Forever Cowboy (Montana Brides Book 5) by Leeanna Morgan Page B

it was a wonder we weren’t robbed.”
    “I was listening to Dolly Parton.” Emily stepped back. Straight into the paint tray. “Oh-My-God,” she shrieked. Red paint splattered across the floor. She raced across the room, then realized her sneakers were coated in as much paint as the floor.  
    She grabbed an old towel from a bag of trash and threw it at him. “Here, take this and mop up the worst of the paint. If it soaks through to the wood, Cody’s going to kill me.”
    Cody would have to stand in line, Alex thought as he dropped the towel to the ground.  
    “Try not to push the paint into the drop cloth.” Emily undid her sneakers and left them beside the paint tray.  
    “How would you like me to soak up the mess?” Alex asked through gritted teeth.
    Either Emily didn’t hear the growl in his voice, or she pretended not to. “Kind of scoop it up. I don’t know how waterproof the cloth is.”
    He muttered under his breath and wiped up what he could. A plastic bag appeared under his nose.
    “Throw it in here.” Emily shook the bag for good measure, like he was a horse waiting for his oats.  
    “I don’t know whether to strangle you or tell you I like the color of the paint.”
    A slow smile spread across Emily’s face. “You do?”
    “But it’s not Goldfish.”
    “It’s not Bordello Red either.”  
    The grin on her face left him feeling like he’d jumped off a boat in the middle of a storm. He felt so off center that he didn’t know what was going on. One minute he was terrified that she could have killed herself and the next minute he wanted to do the deed himself.  
    He took his time getting back on his feet. Focusing on standing upright had to be safer than thinking too deeply about what was happening.  
    “Here…” Emily held out his crutch. “I asked Jake to mix both colors together.”
    Alex thought about that for a minute. “What if you didn’t like the way it turned out?”
    Emily shrugged her shoulders. “I knew it wouldn’t look too bad. It’s better than orange and gives the red more sparkle.”
    He looked at the walls. He couldn’t see any sparkle, but it didn’t matter. Emily was happy and he was happy that she wasn’t standing thirty feet in the air on a stepladder. “Why didn’t you use the color you wanted?”
    Emily crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I’m tired of arguing with you. Each day I come into the boutique it looks more amazing. I get annoyed because I can’t come here as much as I’d like to. I want to help make the building beautiful, but I just seem to get in everyone’s way.”
    And just like that she left him speechless. Her big blue eyes stared straight at him and he felt like the biggest idiot this side of the Rockies. He’d let her down, let himself down. Let their mixed-up, complicated relationship down. And he didn’t know what he could do to make everything right.
    He stuck his hands in his jacket pockets and said the only thing he could. “I’m sorry.”
    Emily took a deep breath. “That’s okay. I’m used to being overlooked. Most people think that because I’m short I can’t do things. But I’m as tough as an old pair boots when I need to be.”
    “Okay, Ms. Tough Boots. How can we make this work?”  
    Emily grinned. “Funny you should ask that.” She ran upstairs and brought back a board almost as tall as she was. “This is my mood board.”
    “Your what?”
    Emily flipped the piece of cardboard over. “I do this all the time when I start a design project. If I want to play around with themes, or styles, or anything really, I add pictures to a mood board. Pretty soon you see a pattern emerging. At some point everything comes together in a perfect whole.”
    “And this is your perfect whole for the boutique?” The photos Emily had stuck on the board were a strange mix of the Orient meets Italy. Geisha girls in red kimonos held bright yellow and pink fans. Carpets in burnt orange and deep blue sat beneath