Page 98 of Breaking Emily's Rules
Idropped offmy licensing paperwork at the post office. With every requirement to become a licensed pilot checked off my list, now it was just a matter of the paperwork. I’d have my license as proof that I’d accomplished something significant. Major. Giving up a little bit of control to try something new and exciting. I just hadn’t expected to get my heart bruised in the process.
Stone had stayed away, and I assumed he would take me at my word and leave without saying goodbye. He was good at keeping his word, despite what he wanted everyone else to believe. He’d managed to keep the airport open. Cassie and Jedd would keep their jobs. The Air Museum and Short Stop Snack Shack would remain as part of the town’s landscape.
He was still in town, I’d heard, but he’d left me alone. It was for the best. What had I expected?
Apparently a lot more than what he’d given me.
And dammit, I was pissed off with myself about that. The temporary nature of our relationship, my stupid rules, had all been my idea and he’d only gone along with it. Maybe it wasn’t his fault that while my feelings had changed, his obviously had not. So why did I feel used when I’d been the one to do the using?
Maybe all we needed was one more time to get out of each other’s system.
The problem being, I wasn’t sure I’d ever get him out of mine. It stung to realize I was going to be so easy for him to forget.
I pulled into the Builder’s Emporium parking lot. I needed more paint choices. I had already changed my mind about the color in my bedroom. It was going from pink to a light yellow because that might cheer me up.
In the paint samples section, I found my private utopia. This was where I’d picked all the colors for my house so far. One of each. But today the shades of yellow were so confusing they gave me a massive headache. Canary. Lemon, saffron, amber, golden. Maybe yellow wasn’t the right choice after all. Blue? Cerulean. Navy. Morning Sky. Ink. Royal. Cobalt.
Stone’s eyes were cobalt blue.
I took a sample of each one, determined to hold them up to my bedroom walls until something felt right. Genuine. By the time I had one of each shade of both blue and yellow, I must have had more than fifty cards in my hands. How on earth were there this many different shades of yellow and blue?
The whole thing made me want to cry right here in the Emporium painting section.
Too many choices. It was way too easy to make a mistake.
“Emily.”
I whipped around at the sound of his voice. He stood behind me, like he’d purposely sneaked up on me. The man was stealthy. Dangerous. Lethal. He looked like he’d just come from the wood section and was, in fact, holding a two by four in his hands.
His cobalt blue eyes were narrowed. “Are you all right?”
Of course he would ask that. Probably because it seemed I was crying a little bit now. I brushed past him, paint sample cards cradled in my arms.
“I’m not crying over you. I’m only crying because there are too many colors to choose from.”
Heartbeat lodged in my throat, I ran out of the store and was halfway across the parking lot when I heard his voice again.
“Wait.”
I turned to see he’d followed me out of the store without his two by four.
“What do you want?”
“To talk to you.”
“I’m a little busy here.”
He took a step closer. “It will just take a minute.”
Thank goodness I’d thought to take all these paint swatches with me. They felt like a barrier between us.
I gave him a little sharp nod. “Go ahead.”
“First, forgive me for being an idiot.”
“No.”
He frowned a little. “Fair enough.”
