Page 92 of Hidden Nature

With a snap of her fingers, magic happened, and the dog pranced over to her.

Maybe she actually was a wood nymph.

“Exterior work.” She chin-pointed at the house. “Spring or summer.”

“Exterior work?”

“The siding’s crap,” she said as they walked to the house. “It needs a porch, new windows, and I grew up with a mudroom so I want one. But all that can wait.”

She unlocked the front door, which required a quick hip bump as it stuck. “I’ll be replacing this eventually.”

When he walked in, the contrast struck him. Dull walls, cheap trim, brick fireplace painted screaming red—and poorly—with a poky mantel, open to a roomy enough but very sad kitchen.

And everything in the space was neat, organized, well-placed, and had style.

The size of the sofa, in a strong blue, suited the size of the room. She had a wingback chair in minute blue-and-gray checks facing the fire with a gray throw draped over it, a small armchair in a surprising red that worked. None of the tables matched, but looked old and polished. Like family pass-downs, he thought, that added warmth and character.

Tic immediately raced around, wagging, sniffing.

Then nosed into her basket of yarn. “Uh-uh! Come.”

He wagged his way to her.

“Give him a treat for being a good boy.”

Nash dug one out of his pocket. Tic leaped for it.

“No. Tell him to sit. Mean it.”

Since it worked for her, Nash added the point. “Sit!”

Tic tried one more leap, then sat.

“This is not a small miracle.”

He looked around as the dog all but swallowed the little biscuit whole.

“It’s a good space.”

“It’s ugly, but I can live with it.”

She hung up her coat in a narrow closet, unrolled a scarf, and put it in a tub on the shelf. The undeniably sexy Stetson went beside it.

And the hair, full in the front, short and shaggy in the back, only added to that fairy-gliding-through-the-trees image.

She held out a hand for his coat.

“You have a gun.”

She gave him a nod and a slight smile. “Yes, I do. I’m a police officer.”

“I guess I figured… you arrest people?”

“When necessary. We educate, and we enforce.”

He couldn’t quite figure out why seeing her in uniform gave him a buzz.

“Interesting.” Now he had to look up the Natural Resources Police. “First house?” he asked her.

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