Page 25 of One Golden Ring
The front part of my mind is focused on Judi-Bloom’s non-stop description of her journey here, but below that my pulse is racing and every cell of me is oh-so aware of Derek.
Margo shows us over to a table by the fire. She’s got a throw blanket for Michael that she puts over the arm of his chair.
“Anyway,” J.B. says as she flings herself into the seat next to mine. “I’m glad I made it here for the proposal.”
Her earlier comment is still bouncing around in my head.
Finally…
“You don’t seem that surprised about your dad andme,” I hear myself point out as Derek pulls out my chair for me.
“Oh,” she says, huffing out a laugh. “I just knew you two would end up together. I’ve always known.”
“How could you possibly know that?” Derek asks.
He takes the seat across from mine and gazes into my eyes. I can feel my whole body turning red, like I’m a cartoon character that just drank a bottle of hot sauce, and I look away.
But maybe my heated cheeks aren’t so bad as far as how this looks. It’s not wrong to think your fiancé is so cute he makes you blush, right?
Though I don’t think Derek will believe I’m that good of an actress.
My cheeks heat even more. I’m probably red to my hairline.
“How long have you guys been dating, anyway?” J.B. asks.
It’s like someone dumped a bucket of ice water on my head. I have no idea how long we are supposed to have been seeing each other. He wasn’t supposed to do this so soon. We never even had time to go over details like this. I meet Derek’s eyes, willing him to make something up, but he’s just looking at me like he didn’t even hear the question.
“How’s school, Judi-Bloom?” Michael puts in brightly.
“It’s J.B. now, Grandpa,” she says. “And my grades are really good.”
We all wait politely for her to go on, but she just looks around like she has nothing more to say.
Judi—J.B. isn’t exactly a social butterfly, but shealways had a best friend back in her old school. And even if she hasn’t really found her people yet at the boarding school, I’d think she would have something to say about her teachers, her roommates, the school campus… anything.
My mind races for something to say to break the awkward silence and steers us back into a comfortable conversation, but J.B. beats me to it with a question that does exactly the opposite.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were proposing?” she asks her dad, turning the subject right back to us.
He’s got an amazing poker face, but I see the tiniest bit of tension ripple in his jaw and I know he’s stressed by this too. Neither of us likes lying to her. This wasn’t part of the plan.
“It was kind of supposed to be a surprise,” Derek sighs. “And… well, I wasn’t sure she would say yes.”
“Of course she would say yes,” J.B. laughs. “Can I be a bridesmaid? Can I be the best man?”
“You probably have to pick one or the other,” I tell her when her dad just blinks at her in surprise.
“Which one chooses the cake?” she asks thoughtfully. “I’ll be that one.”
“Darcywill choose the cake,” Derek says.
“But you can help,” I offer.
“That might be tough,” she says with a happy grin. “Do they even make triple chocolate wedding cakes?”
I can’t help smiling back at her, and feeling really touched that she remembers the homemade triple chocolate brownies I used to keep in the freezer to save herfrom her father’s horrible healthy lunches when she had a day off school.
She and I would microwave two of them in the break room and add a dollop of ice cream if there was any in the freezer leftover from a recent staff birthday.
