Winning the Cowboy Billionaire - Emmy Eugene Page 0,39

need to get this grant.”

“You will,” Spur said with all the confidence in the world. He went back to his food and then looked at her again. “You’re worried about it.”

“Of course I am.” Olli pushed her veggies around in the sauce, the scent of tomatoes and corn and cayenne meeting her nose. “It’s just…” She sighed. “You don’t get it, because you’re rich. This is a huge opportunity for me. He chooses five small businesses to invest in every year, and his money could take Fluency to the next level.”

“Fluency?”

“That’s the name of my company,” Olli said. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t told him that. What else had she failed to mention that Frank Renlund would expect her boyfriend to know?

“Oh, right,” he said. “I saw that on the labels in the perfumery.” He smiled at her, clearly not concerned. It faltered though, and he put his fork down. “Olli, what are you really worried about?”

“Just everything,” she said. “I’m good with people, but I don’t know what to expect. I’ve never hosted a CEO before.” She couldn’t look at him, because her insecurities weighed on her and kept her gaze on the table in front of her.

“What do you need help with?” he asked, threading his fingers through hers. She looked at the difference between her hands and his. His skin was darker, rougher, and yet so wonderful.

“I’m having Charity do all of the orders this week,” Olli said. “I really want to have something to show Mister Renlund for the men’s line, so he’ll know what I’m going to use his money for. I develop three new scents per quarter too, and those cost a lot in terms of time and money—growing product—all of it, and I want to show him the things I’m rolling out in July, August, and September. The last one is almost done.”

He let a few seconds of silence go by, and Olli finally looked at him. His eyes were wide, thoughtful, and caring. “Anything I can do to help?”

“I need to clean up the perfumery too,” she said. “Big time.”

“I can do that,” he said. “Your new honeysuckle will be here tomorrow. I’ll make sure that goes in.”

“I’m getting gladiolus tomorrow too,” she said.

“I can plant them,” he said.

“Bonus points for knowing it was a flower.”

Their eyes met again, and this time, Spur leaned toward her, his intent clear. She went the rest of the distance and kissed him. His lips trembled slightly, and he kept the kiss sweet. With that single kiss, he burrowed straight into her heart, and when he pulled away and said, “I’ll help you, Olli. It’s going to be great, you’ll see,” she thought she fell a little bit in love with him.

She instinctively reached for something to grab onto, because falling always hurt. She looked at Spur and finally got a taste of her diablo sauce, deciding that if he was at the bottom of the cliff to catch her, she might be okay with the falling.

12

Blaine Chappell left the meeting in a worse mood than when he’d gone in. One of their pastures definitely needed to be vacated of all cattle and burned. Spur would not be happy about that. Heck, Blaine wasn’t happy about it, because he was the one who had to deal with the infected animals, the veterinarians, the concerned trainers, the scheduling of treatments, and so much more.

His head hurt, and he hated that his phone kept chiming. Ding, ding, ding. He wanted to throw the stupid thing into the nearest compost pile and get a new number.

He shook the thoughts from his head, because they weren’t entirely true. He loved getting messages from his best friend, Tamara Lennox. She always sent him a lot of messages on Mondays, because it was her day to be in the saddle shop, and she took a ton of pictures, texted them to him, and asked his advice.

He’d known her for over two decades now, as she’d moved to Dreamsville as a Freshman, and the town wasn’t all that big. She loved horses as much as any Chappell, and she was always willing to come out to the ranch to help when Blaine needed it.

He definitely needed her now, and he ducked around the corner to read her messages.

Today, she’d sent several saddles, as usual. She got excited when she got new leather, and Blaine felt some of his bad mood lift with her excitement over the cow hide leather she’d received in her