“Chocolate,” Liam demanded, quite clearly.

“Not on your life, boy-o,” was his mother’s response.

“Well.” Brianna lifted her hand to her hair, which was slipping out of its pins. “Let’s get you settled. I’ve put you in the loft room. It’s two floors up, but it’s the most private and the most special.” She glanced over as they started upstairs. “If you’d rather not have so many stairs to deal with, I can change it in no time.”

“I don’t mind the stairs.” She found herself uncomfortable again. Odd, she mused, how much easier it was to deal with Maggie’s abrasive challenge than Brianna’s open welcome.

“The room’s only been ready for a few months. I had the attic converted, you see.”

“It’s a beautiful house.”

“Thank you. Some of the changes to it I made after my father died and left it to me. That’s when I started the B and B. Then when I married Grayson we needed more room still, for a studio for his writing, and a nursery. Our rooms are on the first floor, off the kitchen.”

“Where’s Kayla?” Gray wanted to know when he met them on the stairs on his way down.

“Maggie has her.” In a move so natural and of such long habit she barely noticed, Brianna lifted a hand to his cheek. “You should go for a walk, Grayson, clear your head a bit.”

“I think I will. It’s nice to have you here, Shannon.”

“Thank you.” She lifted her brow when Gray kissed his wife. It didn’t seem quite the casual kiss a husband might give before going off on a walk.

“I’ll be back for tea,” he promised and trooped off.

Brianna led the way to the next floor where a door was already open wide in invitation.

The room was more than anything Shannon could have expected. Wide and airy with a charming window seat set under the sloping eaves of one wall, and a big brass bed tucked beneath the other. Skylights and pretty arched windows let in the sun and the spring air. The lacy curtains billowed and matched the creamy spread.

Fresh flowers were waiting to be sniffed, and every surface gleamed.

She smiled, as she had when she’d seen the valley. “It’s lovely. Really lovely, Brianna.”

“I had it in mind for a kind of special place. You can see to Murphy’s farm and beyond from the windows there.”

“Murphy?”

“Oh, he’s a friend, a neighbor. Murphy Muldoon. His land starts just beyond my garden wall. You’ll be meeting him. He’s around the house quite a bit.” Brianna roamed the room as she spoke, fussing with lamp shades, twitching at the bedspread. “And this room’s more private than the other rooms, a little bigger than most as well. The bath is just here. Grayson read some books, and he and Murphy designed it between them.”

“I thought this Murphy was a farmer.”

“He is, yes. But he’s handy about all manner of things.”