She took in a slow breath. “It’ll be an awesome gift.”
“I assure you it will be. Now tell me what you have in mind.”
“Something whimsical. A girly, princess kind of tree house, with birds and bunnies, but in a way she can grow up with for awhile. She’s only two. So it would be cool if we could make it last until her school years.”
He nodded. “We could even include something with a growth chart on it. That way your brother and sister-in-law could pencil in the height and dates. That’s always kind of cool. If you go look inside the closet door in the front in my studio, that was part of what was Dad’s place. You can still see the notches where he’d carved a line with his pocket knife every time he measured me. I was almost as tall as him the last time he measured me.”
“I love that tradition. We need to include that for sure.”
“You’re going to be a great helper. When can we get in there to measure? And I’ll want to see the light.”
“Let me talk to William. I’d love it if we could surprise Carina too. William could help me make that happen. They have a nanny, and I can totally pile work on Carina for a few days.”
“You’re ruthless when you have a plan,” he teased. “To keep you from exhausting Carina in trying to surprise her, another option would be for us to create the design on a smaller canvas, and then I can have it turned into a poster we can apply like wallpaper. That way, we could hang it in a few hours. There’s a benefit to that too. It won’t be a pain to paint over when she outgrows it, or they could take it with them if they move.”
“That’s brilliant!” She thought about it for a moment, then said, “If we do it that way, I don’t have to paint either.”
“Oh, you still have to help. It’ll just be a much smaller version.”
“Okay. Fine. A deal is a deal.”
They finished their sandwiches, and Matthew got up. “We have a few more minutes. Let me show you around the place.”
He took her into his living space: the living room, a den, and his bedroom.
“I love this space. It’s nice. Did you decorate it yourself?”
“If you can call it decorating. It’s more stuff I like. I try to keep as little as possible so I don’t have as much to clean up. It works for me.”
“Good plan.” She pointed to the French doors at the end of the living room. “You have a patio up here?”
“It would be really hard to grill out if I didn’t have one. It’s small, but it does the trick. I have an outdoor kitchen with a sink, wine fridge, smoker, and a grill.”
“Nice. Can I peek?”
“Sure.”
She walked outside. “Wow, this isn’t just a grill, it really is an outdoor kitchen.” She walked over and opened the wine fridge. “Well done.” She pointed to the corner. “What’s that under the cover? A patio heater?”
“No, but I like that idea. It’s a telescope. If there’s a meteor shower in the forecast, I’ll be out here all night long.”
“I’d love to see that. You really have a telescope?”
“I do. You’ll have to join me one night.”
“I’d like that.”
“We better get you back, or you’ll be late.”
“That went fast.” She looked disappointed, and he felt the same way.
He led her back through the studio to the elevator, and they took it down to the first floor. Walking toward the front door, she said, “You don’t have to take me back. I can walk from here.”
“Now that wouldn’t be very nice. Besides, I’m done for the day. I could walk with you, if you don’t mind.”
“I’d like that.”
Matthew couldn’t gethis mind off Whitney that night. It was nice having her in his space, and she seemed to like it. Every time he thought of her blushing over the onions on those sandwiches, it made him laugh. It was sweet. Here they were, grown adults, and he felt like he was a college kid again. Maybe this was how it was supposed to be. He’d never felt this entranced by someone he’d just met in his whole life.
