“A walk around with John Forrester? They had a few inspections today, and he’s afraid there will have to be some minor electrical changes.”

“Great.” He rubbed his temples. “What else does my day entail?”

“We need to discuss the ground breaking in Dallas, and someone called from L.A., but she wouldn’t leave a name or contact information. She just said to call L.A.” She shrugged. “Then you should be safe to hit the gym, the bar, or wherever you go to unwind.”

With a nod, he headed back to his office to claim his own notebook. “Are you coming to the meeting with John?” he called from his office.

“No, I have to get the plans for Memphis back from the architecture department, and I have contracts in legal. I’ll be able to fill you in on…”

She was talking about the Memphis project, but he realized he wasn’t hearing a word she was saying. Her lips were full, pink, and precise with her words. He had an overwhelming urge to gather her in his arms and just hold her.

His mind wandered more as she walked through his office continuing her conversation with him. There had to be a way to get her to see him, spend time with him socially, but she was very specific about that area of her life. A faint ache settled in his chest, at odds with the pressure he felt elsewhere.

“And by the way, your mother called three times.” She tilted her head to look at him. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. Sorry.” He shook off the desire that burned through him. “I’ll get going. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Zach turned back toward his office. “By the way.” He turned back to her. “I’ll leave the key on my desk. If you change your mind or want to use the elevator when I’m out of town, feel free.” He smiled and left through his office.

Zach drove to the Nashville site with the car’s air-conditioning set to arctic. Maybe that would cool his thoughts of his executive assistant. He parked the car by the offices, grabbed his notebook, and put on his hard hat. John held open the door to the office.

His mind was already hot from wandering to thoughts of Regan, and the heat from the trailer that housed the office hit him like a wall. John grabbed his shoulders and sat him down, then retrieved a paper cup from the water cooler and filled it.

“Sucks, doesn’t it?” John smiled as he handed him the cup.

“What is it, a hundred and fifty degrees in here?” He sipped the water and opened the collar of his shirt.

“Air is out. We’ll fix it tomorrow.”

“God, why wait?”

“Deadline and inspections are holding us back. That electrical contractor working in the residential units is going to cost us some time.” He reached for the file on his desk and handed it to Zach. “Here’s all the bad news.”

Zach opened the file. He sucked in the thick air and wiped the beads of sweat from his brow. He’d have Regan call someone to fix the air for John. If John was hell bent on waiting so he could concentrate on the build site—and Zach knew he was—he’d sure as hell give him some cool air to do it in. “Damn. It looks like they have to rerun the wiring for that whole floor.”

“That’s why you have the degree. I just get to walk them through and have them tell me what’s wrong.”

Zach studied the inspector’s notes. “I’ll bet if we do a few minor changes, we can get it to pass with minimal restructuring.”

“Do you want to go up and look at it?”

“Yeah, I guess I’d better.” He finished off the water and looked forward to the eighty-degree humidity outside.

The men stepped into the elevator and John latched the gate. A worker walked by with metal poles balanced over each shoulder.

“Carlos!” John yelled, and the man looked up. “Find Stu. He needed your help with a fitting.” The man nodded and kept walking as John started the elevator.

“Who was that?” Zach watched the man pass the pipes to another man and then hurry over to Stu, who looked to be wrestling with another pipe.

“Carlos,” he said looking up, watching for the floor.

“When did he start?”

“Few days ago.”

Zach kept his eyes on the ground moving farther and farther from him, watching the man nod as he took instructions from Stu and then pulled a wrench from his work belt. He looked very familiar, but Zach couldn’t pinpoint why.

His walkthrough with John took longer than he had thought. In the end, the men had decided to discuss the changes over lunch and then do some rough drafting on the sight. The changes weren't hard, but it all had to be in the plans and submitted before they could start the work He couldn’t afford any delays on the project, so he’d spend all night making the changes to the plans.

By the time he made it back to the office, everyone was gone, including Regan. He couldn’t help but be disappointed, but it was for the best. He needed to bunker down and start planning the changes to the wiring in the residential units.

Much of what made Benson, Benson and Hart so successful was their hands-on approach. Sure, they were a multi-million-dollar company. Sure, they built high-rises and condominiums in almost every state. They employed thousands of people. But they also had a hands-on approach you couldn’t find anywhere else. Tyler Benson, his father, and Zachary Hart, his grandfather, had made sure Zach was just as hands-on. They’d sent him to the best college to study and learn architecture. He knew everything there was to building. Well, the technical parts. If he had to take a hammer to the wood, things might not work out so well, but he could plan every detail meticulously. What the subcontractors did with his plans was another story.

He changed out of his suit and found a pair of jeans and an Oxford University T-shirt that was almost fifteen years old in the bag he kept in the closet of his office. After hanging up his suit, he placed his shirt in the bag that would go home with him so he could have it laundered. He pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge, turned on some jazz, and headed to the conference room that adjoined his office. He set out the plans and got to work.

He began to make markings and measured out other ideas. Then he began to create. Keeping within the same basic plans, he continued to design what the inspectors were looking for. He kept the reports nearby, sure not to miss any detail. It wouldn’t be a Benson, Benson, and Hart building if it wasn’t perfect.