‘What is it?’ He leaned forward, clearly trying to ascertain the cause of her reaction. ‘See something you don’t like?’
‘Are you kidding?’ She grabbed his sleeve, determined to make him see how much she loved his ideas. ‘Noah, I wasn’t offering an empty platitude just now. These plans are amazing. Honestly. I don’t want you to change a thing. This is exactly how I want you to renovate the house.’
Ellie chose that moment to walk in with an enormous bowl of steaming pasta. ‘I’m sorry. Am I interrupting?’ Her brow arched and she grinned.
Beth rolled her eyes, trying to appear cool, calm and collected, and got up to grab three pasta bowls from the sideboard. ‘Of course not. Your cousin’s just blown me away with his talent, that’s all.’
Ellie smirked at Noah. ‘Is that what the kids are calling it these days?’
Noah coughed and sat back in his chair but thanked Beth when she placed an empty bowl in front of him.
‘Seriously, Elle,’ Beth gushed, pushing the plans across the table. ‘Look at this!’
With a smirk at Noah, Ellie pulled the plans close and studied them, eventually nodding like she was impressed. ‘Gotta admit, cuz, you do know what you’re doing when it comes to renovating houses.’
‘A compliment?’ Noah raised his brows. ‘Wonders will never cease.’
‘Shut up.’ Ellie stood and scooped some pasta into a bowl.
‘I forgot you said you’d renovated a few places,’ Beth said, accepting the bowl from Ellie. ‘Whose houses were they? I’d love to see them.’
‘What a great idea! You should show her, Noah. Give her the grand tour of the last place you renovated.’
Noah gave Ellie a bland look. ‘Do you mind?’
Ellie twirled some pasta around her fork and grinned. ‘Not at all.’
‘The first place I renovated,’ Noah said, ‘was the original homestead on our family property. My grandparents lived in it and my dad grew up in it, but when Gramps and then Gran eventually passed, I wanted to do something to honour their memory, so I got stuck in and gave their place a makeover.’
‘That’s so sweet,’ Beth told him.
He shrugged like it was no big deal, but his motivation for renovating his grandparents’ place echoed the thought she’d had a moment ago—that by investing in the house’s transformation, she’d be honouring the aunt she’d never known.
‘Told ya.’ Ellie winked. ‘Golden child of the Brennan family.’
Noah glared at her. ‘If I had a bread roll right now, I’d throw it at you.’
Ellie feigned indignance. ‘Ungrateful.’
‘Says you,’ Beth piped up. ‘You threw pasta at me not half an hour ago.’
‘I was testing it to see if it was cooked!’
‘It hadn’t even been boiled yet!’
‘Okay, children,’ Noah interrupted, waving both hands in a gesture intended to placate. ‘Eat your dinner.’
Beth ignored the reprimand. ‘And what about your other projects?’
‘Hmm?’
‘You said you’ve renovated a few places. Tell me about the recent one Ellie mentioned.’
Noah threw another baleful look at his cousin. ‘It’s my place, actually. Originally, the house belonged to the neighbouring farm, but when the owner died, we bought the property and the house came with it. I moved in and decided to give the whole renovation thing another go.’
‘You must love it. Renovating, I mean.’
He nodded as if there were a thousand ways he could express just how much, but he kept his answer short. ‘I really do.’
