Page 103 of Finding Forever

Fern’s gaze widened and this time her hand went to her mouth as she tried to stifle her giggle.

“We weren’t gossiping.”

“Then who is this woman to whom you were referring as a penis fly trap? The one who regularly gets her—what was that term?Hoohoo?—yes, herhoohoovajacialed. Also… what the fuck is a vajacial?”

This time the laughter she’d been fighting to hold in finally escaped through the cage of her fingers and pealed out in horrified delight.

He sat quietly, while she quite literally clutched her stomach and rolled with laughter. When her amusement eventually faded into quiet chuckles, she looked up at him through a haze of tears, and found him staring at her with an arrested expression on his face. His eyes were oddly gently, his lips curved into a small, bemused smile, as if he wasn’t quite sure what to make of her, but found that he liked what he saw nonetheless.

She wiped at her eyes with the heels of her hands.

“That funny, huh?” he murmured, reaching over to swipe a thumb over a few stray tears that she’d missed. His touch lingered, his thumb sweeping toward the corner of her lip, before his hand stilled, palm still cupped over her cheek.

She smiled at him, her own hand going up to cover his as she leaned into his gentle touch.

“We were discussing the villain in her new story. Iris is a bit stuck and frustrated as a result. I was tossing out a fewblatantly ridiculous character ideas in an effort to tease her out of her funk. We definitely weren’t speaking about a real person.”

She laughed again—nervously this time—self-conscious beneath that almost possessive stare.

“That’s nice of you. You’re a good friend.” She fought hard to keep from glowing at his faint praise. Cade’s approval still meant too much to her. And she needed to stop hoarding his compliments the way survivalists hoarded resources in preparation of the inevitable zombie apocalypse.

She dropped her hand from his and after a breathless, lingering moment, his touch retreated from her face and his hand lowered.

“You said you have something for me?” she reminded him, keeping her tone cool, interested.

Friendly.

“Yes. Right,” he said, smoothing his face into indifference again. But Fern was starting to recognize his tells. Despite the fact that it was his default resting face, Fern believed that Cade was rarely—if ever—indifferent.

Right at that moment, for instance, she could see lines of strain around his eyes, his lips had thinned, and—yes, there it was—the shallow furrow between his brows, indicating that he was troubled.

He dipped a hand into his suit jacket pocket, and produced a slender, rectangular box. He held the velvet, dark blue, jeweler’s box in his open palm and extended it toward her.

Fern stared at the closed box in confusion.

He was giving her jewelry?

Why?

“What’s this?” she asked, hearing the distrust and suspicion in her voice but helpless to do anything about it. Especially since those were her two overriding emotions right now.

“Take it,” he urged, thrusting the box closer.

She shook her head stubbornly and tucked her hands under her thighs in a move that she’d be the first to admit, was more than a little childish.

“I don’t want, jewelry, Cade. You’ve already given me too much.”

“It’s not—” he began, then bit off the words and rolled his eyes. “Fuck’s sake, why is nothing ever easy with you?”

He snapped the box open in quick, impatient movements, and yanked out whatever was in it before tossing the box carelessly aside.

He held it up in front of her face, a long, dangling object clasped between his thumb and index finger.

A delicate bracelet, brushed platinum, in the same diamond encrusted twisted design as her wedding and engagement rings. With a narrow inch long oval face, engraved with a caduceus and clear block letters.

Fern Hawthorne – Peanut Allergy.

“Oh.” Shock quite literally stole her breath away. Although,whyshe was shocked she did not know. He’d told her he was going to do this. But that had been weeks ago and the memory had been pretty much eclipsed by everything else that had happened between them that same night.

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