nted to say hi, and I couldn’t help but overhear.”
Carrie smiled back, almost embarrassed. Eve had caught her and Blake playing pretend, and now she had to get herself out of it without sounding like she’d lost her mind.
“No, I don’t decorate exactly,” Carrie said.
“Oh, you’re being modest,” Blake said, grabbing her leg under the table. “She’s incredible,” he told Eve. “She has this way of making every room in the house feel like its own mini home.”
“Wow,” Eve said. “That’s wonderful. And you’re so supportive.” She smiled at Blake. “Waylon won’t let me touch a single room in the house,” she whispered with a smile.
“That’s because you’re color blind, honey,” Waylon said from behind her. “And last time we painted Lidia’s room, she cried because it looked like fire.”
They both laughed, Waylon bouncing their baby boy in his arms.
“So you’ve done all the rooms in your house?” Eve asked, and Carrie glanced at Blake.
“She’s creative and just has a knack for making every room feel like home…because she is my home,” Blake said.
Carrie raised a brow, but Blake was looking right at her. The man was good. Too good. Even Carrie could almost believe he meant it.
“So have you decorated a nursery?” Eve asked with a smile.
It was time Carrie got in on the fantasy. Because she’d thought about this. About being married and having a nursery to decorate. She even had sketches. Of course, she’d stopped sketching after meeting Kevin and he’d told her they were crap. But right then, she didn’t feel anything but hopeful.
“Yes, um…” Carrie let all the images she’d thought of once come back to her. “Soft yellows, so that in the summer the room looks bright, and in the fall it looks relaxing. White built-in shelves and a dark oak wood rocking chair in the corner.”
“Sounds so beautiful,” Eve said.
“It is,” Carrie said softly. She had wanted to try for kids soon after getting married, but she didn’t even have a fiancé anymore, much less a husband, much less the future that she always wanted.
She was explaining her fantasy to a stranger, and she was sitting next to a man she saw herself falling in love with. Had been falling in love with this whole time.
Face it, Carrie. You’re screwed.
“Well I’ll need to get your number before you leave, because I need some help decorating. We live in Casper, Wyoming, so I don’t know if you travel for work?”
“That’s only three and a half hours from Denver,” Blake said. “That’s where she’s stationed. I bet she could make it work.” He winked at her. The support so clear in his face she wanted to jump for joy and hug him close. Blake had shown her more faith and support in the past week than Kevin ever had in the entire time she’d known him.
Before Carrie could say anything, Eve smiled and hugged her. “Great! We’ll let you get back to dinner, but I can’t wait to see you!”
Carrie looked at Blake when they were out of earshot. “You didn’t have to do that. She’s not Kevin. We could have told her the truth.”
“I told her who you really are and who you want to be. That’s its own kind of truth, isn’t it?”
She shrugged. “I guess.”
“Carrie, you’ve thought about this dream of yours for a while. Clearly you know what you’re doing.”
“How would you know?” she asked.
“Because I know you. And I know you make everything more beautiful when you’re in, around, or near it.”
Her heart fluttered. “But I’m not a designer.”
“Not yet,” he said with a wink. “There’s no reason you can’t be what you want to be.”
“So, you realize you just crossed a line from fantasy to reality?” she asked.
He just looked at her. “Let’s not start counting all the lines we’ve crossed.”