“He left.” Ryder gave his helper a head jerk to send him back inside, then dragged off his safety goggles.

Now he looked a little like a reverse raccoon, Hope thought, and couldn’t quite hold back the smile. “It’s dirty work.”

“And a lot of it,” Ryder replied. “What kind of problem?”

“They won’t stay on. They—”

“Have you changed the bulbs?”

She just stared at him. “Gee, why didn’t I think of that?”

“Okay. Somebody will come check it out. Is that it?”

“For the moment.”

He gave her a nod, boosted himself back through the opening, and disappeared.

“Thanks so much,” Hope muttered to empty air, and walked back to the inn.

It usually lifted her mood, just walking inside. The way it looked, the way it smelled—especially now as Carolee’s chocolate chip cookies sweetened the air. But she strode straight into the kitchen, irked everywhere.

“What is that man’s problem?”

Carolee, face flushed from baking, slid a batch of cookies in the wall oven. “Which man, honey?”

“Ryder Montgomery. Is rudeness his religion?”

“He can be a little abrupt, especially when he’s working. Which is, I guess, almost always. What did he do?”

“Nothing. He was just himself. You know how we’ve had those sconces keep burning out, or not coming on? I went over to tell him—or one of them, and drew him. He actually asked if I’d changed the bulbs. Do I look like a moron?”

With a smile, Carolee held out a cookie. “No, but they did actually have a tenant once that reported a problem, and Ry went all the way over to find out the problem with the light was a burned-out bulb. The woman, and I guess she was a moron, was stunned to realize she had to change the lightbulb.”

“Hmm.” Hope bit into the cookie. “Still.”

“So what’s going on over there?”

“Banging and crashing and a lot of crazed laughing.”

“Demo. It’s fun.”

“I suppose. I didn’t realize they were taking the whole place down to the bones. No great loss, but I didn’t realize.” And she fretted a little how the noise factor would affect her guests.

“You should see the plans. I got a peek at them. It’s going to be wonderful.”

“I don’t doubt it. They do good work.”

“Justine’s already started looking at light fixtures and sinks.”

The cookie, and Carolee, shifted Hope’s mood. “She’s in heaven.”

“She’s going all modern and sleek and shiny. Lots of chrome, she said. It’s one look, you know, rather than a lot of them like here, but it’s still a lot to figure out. It’ll be fun to watch it all come together.”