Loving You (The Bridesmaids Club Book 2) (6 page)

Annie pointed to the colors along the top of the chart. “Do you want the living room to be bold and sassy, or calm and serene?”

Dylan looked at his orange walls and frowned. “I’d say I’ve got bold and sassy now. How about we go for something calmer?”

“Okay.” She picked up her color wheel and pointed to a red square. “A color wheel is based on the primary colors of red, blue and yellow. The other colors are all secondary colors. Colors on opposite sides of the wheel complement each other.” She stood up and walked across to his curtains. After a couple of seconds, she walked back to the sofa. “Your curtains are close to this shade of pink.”

Dylan looked at the color on the opposite side of the wheel. “Green?”

“Don’t sound so worried. We’re not painting your walls bright green, but it would be a really good color for accessories. It would lessen the impact of the pink and make it blend into the room more.”

“I don’t have a lot of accessories.”

Annie looked around the room. “But you could have. All you’d need to buy is a few cushions with a touch of bright green and pink in them. You could have a green bowl on the coffee table, a vase of flowers on the cabinet in the corner.”

Dylan looked back down at the color chart. “So what color do I paint my walls?”

“I think we should stick with a neutral color, maybe something with a very slight tint of green. It would work with your brown leather sofa and chairs.” She hunted through her paint samples and passed him one. “Look at these.”

Dylan opened the chart and glanced at the colors. “They’re all the same.”

Annie moved closer. Her arm brushed against his and he nearly dropped the brochure. “The colors in this column have green bases, the ones beside them have brown and the ones beside your hand have black bases.”

She leaned into his arm, pointing at some colors. She was totally oblivious to the panic racing through him.

“The further down the column you go, the less color you can see, but it’s there all the same.” She looked into his eyes and frowned. “Are you okay?”

He didn’t want to move away, but if he didn’t do something soon, he’d pass out from oxygen deprivation.

Annie looked at where her arm was resting and moved away from him. He took a deep breath, and then another to clear the fuzzy dots from in front of his eyes.

“Does this happen often?” she asked.

Dylan dropped the color chart on the table. Annie was waiting for him to say something, only he didn’t know where to begin.

“I’ve noticed that you don’t like being touched. I forgot. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I need to get used to it.”

Annie frowned. “What happened?”

Dylan walked across the room to his laptop. “I was in the Army. I was captured by the Taliban and it screwed me up.” He held the laptop so tight that his knuckles turned white. “I looked on the Internet and saved some pictures of interiors I like. Do you want to see them?”

“Sure.” Annie looked uncertainly at him.

He sat on the edge of the chair opposite her and opened his laptop. “These homes are all the same vintage as this one.” He clicked on a folder and set the images up as a slide show. “What do you think?”

He turned the laptop around and Annie focused on the screen.

“What do you like about them?” she asked.

“They’re functional without being over the top frilly. I even like the cushions and rugs.” He took a deep breath and tried to relax. He knew the photos would probably surprise her. She thought he was a security guard who didn’t have a clue about interior design. She was right about the security guard part, but he did know what he liked. And even with all of his hang-ups and issues, he liked Annie.

“These are lovely.” The frown on her face softened to an appreciative smile. “Most of the colors and furniture would look great in here. Is there one design that you like the best?”

Dylan stopped focusing on the freckles across Annie’s nose and looked at the laptop. He spun it around and found the two images he liked the most. “It’s a tie between these two.”

The adrenaline that had surged through his body when they’d touched had dropped to a slow trickle, so he moved back to the sofa. That didn’t mean he was ready to sit too close, but it was a start.

“Nice. Both rooms have lots of natural light coming through the windows and chunky furniture.” Annie studied the images more closely. “Can you see how they’ve made everything work by using complementary colors?”

Dylan took the color wheel off the table. One of the interiors had pumpkin colored curtains. They’d chosen chocolate brown furniture in their living room, too. But they’d added different shades of blue as their accessory color. Their curtains, lamps, and even their rug had hints of blue swirling between other cream and beige colors.

“You could easily create a similar look in this room.” Annie picked up the color chart and pointed to the bottom of one column. “Either of these two neutral colors with a green base would look great. Then what you do is move further up the color chart and find accessories that have hints of the same deeper shades of green in them. Does that make sense?”

Dylan nodded. “You’re telling me to layer the colors.”

“I am. If you want to add a splash of a different color, look for accessories that are either side of pink on the color wheel.” Annie picked up the color wheel. This time she didn’t touch him. “If you want to add a pop of color, you’d look for accessories in red or this pinky-purply shade.”

Dylan looked at the color wheel, then sat back and tried to visualize what his living room could look like. The orange walls made it hard to imagine it any other way. He could see how the lighter paint would open up the room and let the view of the Bridger Range become the focus. And having pale walls would make it easier to add other colors. If he decided to stay he might even go shopping, buy a few cushions and things to brighten the room up.

Annie looked at the boxes stacked in the corner of the room. “What’s stopping you from unpacking?”

Dylan sighed. “The same thing that’s messing with my brain when I look at houses with a realtor. I moved around a lot with the Army. I’m not used to saying in one place.”

“Do you like living in Bozeman?”

Dylan nodded. “In a strange way, it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I wouldn’t have chosen to move here, but I like it. What about you?”

“This is my home now. I suppose I’m a bit like you. Montana’s good for me. I have great friends, two part-time jobs I enjoy and enough drama to keep things interesting.”

“Drama?”

“Milly Anderson’s running at a 250 point score average for bowls at the moment. I’m playing against her this week. It’s going to be a showdown.” The grin on her face was contagious. He smiled back and Annie’s mouth dropped open.

“Wow. You should do that more often.”

His smile vanished as quickly as it had arrived. “What do you mean?”

“You hardly ever smile, but when you do your whole face lights up.”

Dylan couldn’t remember the last time a woman had paid him a compliment. He didn’t know what to say or where to look, so he settled on his laptop. “I’ll think about what you said…about staying. I’ll buy some paint at the weekend if that’s what I decide to do.”

Annie fidgeted beside him. “You’ll need to get paint sealer, too. Otherwise, the orange paint that’s on the walls will change the color of your top coat.”

“Any other advice?”

“Smile at the sales assistant. She might give you a good discount.”

Dylan didn’t know whether Annie was joking or serious.

“Relax.” She grinned in the quick, infectious way he was getting used to. “I’m kidding. But remember to take your sunglasses off and use your manners. If you don’t, the person behind the counter will think you work for the FBI.”

“You sound like my mother,” Dylan muttered.

“She must be brilliant. Now, what about buying a house?”

“I thought you’d forgotten.”

Annie stared at him as if he’d said something strange. “I can work out someone’s bowling average quicker than a calculator. I’ve got hundreds of recipes memorized in my brain and I always remember my friends’ birthdays. I don’t forget very much.” She pulled a notebook and pen out of her bag. “What are you looking for?”

“Someone with a kind heart, long legs, and unlimited patience.”

Annie grinned and tapped her pen against her chin. “You’ve got a sense of humor hidden inside of you, too.”

Dylan didn’t like the gleam in her eyes. “Is that a bad thing?”

“No, it’s a good thing. But combined with your housing issues, I’d say you’ve got the nesting bug.”

“Nesting bug?”

Annie nodded. “A friend of mine went through the same thing when she hit her late twenties. She wanted a family, the whole white picket fence thing.”

“Did she find it?”

“She got the fence and two children, but her husband left a few years after they got married. Some people have trouble with stickability.”

“Probably depends on how much you want it.”

“True.” Annie sighed as she bent her head over her notepad. She wrote something in big letters along the top of the first page.

“White picket fence?”

“Yep.” She added an exclamation mark and a couple of little stars to the heading. “You might look like a tough guy, but you’re looking for the same thing most of us are.”

Dylan was beginning to feel like he was in a counseling session. Annie saw through him and it was making him uneasy. “I want four bedrooms, master ensuite, open plan living, good sized backyard and room for a man-cave in the garage.”

Annie’s blue eyes opened wide. “That’s an awful lot of house for your first home. You must be planning on having a large family?”

Heat hit Dylan’s face and other parts of his body that were trying to stay out of the conversation. “I’ve got a few things I need to work through before I have children.”

“Like finding a wife?”

“Something like that,” he muttered.

“There are lots of single women in Bozeman looking for love. Have you met anyone interesting?”

“Define interesting.”

Annie put her notebook and pen down. “You know…someone that makes your heart go zing.” She had a dreamy expression on her face, as if she’d already met someone that made her heart go zing.

Dylan looked at her for a few moments before answering. “No zing moments yet. What about you?”

Annie’s smile disappeared. “I’m not looking for zing. A slow burn would do me.”

A slow burn sounded pretty good to Dylan, too. He was getting confused and kind of turned on. But Annie didn’t look as though her alternative relationship was as good as he thought it was. “What’s wrong with a slow burn?”

“Nothing.” She picked up her notebook and started writing. “Here’s the big question. What price range are you looking at?”

“Anything up to five hundred thousand.”

“Half a million dollars?” Annie looked shocked. “That’s a lot of money.”

Dylan shrugged his shoulders. “I haven’t had a lot of expenses over the years.”

Annie put his budget in her notebook. “Do you mind if I use your laptop?”

Dylan pushed it across the table and didn’t wince when their hands touched briefly.

Annie, however, reacted like a firecracker had gone off in her hand. She jumped back so fast that she nearly slipped off the sofa and onto the floor.

“Sorry.” Her cheeks flushed bright red. “Some people have healthy personal space thresholds. I don’t. Sometimes I get too close without knowing how it happened. I’ll try and keep further away.”

“No…it’s okay. I wanted to talk about my…personal space threshold, too.”

“You did?”

Dylan felt as though he was about to step off the ledge of the biggest, deepest canyon he’d ever seen. He hoped like crazy that Annie didn’t laugh at him. He could take anything, but if she made a mockery of what he was going though, it would break him. And he didn’t know if he’d have enough courage to try again.

“I was wondering if you’d help me with my touching issues.” When she scooted along the sofa, he realized how bad his words sounded. “No, I don’t mean what you think I mean. At least, what I think you think I mean.” He dropped his head into his hands and hoped he didn’t sound like the demented idiot he felt like.

“You don’t want sex?”

Dylan’s head shot up so fast that it was a wonder it stayed locked on his shoulders. Making love with someone was so far away from ever going to happen, that he’d only considered the possibility in his dreams. And they’d been good dreams. “No, not that you’re not attractive, or anything. I’m a long way from ever being able to be that close to someone.”

Annie hadn’t run screaming out of the room so he kept going before she decided he was officially nuts. “I want to be able to shake someone’s hand, or hug them, or hold them without freaking out each time.” Dylan felt cold sweat trickle down his spine. This was so much worse than he’d thought it would be. He was embarrassed and so damn vulnerable. It was a wonder he wasn’t the one running from the room.