“Yes,” said Lara. “And the master has an en suite bathroom here. The plumbing has been updated. The house is actually up to code now. We had all the new stuff inspected and everything.”
“Just… no walls,” said Nolan.
Lara led them through every room of the one-story ranch. It was difficult to visualize the rooms because the lack of walls made everything just look like a sea of studs and temporary supports, but Nolan started to get an idea for the floor layout. Three bedrooms in the back of the house; the master had an en suite, and Lara wanted a walk-in closet. That was easy to do. The kitchen at the front of the house was small, but the fact that the main wall was nothing but a few narrow pillars of wood made it easy for Nolan to see that it wasn’t really needed.
“What I’d do…,” Nolan said, “is keep the living room where it is, but remove the wall between the kitchen and dining room. I’d just make it one huge eat-in kitchen. Do you need a formal dining room?”
“We’ve never had one,” said Jason. “So I guess not?” He looked at his wife.
“I honestly don’t care as long as there’s room for a table. I inherited this antique one from my grandmother that I’d like to put in the house. It’s pretty big.”
Nolan made a mental note that he’d have to pull a large antique table into his design.
“You know what we could do,” said Grayson. “What if we took the Cruzes on an inspiration tour? I saw some For Sale signs in the neighborhood. What if we look at finished houses and see what they like and what they don’t like to get a better feel for their design aesthetic? And then, of course, we would take them shopping for finishes.”
Not a bad idea. “Okay. That will help us come up with a coherent design theme for the house.”
“Sounds great,” said Lara.
There had to be an assistant or someone who could get on finding some houses to tour. When they ended filming for the day, Nolan asked Helena about that, and she said she had people she could set that up with.
“I really can’t thank you enough,” Lara said when Helena left to go to her car.
“Oh, you’re welcome.”
“I’ve admired your work for a long time. That’s why we applied to the show. I saw that episode ofCelebrity House Tourswith the house you decorated for that skier, whatshername?”
Nolan remembered that house. He’d decorated the Park City bungalow of a skier who had won a pile of Olympic medals. She was a beautiful woman and kind of a party girl on top of it, so she’d gained some notoriety off the ski slopes.Celebrity House Tourswas a Restoration Channel show where B-list celebrities showed off their fancy houses, and though Nolan hadn’t been on the show, several houses he’d decorated had been. He’d always been happy to let his work speak for itself. Funny how he was the one doing the talking now.
“Thanks,” he said.
“I was sorry to hear about your husband.”
“Thank you for that too.” Nolan smiled, although he would’ve preferred if people didn’t keep bringing it up.
Grayson, perhaps sensing Nolan’s unease, skipped over and said, “Hey, we should probably get going.”
So Nolan shook Lara’s hand and said, “It was lovely to meet you. We’ll be in touch with next steps soon.”
Nolan followed Grayson to the car. He took a deep breath before he climbed in. Helena and the rest of the Restoration Channel staff were gone, and Lara and Jason Cruz were getting into their own car up the block, so Nolan felt reasonably safe turning to Grayson and planting a kiss on his lips.
Grayson sighed into it, snaking his hand up the side of Nolan’s face and tangling it in the hair at the back of Nolan’s head. Nolan wanted to melt into the kiss, wanted just this feeling to make the rest of the world fade away.
Unfortunately, when Grayson pulled away, Nolan was still in the Restoration Channel’s SUV, parked in front of a house with no walls, and Ricky was still dead.
“Let’s go back to the studio, shall we?” he said.
LATER, ATthe studio, Grayson was browsing a real estate website for design ideas while Nolan was on the phone with one of the vendors, trying to charm him into a discount on flooring. When Nolan finally got off the phone, Grayson said, “I think ‘open concept’ has gone too far.”
“How so?” said Nolan.
Grayson rotated his laptop and pointed to a photo he’d pulled up. “It’s an open-concept bathroom.” The photo showed a bathroom separated from the rest of the living space by a single glass panel no wider than a shower door. Which meant that anyone in the house could just stroll through the house and see someone peeing.
“Oh God,” said Nolan.
“Even your place has a separate bathroom.”
“The Cruz place basically has open-plan bathrooms right now.”
