“I’m going to carpet it,” she confessed when he stopped eating long enough to ask. “It’s really too battered to restore, and I can’t afford to simply replace it.
“I keep thinking a thick, rich royal blue carpet would really make this room come alive. But it’d be such a pain to keep clean! Dark colors show every speck of dirt. And with three cats and fourteen ferrets…”
He suddenly realized that he hadn’t seen any of the animals in quite a while.
“Oh, I put them in my office,” she chuckled, correctly interpreting his quick searching glance. “Wouldn’t want them sticking their curious noses into this mess.” She gestured at the sticky paint trays with her second slice of pizza. “They get into enough mischief already!”
Lucas was quietly relieved. He’d grown up with two cats and a dog. Fourte
