But the woman from the lake was as beautiful as he remembered, which was good, because he’d begun to believe that she was some kind of early morning apparition and that he’d imagined the whole thing. Clearly, he had not.
He realized that he was just standing there, staring. “Hi.”
She looked at him like he was about pull a rug out from under her. She blinked, eyes wide, then swallowed. “Hi.”
Bowie sat down directly in front of her and stared up at her.
She glanced down and seemed to take a moment to process what she was seeing. “Your cat is wearing a sweater.”
Ethan nodded. “He is. Since Bowie is basically naked all the time, he gets chilly.” Today’s sweater was a black and white Fair Isle pattern knitted by Ethan’s mom. She’d decided Bowie could very well be the only grandchild she might ever have, so she’d figured she should spoil him as best she could.
He’d gotten quite the collection of sweaters over the years.
The lake woman continued to stare at Bowie. “He is pretty naked.” Her gaze grew slightly more focused. “Are his eyes two different colors?”
“Yep,” Ethan answered. It had taken Nina almost three months to notice that. But then, she wasn’t really a cat person.
“Cool,” the lake woman said. “Is that why you named him Bowie?”
Ethan smiled at how smart and clever the lake woman was. Nothing more attractive than a clever person. Except perhaps a kind one. “You know David Bowie?”
“Sure, I mean, who doesn’t, right?”
She suddenly became more beautiful.
Nina cleared her throat, reminding him she was still standing there. As if he’d forgotten. He turned the conversation back to the main topic and pushed his glasses up. “So you’re, uh, the aquarium specialist? Nina thinks we need an aquarium here. That it would be a great feature for parties and stuff.”
“I am. And I’m sure it would be. Aquariums can also be wonderful for relaxation.” The lake woman stuck her hand out. “I’m Undrea, by the way.”
“Un-drea?” He shook her hand.
She nodded, smiling. “Yes, exactly like that.”
“Cool name. I’m Ethan.”
Nina sighed. “So. What’s the next step?”
Undrea looked at her. “I’ll take some measurements, draw up a preliminary sketch and give you an estimate based on all of that. We do need to talk about fish, however.”
“Fish?” Ethan asked. “Don’t you provide those?”
She glanced at him again, nodding. “I do. But I need to know what sort of activity level you want in your tank. A big showpiece fish? A ton of schooling fish? Or those that tend to be more solitary? Or for instance, if you’re a night owl, you might prefer nocturnal species. And then there are the invertebrates and the corals. Should you choose to go that route.”
He frowned. “That sounds…complicated.” Which wasn’t an issue. He could do complicated. But this wasn’t anything he knew a lick about.
She smiled, a beautiful sight. “It is, but you don’t have to worry about all that. It’s my job. You just give me an idea of what you want and I’ll make it work. Of course, I’m getting a little ahead of myself. It remains to be seen if this floor is structurally sound enough to support the weight of such a tank or if it needs to be reinforced.”
“Right.” He nodded. “That’s probably step one.”
“It is. And if the floor can’t, then there are two options.”
“Oh?” Nina asked. She had her arms crossed, with her hand on her chin and that elbow resting on her opposite hand.
He knew that pose. She was either bored or bothered. Or both.
He had a pretty good guess which one this was.
“Yes,” Undrea went on, rightfully oblivious to the shift in Nina’s mood. “We can either have the floor reinforced like I said or go with a smaller, more conventional setup. A tank will still be possible. It just might be a different sort of tank than what you’re imagining.”
“I see.” Nina gave a quick, tight smile. “I look forward to your findings. Thank you so much for coming by.”
“Um…” Undrea’s brows pinched together. “I still need to do measurements.” She pulled a small tape measure out of her pocket and showed it to Nina as proof.
“Oh.” Nina exhaled like she was bored with it all. “Fine, go on then.”
Arms still crossed, Nina walked over to Ethan. Bowie, however, followed Undrea, apparently convinced the tape measure was a toy.
Nina took her hand off her chin so she could use her finger to draw little circles on his shoulder. “How about a hike later? It’s gorgeous outside.”
“I guess I could. So long as it’s not a long one. I went for a run already.” And a bit of a swim, which Nina would have hated. Thankfully, his smart watch was waterproof enough that it had survived. But clearly Undrea didn’t share Nina’s fear of water. His gaze slipped to Undrea again.
Nina exhaled loudly. “I wish you’d woken me. I would have gone with you.”
That was why he hadn’t woken her. He liked that alone time.
He also couldn’t imagine what she would have made of the whole woman in the water situation. Lady in the lake? Girl in the gully? No, gully wasn’t a synonym for—
“Ethan, are you listening to me?”
“Hmm? Yes, sorry. You know how it is when my mind gets working.” Nina never would have jumped in to help, he knew that much.
“Yes, I do.”
She just didn’t need to know what it was working on. He made himself focus on her. “What were you saying?”
That earned him another sigh. “Just that we should go into town for lunch. You’ve been working too much, and you said yourself that you wanted to see more of the place you’d moved to.”
“True. I did say that.” He nodded. “Okay, let’s do lunch. Hey, we could go out to the lake afterwards. They have paddleboats. Really cool ones.”
Nina made a slightly horrified face. “No.”
Soft laughter brought his attention back to Undrea again. She must have crouched down to measure the floor, because Bowie was now sitting on her shoulders and she was still hunched over, unable to get up.
Or at least unwilling to get up and dislodge the cat.
“I’m so sorry.” Ethan went over to help.
“It’s okay,” she said. “He’s just being friendly, aren’t you, kitty cat?”
“Too friendly.” He picked the cat up. “Bowie, dude, you can’t climb on women like that.”
Undrea snorted. She straightened as soon as Ethan removed the purring feline.
Bowie immediately headbutted Ethan’s chin, which got him some scratches on the head. “Sorry again. If you need to charge me extra for interference, I understand.”
“Nope, all good.” She was still smiling. Then she reached out and gave Bowie a little pet. “He’s so soft. I wasn’t sure what he’d feel like. Kind of velvety.”
“He’s very soft.”
“He’s the most interesting-looking cat I’ve seen.”
“I’m kind of allergic to cats, but the Sphynx is a fairly hypoallergenic breed, so that’s how I ended up with him.”