Page 27 of Hard to Love
His expression remained pleasant, but a muscle in his jaw moved. “What happened out there, it was—”
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t say something stupid that I’ll have to shoot you for myself. That…kiss…was a lot of things, but it wasn’t a mistake.”
“I was going to sayaccident.”
Which was ridiculous, but whatever let him sleep at night. “Promise me.”
“Fine. Tell Delaney I’ll get the sketches to her within the next couple of days.” Then he’d shoved out of her car and hadn’t looked back.
The piece of leather in Greer’s hand seemed to suddenly become brittle, and she focused once again on Delaney’s slack-jawed expression. “What?”
“You barely know the man.”
“I didn’t sleep with him.”
“Your face has the wordsnot yetpainted all over it. Do you think it’s smart for you to get involved with someone PBC does business with?”
Frissons of excitement cruised under Greer’s skin. “So you’ve decided?”
“Well, I want to see the designs first, but I’m definitely leaning his way.”
The boot shop’s front door opened and in walked Alex. He was wearing another of those damn long-sleeved shirts that covered up entirely too much of his bronze skin. His jeans were faded, his eyes were covered with a pair of dark sunglasses, and in his big hands, he carried his portfolio.
Although she tried to throttle it, Greer’s awareness revved up.Ready, set, go.
“Morning,” he said.
Delaney rushed forward to pull him toward the workshop. “I can’t wait to see what you have.”
Greer was definitely interested to see what was inside his portfolio, but God help her, what she wanted more was to see what was inside his clothes and maybe even deeper than that. But she couldn’t think that way right now, so she blew out a silent breath and forced herself to think like a businessperson instead of a teenager with a crush.
They all settled at the worktable, and Alex said, “Look, if these designs aren’t right for PBC, then I want your wordI can take them and use them with another—”
“Don’t make assumptions,” Greer said.
He pulled off his sunglasses, inching them down his nose until his gaze drilled into hers. Not a good way to quiet down her macarena-ing hormones.
“We’ve been looking forward to this for days,” Delaney rushed to add.
Alex stood again, unzipped his portfolio, then leaned over the table to spread out eight pieces, facedown.
“Alex, I only asked for two sketches,” Delaney said.
He looked up and gave Greer an eye frisk that tightened her stomach. “Greer already knows I’m an overachiever.”
Delaney choked out a laugh.
As much as Greer wanted to experience more of Alex’soverachievement, for now they needed to talk business. She reached for the first sketch, and Alex shifted to block her. “You can’t just go around touching a man’s private things.” He circled the table and tapped the page in the upper left-hand corner. “I wanted to give you a wide range of designs. So if you don’t mind, I’d like to go through all of them before you make any decisions.”
Delaney sat back in her chair and nodded.
The first sketch he revealed was an intricate tangle of jungle foliage—green leaves, exotically bright bromeliads, and was that…? It was. He’d hidden birds and other animals among the overarching design. Brilliant.
The next was the Day of the Dead illustration he’d been working on when she found him on the bench. He’d shaded the colors, making it both brightly festive and macabre.
