Page 70 of The Proposal
I don’t answer her, letting her sit with her question and ponder the answer. Instead, I drink my wine and study her pretty face.My wife’s pretty face.
This might be the best mistake I’ve ever made.
“I have something for you,” I say finally.
“What’s that?”
Her tone tells me what she thinks, or hopes, I mean. She’s not wrong.But not yet.
“It’s a birthday present,” I say. “I know nothing can top me as your gift, but I wanted to try.”
She laughs.
I slip the pink box from my pocket and hand it to her. Her eyes widen as it sits in her palm.
“What is this?” she asks.
“Open it.”
I hold my breath as she lifts the top from the box. When she gasps, I exhale.
“Renn! What the hell did you do?” she asks, a laugh painting her words.
“It’s your wedding ring. I mean, if you like it.”
She tears her eyes away from the diamonds. “What do you mean,if I like it? It’s …” She laughs in disbelief. “Did you actually buy this?”
“What is it with you thinking I’m stealing shit? First, it was babies, and now it’s rings.”
Her cheeks flush. I can feel the warmth run through my body.
“Look, cutie. This is a real marriage, even if it’s only for a short time. And I’m not about to let anyone think I’d marry you and not treat you like a queen.”
“You don’t think it’s over the top? Should I give it back to you when we get divorced? Yeah,” she says hurriedly. “I should. Of course, I should.”
“Blakely.”
She sucks in a breath.
“That’s yours. I want you to have it.” I start to tell her to do whatever she wants with it once we divorce, but I can’t make myself say the words out loud. It would break the moment.
No, it would probably break more than just the moment.I like this woman. I may not have ever thought I’d marry her, but now that I have, I want her to have everything she wants … which seems like such a one-eighty from my usual position.But this is Blakely. Everything is different.
“Please keep it,” I say. “I bought it for you. I hoped you’d like it.”
“In that case, thank you. You’ve blown my mind a little bit.”
Just wait until later…
I take the box from her and remove the ring. My heart pounds as I slip the delicate band around her left finger.
She lifts her hand in the air. “Now I get it.”
“Get what?”
She places her hands on her lap. “That’s why you got my nails done. Because you knew you were putting a ring on one of them.”
I smile.
