I sent her to Texas with Harrison to take care of the project down there, remember? I think they’ll be back on Friday.”

Of course, how could I forget.

“That’s right. That was nice of you to give them some alone time.”

He laughed. “They live together. I don’t know how much more alone time they need.” He shook his head. I had no idea.

“When did that happen? Is that why you asked me to move in with you, because they moved in together?” I started laughing but I really wondered if that’s why he did it. He was the family minded one— Harrison was the playboy. Yet here he was already shacked up. I bet there was some sibling rivalry involved in this arrangement.

“No, but I bet it sure does look that way doesn’t it.” His smirk told me everything I needed to know.

“Roman, I forgot to ask you if you had something for Darius to concentrate on today. I’m going to go over my idea with them, but I really need to get out of here around two so I can rest before training. It’s at four, then we have dinner with the Santoros.”

“Oh shit, I almost forgot about that. I’ll need to leave at two today as well and rest with you. I have to be at their house by four to go over renovation ideas for the winery.” He put his head back with his hands covering his face. I doubt we’ll be staying up that late on a work night again.

“Then I guess this is a short day for everyone. We can pick up where we leave off tomorrow. But I seriously need to take a nap, so if you’re planning on coming up there to nap, you better mean nap and nothing else.” I put my hands on my hips and gave him my most serious face without laughing.

He laughed. “Yes, I really mean nap. I’m tired right now. Let me show you where the coffee is.”

I followed him to the coffee machine, and he spun me around. “I’ve always wanted to have an office romance by the coffee machine.” His gaze was searing. I knew he was serious.

“That’s funny, so have I.” He lifted me up to sit on the counter and stood between my legs and I wrapped them around his waist.

“You’re going to make my job so much harder. Maybe you should go back to your real estate office.” He smiled then pulled me close and put his lips to my ear. He said, “But not this week.” I got the chills all over and seriously considered letting this happen right now, but we were expecting people in the office very soon.

“I’d love to make this a thing right now, but there will be people here in fifteen minutes and I really don’t think this would be a good impression for the new guy.”

He reluctantly agreed. “Coffee it is, then.” He smacked my hip and made the coffee. Damn, we should’ve gotten here earlier.

** *

ROMAN

“Are you going to go home first to shower and change after the gym?” I asked her as I poured my coffee.

“I didn’t think about that, crap. That’s a lot of driving. Maybe there’s a shower at the gym, I’ve never needed it so I didn’t notice. I’ll call Bruce and find out.” I hated that we weren’t going together, but I couldn’t watch that training again. I promised I would talk to them about the renovations. I have to convince myself she’ll be fine at training.

Amelia had rescheduled all my meetings for today to next week after I sent her an email saying I had to leave early today. I scheduled an important renovation project at four so it’s not like I was just bailing on work altogether. I stayed in my office most of the day until Alex called me into the conference room to talk about her ideas with Shay and Darius. I loved that we were going to do a project together. I told her I had a contact in the investment world who knew everything there was to know about nonprofits. I’m going to set up a meeting for her to get that plan implemented. She had great ideas and Darius said it wouldn’t be a problem to get the neighborhood on board with this.

I have a large auditorium on the 16th floor that we can use when we invite all the residents in to hear about the plans. We’ll have to schedule that after next week since that’s the start of the court hearing. Thinking about that was putting me a little on edge again since it was just a week from today. I have to stay focused for Alex.

“I can go door to door and talk to everyone and see how they feel about this. I know they like Alex a lot and trust her so I don’t think it’ll be too hard to get everyone at least to a meeting to see where this would go.” Darius sounded like he had been thinking a lot about this. It was a good idea getting him involved.

“Darius, that would be great, actually. I need to make a trip to your house soon anyway to visit your gram.” Alex was extremely fond of Ella and her family. She took everything about this personal because of them.

He laughed and said, “Yeah, she doesn’t want you to forget about her just because I work with you now.” She laughed and her face lit up. I could tell that she really loved what she was doing, how she was helping them, and that she was able to get Darius involved like this.

“Oh, I could never forget about her. She was my first favorite person in your neighborhood.” I’m glad I’ll be able to help with this project. I look forward to seeing what else Alex can come up with as far as future projects also. She could be my goodwill ambassador. God knows I don’t put enough effort into charity as I should. Writing checks isn’t very hard and not as involved as I could be, especially not after Alex opened my eyes to what I had really been doing in those neighborhoods. Displacing families and not giving a shit where they went after we paid them off isn’t really the legacy I’m hoping to leave for my future family. Damn, when I think about it that way, I’m really an asshole, aren’t I? Okay, this is my redemption and I’m going to make sure that I do everything in my power to help.