Tom let the green beads rest across his palm.
He didn’t know if she’d wear his jewelry. But if she would ever allow him the privilege—someday—he’d want it to be something like this.
Something made with his hands, his time, his heart.
Tom staredat the blueprints on his monitor until the lines blurred.
He should have been finalizing the addition for the Kents—an elegant, tasteful studio space to match their already tasteful home—but his eyes kept drifting to the second tab open on his screen.
Barrett Residence – Original Plan.
He clicked it open.
There it was. His masterpiece.
Or what he’d thought was a masterpiece, once.
He could do better.
Tom leaned back in his chair. His reflection caught in the dark edge of the monitor. He looked tired. Hewastired.
The kind of tired that sits in your bones.
He switched to the next file—Barrett Residence – Proposed Addition.
It was a craft studio that was no longer an afterthought—a space with real light, a vaulted ceiling, storage.
He tried to picture Lauren, not as a client, but as a presence.
Nothertaste exactly—God knew he’d never get her glitter addiction right—but herfearlessness.When had he stopped daring?
The room opened toward light. He gave her studio the best position in the house. South-facing. High ceilings. Windows that reached all the way up, so she’d have sky above her while she worked.
He gave her a door that opened right into the garden.
He liked the balance. The tension between beauty and function. He liked the way a curve could make light behave differently, the way an unexpected angle could change how you moved through a space.
He paused, studying the rough draft.
It wasn’t tidy. The proportions were strange in places. The roofline didn’t match the rest of the house. He needed to change almost everything.
But the bones feltright.
Combining his architectural ideas with Lauren’s needs. It wasn’t a compromise.
Compromise was what you did when both people lost something.
This—this was what happened when you built something together.
When you stopped trying to erase the other person and started letting their presence make you better.
It was too full, too messy. His father would have stripped out half the features.
Tom laughed. There weren’tenoughfeatures.
He added a document to the extension. Other additions, other changes he would make to their house.
A reading nook near the studio. A built-in shelf under the kitchen window for her herbs. A wide front porch with room for two chairs and all the fairy lights she could dream of.
