Page 25 of Heating Up (Nugget)
When Dana woke up the next morning Aidan was still asleep. She crept around the house as quietly as she could, getting ready for a breakfast meeting at the Ponderosa with Pat and Colin. The insurance people were ready to write her a check and she wanted to make sure the money would cover the rebuild.
She knew what homes sold for in the neighborhood, but estimating construction costs was better left to the experts. Hopefully, she’d have enough to build the two-story house Pat and Colin envisioned. Wouldn’t that be something?
Afterward, Dana planned to preview a few places for her new client, who she was itching to tell someone about but couldn’t. Not after she’d signed the nondisclosure agreement. Dana had explained to the client that as soon as someone in Nugget recognized her, word would get out. She’d understood but didn’t want Dana going to the tabloids with financial information and personal details. Clearly she’d already been burned.
And if the tabloids were to be believed, this particular celebrity had financial problems, which made Dana wonder why she was real estate shopping. When she’d asked about her price range, the client had been vague.
“Just show me proprieties that are between twenty and sixty acres with a home,” she’d said.
That described more than half the listings in the county. Dana opened her closet and chose a scarf from the new hook Aidan had put in for her. Then she stepped back to admire the orderliness of it all. The neat rows of shelves, the adjustable hanging baskets, and the convenient shoe racks. Aidan had done a remarkable job.
Handy. Good-looking. Nice to small children. As far as she could tell, Aidan McBride was Mr. Perfect.
“What are you looking at?” Speak of the devil. Mr. Perfect stood in her bedroom doorway shirtless, his jeans only halfway buttoned and with a bad case of bedhead. Still, the disheveled look seemed to work for him.
“My closet. You sleep well?”
“Yeah. I would’ve slept longer but the sun woke me up. Where can I get shades for the windows?”
“Reno. Bed Bath and Beyond. You want directions?”
“I’ll find it. Where you off to?” He eyed her suit.
“To meet my contractor and, after, work.”
“You have any coffee?”
“It’s on my top shelf, right-hand side, in front of the Quaker Oats. Help yourself.”
“Thanks. I’ll replace it as soon as I go to the store.”
“Don’t worry about it.” She looked at her watch. “I’ve got to go.”
“Have a nice day,” he said and headed toward the bathroom. A few seconds later she heard the water running.
She went outside and the hot air hit like a furnace. Only nine and it was already a boiler. Shrugging out of her blazer, she hung it on a hanger in the backseat and cranked up the air conditioner. The one Aidan had installed in her room worked like a dream.
She drove the short distance to the square and found a parking space right in front of the Ponderosa. Pat and Colin were already holding a seat for her. Griffin was eating a big plate of waffles at the bar. She pretended not to see him and headed straight for her party’s table. It was immature and horribly unprofessional, considering he was her most important client . . . but he’d dumped her for Lina Shepard. She was entitled.
Pat waved over a server to take her order, pulled out a chair, and graced her with a warm smile. He was a nice man.
“How you make out with the insurance folks?”
“Pretty well, I think.” She gave him the figure they had given her and he nodded, pleased.
“We can bring it in for that. Look what Colin drew up for you.”
Colin unrolled a set of blueprints on the table and when the server came, he made room for Dana’s coffee. They ordered—she just got toast—and Colin proceeded to explain the elevations. She hadn’t expected drawings so soon and a tingle of excitement went through her.
“We’re hoping to save you the cost of an architect,” Pat said. “After you and Colin hash out the plan, we’ll get a structural engineer in to make sure it’ll work.”
“Sounds good,” she said, studying Colin’s sketches. They were very clear, making it easy for her to visualize the house. “I like them a lot. My only suggestion would be making the upstairs hallway smaller and giving some of that square footage to the second bedroom.” It seemed tiny to Dana.
“I can do that,” Colin said. “If we could get city approval, I could also give you a wood-burning fireplace in the master bedroom. If not, we could do gas.”
“Really? It wouldn’t send us over budget?”
Colin looked at Pat, who said, “Nah.”
