“Lake didn’t try to give you a new office?” I asked, peering into the closed stalls.
The dogs were sitting in a line just inside the stable, right where Theo had ordered them to stay. They looked so mournful it was funny.
“Oh, he definitely tried, but I told him I wouldn’t do it.” He grinned. “I managed to bamboozle him by telling him that we needed the bigger tack and feed rooms here, and an office space for me made no sense.”
Laughing, I peered into the aforementioned rooms that looked so nice and clean.
“Have you thought about how you want to utilize the stables?”
Theo nodded and gestured around us. “There’s the same number of stalls here as in the old one, plus the quarantine stalls in the very back. I’m going to start treating the old stable as the permanent resident space, and this one will be for all the newbies, just to keep them all in the same place.”
I nodded as I followed him to the side door where the stairs to the living quarters above were located.
Theo opened the door and ushered me inside. The space was starting to look really nice; it just needed some paint and of course all the furniture.
“So, here’s what I need your input on,” he said as he stopped in the common room kitchen. There were still wires sticking out from the wall and the dishwasher hadn’t been delivered, but it looked pretty good to me. “I want you to picture living in this place.”
I frowned. “Okay?”
“Obviously we’re not making you move here; don’t worry about that.” He grinned. “But I wanted to ask your opinion both from the perspective of someone your ageandbecause you are a bit of a chef by now.”
I flushed; I couldn’t help it. I’d been doing my best to learn from Jack, but still…I knew that Jack had been part of the initial planning of the kitchen, just so everything they needed was scaled correctly for what the kitchen was for, but he hadn’t been involved with any of the small details as far as I knew.
“So, what do you need?”
“If this was your kitchen, or a kitchen you were going to use a lot. Think about living here in the way some other young people might; would you change anything from how it is now?”
Looking around, I took his question seriously and started to picture myself cooking in this room.
Eventually, I said, “There’s room here, so maybe put in one of those magnetic knife strips so you can save counter space.” I pointed out a couple of other little things like that, and told him everything else was fine. Then I turned to look at the floor space of the kitchen. “Were you going to put in an island here?”
“It’s a small kitchen, so we weren’t sure if it’d be a good idea.”
I took a few steps and looked around again, this time taking in the whole of the common area. “I assume the couch will go on that wall and the entertainment center here.” At Theo’s nod, I hummed. “I think if we leave that space between the entertainment center and the counter completely empty, then we could do the bigger island if it’s a longer one and set this way.”
Theo walked around the space, clearly picturing it in his head. Then he nodded. “You’re right. That would totally work. We could even make the end of the island be one of those folding table things, right?”
“Yeah! That’s a great idea!”
We made more plans on how to utilize the space best, and in the end, I felt mentally drained even though it had been only twenty minutes or so.
“This really flexes the kind of thinking I don’t do normally,” I grumped as we started back down the stairs.
Theo snorted. “Same. If Lake wasn’t so busy with his book, I would bother him more about this stuff, but he barely has time to go on rides with me so…”
“He’s really enjoying the writing thing. I’m glad he found his calling.” Lake had finished Ruth’s final book and then, after a break, he’d continued to write. This time, the books were more romance and definitely more queer, but Ben and Ruth’s—and now Lake’s—agent were sure they’d find their audience.
The dogs were happy to see us again, and I pet each of them in turn and told them exactly how great girls and boy they were.
“We’ve been invited to visit the set of the series Netflix is making,” Theo said while we walked across the yard again. “Not sure when, but it should be interesting.”
“I love they’re making a series from Ruth’s books. I hope it does well.”
“Me too.” He was about to say something, when his phone rang. He grimaced when he saw whoever it was calling. “This is Theo Fenton.”
I waved at him and continued toward the house. I wanted a nap before I started dinner prep, and at some point Madden and Mona would come back, too.
I wanted to text Jack about how Theo had asked my help with the kitchen layout and how I wondered if Jack would’ve wanted it set up the same way, but I didn’t contact him.
