She scoffed. “It’s not curly. It’s a mess. There isn’t a single pattern to it. Some parts wave, some parts spiral, some parts stick straight up like I stuck my finger in a socket. If I don’t tame it twice a week, I look like I lost a fight with a tumbleweed.”
Unexpected heat spread through me at the thought of her hair in its natural state. Preferably in the morning. After a night in my bed. “It sounds like you spend a lot of time fussing over it, but I’d actually love to see it curly.”
She blinked hard, but for once, she didn’t have a comeback. Color bloomed across her cheeks instead, turning them a rosy hue that made me think more about those things I’d admitted to Will I shouldn’t have been thinking.
Fuck. This woman is killing me and she doesn’t even know it.
Meanwhile, she turned toward the window, suddenly fascinated by passing traffic while my pulse kicked up. I focused on the road, but shit. Her hair might not have been working with her, but my entire body was actively working against me.
I’d say I have the bigger problem. The more obvious one, at least.It didn’t help at all that the citrus and warm vanilla scent of her was in every breath I took.
Twenty minutes of weird torture later, we pulled into the garage beneath another towering skyscraper. I parked and cut the engine, but neither of us moved immediately.
“Where are we?” she asked finally.
“You’ll see.”
Suspicion flickered across her face, but she didn’t argue, simply following me to the elevator and then riding it up with me to the sixtieth floor. When the doors opened, we stepped into a private reception area washed in warm lighting and polished marble.
Glass display cases lined the far wall, each one glittering with diamonds that probably cost more than most people’s homes. Kate immediately stopped walking. “Nate…”
“I scheduled a private meeting,” I said, keeping my voice even despite the nerves licking the insides of my veins like fiery tongues. “My family usually likes this jeweler’s work. This is special, though, so if you don’t like what they have, just let me know and we’ll go somewhere else.”
Her eyes widened slightly as understanding dawned. “The ring?”
I nodded just as a woman in a tailored charcoal suit approached with a welcoming smile, clearly expecting us. “Mr. Westwood. Ms. Vanderhaul. If you would please follow me, we can get started.”
“Thank you, Amanda,” I said, but Kate remained frozen beside me, her fingers tightening around the strap of her purse.
I gestured toward the seating area arranged beside a long, velvet display table. “After you, darling.”
She arched an eyebrow at me at the term of endearment but moved over to the couch. I followed her, hyper-aware of the weight settling across my shoulders and the strange, steady certainty forming beneath it.
If we were going to do this, we were going to do it right. I had a ring for her already, sitting on the velvet tray among a spread of pristine, glittering options the jeweler had laid out for us, but that was the only one that mattered to me.
The only one that had weight beyond carats and clarity. It’d belonged to my mother, a piece she used to wear all the time, and she’d left it to me in her will. I hadn’t known what I’d do with it back when I first inherited it. The idea of giving it to someone had always felt distant. Hypothetical.
Until Kate.
The diamond was stunning, set in warm gold and circled by delicate rubies that caught the light like embers. I didn’t plan on pointing it out to her. I’d only asked the jeweler to include it with the other options, just in case. Just to see how it looked beside newer designs.
Kate leaned forward over the display, her fingers hovering reverently over the selection and her eyes sparkling with open fascination. She moved past the modern halo settings and the elaborate vintage recreations without hesitation.
Her breathing hitched when her gaze snagged on my mother’s ring. “Oh. Nate, that one.”
A strange, off-kilter sensation sped through me as she reached for it, like the floor had just tilted slightly beneath my feet.
“That’s not—” I started but stopped myself before I gave anything away.
She turned it slowly between her fingers, the rubies flashing like tiny flames. “It’s gorgeous. God, I love rubies.”
The words landed like a second shockwave and I stared at her. Something tightened in my ribcage as she slipped the ring onto her finger purely to admire it. But it slid into place perfectly.
Like it was meant to be.
Amanda cleared her throat politely, but I barely heard her over the roar building in my ears. Kate held her hand up, twisting her wrist so the diamond scattered fractured light across the glass cases and ceiling.
“It fits,” she said softly, almost to herself. “Like it was meant to be mine.”
