Page 45 of First Comes Marriage

She rinsed her hands in the sink, washing away the excess lotion, and wrapped one of his oversized, fluffy towels around herself, tucking the end into the top between her breasts. She removed the towel from her head and scrunched the still-damp locks in the fabric, working out the last bits of water.

“So ten?” he asked from the other side of the door.

Her cheeks ached from trying to contain her smile. She set aside the towel she’d been using to dry her hair and opened the bathroom door. Sure enough, Sebastian was leaning against the door frame. His eyes slid down her body, leaving goosebumps in their wake.

“Ten minutes,” she said. “You can time me.”

He cleared his throat, his eyes darting away. “I have something for you.”

“Is it an insurance card?”

“No. Well, yes. The temporary card is next to your purse.” He tilted his head down the hall, towards where she’d left her purse on the kitchen island. “The permanent one will be here next week. But this is something different.”

Sabrina wasn’t sure what she expected when he reached inside his jacket pocket, but it certainly wasn’t a jewelry box. A black velvet ring box, to be exact. He held it out to her.

She opened the box and sucked in a shocked breath. The light glinted off the large oval diamond solitaire nestled in the box beside a matching platinum wedding band, a trio of small diamonds embedded in the center. “What is this?”

“Can’t take you to your parents’ house without a proper ring.” Sebastian reached for her left hand, but paused before he touched her. “May I?”

“Of course.”

It wasn’t until he was slipping the gold band she’d worn for the last few weeks off her finger that she realized he also wore a new band, platinum to match the rings he’d presented to her. She grabbed for the gold band as he moved to pocket it.

“I like our original rings,” she said, a lump forming in her throat that she couldn’t quite explain.

“They’re cheap.”

“Inexpensive,” she countered.

“It’ll probably turn your finger green.”

“Hasn’t yet.”

He paused, meeting her eyes, and placed the gold band in her palm.

“Where’s yours?” she asked.

“In my pocket.”

“You didn’t get rid of it?”

He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “Seemed wasteful.”

“But buying new rings wasn’t?”

His eyes darted up to hers and away, back to her hand as he carefully removed the engagement ring from the box and slid it onto her finger. “Maybe we needed real rings.”

Her fingers clenched around the small gold band hidden in her palm. “We already had real rings.”

He paused with the wedding band halfway down her finger. His eyes narrowed as he examined the new jewelry on her finger. “Are these…” He cleared his throat and started again. “Are these not good?” His eyes flicked to hers and then back to the rings, but in that flash she saw the insecurity scrabbling for purchase. Her chest ached at the vulnerability there, how young and unsure he seemed in that moment, this man who was always sure of everything. “The jeweler said—”

“They’re perfect.” His eyes flicked to hers again, the doubt written in the tension in his lips and the furrow betweenhis brows. “Really, Sebastian. They’re beautiful. But it wasn’t necessary. That’s all.”

He exhaled hard through his nose and finished sliding the wedding band into place, his fingers lingering for a moment to trace the line of the two bands against her skin. “It was. For me.”

His fingers drifted from the rings across her palm, settling against her wrist. Each stroke of his fingertips against the sensitive skin there sent tendrils of hope through her nerve endings, wrapping themselves around her heart and squeezing.

Stupid traitorous heart. Add it to the list of treasonous organs.

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