Page 59 of Shark Bait

He walks up to me, but I step back. When he realizes I’m moving away, he retreats to lean against the desk again and slides his hands into his pockets. He jerks his head toward a leather case on the floor by the wooden statue of a brown bunny sitting up on its hind legs. “There’s two million in the case. Your money. All clean. All yours.”

I love the money, and I care about the money, but I also have a pressing issue. “Can I buy an explanation from you for that kind of money, or does that cost more than two million?”

He sighs and looks down at his shoes before pinning me with his brown eyes. “Sit down, Troy.”

I take a seat on the brown leather chair beside the bunny and the money. The library is behind me, the desk across on the left, and right across from me is the window overlooking the front yard, where Alessio and Valerina are talking. She appears animated, moving her arms as she talks. He’s running a hand through this hair. I think they’re arguing.

“Are they arguing about me?” I ask Shark.

“Likely.”

“What’s the problem?” Asking Shark what they’re arguing about might give me an explanation for what he and Alessio planned out this morning without telling me. And possibly without telling Valerina. I want to believe Valerina is out there arguing with Alessio on my behalf even though she just met me.

Because I sure would appreciate her arguing on my behalf.

“They’re arguing about our marriage,” Shark says.

Holy crap. I swallow. It’s true, then. I stare at my left hand. “It’s a beautiful ring.”

Shark crouches in front of me and takes my hands into his, which he then lays on my lap. “You’re not allowed to fold into yourself like this. You’re not allowed to accept the marriage as something that’s happening to you as if you’re a doll I put a ring on and dressed this morning. You are upset I put a ring on your finger and didn’t tell you about it. You’re mad I brought you here to marry you. You’re angry you’re not studying music in Nashville and composing songs on weekends like you planned. Above all, you’re mad because you know that when you marry me, you’ll never get to do any of that.”

He’s right. I am upset about all those things. Yet, I shrug. “What’s anger got to do with it when it’s of no use to me? What happened happened. Regrets won’t change any of it.”

“But you can still feel something about it all. Don’t capitulate on me. At least not about the ring. Even if it’ll make everything much easier for both of us.” He pauses, then goes on. “I meant to propose to you. Even though I know you’d have said no, I meant to propose.”

I frown. “But?”

“But Allesio ordered different rings and in different sizes. While you slept, I picked the three I liked most and tried them on your finger for sizing. It was seven in the morning and I figured I’d get a correct measurement, not to mention I wanted the perfect fit. I wanted to see it on your hand so I could pick the right one.”

“Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“You sleep so sweetly. I couldn’t.”

“Awww. Well, what happened?”

“When I slid this one on”—he taps the diamond—“it fit perfectly, and as I was about to remove it to try the other two, I got an important phone call. I stepped outside, and it turned out it was an urgent problem I had to take care of that took two hours. When I returned, I couldn’t get the ring off your finger.”

“Why not?”

“I think your finger swelled.”

I try to remove the ring, and he’s right, it’s not coming off. “This is kind of funny. Trapped by the four-carat diamond.”

Shark clears his throat. “It’s a nine carat. Nine, not four.”

“Nine. Wow, I’ve never seen a bigger diamond.”

Shark chuckles. “Me either.”

I bite my lip, wondering how much he paid for this ring. I don’t have a phone or anything to google with, but I remember Ican ask Shark anything. Besides, he’d tell me. I don’t think he’d mind if I asked either. “How much did you pay for this?”

He makes a face. “Too much.”

I laugh at his pained expression. “Are we talking forty or fifty thousand?”

Shark side-eyes me. “Not in that range, no.”

“Oh, that’s probably too much. Twenty? That seems a lot for a ring.” I don’t know anything about diamonds besides thinking that they’re pretty.

---