Free Starting Over (Nugget Romance 4) by Stacy Finz Page B

of leather imaginable. Along one wall sat a line of worktables and several industrial-looking sewing machines. Rows and rows of boots cluttered the other walls.
    Sam didn’t know where to look first. There were cowboy boots made from exotic skins, ones with fancy stitching, others with elaborate inlaid designs, and ones that were monogrammed. Every one a work of art.
    “Wow,” Sam said. “You made all these?”
    “Yes,” Tawny said, and Sam noticed that she was quite pretty. Long brown hair and green eyes that tilted up like a cat’s. But there was also something hard about her, like maybe life hadn’t treated her too well.
    “I’ve never had boots made for me. How do we do this?” Emily asked.
    “First I’ll trace your feet, then you’ll pick heel and toe styles, shaft height, and the leather you want. After that, we can start working on a design.”
    “Okay,” Emily said, examining the rows of boots and looking a little lost. “The only thing I’m absolutely set on is that they’re white to match my dress. And I’d like the McCreedy Ranch brand on them. The rest I’m open to.”
    “Have you done wedding boots before?” Sam asked.
    “Yep.” Tawny went over to a shelf, pulled out a fat binder, plopped it down on the table, and opened the book, which was filled with pictures of wedding boots. Some were tacky with cut-out hearts and ap-pliqués with the words “Just Hitched.”
    “We wouldn’t want anything like that,” Sam said, pointing to the ones with a cartoon bride and groom, and noticed a barely perceptible smile on Tawny’s lips.
    “It’s entirely up to you,” she said.
    “We probably just want simple. Right, Emily?”
    “Yeah, but with a little flair.”
    Tawny motioned for Emily to sit in the chair in the back of her studio. “Let’s get the measuring and tracing out of the way.”
    Emily sat and kicked off her flats. Tawny went to work drawing, while Sam and Emily continued to eye the shelves.
    “I like those,” Emily said, pointing to a brown pair with bright floral embroidery.
    Tawny finished tracing and got them down off the shelf so Emily could take a closer look.
    “I guess all these colors would be too much,” Emily said, and Sam could tell she really loved the boots.
    “What if we did a tone on tone thing, making the background one shade of white and the flowers a slightly different shade of the same color?” Sam asked.
    “We could do that.” Tawny leafed through her white leather samples and threw a couple of choices on the table. In a plastic tub, she sorted through a dozen spools of white thread and just like that put together a palette of varying shades of white.
    “What about the McCreedy brand? Where would we put it?” Emily asked, getting out of the chair. “I’ve got pictures of it in the van.”
    “I have it.” Tawny walked over to a bank of file cabinets and pulled out sketches of the brand. When Emily looked a little surprised, Tawny said, “I used to make Tip’s boots.”
    Emily told Sam, “Tip was Clay’s father. He died two years ago from a heart attack.”
    “That’s awful. I’m sorry.”
    “Where on the boot do you want the brand?” Tawny seemed anxious to move this along.
    “Hey, ladies.” Donna glided into the workshop in her usual exuberant fashion. “You pick something yet?”
    “These.” Emily held up the embroidered boots. “We’re talking about doing a white-on-white thing.”
    “Ooh, I like.” Donna walked around the room, gazing at all the boots. “Tawny, where’s the ones you made for Merle Haggard?”
    “At his house,” she said, and Sam presumed Tawny and Donna were friends. In a town like this, Donna had probably watched Tawny grow up.
    “Show the girls what they look like,” Donna said.
    Tawny got out another fat binder, turned the pages and pointed to a pair of snakeskin boots.
    “Do you make boots for a lot of country music stars?” Sam asked.
    “Not just country-western singers,” Donna boasted.