Total pages in book: 170
Estimated words: 160166 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160166 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
My heart races and my body leans against his.
Declan breaks the kiss, his eyes lingering on mine for a few beats. “Look at the rings,” he says softly, and turns my head so I’m looking at the glass case again. “What about that one?”
He points to a pear-shaped diamond with a band of pink diamonds. It’s beyond pretty and delicate and looks way too expensive to be on my finger, but I can’t take my eyes off it. Declan clears his throat and the jeweler comes around to the case without a word spoken. The keys on his hips jingle unneeded as he unlocked all the cases when we first arrived. He offered us champagne, too, which I declined. I think last night did a bit of a number on me.
As we wait quietly, Declan’s hand on the small of my back, the man opens a panel in the back, takes out the ring, and shows it to the both of us, talking about the size of the diamond, the cut, and the artist.
I never knew there were so many ways to judge the worth of a diamond. In my wildest dreams I never thought I’d be shopping at a store like this, picking out a ring with a man like Declan Cross.
The jeweler hands the ring to Declan, who slips it on my finger. He holds my hand in both of his and turns the ring one way, then another, viewing it in the light. His dark eyes meet mine, “What do you think?”
“I love it,” I whisper without taking my eyes off his.
“Is it the one?”
I hesitate, my heart racing, and Declan informs the jeweler that he wants to keep looking.
“We’ll keep an eye on this one.” Declan hands it back to the jeweler, and we continue moving around the cases in the quiet jewelry store. My heart beats faster. I really did love that ring, but maybe I just loved Declan’s hands on mine. Maybe I would love any ring like that.
It turns out that no, I don’t love any ring like that. We try a few more, moving slowly between the cases. I keep glancing at Declan to see if he’s getting impatient with me, but he doesn’t.
“Are you upset?” he asks, his voice quiet when I shake my head after another ring. “You look sad,” he tells me when I only stare up at him. It’s beautiful, it just doesn’t make my heart beat faster. “If you don’t like any of the rings, we can go to another jewelry store.”
I’ve never seen Declan Cross as nervous as I do today. “I’m not upset with you and I love these rings. Any number of them would be perfect…I was just thinking about my mom.”
“What about her?” he asks although his gaze is on the case. I’m sure he knows exactly what I’m thinking.
“I miss her,” I admit. “It feels wrong to get married without her blessing. She’d want to know about this.” What I’m about to say isn’t fully true, so I rethink the sentence.
“I can understand that.” He doesn't offer a solution though and my heart sinks. We move to the next case and instead of swallowing down my thoughts, I blurt them out. Awkward jeweler be damned.
“And…once we’re married, I have to go back to some kind of normalcy. It can’t always be…you know.” I motion toward the empty jewelry store.
Declan cracks a smile and it changes his entire expression. His eyes light up, and he looks softer than he has in a long time. “You can’t always be in an empty jewelry store? I don’t plan on this being a weekly event.”
“You know what I mean. I definitely don’t want to hide our marriage from the world.”
“I don’t plan to hide our marriage. Trust me on that one, Braelynn.”
The door opens with a little ping and I turn to see Nate hovering near the front door. Our driver apparently wanted out of the cold for a minute.
“Hey,” Declan whispers and gets my attention once again, his dark eyes peering into mine. “I want you to be happy,” he says definitively. “And safe. That’s what I want from this. If being happy includes telling your mom, then we should do something about that.”
My heart does this little flip every time he makes it easy. Why does it feel like I can let go now. Why does it feel like everything is going to be all right, even though I know I should be scared?
“We can tell her. We can have her over or you can go see her,” he says and when he swallows, his Adam’s apple draws my eyes down.
“Are you nervous?” I whisper somewhat teasingly and he flashes a charming smile.
“Let’s get you a ring,” he answers with a blush creeping into his cheeks.