Page 104 of One Good Reason

Stroking the inside of my mouth with his tongue, Law wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me into his chest. When he finally pulled back, he pecked my lips a few times. “Pleasures all mine.”

Hopefully I could unwind and recenter myself while out of Georgia. I was also hopeful that Betty Jo would keep her word and have Gema call me. Maybe the change of scenery would do me some good. At least until Monday when I heard from Corrine on what she was able to accomplish.

CHAPTER 25

Lawton

“Mr. Pellegrin, we’ve recently run into a few issues and had to shoot out of town. I can have my assistant reach out to you to set-up a time for you to do a walk-through of the school when we make it back.”

“That will work. Like I explained the day we met, these things tend to happen. Unfortunately, I’m not the only deciding factor. In fact, me visiting the school isn’t something that should happen until the application is pushed through to the next level.

Because of my relationship with Patton and my need to see you guys win, I’m going to jump out on the ledge and cover the second step… that way I can advocate for you when you resubmit the application.”

Dropping my head, I scratched at the back of my neck. “I do understand. You will hear from my office in a few days with a date.”

“I look forward to it.” He let me know before ending the call.

I was happy as hell that I’d chosen to take this call outside on the balcony. Had Talitha heard what had just taken place she wouldn’t be able to enjoy the rest of our time here.

Since we landed in Miami yesterday, I’d done all I could to keep her spirits up and so far, it was working. She hadn’t shed asingle tear since we left Atlanta. The smile she was rocking was one I was trying to have planted on her face permanently.

When my phone rung and William’s name came across the screen, I excused myself to the balcony. I was praying he was calling to say our application had made it past the first round but unfortunately that wasn’t the case.

Because of a technicality, it was denied and now I was going to have to get another set of eyes on it before resubmitting it. Talitha had worked on that shit for months and we were both hopeful that it would make the first cut. If she found out it didn’t, she would be devastated.

According to William, Talitha had forgotten to fill out one portion of the application which resulted in us being denied. Something as simple as that had pushed us back temporarily.

Sliding the patio door open, I tossed my phone on the chair and sat down beside Talitha. Adjusting my body across the sofa, I placed my head in her lap and stared up at her.

“Everything okay?” she asked without taking her eyes of the television.

“It is. Nothing I can’t handle while we’re here.”

Grabbing the remote off the arm of the couch, she muted the TV and stared down at me. “What is it, Harvey?”

“Nothing,” I assured. “Something with a potential business partner. I’ll follow up when we get home.”

“You promise?”

Reaching up, I grabbed her robe and pulled her down to me. “I promise.” Pecking her lips, I let her robe go. “You figure out what you want to eat tonight?” The earlier part of the day Talitha wanted to go for a swim so instead of going down to the beach, I took her to the rooftop pool at my condo. Not only did she get the swim but the two of us laid around in a cabana and had lunch. After leaving, we showered and had been laying on the couch watching movies. Before I slipped out to take the call, Itold her to figure out what she wanted to eat tonight. Clearly her ass forgot because one mention of it had her gasping.

“Um…” she hummed. “I was supposed to do that, huh.”

“Um, my ass. Yes, you were.”

“I’m not really familiar with Miami so why don’t you just pick.”

“Nobu?” I threw out the first restaurant that came to mind.

“I can eat Nobu. I love the one in Atlanta so that’s fine.”

“Good.” I closed my eyes for a brief moment.

“What time are we going to eat?”

“That’s up to you. I’m sure those two tacos you took down didn’t do much to fill you up.”

“They did.” She laughed. “I’m okay for right now. We can go around seven.”

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