Page 15 of Without Regret

“You do?” I was shocked.

“Yep. Give me ten minutes, then come on outside. I have a plan.”

“What plan?”

“Don’t worry.” He turned on heel, heading out the door.

Famous last words. Because now I was worried. If he blew this, Simon would never forgive me.

I stepped outside ten minutes later to see all the women sitting around the beautiful glass fire pit. Simon, Peyton’s brother-in-law and his neighbor were by the barbeque. The dogs were worn out, lying beside one another like best mates. Trevor gave me a wink before sitting down with the girls. He made me nervous about his so-called plan, but I took a chair amid the group, curious to see what was up his sleeve.

He was seated in a lawn chair next to Peyton with his sister on the other side of him. “You have one of those automatic Roomba vacuum things, Peyton?”

She shook her head. “No. I’d love to get one, but I think it would drive Cooper crazy to see it moving around the house. I think I’d come home with it chewed up.”

“Good, because I wouldn’t recommend them to people with dogs.”

“Yeah, did Rufus chew one up?”

He grinned. “Nope, way worse.”

Where the hell was he going with this?

“We unfortunately discovered pooparoomba a few months back while I had Rufus visiting my father’s house in Houston.”

“What is pooparoomba?” Peyton asked.

Avery gave a convincing shiver. “Awful. Scarring and horrible.”

He laughed. “It was. So picture this. A Roomba thing has a floor plan and moves in a pattern. Imagine your dog was shut in the bedroom, but makes his way out and has an unfortunate accident on the carpet. And the Roomba doing what a Roomba does, runs over it and proceeds on its merry way for the next hour, spreading the poop throughout the entire top floor of the house in quite the pattern. Pooparoomba is born.”

Everyone cracked up, myself included. What the actual fuck this had to do with gleaning information on what type of ring Peyton wanted, I had no clue.

“Had to replace the entire carpet. And poor Rufus is relegated to the pool house from now on when my father is home.”

Avery spoke up. “Yes, and no more Roomba because that thing also sucked up my engagement ring. Thankfully, not together with the poop. Anyhow, I had to take it apart to get the ring out.”

“I didn’t know you were engaged,” Peyton said.

Trevor stood up. “That’s my cue to join the boys.” He moved on as if passing the baton to his sister.

“I was engaged, but I caught him with my best friend. Guess I should’ve taken it as a sign when the Roomba sucked up the ring.”

“I’m so sorry,” Peyton offered.

“Thank you. At least I wasn’t heartbroken over the ring. Truth is I didn’t care for it. He didn’t ever ask what type of ring I wanted. Just bought whatever it was he thought would look good.”

Ding, ding, ding. I was impressed. Avery and Trevor must’ve planned out this bizarre transition.

Avery sighed. “Not to sound bratty, and I never complained when we were together, but I much prefer the round cut in a platinum setting. Mine was pear and in gold. What about you, Emma? What kind of cut do you prefer?”

Huh. Right. I was expected to participate. How had this turned to me when I had absolutely no aspirations toward getting engaged or picking a ring? “I quite like anything vintage.” There was something about a family heirloom that had been passed down for generations which intrigued me. Perhaps it was because I had absolutely nothing from my own birth family. Not one picture. Not a special blanket. Nothing.

“I love vintage, too. Something about the history is so romantic,” Peyton remarked. “I especially love the platinum settings.”

I had what I needed and couldn’t wait to tell Simon. Smiling, I met Trevor’s eyes across the yard. When he winked, I tried not to blush.

By the time I made it home later that night, I realized I’d actually started to feel comfortable with him. However, I wasn’t sure if that was a good or a bad thing.

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