Page 94 of His Christmas Wife

“Greta, you mean?”

“Exactly. Did she want a small diamond? With the way she posted it all over social media…” She shuddered. “So tacky.”

“The story you told Kaylee about your ring, was it true?”

“Absolutely. I wanted something to symbolize the way I felt about your grandfather. I had no interest in impressing anyone in the outside world. Kaylee reminds me of myself. And the gift she brought me? It might have seemed small to you, but it was thoughtful. Caring. And I know damn well it was expensive, so it stretched the budget she no doubt has. And yet she did it.” Ophelia shook her head. “You’re still not fully understanding, are you?”

No doubt she intended to enlighten him.

“Kaylee doesn’t care about who you are or what you can provide for her.”

“And you know that…how?”

“Her reaction to the tiara. Oh, Evan, you should see it. She understood what it meant from an emotional standpoint. There was no way she could accept that gift. Am I wrong?”

“On the contrary. She shoved it back at me.”

“And told you it belongs to the family?” She nodded knowingly. “To your future wife?”

Kaylee’s vehemence still took him aback.

“Did she cry?”

Her raw emotion, and his impotence to do anything to soothe her, still haunted him.

“If she didn’t care for you—love you—would she have reacted that way?”

“What?”Love?“You can’t be serious.”

Ophelia leaned forward to place her cup on the desk. “The question is what do you want, Evan? I’ve watched you. I’m proud of you. What happened with your dad and how it destroyed your mom would turn anyone off to the idea of love. And then there was Greta.” She brushed her hands together. “Good riddance. At least she showed who she was before she got her claws in your bank account.”

“You saw it. Which was why you didn’t give Greta the tiara.”

“Would have been over my dead body. And I mean that. You’d have had to give it to her from my inheritance. When that woman looked at you, she saw dollar signs and the type of lifestyle she wanted. She didn’t see you or your needs. Her parents spoiled her, created an entitled little bitch.”

He blinked. His gran was always so refined that the mild curse shocked him.

“They turned out to be garbage as well, abandoning your mother when the scandal happened.”

“Like most of her friends.”

“It’s when the truth is revealed, isn’t it?”

He nodded.

“And there’s Kaylee…”

The woman he was obsessed with. Enough so that he’d placed her ring on his nightstand. As a reminder of what he’d lost?

“You can spend your life bearing the wounds left by others, be cold and distant hoping to protect yourself. No one, especially me, would blame you. But I saw you with her, your tenderness, the glances you shared, your gentle touches, the way you wanted to protect her.” She folded her hands in her lap. “What do you want, Evan? If my suspicions are correct, getting it may require taking the biggest emotional risk of your life.”

“But she walked away.”

“You’re thinking her behavior was reminiscent of Greta’s?” Gran guessed.

Kaylee hadn’t even given him the opportunity to talk things out—and maybe she wasn’t open to compromise.

“I take it she needed her job.”

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