Cherrywood Manor: Part 6 (special preview)

Lydia woke to the sound of canvas being scraped. She rolled over in bed, bracing her arm over her eyes as the curtains had been flung wide open.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Kouri took the paintbrush from between his teeth. “I wanted to paint you.”

Lydia flopped her arm down and pulled the comforter up over her eyes. “Can’t you paint me another time?”

“I liked the way you looked sleeping.” Kouri tucked the paintbrush behind his ear and kept using the flat edge to scarpe along the canvas. “Besides, I’m too busy today to paint you as I’d like.”

Lydia grumbled from underneath and blanket. “Is the coffee pot on?”

Kouri hummed. “Started it when I went to prep my supplies. Now pop that pretty little head out of the blankets for me. I just need to do one last thing.”

Lydia huffed, pulling down the blanket. “Yeah, for what?” Kouri kissed her then nipped her ear.

“Good morning.” He laughed.

Lydia sighed and got up from bed. “Good morning to you too.” She slipped on her robe and slippers. She went downstairs to the kitchen and reached for the coffee maker. After fixing her coffee the way she liked, she looked into the dining room.

The sunlight shone off the mint walls and glittered along the black table top. The crystal chandelier cast rainbows over the entire room, and Lydia smiled brightly. There were no signs of her previous life anywhere.

With her coffee, she strode into her study. The soft shades of pink looked so bright first thing in the morning. Lydia sat at her desk where she left her phone charging and she checked over her messages. There was a text from Eden.

“Come out into the yard when you get up.”

Lydia went back to the dining room, opening up the French doors where she saw Eden was lounging under the gazebo. Since she bought the house behind yours, you decided to share the backyards and build the gazebo together.

“How long have you been awake?” Lydia yawned.

“Knox and I had to go get a few things to finish my office. Then we stopped and got some breakfast.” Eden motioned to the boxes of pastries sitting on the table. “You’re up earlier than usual.”

“Kouri had the muses seize him and he woke me up scraping at canvas.” Lydia sat down with her mug and stretched out in the bench seat.

“He’s finishing the bathrooms today, what’s he doing being seized by muses?” Eden laughed.

Lydia scoffed. “I dunno, since I let him use one of the rooms as a studio, he seizes a lot lately.”

“You love it,” Eden said with a smirk.

“Yeah, I do. Since most of the place is finished, I don’t worry about much these days.” Lydia took one of the bright pink boxes. “Especially since you’re so close now.”

Eden glanced back at their new house and grinned. “Yeah, it is pretty sweet. Thank you for loaning the boys to me so I could start my renovations as soon as I could.”

“I couldn’t believe what Gwen did to the place when she left, such a shame.” Lydia picked out a big croissant and set the box back.

“People react to scandal in a lot of different ways,” Eden sighed.

Lydia sighed as she looked across the way at what had been the Fairchild Manor. Gwen’s family had owned it for generations, much the same way with Cherrywood. But after news broke about her and Dominic, things went downhill fast.

“She’s doing good though, right?” Eden asked.