“They are,” he agreed. “But in the end, they’re pretty much all that matters.”
“I suppose I can’t argue with that,” she said with unmistakable reluctance. “Wade, I wish I could get past the idea that you’ve got Kayla and me all twisted up in your mind, that you’re looking for a situation that mirrors that one.”
“How many times do I have to tell you that the two of you are nothing alike? To Kayla, well, much as I wanted to believe she had real feelings for me, I was nothing more than a safety net. I’d be a fool not to have recognized that. It was enough at the time.” He leveled an unrelenting gaze into her eyes. “I want more from you, a whole lot more. I knew it the first time I laid eyes on you. You left me speechless.”
“Speechless?” she asked, looking intrigued.
He could recall the exact moment when Emily had been ogling him in a futile attempt to make Boone jealous and Gabi had walked into the dining room at Castle’s, a bit of an ice-princess demeanor about her.
“You took my breath away,” he confirmed, a smile on his lips. “And if you recall, both Emily and Samantha were in the room and neither one of them fazed me. It was all about you from that first instant. If this thing happens between us, Gabi, it’s going to be powerful and lasting. I won’t accept anything less.”
She looked shaken by his declaration. “I guess that’s clear enough, then.”
“Scared?”
“Terrified,” she admitted.
He smiled. “You shouldn’t be. Once you let down that well-honed guard of yours, I think you’ll see what I see. Until then, maybe we need to focus on something else.”
“The artists’ workshop,” she murmured, as if she’d just remembered why she’d called him.
Wade nodded. Because he couldn’t resist, though, he leaned closer and captured her mouth with a kiss meant to chase away every last reservation. When he sat back, his pulse racing, Gabi looked dazed.
“There are just so many complications,” she said with regret.
“There don’t have to be.” He kissed her again, taking his time, enjoying this long-delayed journey of discovery. “Still complicated?” he asked eventually.
She nodded, but she looked a lot less sure of herself. It was that expression that gave him more hope than he’d felt in a long time.
* * *
Gabi hadn’t been anticipating the kisses. Even more, she hadn’t been anticipating yet another bone-melting, breath-stealing response to it. The man had skills, she’d give him that. Add in his willingness to play a waiting game, and she was probably doomed.
Which wouldn’t be such a bad thing, she realized as she studied him while he pored over the spreadsheets she’d organized in her attempt to answer every conceivable question about the artists’ studio she was starting to envision.
“You’ve done a lot of work on this,” Wade commented when he looked up.
She smiled. “You know me and my planning.” She waved at the papers she’d brought. “That’s the tip of the iceberg. Back at the house I have lists of my lists. Every time I think of some new angle, I jot it on a piece of paper.”
“And then research the daylights out of it?” he asked, clearly amused and maybe even a little impressed.
“Well, of course. This won’t be cheap to get started. And if we’re going to do it, we want to do it right.”
His brow rose. “We?”
“Well, it was your idea, and you suggested a partnership, so I’m running with that concept.” She frowned. “Unless you weren’t serious about that part.”
“Hey, I’m all in,” he told her readily. “I have some cash to invest, and I’ll do the sweat equity and handle any renovations we need to do. Have you started looking around for a place that can accommodate what you’re envisioning?”
“I found some space in a couple of the strip malls, but most of it’s too small and I think the atmosphere’s all wrong.”
“I agree,” he said at once. “How about an old house in an area that’s been zoned for commercial use?”
“Much better, but I haven’t had time to look around at those properties yet. Have you seen anything that could work?”
“Not really, but I’ll definitely start keeping my eyes open now that I know you’re interested in pursuing this. How do you see this working? Are you hoping to find other artists to invest?”
Gabi shook her head and explained Meg’s theory about that. “Is she right?”
“She’s right,” Wade agreed. “I think it would be much smarter to make this your business—or ours, if that’s your preference.”
“I’m inclined to agree. I still think we should have a certain number of artists committed up front, though, say with reasonable two-year leases, so we know there’s time to get this off the ground without a lot of turnover. Stability’s going to be important, especially at the beginning. If we’re successful, something tells me we’ll have a waiting list of artists wanting spaces.”
“How many were you thinking?”
“At least five to ten with workshop spaces and maybe double that selling their works in the gallery. I’d want at least one artist working in there at any given time, so we’d want a commitment of one day a week from each participating artist. The more days, of course, the better,” she suggested. She frowned at the expression on his face. “What’s wrong? Too ambitious?”
“No, I just love that you’ve put so much thought into this already. I knew you were the perfect person to pull this together.”
“Hey, we’re a long way from pulling anything off,” she warned him. “I only have one artist so far, you.”
“Sally’s in,” he reminded her.
“Okay, two. Do you know enough local artists to round out my list of contacts?”
“Between Sally and me we can come up with most of the artists in eastern North Carolina. Meg has some contacts, too. Maybe you could consider having a guest studio space for an artist
