Page 33 of Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail

While she’d always offered her input about a room’s aesthetic design during her time with Dalloway and Daughters, and she’dcertainly designed her share of furniture, she’d never really gotten into the nitty-gritty details of a room—the paint and fabrics and rugs.

She loved it. The colors, the textures, the idea that she was creating the entire feel of a room in a home—her home—felt important. It felt right, more right than any other job she’d ever worked on, particularly in the past two years.

Granted, all of this was still mostly imaginary, existing only in her workshop or on her computer. In the house so far, she and Josh and his crew were simply carving out a space for the design, priming the walls for new paint, the floors for refinishing, consulting with electricians and plumbers, all with Astrid hovering and monitoring in her pressed jeans and blouses, a camera occasionally capturing some conversation or another.

But tonight, all that would change. Demo was finished. They were set to start refinishing the original wood floors, which meant all the painting—Astrid’s homogenous gray—needed to get done this coming week. Tomorrow, they were filming in the Lapis Room, Alice’s bedroom, as Natasha wanted to capture a good “before” scene with the whole family, talk about how Astrid’s plan would lace through the house’s history.

Which, as Astrid’s plan stood now, it wouldn’t at all.

But it would. After tonight, it most definitely would.

At five o’clock, as the crew’s sleek vans rolled out and Josh’s team skidded down the gravel driveway in their mud-covered trucks, Jordan peeked under a drop cloth, eyes surveying her supplies.

Blue painter’s tape.

A fresh roller and brushes for edging.

Two gallons of indoor paint.

Twilit Starsthe color was called, which was perfect. The shade was dark, but with a sheen to it, a little whisper of something otherworldly.

Some magic.

She pressed a hand to her belly, anxiety spiking. Before she could second-guess her plan—or, if she was being honest, third-, fourth-, and fifth-guess—she let the cloth drop over her stash, went home to help her grandmother with dinner, and waited for night to fall.

Chapter Ten

ASTRID EYED HERivory pencil dress, still enveloped in the pink dry cleaning bag and hanging in her closet. It had been two weeks since the coffee incident and, miraculously, the stain had come out. Before that disaster, she’d worn this dress whenever she needed to feel powerful.

Today was just such a day.

She carefully peeled back the wrapping, like she was opening a precious gift, and slipped the smooth material off the wooden hanger. Sliding it up her body, she rehearsed what she would say when they filmed the “before” scene in the Lapis Room later this morning.

In the last few days, she’d been brushing up on the room’s history. She’d watched two documentaries that featured Alice Everwood’s ghost, as well as several articles online. Of course, she’d leave most of the history discourse up to the Everwoods, as it was their family’s legacy, but she was sure she’d need to talk about how her design accentuated Alice’s story...

... except her design didn’t accentuate it at all. She hadn’t really realized it while creating the look for the room. She was focused onmodernandelegant, but now that it came down to the day where she’d have to talk about her inspiration, she was coming up blank.

The choice of fabrics is reminiscent of the early twentieth century...

Sure. Maybe.

See how the position of the furniture highlights a cozy, almost ghostly atmosphere...

Not even close, but perhaps, if she said it with enough conviction, they’d buy it. Poise and confidence could convince anyone of anything—that, and a carefully chosen outfit. At least, that’s what her mother had always taught her, and, in Astrid’s line of work, she’d found it to be mostly true.

She breathed in... out. She could do this. Her plan wasgood. It was beautiful, and it was what her client wanted. Everything with the inn was ready, and today would be perf—

She wondered if she should even think the word, but as she slipped into a new pair of black heels and gave herself another once-over in the mirror, she couldn’t imagine what could possibly go wrong.

Just as long as she steered clear of Jordan Everwood and her morning coffee.

“I’M EXTREMELY EAGERto talk about the famous Lapis Room,” Natasha Rojas said.

Astrid climbed the Everwood stairs, Natasha beside her, the Everwood family bringing up the rear.

Cameras were positioned above them on the second floor, below on the first, and down the hall outside the Lapis Room, where Emery also hovered out of sight.

“I think it’s really going to be lovely,” Astrid said, trying to match her calm tone to Natasha’s.