“Ash, this is more than just a thing or two.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets, and when he looked at me, I’d swear he was practically blushing. “Thanks.” He looked around the room. “I can’t take all the credit. I drew up the design and then had Caleb look over the plans and give me a couple of suggestions on things.”
“His guest room is nicer than my entire house,” Beth said.
“There’s nothing wrong with your house,” Ash told her.
Beth snorted. “Yeah, right, except my kitchen cupboard doors keep falling off.”
“And I’ve told you I’d install a new kitchen anytime you wanted.”
“I can’t afford that,” Beth said.
“Never asked you to pay, Beth.” Ash looked at his sister knowingly, and Beth sighed.
“I know, but I don’t want my big brother having to rescue me.”
He shook his head. “It’s fixing your kitchen, not scaling a ravine in the middle of winter with my trusty St. Bernard and some brandy. Jesus,” he muttered.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the description, but as soon as I did, Beth glared at me. Clearly not the time.
Trying to lighten the mood, I clapped hands. “Let’s finish this tour.”
Ash stepped toward the bedroom door. “Come on, I’ll show you.”
I started to follow him out of the room when Beth spoke. “I thought I was giving the tour,” she complained.
“Yeah, well, my house, my prerogative.”
Beth rolled her eyes. “He just wants to show off.” There was no bite to her tone when she spoke, just affection, which was nice to hear.
In the world I lived in, a comment like that would have been a catty jab or a passive-aggressive shot, but what I heard in Beth’s tone was just affection for her older brother.
I paused again at the top of the stairs and looked out at the valley. “Can you blame him?”
Ash looked at me and smiled warmly. My heartbeat kicked up a notch. God, he was sexy.
He led the way into another bedroom. A large king-sized bed rested against the far wall, angled so the person could look at the view from their bed.
“This is the kind of thing I needed Caleb’s help with. He tweaked the design a bit so that we had a view from everywhere. I was more worried about the view from my room and not the other bedrooms.”
I smiled. No wonder Beth didn’t begrudge his success. How could she when he was still the same old Ash I remembered? Sweet and self-deprecating. Never braggy or boastful. Just an all-around good guy.
He hadn’t changed at all over the years. He was still the sweetest guy I’d ever met.
“Wait till you see the playroom he built for my kids,” Beth said affectionately.
I turned and looked at him. “You built a playroom for your niece and nephews?”
Ash shrugged. “If I want them to come here, I’ve gotta have something for them to do.”
Beth snorted.
Ash looked at his sister and narrowed his eyes. “What?”
“I think a drawer of toys in the corner would have sufficed.” Beth linked arms with me. “Wait till you see this thing.”
She towed me down the stairs to the main floor, then down another set of stairs to the basement.
