Page 98 of Broken Deal

Ivy nods. “I agree.”

I roll my eyes. “The fuck does that mean?”

“You look more relaxed,” Matteo points out, his eyes dancing with mischief. “Have any fun in Panamá?”

“Forget about that,” Damian says dryly. “I’m more interested to know why you were in Kentucky with Sophia. I thought we had a very insightful conversation not that long ago.” He shoots me a withering glare. “Or did you forget already?”

Ivy lets out a small gasp. “You’ve been hanging out with Sophia?”

“Oh, yeah. Didn’t he tell you? She has been working on an article about him, and they’ve been spending some time together,” Matteo quips.

“Damn, you’ve been keeping this from me.” Ivy hits my shoulder. “That’s rude.”

“How do you know when you’re in love?” I blurt, interrupting them. Might as well get it out of the way.

They snap their heads my way, gaping at me, all of them at a loss for words.

“We have to backtrack here, because I’m confused,” Ivy says, dropping her elbows on the bar and resting her chin on the palm of her hands. “Andveryintrigued.”

I fist my hair in frustration. “Okay, long story short. Me and Sophia have grown ratherclosethis summer. She suggested we make a deal, a friends-with-benefits thing. I accepted because, to be honest, I couldn’t get her out of my head. I thought this was the perfect way for us to have fun this summer while working closely together. Except now, I have all these feelings I can’t explain.”

Matteo snickers, and I glare at him. “I’m getting real sick and tired of you always laughing at my problems.”

Damian hits the back of my head, and I hiss, “Motherf?—”

He interrupts. “Qual è il problema con te??1”

“Well, right now I'm in pain thanks to you,” I hiss, rubbing the back of my head.

“I told you to not play games with her. I could kill you right now,” Damian snaps, nostrils flaring.

Ivy cuts in, her voice soft. “Hey, hey, guys. Let’s calm down now. Let’s hearhim out first.”

Damian thins his lips, giving me a clipped nod to continue.

I let out a long sigh, mulling over my words. “Everything changed…somehow. The more I understood her, the more I wanted to be there for her—to protect her, to be the shoulder she could lean on.” I shake my head, feeling more out of my comfort zone than ever before. “When she walks into a room, my heart aches for her. When someone hurts her? I want to burn the whole fucking world. Not being near her at all times kills me. I miss her so much right now, it hurts to fucking breathe. It’s hard to explain,” I finish, exasperated and looking at everything except them. This was a mistake. What the hell was I thinking?

This crawly feeling is not getting better as time passes. If anything, it keeps getting worse. We’ve been back from Kentucky for almost two weeks, and we haven’t seen each other much due to our busy schedules. I ended up having some electrical issues with the restaurant in Panamá, so I had to set everything back. Sophia has been slammed with work, which is nothing new. I don’t understand how she does it all. The article, at this point, is in the back of our minds. I don’t know what she has planned, and I’m afraid to find out.

“Wow,” Ivy begins. “When did everything change?”

“When I dropped everything for her and flew with her to Kentucky to take care of her mom,” I reply without a second thought. “But if I’m being honest, since the day I laid my eyes on her again. There was something about her that called to me, guys. As if the universe was telling methis is your sign, take it.”

“Do you love her?” Matteo asks.

I run my fingers through my hair, shrugging half-heartedly. “I don’t know.”

Ivy nods, her fingers tapping against the table. “When is this deal of yours supposed to end?”

“Tomorrow.” I look at Damian, finding his face enigmatic. Not an emotion in sight. “We agreed we would end this before going to Las Vegas.”

“And will you be okay with just walking away and letting her, I don’t know, meet someone else and fall in love?” Matteo asks, his tone probing.

“She will be in your life forever. I’m marrying her best friend,” Damian chimes in, tone deadly serious. “Will you ever be okay seeing her with another man?”

My heart beats erratically at the thought. Jealousy claws at my heart, refusing to let go. “Fuck no,” I spit, gripping the glass of water so hard, my knuckles are going white.

“Then what are you going to do about it?” Matteo presses.

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