Page 27 of Diego

He smiles again, but there is something different in it now, like he is enjoying me.

But I can't let it affect me.

My job.

That is why I am here.

My job, which I would very much like to keep.

More than keep, actually.

If today goes well, it could change everything for me at Meridian. I am the newest broker in the office, the woman with the smallest client list and the fewest connections. People are friendly enough, and Leah and Carter have made starting here easier than it could have been, but friendly does not mean anyone thinks I belong at the top of the board.

Finding a home for Diego Conti changes that.

If one of the new owners of the company chooses me as his broker and I deliver, no one gets to dismiss me as inexperienced afterward. I will have handled exactly the kind of client people assume someone my age cannot yet handle.

Randall will hate it.

That alone is almost worth losing sleep over.

I pull my attention back to Diego and lift the folder slightly. “I should warn you that I had to make some assumptions.”

“About me?”

“About what you want.”

“And what did you come up with…” he says flirtatiously, “about what I want?”

I narrow my eyes. “Would you like to see houses today?”

“Very much.”

“Then behave.”

His eyebrows climb.

I realize what I said and almost groan. “That sounded better before it came out.”

“I thought it sounded excellent.”

“Forget it.”

“Absolutely not.”

I open the folder before this conversation wanders somewhere I cannot professionally recover from. “I didn’t have much to work with. I know you want privacy, parking, enough space to be comfortable, and somewhere you can move into relatively quickly. Beyond that, I had to make judgment calls.”

“What kind?”

“I think it's best if I show you.”

“All right then.”

I look toward the passenger side of the Aston Martin. “Are we taking this?”

“We are,” he says, then opens the door for me.

I pause. “You open doors too?”