Page 42 of Boss Me

He didn’t move to pick up the flatware to dry it. He just stared at me, like he meant more than he’d said. What was the meaning behind those impenetrable blue eyes? Did he mean that I needed a break after working my ass off for him for the past six months? Or that he wanted me to stay because he enjoyed my company? Or that—I swallowed past my suddenly dry throat—I could enjoy him, in this temporary respite from the real world?

“O—okay.”

“Good.” He scooped up a spoon and rubbed it dry.

“Ah.” Tía Camelia stood in the doorway, hands on her hips. “I knew you’d figure out a way to make it work. Together.” She waved a hand at her clean kitchen, like that’s what she’d meant.

I narrowed my eyes at her. Tía Camelia’s innocent act wasn’t fooling anyone.

Still, when we got back to the resort, I talked to Maria at the front desk and extended my stay for a week.

16

BEN

The morning after I met Cooper’s tía Camelia, Coco and I showed up at his place early. So what if I did it two days in a row? Cooper was an early-morning guy. It didn’t necessarily mean I wanted to start my day seeing his face…and maybe his bare chest again. Besides, Coco seemed thrilled to visit again, despite my boss’s lack of enthusiasm for my four-legged companion.

Plus, Marlee’s call last night haunted me. Apparently, while I’d been chowing down on mangú, strangers had appeared in Synergy’s boardroom for a meeting with Weston. Strangers who had that oily Gurusoft look, at least according to Jackson and Marlee. Did corporate raiders come visit the targets of their hostile takeovers?

I had to up my game. So I brought a sack of pastries Luis said were Cooper’s favorites. I couldn’t imagine Cooper eating anything with that many carbs, but they smelled heavenly enough that if I were him, I’d break a years-long diet to eat them.

I knocked on the door. No response.

I banged louder. Only the stillness of an empty house answered me.

Coco trailed me around the side to the back gate, and I peered through. Not a ripple disturbed the pool. The chairs were all empty.

Had he left? Had Cooper gone home to California? As much as that aligned with what I was trying to get him to do, disappointment twinged through me. He wouldn’t leave without telling me, would he?

He’d done it before.

I trudged toward the beach and scanned it. No Cooper. Only a couple of joggers and a family with a golden-haired toddler playing in the surf.

I dropped onto the sand. With a sympathetic whine, Coco sat beside me.

“He doesn’t owe me anything,” I said.

Coco pawed at my shorts.

“He isn’t accountable to me. He proved that by coming here in the first place. Weston’s his boss, and that’s the only person he owes an explanation to.”

Coco scooted a little closer.

“Yeah.” I couldn’t ignore the heaviness in my belly. “You’re right. I’m full of shit. I knew he couldn’t care about someone like me.” I opened the pastry bag and pulled out one of the sticky spherical pastries. When I popped it into my mouth and crunched through the fried outside, the fluffy inside melted on my tongue.

“O.M.G., Coco. Where have these things been all my life?” I bit into a second one and handed half to Coco. He inhaled it and licked the syrup off his snout.

The third one was all mine. “I guess we can sit here and stuff our faces all day. Though these would go better with a cup of—”

“Coffee?” The voice behind me was achingly familiar and gruffly amused.

I scrambled to my feet and whirled to find Cooper, dressed in his form-fitting workout clothes again, standing behind me with a pair of to-go cups.

“Oh, hey. I mean, good morning.” I kept my eyes on his face. The sun glinted on it, turning his stubble golden. And as irresistible as I found his jawline, that was nothing to the muscles his compression shirt revealed. Do. Not. Look. I’d melt right onto the sand if I did.

“I was on my way to…out…and then I thought you might be coming here.” He cleared his throat. “So I bought you a latte.” He handed it to me.

I took it, speechless for once.

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