Cody raised his eyebrows with surprise. “You bought it?”
“Women can make money too, you know,” she said dryly and he flushed guiltily.
“Sorry,” he muttered, but his gaze slid to the three covered canvases in the room. “An artist?”
Nicole nodded. She always covered her paintings between sessions. It prevented her looking at them and picking out all the flaws when she wasn’t working on them. She was her own worst critic. Turning her gaze back to Cody, she commented, “You seem to know Jake well.”
“Oh, yeah. Met him on the job when he first moved out here to Ottawa,” Cody said easily. “Being in the same business, we got along well. Went out for a drink after work.” He shrugged. “A friendship was born.”
“The same business?” Nicole asked with surprise. “You’re in security and he’s a cook/housekeeper. I wouldn’t think that was really the same business.”
Cody stilled briefly, but then continued working and said lightly, “House security, housekeeping, it’s all about the house.”
Nicole eyed him briefly, but his back was to her as he worked and she couldn’t see his expression. She stood up. “The coffee should be done. How do you take yours?”
“Just regular, please,” Cody said, his gaze now extremely curious as he looked again to the covered canvases on their easels.
She deliberately took her time making the coffees, wanting to avoid any more questions. In the end, she timed it perfectly. Cody was folding up his ladder when she re-entered her studio.
“All done in here,” he said cheerfully, crossing the room with the ladder under one arm.
Nicole merely smiled and held out his coffee as he approached.
“Thanks,” he said, taking it with his free hand and continuing on out of the room, saying, “I’ll let you get back to work now. Sorry for scaring you.”
“No problem,” Nicole said quietly and followed to close the French doors of the studio behind him as he left. She turned back to the room then with a little sigh. She was still tired and now a little out of sorts as well. Not the best mental state to work in. It was times like this she wished she had a more normal job. She didn’t imagine your state of mind affected your work much if you were an accountant or something. One plus one still equaled two no matter your mood. Sadly, it wasn’t the same with painting, or probably any of the more artistic jobs like music or writing where your mood could make you more critical. Still, she walked over and removed the covers from the canvases one after another and then stood back to survey what she’d done so far.
Nicole knew at once that this was not going to be a very productive day. Every flaw, real or imagined, immediately jumped out at her. She’d used too much red here, not enough shadow there. Was the actress’s nose a touch too big? And the sketch of Christian and his fiancée was all wrong; too stiff, not reflecting the love that seemed to shine from every photo of the couple.
Grimacing, she tossed the covers back over each of the canvases and took her coffee and the cheese plate to the daybed, where she sat down with a depressed sigh. Nicole hated when her work was disrupted. Last night things had really been hopping. She’d been painting quickly and happily, satisfied with what she was doing and how the portraits were working out. Today they all looked like crap to her . . . bleck.
It looked like it was going to be a “to do” day. Those were days she did banking, shopping, and any other chore that she’d neglected while working. Usually there were a lot of tasks to do, cleaning, cooking, shopping, banking, bill paying. Now that she had Jake she could take cooking and cleaning off her list, but that still left some chores.
She had to hit the bank and transfer money from her savings to checking to cover monthly bills that would come out today. She should have done it online yesterday, but now it was too late. It took twenty-four hours for online transfers to go through. Nicole supposed she should find out how much the security system was going to cost and transfer enough to cover that as well. And then she guessed she’d have to go grocery shopping. Jake had mentioned something about only being able to work with what he had, so she supposed she should get him whatever he needed. And she wanted to pick up mousetraps as well. There were always one or two brave mice who tried to move indoors when the cold hit, and while she hadn’t seen any yet, she had no doubt there were one or two around. Maybe she could get those sonic things that were supposed to scare them off rather than buy actual mousetraps. Nicole wasn’t big on killing things and mice were such cute little fuzzy things. Besides, ever since seeing Ratatouille she’d had an aversion to killing the poor little buggers. Although Ratatouille had been about a rat, as she recalled. It didn’t matter, mice were just smaller rats.
Aware that it was after two and that the bank closed at four or shortly thereafter, Nicole took her coffee with her and headed upstairs to find Jake, passing Cody and several other men installing little white boxes in windows in the living room. She murmured hello in passing, but her mind was on the shopping expedition ahead as she thought that it would be helpful if Jake made a list of what he needed for her to pick up while she was out. She suspected he’d need time to plan his menu to know what he needed, and hoped that wouldn’t take too long.
The scent that hit Nicole as she mounted the stairs was amazing. Something yummy was cooking and the air was rich with the aroma of garlic and other spices.
“Something smells delicious,” she commented as she entered the kitchen.
Jake glanced around with a start, and then tossed the dish towel he’d been drying his hands with over a book on the counter. It looked like a cookbook and like he was trying to hide it? She had no idea why. She didn’t expect him to know how to cook everything without a recipe, but he seemed determined to hide it, so she acted like she didn’t see it.
“I have to go into town and do some banking and whatnot, so maybe you could find out how much the security system is going to cost so I can make sure I have the money in the account,” Nicole suggested, and then added, “I thought I’d hit the grocery store on the way back too, so do you want to make a list of what I should pick up while I’m out?”
“Oh.” Jake frowned, but then turned his attention to the door as Cody came in.
“All done,” the other man announced. “The boys are just collecting their equipment and then we’ll be out of your hair.”
“Perfect timing,” Jake said quietly, but she got the sense that he was relieved at this news.
“I need you both to come put in your personal codes,” he announced.
“Personal code?” Nicole asked, following when he turned to lead them out of the kitchen. She trailed him to the master bedroom, where a security panel was now installed beside the sliding glass doors.
“That way you know who comes and goes and when by which code is used,” he explained. “You need to put one in, and so does Jake. I can put in a third number for guests to use if you like.”
“Oh. I see,” she murmured and peered at the digital screen briefly before asking, “How many numbers?”
“Four. But you want to make it something that isn’t your birthday or anything that someone else can easily guess,” he warned.
Nicole nodded, thought briefly, and then quickly punched in four digits while Cody and Jake averted their eyes. Stepping back, she said, “Done.”
“Great.” Cody worked at the panel briefly, and then stepped away. “Your turn Jake.”
“You can watch if you like,” Jake said when Nicole started to follow suit and turn away. “It’s your system. You should know my number in case you want to remove it later.”