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“She’s skiving each piece to fit perfectly against the tree,” Blaine answered for her. “Then she’s gonna get that sander and make it all real smooth. She’d meticulous with it, using this knife, and shaving and skimming until she sees something the rest of us don’t.”
Tam smiled to herself as she continued to shave off bit by bit, making the leather form to her will. She did shave it down until she felt it form where it was supposed to. She put the tin on to give it more rigidity, nailed it down, and covered that with leather too. “This is the part that gets shaved and sanded,” she said, smiling at Blaine.
“I was a step too early.”
“About five steps,” she said, enjoying it when she could tease him with something she knew that he didn’t. That happened so rarely that Tam needed to take advantage of it when she could.
Once that was done, she picked up the piece of leather she’d punched from her hydraulic press. “This is the swells,” she said, gluing the piece to the front swell that went up to the saddle horn. “And this is the cantle.”
She put leather along the back seat of the saddle, gluing and shaping and pressing with her hands. They continued to ache, and she shook them out.
“You okay, baby?” Blaine asked.
“Can you get me some painkiller?” she asked. “It’s in my office.”
“Sure thing.” He went that way, and Cara raised her eyebrows at Tam.
“What?”
“What’s wrong with your hands?”
“Nothing’s wrong with them,” Tam said, though they did hurt. Her very bones ached. She’d be fine once she took some pills. “I’ve been working a lot this week is all. I work with my hands, and I just wear these gloves as a precaution.”
“Okay,” Cara said. “So I don’t need to tell Mom.”
“You do, and I’ll never talk to you again.” Tam meant it too, and she glared at Cara. “It’s nothing.”
Blaine returned with the painkiller and a bottle of Coke from the fridge in her office. He held out the pills, and Tam took them. She swallowed it all with the cola she loved, and she grinned at Blaine. “Thanks.”
He smiled back and took the Coke bottle from her. “How long are we lookin’ at?” He surveyed the saddle tree, and so did Tam.
“We’re gonna run,” Cara said. “The jeweler is open now.”
“Okay.” Tam left her tools and walked Cara and Chris outside. The sun shone down merrily, and she hugged them both and thanked them for coming.
Cara grabbed her a second time and said, “I see the way Blaine looks at you. He’s definitely going to ask you soon.”
“You think so?” Tam pulled away and looked into her sister’s eyes.
“He’s probably just making a plan for how to do it.”
Tam nodded, but she knew Blaine wasn’t making a plan for an elaborate proposal. He hated stuff like that, and truth be told, so did she. Blaine was probably so far inside his head, he was trying to figure out if he should ask her or if he shouldn’t. That would take a while, and Tam told herself to be patient.
“Have fun at the jeweler,” she said. “Text me pictures, okay?”
“I will,” Cara said with a squeal as she ran to the passenger door of Chris’s truck. Tam wondered what it would be like to be a decade younger and still so hopeful. Tam felt like she was viewing the world through jade-colored glasses. She watched Cara and Chris leave, and she went back inside.
“I’m almost done,” she said. “I need thirty more minutes.”
“Okay,” Blaine said, looking up from his phone. “Trey’s got a crew going over there now, so we’ll just go with the second wave, after lunch.”
“Oh, are you going to buy me lunch?” Tam grinned at him, and Blaine grinned right on back.
“Tell me what you want,” he said. “I’ll make it happen.”
“I know you will.” Tam stepped right into his arms, tipped her head back, and kissed him. This was the hello she’d wanted to give him when he’d first arrived, and he took her face into his hands and kissed her back.
“Blaine,” she whispered.
