Falling for the Rebound Bride by Karen Templeton

Author:Karen Templeton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-07-08T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

“I think you’ve got customers,” Emily whispered to Dee, who was helping Jesse Aragon, a young Native artist she was promoting, hang one of his in-your-face paintings of the nearby mountains on the deliberately neutral wall. Dee had decided the smartest thing was to set up the gallery as a co-op for now, the artists themselves pitching in with their labor and time to help run the place until it was in the black.

Although judging from the pair of tourists currently peering and pointing through the large plate glass window, that wasn’t going to take long.

In a floaty-print top and dusty capris, Dee crossed to the door to let them in, even though the official opening wasn’t for another week yet. And in they swooped, along with the lilac-scented May breeze.

“Are you even open?” a middle-aged, much-too-tan man asked, his eyes hungrily darting around the gallery, and Emily smiled. Ninety percent of them were looky-loos, more curious than serious. But this one—and his wife, her wrists and chest choked with heavy silver-and-turquoise Navajo jewelry—were so obviously collectors it was almost amusing.

“Close enough,” Dee said with a big grin, shoving a hand through her freshly cropped hair. “As long as you don’t mind a little dirt.” From the portacrib set up apart from the chaos, baby Katie let out a squawk. Dee laughed. “Or kids.”

“Oh...” The woman made a beeline for the baby, who gave her new admirer her brightest, most adorable grin. “Isn’t she precious! Is she yours?”

Chuckling, Dee joined the woman to haul Katie up into her arms, while her husband and the artist immediately slipped into a deep conversation about the painting...which the guy had apparently fallen immediately in love with. Dee glanced over at Emily, her eyes sparkling even more than the tiny diamond in her nose. Her cousin had reverted to the edgy look from her DC gallery days—a costume, yes, but at least one Dee knew she was wearing. And why.

A thought that led Emily to thinking about Colin. Again. In fact, she’d come into town with Dee today partly to distract herself from exactly that, even though she hadn’t seen Josh’s brother in the week or so since he’d taken the puppy. Because something told her Colin was also wearing a costume, of sorts, even if his was entirely mental. Granted, after Michael, her Spidey senses were probably on overdrive, but...

And did she need such folderol in her life? She did not. Bad enough she’d already fallen in love with a dog that would never be hers.

Especially since she knew—knew—that objectivity probably wasn’t her strong suit right now. Maybe her wounds weren’t open and raw and bleeding, but even she knew she was still too bruised and tender to think straight. Because who was in classic rebound mode right now, yearning for affirmation that she was desirable? Uh-huh. Meaning the way Colin looked at her that night had gotten all sorts of juices going, as one would expect when said juices had been neglected—if not outright ignored—for more than a year.

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