Roping the Cowboy Billionaire - Emmy Eugene Page 0,55
he felt about her. He had been falling in love with her a little bit more every single day. When would he know when he was all the way in love?
He’d just gotten behind the wheel when he remembered his hunger. Instead of going into the chicken restaurant alone, he pulled out his phone and called Tam.
“Blaine,” she said, pleasantly, her voice far away, a clear sign that she’d put him on speaker. Sure enough, he could hear the tell-tale scraping of her knife against a piece of leather. “What’s up?”
“Can you take a break for lunch?” he asked. “I’m in town, and I thought maybe we could just sit down for an hour or something.”
The knife stopped moving, and silence came through the line. “Tam?” He pulled his phone away from his ear and looked at it. The call was still connected.
“Lunch?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “There’s this chicken place next to a jewelry store, and I thought—”
“Wait. Why are you at a jewelry store?” Her voice came into clear focus as she took him off speaker.
Blaine shifted in his seat, though he had no reason to be embarrassed. He hadn’t done anything wrong. “I was just checking out the selection of retailers in Dreamsville,” he said.
“I’m on my way,” Tam said. “Where are you?”
He rattled off the name of the jeweler and the chicken restaurant, and she said, “I’ll be there in ten minutes,” before the call ended.
Blaine leaned back and closed his eyes; the radio played softly in the background. If his stomach wasn’t so angry with him, he might have been able to fall asleep. When he was sure ten minutes had passed, he opened his eyes and started looking for Tam.
He didn’t see her, but he did catch sight of a woman through the glass of the jeweler, and he decided to give them a second chance. The chime brought her head up this time, and Blaine smiled before he realized who he was looking at.
Alexandra Alloy.
She wore a black skirt suit that rounded at the bust and hips but went inward at her waist. Her blonde hair had more gold in it, like honey, and he remembered her blue-green eyes so well. She’d often looked at him with laughter in them, and sometimes desire. At the end there, she seemed more annoyed with him than anything, and he’d seen those eyes when they were nothing but ice.
After a few seconds of the two of them staring at one another, she said, “Blaine Chappell.”
That got him to move, and he actually took a step into the store rather than out of it. “What are you doing here?”
“I own this store,” she said, her smile instant and wide. “Isn’t it great?”
It’s next door to a fast food chicken restaurant, he wanted to say. He frowned with the effort it took to be nice by nodding. He looked into the first case, seeing that it was practically empty. “I didn’t know your family was into jewelry,” he said, meeting her eye again.
“They’re not,” she said, the smile slipping away. “I am.”
“So are you not doing those fundraisers anymore? All that stuff with the Breeders Association?”
“I still do a few things,” she said coolly, lifting her chin.
Blaine nodded again. He’d been around Alex and the upper echelon of the horse racing society enough to know what her body language meant. She wasn’t still doing a few things in the Breeders Association. She wasn’t going to her fancy parties and luncheons, wearing her ridiculous hats with feathers and sequins, or raising money for jockeys and horses who sustained injuries during their racing careers.
She was running a nearly-empty jewelry store next to a chicken restaurant in a strip mall. For some reason, Blaine expected to feel some sort of satisfaction. Vindication, perhaps. Something.
He only felt sadness.
“Are you ring shopping?” she asked, coming a case closer to him.
He kept his focus down in the case, wanting her to know she hadn’t been the reason he’d cooped himself up at Bluegrass Ranch and never dated. “Yes,” he said simply.
“Oh, who are you dating?” Alex asked, curiosity in her voice.
He looked up at her at the same time the door chimed. Alex looked past him, and he turned to find Tam entering the shop.
He put a wide smile on his face and walked toward her. “Hey, baby.” He drew her into his arms and kissed her, the way he’d done many times before when he saw her for the first time that day.