Pain that I’m determined to help lessen before my time with him is up.
“You know, the twenty-five windows of her crown each represent a different gemstone on Earth?” I say as I look out of the window in front of us.
I sneak a sideways glance at him. A knowing smile graces his lips, but he keeps his eyes forward.
“But of course, you know that. You’ve lived here your whole life, and your family’s history is built around diamonds and jewels.” I roll my eyes with a smile.
“It is. We’ve become known for our family-mined diamonds. But it wasn’t always diamonds. It was all kinds of gemstones once.”
“Before you met your wife?”
His smile vanishes, and he gives a tight nod.
It’s something I came across in my research after Sinclair hired me. Sterling’s family owned an established jewelry firm on the East Coast. But it’s only been in the past thirty years that they’ve become famous for the diamonds they source from their own mines. Mines that were previously linked to his late wife’s family.
“What was she like?” I ask, hugging Jenny’s photo against my chest as the sun rises higher in the sky.
“She…” Sterling runs a hand around his jaw, exhaling slowly. “She was a great mom. She loved the kids more than anything.”
“And you,” I add softly. “She loved you more than anything too.”
A muscle clenches in his cheek, and he keeps his focus trained on something in the distance.
Guilt tugs at me for being the reason a heaviness has shrouded him all of a sudden. I know what it’s like, remembering how much someone who’s gone loved you. It makes you feel like your heart is being torn out, knowing you won’t ever hear them say it again.
“It’s okay to let yourself be loved again. You deserve it,” I say gently.
“Thank you, Halliday.” His voice is weighted with something I can’t place.
The sun’s rays flow over the two of us, warming my skin and making my fingertips tingle around Jenny’s photograph like she’s trying to tell me something.
“Hallie,” I whisper.
It’s barely more than a breath through my lips, but Sterling turns and looks at me with such an intensity that I know he heard.
“I…” I falter, avoiding his gaze, before allowing a small smile to lift my lips. “I liked the way hearing it again made me feel. How it made memories, happy ones, surface again.”
I chance a look into his eyes and they’re shining, studying me.
“I’d like it if you call me Hallie,” I breathe.
His gaze softens, the heaviness that was in him moments ago, gone. “Of course. If that’s what you want.”
I nod, unable to add that I only wanthimto call me Hallie. No one else. That I loved the way his deep tone made goosebumps scatter up my spine when it rolled from his tongue like butter on hot toast.
Perhaps the universe put us together for this reason. Maybe while I find him love, he’s supposed to help me remember it. Remember to focus on the things that made my heart lift in my chest and not on the gaping hole that’s been left there in its place. Because any other explanation for the way my body lights up when he’s around just doesn’t make sense.
“You okay?”
“Yep,” I reply too fast, my voice cracking. “Fine.”
“Hallie?”
The sound of my name from his lips again makes me choke out a small, muffled squeak.
Everything rushes me at once. Jenny’s smile. Her laugh. The way she felt in my arms when we hugged.
Memories of a love so pure.
