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Not the most attractive metaphor, but it felt appropriate the longer I stared. I shook myself out of that train of thought.
“Amie always lit up when she talked about him.”
His gaze darted up to mine, and the firm line of his lips curved into a subdued smile. “He was the same, trust me.”
Life was such a fickle thing. The randomness of it all hollowed out my chest with a deep, aching sadness.
They would never grow old.
Wouldn’t see their daughter grow up.
I sighed. “She had so many big ideas, you know? But she reined a lot of them in because she knew at some point he’d start calling this place their money pit.”
Burke exhaled a laugh. “That is scarily accurate.” He paused. “What kind of stuff?”
As I thought through our different meetings, I sat back in my chair. “One of the biggest was the kitchen.” I smiled. “She actually thought about moving it so we could make it bigger.”
His head snapped up. “She did?”
I nodded.
“To the front drawing room?”
My eyebrows arched in surprise. “Yes, actually,” I said slowly. “How did you know?”
Burke swallowed. “The day I had the plans,” he said, “that’s what I was thinking about. If you swapped those rooms, shifted some of the plumbing over ...”
Well, shit.
My heart did this horrible melting thing, emitting a weak sort of thrumming in my chest. “What made you think about it?”
“Just ... thinking about who might live here someday, I guess.” His cheeks went a little pink, and I wanted to climb into his lap when I realized it. “You’d have a better view. Bigger space.”
I couldn’t tear my gaze away from him.
Burke cleared his throat, redirecting his attention to the book again.
When he came to the next page, with another one of the pink Post-its at the top, he paused.Front entryway, Amie’s note simply read.
It was beautiful, one that she and I had agreed on easily. The pattern was elegant but understated—a simple light-blue damask design on a slightly darker blue background—while staying very era appropriate.
“She wanted this?” he asked.
“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “That’s what I got sad about. I was thinking about some of the finishes we discussed but never decided on. And if it comes down to it, which of those things will have to be cut.” I paused. “And I understand why. I do. But it still makes me sad.”
His voice was quiet when he spoke next. “She painted their daughter’s room this shade of blue.”
I smiled. “Did she?”
He nodded. “She said no matter whether the baby was a boy or a girl, their child would feel like they were looking into the sky all the time. I saw it right before Mira was born, when I visited during the off-season.”
Burke was quiet, his eyes focused on the book in front of him. Carefully, he traced the light-blue pattern. His hand was so big, and I wasn’t quite sure why the sight of him studying it with such focused attention had my throat going tight. “It looks like ... flowers. Sort of.”
I made a soft noise in agreement. “It does.”
“Is it expensive?”
I nodded. “A lot more expensive than painting the rooms, that’s for sure. We only planned for a couple of rooms to have it. The entryway, for the impact. And the downstairs powder room. We hadn’t picked those designs out yet, but I know which ones she kept coming back to.”
