“Just sawdust,” she said. “I’m the messy one—I can have a completely finished house and still it’s a disaster. I’m getting better, but I never had to do much of that myself while I was growing up. But now Jess is beginning to really get testy about my messiness.”

“Look at this,” he said, leading her to the upstairs hall. It was a short hall with one bathroom between two bedrooms. Tacked to the wall were pictures torn from magazines of bedrooms, a bathroom, linen closets. The bathroom picture showed an old tub with feet, an antique linen cupboard and baskets holding rolled-up, multi-colored towels. One bedroom picture showed a canopy bed of brushed pine, built-in dressers, and flowered wallpaper with a matching bedspread.

“Try to picture this in there,” he said, pointing to the clawfoot tub and then indicating the open bathroom door. The room definitely resembled the picture. And the bedroom had the built-ins done, but the canopied bed was not yet there.

“It’s lovely, John. You’ve already resurfaced these floors.”

“That rug was my grandmother’s,” he said proudly.

“You’re really an artist,” she said. So much more than a handyman, more than a Mr. Fix-it. There was real skill and imagination in this. The house surprised her. She had never given that much thought to her surroundings. She had always lived well, but she had never put energy into creating her own space.

“The elementary school is in the neighborhood. There’s a playground at the end of the block.”

“When did you decide to make it larger?” she asked.

“About three weeks ago. Leigh… ” he began, struggling with the right words. “We’re nothing alike. Nothing. I’m not even sure we want the same things. But…I tried marrying someone just like me. Someone who just wanted to play all the time and wasn’t worried about the future, about families. It was awful… We were barely out of the wedding chapel before we were fighting. And what about you? You married yourself a genius who was so wrapped up in work he didn’t have time for anything else in his life.”

“What are you saying, John?”