“I meant borderline between gigantic and colossal.” I press my fingers to my closed lids. “Oh no.”
He grips my arm. “What’s wrong?”
“I just had an epiphany. Iamlike other girls. I like big diamonds.” My face must show my dismay. “A lot.”
Knox chokes himself on a laugh, which brings a smile to my lips. He grows faux serious. “If you think this is something, you should have seen the wedding band she picked out.”
“I can only imagine.” I swat a piece of hair back toward the ponytail that’s end-of-the-day limp. “So it isn’t a dealbreaker? You know, if the next girl really likes giant diamond rings?”
“Next girl?”
My breath stalls, my teeth nearly wearing a hole through my bottom lip. No one shoved me into this spot—I literally walked into the conversation all by lonesome. “Hypothetically speaking, that is.”
Omigosh.I am such an idiot. We barely know each other.
“Hypothetically speaking…” With a sly grin, he reels me back to him using both of his big, strong hands. “No.”
We both laugh as he repockets the ring.
I rest my palms back into their favorite position—flat against his solid chest. “Hold on a sec. You guys broke up a year ago. Becca is just now getting this back to you?”
His tongue clicks. “Thought I was going to have to file a lawsuit.”
“You’d have sued?” He’d have been well within his rights. Heck, I’d have filed the paperwork pro bono if he’d asked. The law is on his side on this one. But I have to admit, legal action against someone Knox once loved doesn’t sound very…Knoxy…of him.
“On bad days, I considered it.”
“Is it real?” The gauche question spills out. Four-carats-at-a-minimum, in that setting, takes serious money.
“For as much as I paid, it sure better be.”
“I can’t believe she was so frivolous with your money.” And then tried to hold on to it after breaking his heart. I shake my head. Some people. “Insult to injury.”
“Yep.” He shrugs and smooths his hand over the Velcro.
Yeah, don’t want to let that one wind up in the mud.
“Sounds like Rand found out she’d hung onto it, and that was a bridge too far.”
“A bridge he wanted burned?”
“Exactly, though, trust me, it went up in flames long ago.”
I fold my arms and sigh. “Well, at least now you can recoup some of your losses. Get the thing paid off.”
“It’s paid for.”
My finger toys with one of his shirt buttons. Sure, counter to my initial impression, Knox is in charge at this large jobsite, so he must make a good living. It just seems—the ring seems—next-level. I earn a good living, but if I were unwise enough to buy the ring in question, it would be with the help of a payment plan that carried me into my next decade of life.
“Whatcha thinking?”
“Nothing.” I shake my head, shaking away the temptation to verbalize my thoughts. Knox’s financial decisions are none of my business.
“Hey.”
I feel his hands clasp at the small of my back, and his expression intensifies.
“Everly, there’s something I’ve been meaning to set straight with you. It’s not a big deal, but—”
