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Her smile faded

I put my hands on both her shoulders "Nobody knows this stuff better than you do Nobody"

Bella looked down at her shoes "Maybe it makes me a coward, but I’m just not ready to stand up in front of that roo you could do to make oing to let that slide" Her lips twitched "You’ve worked hard on this thing, and you sound for ninja real-estate developer wo to pick a moment to look the whole world in the eye, today’s not a bad choice"

"I don’t know, Rafe Maybe you should incentivize et if I do the presentation?"

I laughed "I know!" I leaned over and whispered very closely into her ear "An A in the class"

She gave me a tiny sain, brushing the sensitive place right below her ear "You’re going to get the D no matter what happens"

"Okay" She wrapped her arms around me "I’ll do it I really want to win this for you"

I pulled her tightly to ure?"

I kissed her cheekbone, then whispered "I already won You’re a whole lot more important to me than this contest"

The look of surprise on her face practically broke my heart "Nobody ever said that to me before"

I curved my hand around the back of her neck "You know, maybe you didn’t plan it this way, but I’le, then rose to her toes to kiss ether, Bella did a fabulous job with our half of the presentation And, if I was honest, so did Alison with hers But there were twelve houses coht of the shot

After the last teah, there was a five-uest -- Ji

Then Giulios took the stage, and Bella grabbed entlemen,some very fine work here today In fact, it breaks my heart to know that a certain block of West 165th Street is not truly poised to go under the wrecking ball" He lifted his clipboard "We have a second-place winner to announce first Team Beaumont, you did an excellent job, especially with just four team members"