Spencer just nodded her head.

“Anyway, so they got to Miami and she said it was great. They had found some place on the beach that was playing all this Cuban music and serving Cuban food. So they got even more hammered, danced and ate till the place closed up and finally just booked themselves into a hotel. She said it was one of the greatest nights, or mornings I guess, of her life. They slept the rest of the day and later hit the beach, strolling around and talking. She told me that it was that afternoon, just aimlessly walking with Glen in a city neither knew, that she fell in love with him. They had their first kiss on the beach, made love for the first time in that hotel room. She said she would always love Miami after that. So I thought I’d buy them a beach house there. So they could go back there whenever they wanted to, visit the place where they found their better half, you know? I don’t know, maybe it’s stupid, what do you think?”

Spencer had expected many different answers, but not that one. Ashley had surprised her, like she had so many times in the last few days. She looked at the beautiful, thoughtful young woman in front of her and had to fight the urge to kiss her. She settled for taking her warm hand in her own and squeezing it tightly.

“It’s not stupid, Ashley. I think it’s a wonderful gift, you obviously put a lot of thought and care into it. Kyla’s lucky to have you as a sister, you love her so much.”

Ashley looked a little uncomfortable for a moment, a look of sadness passing over her face.

“It’s me that’s lucky to have her. I put her through some stuff, Spencer, stuff that you don’t know about, no one back here probably knows about, but she stood by me. She helped me when I hit the bottom, she was there the day my eyes opened in some hospital room and I had to make a decision about my life. I’m not going to say I couldn’t have done it without her, but God, it made it so much easier with her there telling me that I was worth loving, that no matter what happened I was her sister and she would never leave me. She definitively helped to glue some pieces back together again and for that I owe her more than I can ever repay.”