Roping the Cowboy Billionaire - Emmy Eugene Page 0,51
“Chris really did want to see what you do. I’ve told him it’s pretty amazing.”
Tam focused on her sewing, her fingers moving quickly as she’d done this countless times in the past. “Once it’s sewn, I trim the leather with that forked knife there.” She had a whole table of tools she used, and Blaine had once said she could easily operate a torture chamber from her shop.
“We also want to hear about your hot cowboy boyfriend.” Cara giggled. “Is he any closer to proposing?”
“I’d like to hear about him too,” Blaine said, and Tam dang near bobbled her needles. He grinned at Cara, who squealed and ran to greet him too. He laughed as he swept her into a hug, and his smile stretched across his face as he shook Chris’s hand. “You’ve got a whole audience this morning,” he said to Tam, placing a kiss on the back of her neck as she bent over and kept sewing.
“Mm,” she said. “I can’t leave until I have the saddle seat strapped to the tree, so if you want me out of here anytime soon, you won’t distract me.” That was already happening, as he kept his hand on the hip opposite of Cara and Chris.
Tam had mentioned to Cara once—one time—a couple of weeks ago that she wasn’t sure what Blaine was waiting for. They’d known each other for a very long time. He obviously liked her. He’d even said he was falling in love with her at Spur’s wedding, and that was three weeks ago now.
He kissed her like a man in love, and Tam knew she was kissing him like that. She fell for him a little bit more every time she saw him, and she’d started to see him living with her in her grandmother’s house.
He’d helped her paint the kitchen and living room last weekend, and this weekend, she was helping him at Bethany Dixon’s farm. Beth had cut her hand yesterday, and Blaine and Trey had organized a large group of men and women to go help her get caught up on the work around the ranch.
Blaine had said they wanted to help her get ahead, and that he planned to go over every few days to make sure Beth was doing okay. Tam loved his giving and generous heart, and she was more than willing to sacrifice her weekend for someone like Beth.
She was good people around Dreamsville, and Tam didn’t think she’d have any shortage of people to help her.
“What are you doing now?” Cara asked.
“She’s skiving each piece to fit perfectly against the tree,” Blaine answered for her. “Then she’s gonna get that sander and make it all real smooth. She’d meticulous with it, using this knife, and shaving and skimming until she sees something the rest of us don’t.”
Tam smiled to herself as she continued to shave off bit by bit, making the leather form to her will. She did shave it down until she felt it form where it was supposed to. She put the tin on to give it more rigidity, nailed it down, and covered that with leather too. “This is the part that gets shaved and sanded,” she said, smiling at Blaine.
“I was a step too early.”
“About five steps,” she said, enjoying it when she could tease him with something she knew that he didn’t. That happened so rarely that Tam needed to take advantage of it when she could.
Once that was done, she picked up the piece of leather she’d punched from her hydraulic press. “This is the swells,” she said, gluing the piece to the front swell that went up to the saddle horn. “And this is the cantle.”
She put leather along the back seat of the saddle, gluing and shaping and pressing with her hands. They continued to ache, and she shook them out.
“You okay, baby?” Blaine asked.
“Can you get me some painkiller?” she asked. “It’s in my office.”
“Sure thing.” He went that way, and Cara raised her eyebrows at Tam.
“What?”
“What’s wrong with your hands?”
“Nothing’s wrong with them,” Tam said, though they did hurt. Her very bones ached. She’d be fine once she took some pills. “I’ve been working a lot this week is all. I work with my hands, and I just wear these gloves as a precaution.”
“Okay,” Cara said. “So I don’t need to tell Mom.”
“You do, and I’ll never talk to you again.” Tam meant it too, and she glared at Cara. “It’s nothing.”