“I don’t know how many times I promised Ethan I’d make some for his daughter. I should have given them to him earlier, but I completely forgot. Maybe he can pop back and collect them now?”
Terri watched as Rachel waited for the call to be answered.
Then Rachel rolled her eyes. “No answer. I’ll just leave a message and hope he gets it before he leaves for the airport.”
Terri idly wondered why Ethan hadn’t taken the call. Although, given Gary’s response to his plight, he was perhaps down at a police station trying to make a complaint, or worse, she thought grimacing, in the River Liffey.
“If he calls back later, will you make sure he gets them if I’m not here?”
“Of course.” Terri now wondered if the guy would be back with the cops, given Gary’s recent stonewalling.
Yet she knew he wouldn’t make a scene, for Rachel’s sake at least.
Her friend was breaking up pieces of fat for puff pastry. “Damn, I keep forgetting to take this off,” she said, catching the ring as it was just about to slide into the mixture. She laughed lightly. “If I’m not more careful, one of these days, someone’ll end up choking on it.”
Chapter 40
Ethan was so angry, he thought he might burst. The gall of the man to deny outright that the ring was his when he had to know full well he had come by it in dodgy circumstances!
Enough was enough. There was nothing else for it but to take this whole thing straight to the police now. But the problem was, which police? The incident had happened in New York, so why would the Irish or indeed the British police be interested? And even if they were, what proof could Ethan offer them other than a nonspecific transaction on a credit card statement? He had the Tiffany Diamond Certificate also, but this served more as a warranty for stone quality and wouldn’t necessarily do as definitive proof that the diamond was his.
He wondered then if he might be able to claim the loss back on his credit card insurance altogether. There would be visual proof (as well as witnesses) to his buying the ring in the store, and he supposed he could ring Tiffany’s and ask them to send him security footage of Gary Knowles buying the silver bracelet.
Ethan was annoyed he hadn’t thought of this before now, but stupidly, he’d thought he was dealing with reasonable, rational people, not a thug with no morals who thought nothing of pocketing such a valuable item!
And of course, he’d been somewhat blindsided by Rachel too, hadn’t he?
Well, no more. He’d tiptoed around people long enough, and since Gary had no compunction about deceiving her, Ethan couldn’t realistically be responsible for her feelings either.
He was actually only too delighted to have been offered another excuse to return to the bistro by Rachel herself after her message about collecting cookies for Daisy.
This afternoon, he’d go back, then tell her straight out exactly the kind of man her fiancé really was.
And this time,nothingwas going to stop him.
***
“She’s not here,” Terri told him when he arrived.
His flight was due to leave at seven, and he figured he’d have ample time to pop back and set the record straight to Rachel before heading to the airport.
“She’s catering another event tonight.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t believe this!”
“And I know why you are,” Terri added pointedly.
Ethan’s face grew wary. “What do you mean?”
“I know that your trip this weekend has nothing whatsoever to do with researching a book about bread.”
“I really have no idea what you are talking about.”
Terri smiled and shook her head. “Sweet, but that whole big blue eyes thing isn’t going to work on me. I know about the accident in New York, and I know about the mix-up with the engagement ring. I know you bought an expensive diamond from Tiffany’s but that your girlfriend ended up with a silver charm bracelet.”
His face went white. “How could you possibly—”
“And I also know that you’ve been trying to tell Rachel the truth but for some reason have come up with this cock-and-bull story about researching a book.”
