Chapter 12 #3
She couldn’t help a silly grin. “Me, too. I’ve never had a painting partner before.” Until now, she couldn’t have imagined letting someone get this close to her work.
“You start,” Nick told her.
Kat took a deep breath. “Here goes. I’ll start on the flowers in the foreground, and you can work on the sky and mountains. But don’t worry, okay? This is just for fun.”
Nick laughed. “You know, to my ears that sounds like a challenge. I’m thinking one-of-a-kind priceless masterpiece here.”
Swallowing hard, Kat turned to the paper.
It would definitely be that. A keepsake, anyway.
It felt like more than teamwork. More like an intimate shared experience.
She’d never enjoyed the company of a man this much.
She gripped the edge of her painting stool, afraid she might lose her balance.
All the signs pointed to one thing—she was falling in love with Nick Summers.
With shaking fingers, she swished her brush again, not quite sure about putting paint to paper.
She was glad Nick couldn’t see her face.
Would he be able to see her thoughts? With supreme effort, she forced herself to concentrate.
After a few minutes, her hands took over the task as if on autopilot.
She applied color in sure, quick strokes, forming her signature field of wildflowers in bursts of orange, yellow and purple.
“That’s amazing.”
Nick’s words interrupted her movements, and Kat paused her brush. “What?”
“It’s like you give a couple flicks of your wrist, and poof , wildflowers appear.”
“I’ve done these a time or two.”
He reached in. “Can I add some stems?”
Kat took a step back. “Go for it.”
He dipped a small brush in the paints and added bright green lines, mixing his vision with hers.
“Nice.” She leaned across him and added a few tiny dots that could loosely be called leaves.
He stepped to the other side again. “I’m thinking bright blue Colorado sky.”
“Absolutely.” She had deliberately avoided checking Nick’s work, but now she watched him flood the corner of the paper with brilliant cerulean blue.
“That’s perfect,” she murmured.
Nick took her hand, and they stepped back to admire their handiwork so far.
“Almost looks like you don’t hate Colorado,” he said.
She shot him a sideways glance. “I never said I hate Colorado. I like a couple of things there.”
“Yeah, like what?”
“Well, Nana’s there, and I like hanging out with her.”
“Uh-huh. What else?”
Smiling, she gave him a playful nudge, knowing exactly what he was getting at. “Well, there’s this guy I met.”
With a low chuckle, he leaned close and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
The kiss seared her skin, and when she turned and caught his gaze, the light in his eyes sent flutters to her chest.
“I like it.”
“Me, too.” Her voice quivered. Oh man, she needed to get a grip.
She couldn’t go weak at the knees every time he looked at her.
But what she saw in his eyes…what she felt inside…
The heavy air threatened to engulf her. Her breath caught, and she took a sidestep toward the kitchen for a quick time out.
But Nick caught her arm. “Whoa. Hey. Are you crying?”
She put a hand over her mouth as her lips trembled. Her other hand flapped in front of her face, and she blinked rapidly.
In the next instant, she was crying and laughing at the same time. An emotional hot mess.
Nick pulled her into his arms and held her tightly, silently.
When she finally relaxed against him, he pressed his face into her hair. “I feel it too, babe.”
Kat clung tighter, his words reverberating through her system. But as his body warmed her, she released her fingers from his shirt and moved her hands across his back.
His muscles rippled, and an electric current buzzed along Kat’s nerves, shooting adrenaline straight to her veins. She could hardly breathe.
He let out a low groan and pushed a hand into her hair, gently bringing her head up.
She closed her eyes, and his lips claimed hers in a slow, lingering kiss.
“What are we going to do?” she whispered when they came up for air. How could they be together and both realize their dreams?
He rested his forehead against hers for a moment. Then he pulled back and brushed a thumb across her cheek, a slow smile spreading across his face. “How ’bout we take a break and let that dry?”
She choked on a laugh. His teasing tone signaled he understood her question was not about their project but their future.
“Yeah, I think I need something to drink.” She let go of him and took a couple of steps toward the refrigerator then opened a bottle of lemon sparkling water and filled two glasses with ice. The rote motions gave her a chance to catch her breath. She handed a glass to Nick.
“Thanks.” He braced against the table. “Here’s my question. What do you want to do?”
Kat took a long drink of water then pressed her lips together.
She didn’t have a realistic answer. At least not off the top of her head.
Maybe they didn’t need any answers right now.
With a toss of her hair, she forced a smile.
“That’s easy. I want HomeBuilders to hire you and move you to New York. ”
He gave a light chuckle and nodded. “Not sure that’s gonna be an option. But we’ll work something out.”
Would they? He didn’t offer any ideas. The distance between them stretched for hundreds of miles half-way across the country.
He held out his hand, and she nestled against him, her gaze straying to their painting.
Even though it wasn’t quite finished, she already loved it.
In her mind’s eye, she let her imagination run and pictured it above one of Nick’s fabulous modern mantels in a place of their own.
A focal point in a place the two of them designed together.
It’d be colorful and bright and…and she was getting way ahead of herself.
Still, it was a nice memento. No—a memento was a keepsake, a reminder of something from the past. Her thoughts warred inside. It could be a memento—or it could be a bond between them…