“I’d love to travel. My boyfriend travels a lot for work, so when he doesn’t have to, he becomes a complete homebody. He won’t goanywherewith me.”
“Go by yourself?” Nathan suggested. “Or get a better boyfriend.”
The cackle I let out instantly assuaged his look of panic that he might’ve overstepped. I whacked him on the arm. “Don’t let him hear you suggest that. It’s honestly not that bad. He’s taken care of me for a long time, so it wouldn’t be very grateful of me to complain too much.”
“Nothing wrong with a good vent,” he replied. “Where would you go if you could convince him to take a trip?”
“Anywhere, really. I’m kind of a slut for palaces from a design perspective. They’re gorgeous and I love using the concepts in my designs. Some places are getting really good at replicatingthe opulence but way more affordably, so I get to have fun putting together nests for people.”
“You’re a nest designer?”
“Anall thingsdesigner, really, and not officially. Nests are just my favorite. I don’t have a business since Tyler thought that would be too stressful, so instead, I design for my friends and their friends.Idon’t think it’s too stressful, even if it did take me some time to figure out the design software, and finding companies to source exactly what my sort-of-clients were looking for.”
“Sounds like a business to me.”
“I’d like it to be one, but I’d have no idea what to charge.”
Nathan choked. “You’re doing that much work forfree? For how many people? Are you overseeing renovations with this, too?”
“A couple dozen per year for clients. I’ve been doing it for about five years now. Not all of them need renovations, but for all the smaller-scale ones I do the painting, installation, and all that jazz.”
He covered Lucy’s ears. “Madison. That’s a fucking business. You should be getting paid for that.”
Nathan getting worked up, combined with a slight shift in the breeze, wafted the barest hint of balsam and blueberry in my direction. The scent was light but it lit me up from the inside out. Holy mama. He smelledincredible.
I stared into his ice blue eyes. “That’s a lot of passion for a stranger you just met.”
“I get my hackles up when people are being exploited. You have a regular clientele. There’s no reason they shouldn’t be paying for your expertise.”
“But I never went to design school.”
Lucy stopped to investigate some shiny rocks in someone’s front yard and Nathan kneeled next to her, but stared up atme. “Doesn’t sound like your clients care about that. Besides, you can’t teach natural talent. If you’ve got a good eye, that’s something you’re born with and no amount of design school could help if you don’t have that.”
I hummed thoughtfully. “I suppose that’s fair. I’ll think about it. I’d have to ask Tyler for money for the business license and everything to get it set up.”
Nathan blinked, his brow furrowing. “You work for freeandhe controls all the finances?”
“Yes. Why?”
“For the sake of this being our first meeting, I’m not going to say my inside thoughts out loud.”
I pouted. “That’s not fair. Now I want to know.”
“Sorry to disappoint. I try to keep things at least marginally pleasant when I meet new people.”
“Fine.”
I kept pouting, but Nathan didn’t relent. Once Lucy got bored with the rocks, we started walking again, him still looking completely ridiculous as he bent over to assist her.
I’d convinced myself I didn’t want children since I knew that was off the table with Tyler, but I could still appreciate an alpha taking care of a kid.
I was more than ready to slide into the cool auntie role with Charlotte’s babies. She had two older boys, but they were a bit wild for me, so we were still working on connecting. I had grown up with girl cousins and was used to a very different dynamic, but I was learning with the boys.
“Anything else you wanna do that you’re not allowed to?” Nathan asked. “Running a business and travelling are pretty big. I’m gonna start getting offended on your behalf.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Sounds like you already are.”
Nathan grimaced. “Sorry. I know I’m opinionated.”
