Page 94 of Hidden Nature

When she took out a sheet of graph paper and he saw her drawing, he shook his head. “You’re a Cooper, all right.”

“I am. Sorry, I should’ve asked before. Do you want coffee, a Coke?”

“Coffee if it’s handy,” he said as he studied the drawing. “Black’s fine.”

She’d measured everything, very precisely. She had the square footage of the room, the shower space, the size of the vanity, even the mirror, the side lights.

And she had printouts of everything. The tile, where she’d calculated how much required for the shower, the floor, new trim, a compact, floating vanity, fixtures, towel rods, all of it.

“Thorough.”

“My middle name. I’m sticking with the one-room-at-a-time plan. My dad and I already pulled up the bedroom carpet. Hardwood under it.”

“Why do people do that?”

“A question for the ages. New paint and trim in there, a little closet work, get rid of the popcorn—that’s everywhere. So that’s a quick and easy. This?”

She set down his coffee, then with her own sat at the table as she looked around the kitchen.

“The cabinets are in good shape, just blah. So paint them, new hardware, all good. New countertops—probably quartz to replace the ancient Formica. In that question for the ages, there’s hardwood under this weird linoleum. The stove’s okay, the fridge is crap, the lighting’s horrible, as is the school bus–yellow paint.”

“Goes with the daisies on the bathroom floor.”

She smiled at the basic mind meld.

“I think that was the plan. Anyway, that can wait until we add on the mudroom. Come through that—a good drop zone—into the kitchen.”

“Laundry room?”

“Currently down in the serial killer basement. I might move it up when we work out the mudroom.”

“You could put the laundry where you have your office, use the second bedroom as a combo guest room and office.”

“Under consideration, but right now I have my home gym set up in the second bedroom. I thought about setting that up in the serial killer basement, but just no.”

“That’s where mine is. Well, it doesn’t reach serial killer status, but it needs a lot of work. It’s okay for now.”

She smelled like the woods, he thought. The woods she looked as if she wandered in moonlight.

“I’ve got one suggestion on your bathroom plan.”

“All right.”

“If you put in a small cabinet, the shelves over it, you’d add storage without displaying the stuff. Can I?” He took a sheet of graph paper, and though he free-handed it, the design was precise.

“Gives you three, maybe four shelves depending on how much space you want between, and a cabinet below, which gives you another flat surface for whatever.”

He glanced up again as she frowned over the design. “I’m surprised Dean didn’t suggest it.”

“Now that I see it, I’m sure he would have. I haven’t shown him, or mentioned moving on this. If I did, he’d want to do it for me, and he just doesn’t have time during the workweek. That means his weekends—when he doesn’t have to go fix something in one of the units—is eaten up with more work.”

“He’s already offered to lend a hand around my place.”

“It’s what he does. I like this. This would work. I can start sourcing cabinets.”

“We can build it, match it up with the vanity you’ve picked out.”

She sat back, considered. “How about you work me up an estimate on the work, including the cabinet, give me a start and end date.”

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