Noah looked over at his cousin, who’d finally caught up to Caleb and was now sipping her drink, the two of them chatting and laughing as if they hadn’t just been behaving like teenagers.
‘Yeah, she’s pretty special.’ He turned and met Beth’s eye. ‘She’s enjoying having you around, you know.’
A jolt of happiness shot through her. ‘She said that?’
‘Yep, she’s never been one to hide how she feels.’
‘I’ve noticed.’ Beth’s heart leapt when Noah chuckled and the two of them shared a knowing smirk.
‘But even if she hadn’t harped on forever about how excited she is to have you staying at the B&B, I’d still know that’s how she’s feeling.’ He shrugged. ‘It’s mostly older couples who book rooms and she doesn’t have much in common with them. She’s been extra bubbly since you showed up.’
‘Really?’ To think thatherpresence had contributed to Ellie projecting her light out into the world. It was enough to make her smile for days.
‘Yeah.’ Noah frowned. ‘I think she gets pretty lonely running that place. It really wasn’t fair of her parents to expect her to look after it when they went away.’
Beth considered that, but as she’d seen Ellie in host mode, she had to disagree. ‘I don’t know, I think she’s enjoying it. In fact, she just finished telling me that bookings have increased by twenty per cent since she took over. She seemed pretty proud of that.’
Noah leaned against the bench’s backrest, his brows rising. ‘Really? Thatisimpressive.’
‘Yeah, though she made it sound as if that’s the only thing going right for her at the moment.’
‘Did she say what’s not going right?’
‘Oh, nothing major,’ Beth rushed to assure him, then thought back over what Ellie had shared with her, about her inability to keep friends and how guys only want her for one thing. ‘I think you might be right, though. Maybe she is a bit lonely.’
And maybe, thought Beth, she and Ellie had more in common than she ever would’ve thought possible.
‘Good thing you showed up, then, huh?’ Noah held out his plastic tumbler of beer and Beth tapped her can against it.
Just then, a gust of wind blew her hair across her face and she raised her free hand to tuck it behind her ear, causing her baggy sleeve to drop down her forearm.
Noah furrowed his brow and pointed at her bandaged wrist. ‘What happened there?’
‘Oh, I just strained it earlier.’ She waved away his concern. ‘But that reminds me, I have a favour to ask.’
‘Okay.’ He turned towards her and propped an arm on the back of the bench. ‘Shoot.’
The overhead spotlights flicked on then and a cheer went up from the players who’d snagged their lanes along the green. Beth blinked, letting her eyes adjust to the light, then looked back at Noah.
He stole her breath, but in a good way. Robbed her mind of thoughts, but she didn’t care. Because all she could see in the soft curve of his mouth and the crinkles at the corners of his eyes was kindness. So even though she was about to ask for his help, she didn’t feel the usual trepidation.
‘Remember how I told you I’m fixing up a house?’
He nodded.
‘Well, the ceiling caved in today—’
‘What!’ He sat taller and ran his eyes over her. ‘You weren’t in there when it came down, were you? That’s not how you hurt your wrist?’
‘No, I made it out in time, but I’ve been too scared to go in there to see how bad it is in case the rest of the ceiling comes down. I don’t have a clue what to do and you mentioned you had experience, so I was hoping you could at least check it out and give me some advice. Maybe point me in the direction of someone who could help.’
‘We’ll get to that in a minute. How’d you hurt your wrist?’
She bit her lip, something she often did to ground herself. ‘It’s not important.’
‘I thought you said you didn’t go inside.’
‘I didn’t.’ Sighing, she admitted what had happened—at this point, what was a bit more embarrassment?
