"Kristine Kathryn Rusch - Remodeling" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

“No bus this morning,” Rick said, startling her. “Is it a holiday?”

Ada shrugged, surprised that she hadn't noticed the lack of sounds. “It's just Thursday.”

“Probably some stupid in-service day.” He sighed and rolled out of bed. “Means there'll be screaming and shouting
yard, or the basketball slamming against the building all afternoon. How can someone who can't afford to buy his kids v
games afford a house, anyway?”

And with that, Rick padded to the bathroom, totally naked. He had love handles just above his hips. She hadn't not
that before. When was the last time she had really looked at him?

It worried her that she couldn't remember.
 ***

The shop was quiet except for the mellow strains of a Mozart piano concerto. Outside, the rain whipped in the wind
making puddles on the city's streets deep enough to clog drains. Good thing Ada already had her materials in the car. Sh
wouldn't want to take them outside in this weather.

She was looking forward to this afternoon's job. She loved the early parts in the process: assessing the house, letting
customer start dreaming about the way her home would look when Ada finished. Most people didn't know how new tile
changed the feeling of a kitchen or how a single horizontal strip of wallpaper brought a bedroom's details together.

Ada knew, though, and could explain clearly. People trusted her, said she made them visualize the changes long bef
they happened.

Sometimes, she thought if she had remained single, she would be rich by now.

She made herself shake off the thought. If she had remained single, if they hadn't moved, if they hadn't lost all their e
in the quick sale of the house on Dover—all things that couldn't be changed. People never got do-overs. A life couldn't
remodeled the way a house could.

Ada sipped the last of her afternoon cup of Darjeeling, then opened the finances file on the computer. She had to pr
out a final invoice for Mr. Goldstein. She'd drop it off on the way to this afternoon's appointment.

The financial file looked different. Rick always set the computer on “icons” rather than “list” the way she preferred i
must have stopped in the office after he saw the accountant and updated the files on site. Usually he updated files from h
using the computer network they had spent a fortune to set up six years ago. Now their systems were out of date, and th
couldn't afford a new one.

She pulled down her View options from the toolbar, made the change, and watched as the icons became a table of
contents for the file. She scanned, looking for the Goldstein account and not finding it. In fact, this file looked different
somehow. She saw Urbanick, a name she didn't recognize. She frowned, wondering if Urbanick had been a consult she
forgotten about, and clicked open the file.

This file contained additional files: URCredithist, URMortg, UREmploy, URPersonal, and more, scrolling all the wa
the bottom of the open window.

Had Rick gotten the accountant's files by mistake? That didn't make any sense. Even if Rick had, he wouldn't have
copied them to the hard drive. He would have simply put the disk in his briefcase and taken it back to the accountant th
afternoon.