Page 98 of Hidden Nature

“Dinner’s served! I went with spaghetti and meatballs.”

“Works for me. Thanks for picking it up.”

Theo put the takeout on the counter before crouching down to send Tic into delirium.

“I heard back from Drea’s sister.”

“Already?” Theo straightened to pull off his coat. “We only sent her the estimate this morning.”

“She’s no time waster. And we’re hired.”

“Excellent! How about we go with wine? Spaghetti, meatballs, wine.”

“Fine.”

Theo looked at the samples on their temporary table. “Again?”

“At last. I just finished writing up the order. No going back.”

“You’re going with the two-tone cabinets. Slate-gray uppers and lowers, dark blue on the island and coffee station.”

“I better not regret it.”

“You won’t. It’s classy, and this hardware? Yeah, the matte black’s good. We want a manly kitchen.”

“We have to start actually cooking. Not just making sandwiches. We’ll finish the Haver job by noon, latest. Then we’ll start demo.”

“Good deal.” Theo added fresh water to Tic’s bowl, put his nightly food in the other. When Tic scrambled to the bowls, Theo took a glass of wine from Nash. “The Fix-It Brothers are rocking it.”

“Into month three, and it doesn’t suck.” Nash shoved the samples to one end of the door table, put plates on the other.

In the morning, they worked, with Robo and Tic the job dog, on what the client called her second-best guest room. Now that she had all new interior doors—her husband hit that on the nose—she felt that second-best guest room needed some sprucing.

Which included a window seat—storage beneath—more shelves in the closet, and fresh paint—walls, ceiling, trim.

They only had a couple of hours’ work left, but they’d hit the finale on her day off. And she eyed them like a hawk.

Tic settled in to watch, chew on his toy, or occasionally attack bootlaces.

“I want you to take a look at the laundry room after this. I spend a lot of time in there, and the light’s not good, the folding counter’s too small. Maybe paint there, too. It should be more cheerful.”

“Happy to do that.”

As he spoke, Nash caught the pleading look from his brother. Rita Haver all but sat on his back as he installed shoe shelves in the closet.

“Why don’t I take a look now? We’re nearly done here. Theo and Robo can finish up.”

“Can’t wait to put this room back together. I got new bedding. Robo, you be careful not to drip that paint.”

Robo just smiled at her as he did the touch-up. It turned out his superpowers included cutting in and touching up. “I sure won’t.”

“How’s Bill?” Nash asked as he walked downstairs with her.

“All healed up and ready to dance. I can tell you he’s not giving meany guff about having you all do the work around here. More time for ice fishing. He’s not at work, he’s on the lake. You try that?”

“No, ma’am, and not likely to. I like my ice in a glass.”

She hooted at that, then pointed him into the laundry room off her kitchen.

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