Page 83 of The Mistakes I've Made
My hand slipped under the T-shirt she wore, finding the curve of her ass and grabbing it with a satisfied grin on my face. “I do,” I acknowledged. “But it doesn’t mean I don’t like hearing you tell me all about it. In detail, if you’d like.”
She laughed, but it wasn’t the laugh I was used to. This one didn’t reach her eyes, and I found myself willing to do anything to bring it back.
“Hey,” I said, taking a step back. “What if I took the day off today and we spent the whole day together?”
Her gaze widened. “What? You can’t do that.”
“Sure I can. I am the boss,” I assured her.
“But what would your brother think?” She bit down on her bottom lip, obviously uncertain with the idea.
“He’ll think it’s about time. I haven’t taken an entire day off in well over a year.”
That seemed to surprise her. That was, until she realized she was running out of excuses. “But I’m already so far behind.”
She got me there. Too bad for her, I was always a quick thinker.
“Think of it as a research trip. You need to get more acquainted with the area.”
She responded with silence.
My smile widened.
“Oh, come on,” I said. “I’ll let you pick. We can do anything, and the history lessons can be optional.”
“I love your history lessons,” she said with enthusiasm.
Now, it was me who was lost for words.
“I could take you out on one of the boats,” I said, my voice hoarse with emotion. I didn’t know why, but hearing her say she loved my stupid history lectures had really gotten to me.
And I was having a hard time processing the emotions coursing through me.
“Can it be a long boat ride?” she asked, an idea obviously forming in that mind of hers.
“Uh, sure. Why?”
“Well, there is this resort up the coast that we built—”
“The Lighthouse Inn and Resort,” I said.
“You’ve heard of it?”
I grinned. “The Outer Banks isn’t that big. When a hotel is built, especially by a company as big as Hart, we all know about it, even all the way down here.”
“Oh, right. Well anyway, my dad personally oversaw that one, and he never does that. So I kind of want to go see it.”
“Check out the competition?”
She shrugged. “Yeah.”
An idea of my own sprang to mind. “What if I took more than a day off?”
“What?”
“Why don’t we make a weekend of it? That way, you can get the ultimate feel for the place. We can stay in a room and make sure the bed works.” I gave her a good waggle of my eyebrows for that one, making her giggle.
“I mean, I guess I would technically be working.”
