“My office.”
“Youroffice?”
I gesture to the sofa. “Have a seat. Let me explain.”
She sits and crosses her arms again.
“As you know, I’m the C.F.O. of Adler Technologies.”
Willa nods slowly.
“Let me start over.” Sighing, I sit in the chair across from Willa. “I come from money.” Shit, that sounds pretentious. “What I mean to say is my ancestors had money that has made its way to me, my sister, and my cousins. My grandparents set up trust funds for all of us. They were very generous.” That’s the best way of saying it without freaking out my girl. “Because of that, I was able to invest in several things. One of which is this baseball team.”
“You own the baseball team?”
She cut right to the chase. I respect that. “I’m part of an ownership group.”
“An ownership group.” Not a question.
“That’s right.”
“How many people are in this group?”
“Four.”
“Equal partners?”
Interesting question. “Yes.”
“When did you purchase the team?”
I’m not sure where she’s going with this, but I’m going to answer her questions. “Two years ago.”
Looking up to her right, I can see those cogs working. “I’m just going to guess this team in this market cost in excess of a billion dollars.”
A bit more than that but she’s in the ballpark. I nod.
“So, you invested a quarter of a billion dollars in a baseball team.”
“Yes.”
“Wow.” She places her hands on the couch, pushing herself up until she’s standing in front of me. She turns to her right in the direction of the door.
“What’s wrong? Are you leaving?” She can’t get back down without me. I’ve got the security fob.
“I’m going to watch the game with my friends.”
I don’t want her to leave. Not like this. She needs to see this as a good thing, damn it. She’ll never have to worry about money ever again.
Oh, fuck, what am I saying?
Pulling open the door, she then steps out and I follow her. “Willa?”
Holding up her hand, she reaches the elevator and presses the down button. “I’ve got to process this. Let’s just watch the game and try to have a good time.”
Tryto have a good time?
What just happened? How is it when I finally meet a person I want to spend more time with, hell, all my time with, she’s put off by the fact that I own a baseball team?
