The doorbell rang.
“You better go wash and put on a new shirt. I’ll see to Penny.”
“Bring her upstairs. Might as well get real with her from the get-go.”
Tom studied the room. “You’ve been busy.” His dry tone made her smirk, but his eyes brightened when she smiled.
“You’re fault.” She sauntered out to the bathroom and scrubbed her hands, arms, and elbows, then shed her splattered shirt and put on a clean, long sleeve green one. Voices in the art studio – and it would be called that going forward because it wasn’t her grandmother’s sewing room anymore – announced the arrival of change.
Summer took a minute to check her jeans, brush her hair and put lotion on her face. All clear. She hurried across the hall and stopped in the doorway. Tom and Penny gazed at the church painting transfixed. And it wasn’t even done yet.
Tom turned to her. “Here she is. Summer, this is Penny Gutherie.”
Summer in any other situation would have put on her diva artist personality, but this woman was going to create her art space, and it didn’t get more personal.
She walked straight to the woman and held out her hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you, and those plans were amazing. Welcome to our home.”
“I’m thrilled to finally meet you and to be able to help you reshape this area. Seems you already started.” She pointed at the pile in the corner.
“I did spend a bit of time this morning considering my workflow and which of my grandmother’s things I would keep. Plus, I’ve been thinking about our future. I hate to lose this as a bedroom, but it’s the best space for painting. It’s the windows.”
“Yes, I noted these. They let in the perfect amount of light.”
“But there’s a large storage space on the other side. Could we cheat a bit on the space in here and add a bit of footage to the storage room to make another bedroom?”
Penny turned to study the wall. “We can certainly try. Let me look at the storage area.”
Tom kept silent, but the questions in his eyes simmered.
She lightly touched his sleeve. “We’ll still have two bedrooms along with the studio.”
Tom went to answer, but his phone rang. He muttered a curse.
Summer patted his arm, then pointed Penny out into the hall. “Let’s go around the corner, and I’ll show you.”
Tom went down the stairs and out the front door to take his call.
After a thorough look at the room, Summer left Penny to measure and leaned against the wall in the hall. Here was another spot that hadn’t been cleaned out from her grandparents.
The small room would be perfect for a baby nursery. After all, she had painted this house with a child in the front yard, and where there was one, there should be two. She liked the camaraderie Tom had with his sister and brothers, and she wanted theirs to have the same. Being an only child was a lonely thing.
“Well, it’ll be on the smallish side, but it’s doable.” Penny followed Summer back to her art room. “It’ll make this room have a bit less storage, though.”
“I may need to work out storage issues another way. I’ll have to talk to my business manager for ideas, but regardless this still needs to function as a home.”
Penny scribbled notes in her book. “Let me rework some of these measurements, then we can meet again about particulars.”
Summer rubbed her hands together. “Sounds good. I’m excited.”
“You’ll have to be out of here while we work on it. Six weeks to eight weeks minimum.”
“I’ll figure that out, too.” She grinned. “I should have done this ages ago. Tom gets a gold star for pushing me.”
“He knew what he wanted when he gave me the specs.”
“Sometimes he knows me better than I do.”
Tom appeared in the door. “Come on.”
