by Cara Colter
She snapped her fingers. “I have an idea. You go in and pick out the ring, and I’ll take Chance for a walk. Then you can lock the vehicle.”
“I’m not sure why you’re so worried about that. It doesn’t exactly look like a hotbed of criminal activity,” Jonas said, looking up and down the sleepy main street.
She acted as if it was decided. “And then, after you’ve picked the ring, I’ll go in and get it sized.”
There. That seemed like a safe way of getting out of a totally awkward situation.
“He’ll be fine for a few minutes in the vehicle with the windows down.” Was Jonas deliberately missing the point of Krissy’s reluctance?
She made one last desperate effort. “Someone could steal Chance!”
He looked back at Chance and made a face. “Now that seems highly unlikely. Come on. Half the fun is going to be seeing what you pick.”
Fun, Krissy reminded herself sternly. She got out of the vehicle, took a deep breath and went around to where Jonas waited by the door. Sanderson was etched into the glass. A bell jangled as he opened it and held it for her.
She hesitated, her reluctance to do this deepening. Jonas put his hand on the small of her back and gave her a firm push.
It took a second for her eyes to adjust to the light. They were the only customers. In fact, they were the only people. The store appeared to be unmanned.
“I told you it wasn’t a hotbed of criminal activity,” Jonas said quietly. He took her hand and tugged. “Come on, why don’t we start over here?”
She let him guide her over to the display case. The rings glittered up at her. She felt as if she couldn’t breathe. She recoiled when she caught sight of the price on one.
“That seems a little much for a ruse,” she said, shocked.
“Just play along. Show me the ring you would get if money was no object.”
She glanced at him. Could he not see they were messing with a moment most women spent a good deal of their lives dreaming of? Could he not see that after last night this felt like the worst kind of lie?
Not that Krissy had ever indulged such fantasies, but now that she was here, it was hard to ignore the longing. The wish that it was all different.
The wish that she had entered this store with a man that she loved. That they were looking for a ring that symbolized their commitment to each other, a ring that shone with their hopes and dreams for the future.
Jonas was the kind of man who inspired exactly that kind of fantasy.
“What’s wrong?” he asked her softly. “Don’t be so serious. You’re going to get a permanent line, right here.”
And then he gently touched her brow with the knuckle of his hand, and she could feel the line of tension evaporate under his touch.
Of course, he was right. She didn’t need to be so serious. She could have fun! She could! She pointed at a ring with a huge solitaire diamond. The tag said it was one karat. And that it was worth ten thousand dollars.
“How about that one?”
She had hoped he would reward her choice with shock, and that they would both have a good laugh to break some tension she still held, despite him erasing it from her brow. But Jonas tilted his head and regarded the ring as if it was a serious contender.
“I don’t think you could lift up your hand with that thing on it,” he said. “How about this one?”
She gazed at the one he was pointing at. It was a smaller diamond, flanked by two emeralds. The price made her gulp.
“It’s too much money.”
“We weren’t going to think about money. Yet. It’s just preliminary, to see what you like.”
She peered at the display cases. It was making her head ache. There were too many rings, and they represented too many things, and she was pretty sure the frown line was burrowing in deep between her eyes again.
Get it over with, Krissy ordered herself. “How about this one?”
“You’re picking it because it’s cheaper.”
“It’s good enough.”
“Why do I think the ring out of a candied popcorn box would be good enough for you?”
“Because it would be. It’s a game,” she reminded him tersely. “You could buy this less expensive one and donate the rest of your budget to a holiday for veterans.”
“You really aren’t getting into the spirit of this,” he chided her. “Most women like shopping for jewelry.”
“And you are an expert on that, why?”
He didn’t need to answer. She could see it in his face. This was not his first shopping excursion in a jewelry store with a woman.
And probably not his first one the morning after, either. What on earth was she doing?
As the tension snapped in the air between them, a little old man came out from the back. He looked surprised to see customers. He was wearing a jeweler’s loupe on a chain around his neck. “My hearing isn’t what it used to be. Didn’t hear the door.” He sized them up, smiled. “Sam Sanderson. How can I help?”
“We were just leaving.”
“We’re looking for an engagement ring,” Jonas said, firmly.
“Inexpensive,” she said.
“Ignore her,” Jonas said.
Sam’s eyes went back and forth between them. Krissy was pretty sure he was thinking This will never work.
“My favorite thing,” Sam declared happily. “I can feel the hopes and dreams in the air.”
She felt a shiver go up and down her spine. Wasn’t that exactly the thought she just had about what an engagement ring shopping excursion should be?
“It reminds me of when my Sally and I found the perfect ring,” Sam said.
Krissy had the terribly uncomfortable sensation of treading on something sacred.
“She’s gone now,” Sam continued, “but she still helps sometimes. But you have your own helper already, don’t you?”
“Sorry?” Krissy said. It was so much like something that her aunt Jane would have said that she didn’t even feel shocked when the man appeared to be nodding at someone over her shoulder.
Jonas, though, turned around, frowning, to look.
“Anything catching your eye here?” the man asked.
“Something inexpensive,” Krissy said again, at the same time Jonas, turning back to them, said, “Price is no object.”
The man looked back and forth between them again. A smile tickled his lips. He moved to a different case and came back with a small navy-blue velvet box.
He pushed it slowly across the countertop to Krissy.
She hesitated, feeling as if she was part of a spell. Jonas was the one who reached past her and opened the box. The lid creaked open.
Both of them stared at the ring.
* * *
“Wow,” Jonas said. The truth was he had spent quite a bit of time—and money—in jewelry stores.
It was just the easiest way to say I had a great evening or Here’s a little something to remember us by.
He realized now he was the go-to of a guy who had unabashedly defaulted to superficial in his love life. He was career focused and commitment phobic, and he made no bones about either. Basically, everyone knew the rules going in.
He followed a pretty predictable pattern. There were going to be a few really nice dinners, classic wining and dining, maybe a Broadway show, or a beach or ski weekend trip. The relationship—if it could be called that—was going to be casual, a few good times, some easy laughs. And then it was adios, señorita.
A certain kind of woman went for what he offered. Krissy’s aunt had gotten it in one glance at him. Bimbos.
That seemed a little harsh to him. Still, buying a bauble for a that kind of woman, even an expensive bauble—or maybe especially an expensive one—soothed something in him and satisfied something in her.
Unfortunately, standin
g in this little store with Krissy put the whole thing in a different light, and made it seem he had engaged in a series of tawdry business transactions. It all seemed embarrassingly superficial.
So here was the irony: this relationship with Krissy had been 100 percent fake from the outset. And yet everything about it—from getting to know her dog, to eating ice cream treats, to picnicking in the park felt real.
Last night had been one of the most real experiences of Jonas’s entire existence, though in all honesty, last night was quickly crowding out memories of his past existence!
But here was the truth: there was an authenticity about Krissy that was shining right through the lie he had convinced her to participate in.
Buying this ring was proving no different.
It was supposed to be part of the game, but it didn’t feel like it. Jonas felt invested. He wanted this gift to mean something. He wanted Krissy to love what they bought and remember this time they’d had together forever.
Forever? There was a word Jonas Boyden avoided. Obviously, it had been a bit of a slip asking her to the opening of his newest resort at the end of summer. This was a one-off.
Still, as he had watched her face as she looked at the jewelry, it was more than obvious that Krissy was not a jewelry person and never had been. She hated this exercise.
And yet the ring she was looking at now had transformed her features. It was an exquisite ring.
It was so her in the same way that little black dress had been so her. Classic. Timeless. Understated. Beautiful. The engagement ring was simplicity itself, a circle of perfect diamonds, all the same size, with no central stone.
“There’s no price on it,” she said hoarsely.
“Good,” Jonas said. He lifted the ring from its velvet cushion. As he held it up, it sparked, the diamonds capturing the light and then shooting out blue flames.
Too late, he got how wrong this was, particularly in light of the intimacy they had shared last night. It was taking the whole thing a little too far, but of course, that was something he was known for. He could spend months setting up an elaborate prank.
But as he held out his hand, he was aware this did not feel like part of a prank. He could not take his eyes off her face, the light in it. Krissy caught her tongue between her teeth—that was cute—and then as if caught in the spell, she placed her hand, palm down in his. Her hand felt feminine and soft, and yet there was strength in it, too.
He took a deep breath.
He tried, a little desperately, to remind himself it was a game.
But when he slipped the ring on her engagement finger it felt as if the entire world—and his heart—stood entirely still.
The ring went on easily. It settled at the base of her finger, snug, but not tight. It felt as if it would never come off. It also felt as if it was radiating a strange warmth. Krissy stared at it. He stared at it.
It fit her absolutely perfectly.
“It looks as if it belongs on my hand,” she said, stunned. “I’ve never even worn a ring before.”
She looked up at him, something tremulous in her gaze. Trusting him to somehow turn this debacle he had started into something with redeeming value.
Jonas realized, stunned, they could see where this was going to take them. It didn’t have to be a one-off.
“That’s the one,” Sam said, not with any question in it at all.
She nodded. Jonas nodded.
She slipped her hand from his. He was aware of not wanting to let it go. Krissy never even took the ring off her finger as the old man rang it up. Sam put the empty box in a little silk bag and handed it to her.
“When’s the wedding?” he asked.
“The long weekend,” Jonas said.
“That soon! But what about the wedding band?”
Jonas did not often find himself in situations where he was not in control, where he was caught off-balance, but this seemed to be spinning out of his control. Sam fetched the matching band for the ring and showed it to them.
Jonas found himself nodding that they’d take that, too, and the ring was put it in a box and handed to him.
Sam wagged a stern finger at him. “Don’t put that on her finger until you’ve said your vows. It’s bad luck. If it doesn’t fit properly, bring it back then.”
Jonas found himself nodding like an obedient schoolboy. He needed to remind himself that second ring was never going on her finger.
Unless they decided to see where this would take them. He could feel his heart beating unreasonably.
“Have you got your license? You should run over to the town hall and get it here. It’s just on the corner over there. There’s never a lineup. One more thing off the list.”
“I’m sure they’re not open Saturdays,” Jonas said uncomfortably.
“Yup! Yup, they are. Closed Sundays and Mondays.”
Krissy shot him a look that said they weren’t going to get a license! They stepped out of the store and checked on Chance. He was snoring in the back seat.
Jonas rocked back on his heels and looked down the street.
It had all become a bit too serious for him. Even his own thoughts were veering into deep into uncharted territory. He needed to get this back to a light place, a place where he was comfortable, where they both were aware it was just a game they were playing. It was supposed to be fun!
Then a plan hatching—and maybe feeling a little pressured by Sam, who was watching expectantly from the window—he took her hand and headed for the town hall.
“We are not going to the town hall,” Krissy told Jonas firmly, trying to extricate her hand. “That’s taking it all too far. It’s going to be awful enough when you return the rings.”
“I’m not returning the rings.”
“Of course you are! What use would you have for a ring like this? And the wedding band?”
“None whatsoever. You can keep it.”
“Wh-what?”
“I get the car. There should be something in it for you.”
“I’m not keeping a ring from a phony engagement,” she said. “And I certainly don’t want a fake wedding band.”
“The band itself is not fake,” he pointed out.
“I deduced that from the price.”
“You can have them made into something else, then,” he said, dismissing it.
“We are absolutely not going to the town hall!”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
SUDDENLY IT FELT imperative to Jonas to get Krissy into that town hall to apply for a marriage license.
Not to make it more real, but to make it less so, an essential piece of an elaborate—but fun—stunt.
“Why not?” he said persuasively. “It’s just a piece of paper. It’s a marriage license, not a marriage. Just think if I can show Theresa and Mike a marriage license. It’s the coup de grâce!”
“Coup de grâce is actually a French term that translates to killing blow.”
Who knew things like that? She did. This wonderfully complex, smart, sweet, sexy woman, who was wearing his ring. On her engagement finger.
He had to keep the scam part of this exercise in the forefront. But hadn’t it moved out of that territory last night? Hadn’t he just been thinking they could take it beyond the weekend reunion—after he’d won the bet—and see where it went?
He was never confused! He was not going to let confusion rule now, not this late in his life.
He was keeping his eye on the prize! But his eyes moved to her.
His hand in hers was a mistake. He loved touching her casually like this, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
Come to that, it felt like the most natural thing in the world.
How was that possible? He was on the town hall steps, about to fill out paperwork for a life commitment, and it felt natural. And good.
> He let go of her hand as if it had burned him. He thrust his own offending hand deep into his pocket.
“You’re right,” he said, coming to his senses. “This is taking it too far, even for me, master of the elaborate prank.”
He felt an uneasy awareness that the prize did not feel like his car, no matter how hard he tried to make that the focus.
The prize felt like her.
* * *
Krissy frowned at Jonas’s sudden uncertainty. It seemed very unlike him. For the first time since she had met him, he seemed a little off. Uneasy. Distracted. No doubt the cost of that excursion in the jewelry store had caught him a bit by surprise.
“No,” she said firmly, “Let’s go get the license. You’re right—it’s just a piece of paper. And if it will help convince your family, it’s a good return on your investment in this.”
She held up the ring. It caught the light and winked at her and made her heart do a delicious flip-flop.
Silly as it was, she felt totally different since he’d put that ring on her finger. Not just connected to Jonas, but alive. Bold. Aware of life sizzling with the potential for surprises, for delight, for amazement.
At the best of times, life was all just a game, wasn’t it? Why not just enjoy it?
“I’m prepared to earn the ring,” she told him decisively. “How much was it, again? The whole ‘Now you need a wedding band’ thing distracted me.”
He didn’t say anything, still looking warily up the steps.
“I’ll start earning it right now,” she decided. “I will play the part of your absolutely besotted betrothed. I’ll reprise my queen role.”
“You sucked at being the queen.”
She pretended offense. “I could tone it down a notch. Princess.”
“Would I have to be a prince?”
“Let’s not get carried away. A frog will do.”
She was relieved when he smiled and shrugged his shoulders as if he was rolling out from under a big weight.
He did a surprisingly good impression of a frog, and when she laughed, he did it again. And then they were both laughing, and that strange tension she had seen in him was gone.