Page 52 of Broken Deal

My shoulders sag in relief. “That’s better than nothing. You gave me a hell of a scare there for a minute.”

Sophia strides inside the restaurant, and Diego’s eyes roam her body for a beat too long for my liking. My shoulders tense as I shoot him a glare. She’s beautiful, I get it. Hell, I can’t keep my eyes off her, and that’s quicklybecoming a problem. But when other men look at her, I want to take a knife and scratch out their eyes. Sounds reasonable and not at all crazy, right?

Diego thins his lips, holding back a grin and giving me a knowing nod.

“This is Sophia Evans, she works forVogue Elite. We’re uh…” I hesitate for a moment. What the hell am I supposed to say?

Yeah, I wanted an excuse to spend more time with her, so I agreed to do an article, and to top it off, I asked her to spend the summer with me, because I’m a sucker for punishment. And let’s not forget about the fact we dry-humped like two horny teenagers last night.

I can’t even bring myself to feel embarrassed. In all honesty, I wish we could do it again.

She waves awkwardly. “I’m a junior journalist. We’re currently working on a fall edition article for this guy.” She points at me with her thumb.

Diego’s eyebrow arches in surprise as he looks at me. “And you’re doing this willingly?”

“Yup.” I shoot him a withering glare.

We’ve been working together long enough that he knows how I feel about the media. We share the same sentiment when it comes to that. For Diego, it’s harder. He’s become so successful in such a short amount of time, the media is eager to get his claws on him.

Diego crosses his arms, his eyes sparkling with amusement. “You know, someone fromVogue Elite, Max something, has been hunting me to do the same.”

Her shoulders tense at the mention of her boss, and I squint at her, but she avoids eye contact. “Yeah, that’s my boss. He can be persistent.” She forces a laugh, but her eyes are devoid of humor.

Diego presses his lips together, nodding. “Tell him I don’t have time for that shit.”

She nods with another fake laugh. “Noted.”

Someone calls Diego, and he looks over his shoulder, barking an order. That’s just how he functions. He’s the best in the business because his tactics are ruthless and gives no fucks about what people think. He gets results, and it’s exactly why I work with him even when he doesn’t have the shiniest personality.

Shaking his head, he says, “It has been a nightmare finding reliable people. I pay above average for this line of work, but it doesn’t stop them from doing a half-assed job.”

I nod in understanding, choosing to stay silent. If I had to guess, people are not fans of his attitude and that’s why he has so many issues finding reliable people. Regardless, he can afford to be that way. He took over his father’s construction business and escalated it to a whole new level by the age of twenty-eight while being a single dad. He’s as grumpy as they come, but the man is a legend. He’s now a thirty-year-old billionaire from Sunset Creek, a small town in Colorado, still a single dad and taking over the world with his construction business one day at a time.

We do one last walk-through so we can be on the same page before the electrical work is completed and the kitchen appliances are installed. The plan was to soft open the restaurant at the beginning of July, but considering how quickly the month is approaching, pushing everything back one more month should give us enough time to finish the clusterfuck of a mess his crew lead left behind.

“I’ll call you if we need anything,” Diego says once we finish doing the walk-through, both of us hanging outside, leaning against the veranda.

Sophia stayed inside to take a call that seemed important,and I wanted to give her the space, even if the curiosity was killing me.

“Do you need me to stay longer?”

“Not really.” He scrubs the back of his neck. “Only if you want to oversee the progress.”

“Yes,” I say without thinking.

The corner of his lips lifts into a subtle smirk. “Something tells me that decision has nothing to do with the business and everything to do with the girl.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” I shrug nonchalantly.

I’m not ready to admit to anyone why I want to stay in Panamá for a few more days. This place is beautiful, and there are so many fun things to do around here. It would be a shame not to show Sophia around. I’m sure she would love it.

And it’s the perfect opportunity to spend more time with her.

The rest of the day goes by in a flash. We go back to the villa, and Sophia seems quieter than usual. As soon as we arrived, she went to her room, and she hasn’t come out since. I had back-to-back Zoom meetings with some vendors, as well as the usual bi-weekly meeting with Vortex’s board members, which is currently happening. Being in this meeting is like a slow, painful death. I curse the day my great-great-grandfather decided to be a founding member. Couldn’t he have left it at being a war hero? No. Hehad to take it a step further, cursing all the generations to come.

“Lorenzo, are you listening?” Amos William, the president of the board, asks, pulling me out of my trance.

“Yes,” I drawl.

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