I get my door open as he gets to it. Once I step out, he takes my hand and starts walking us away from the hotel, down the sidewalk. I might be able to walk, even run in heels, but these weren’t for wearing long-term outside. Especially when it’s freezing outside as it is now.
This winter is supposed to be the coldest we’ve had in years. We even had snow on Thanksgiving, which hadn’t happened in fifteen years. I looked it up.
I open my mouth to say something when Calder stops us in front of a jewelry store. “What are you . . .”
I don’t get to finish asking before he opens the door and we’re stepping inside.
“Hello, welcome to Teardrop Diamonds, I’m Lacey,”
“Wedding sets,” Calder says, not looking at Lacey as he scans the displays.
Did he just say . . .
“Our wedding bands are right over here,” Lacey states, looking between the two of us, probably calculating what she can make on commission. Hate to tell her, but it won’t be much. By that I mean, I’m not letting him buy me a ring. “We have several different options.”
Calder walks us over to the display, his eyes scanning. I also look myself because, well, I do like jewelry. I spot a beautiful black diamond, not too big, definitely not small, with a cluster of little black and white diamonds surrounding it. If I ever had to pick my own ring out, that would be it. It even had a matching ring that curves into it.
“That one,” Calder states, pointing to the glass. “The black diamond set and the black tungsten carbide.” I whip my head around to find he was now staring at Lacey as he pulled out his wallet and then his card. “Ring them up.”
“Calder,” I whisper, earning his eyes. “What are you doing?”
Lacey takes his card and rushes off to do as he tells her, leaving us alone.
What he doesn’t do is answer my question.
Moments later, Lacey brings Calder back his card along with a receipt to sign. He signs it and hands it back. She then bags up the rings and hands them to him. Calder sets the bag down, takes out both rings with the black diamonds, and slides them on the ring finger of my left hand. He then takes out the one for him and slides it on his.
Oh. My. God.
Everything that’s happened in the past two hours starts to really sink in. Really sink in.
Calder Blanche and I were married. He just bought rings without asking the cost of them.
“Come on,” he murmurs, taking the bag in his hand and guiding me out of the jewelry store back in the direction of the hotel.
We don’t stop back at the car, no, he walks right to the front doors and into the warmth of the hotel, straight to the reservation desk.
“Hey, welcome to the Hillside Hotel. How may I?—”
“Reservation under Calder Blanche,” Calder states, interrupting the guy behind the desk.
The guy behind the desk’s eyes widen, and he nods. “Yes, Mr. Blanche, they’ve made sure your room is ready for you,” he says, handing over a card without taking any identification or anything from Calder.
Calder nods, takes the card, and again walks us toward the elevator.
I’m not sure what’s happening here, but I intend to find out. This isn’t something I thought would be happening. I figured once we finished with the elope wedding, something I never saw myself doing when it came time to marry the man of my dreams, I’d be heading back to my apartment alone. Not to some hotel that is really nice. Not wearing the most beautiful ring I’d ever seen. Not holding the hands of a beautiful man, I don’t even know.
It seems Calder and I were definitely going to have to talk things over. That is, if I can get him actually to talk to me.
three
CALDER
“Can you tell me what exactly we’re doing here?” Emerie demands, hands going to her hips, leg cocked slightly, one leg out just a bare hint more than the other.
Fuck.
Standing in this pose, she’s got me tempted to toss her on the bed and have my way with her instead of ordering us dinner.
