When Cary kissed her, he pushed her head back.
Fifty-Eight
before
Ryan was older than Shiloh. He graduated two years ahead of her and got a job at a high school in Omaha, exclusively teaching theater. That was a coup—most drama teachers had to teach English, too.
They were long-distance while Shiloh finished school. Ryan drove back to Des Moines most weekends to see her. She got an apartment because he hated visiting the dorms.
Ryan loved his teaching job, but he was open to leaving Nebraska. Shiloh still wanted to get her master’s degree, and there’d be more theater opportunities somewhere else—in Chicago, or even New York.
They were going to decide together on their next step.
The summer before Shiloh’s senior year, she and Ryan were both cast in a theater-in-the-park show that a friend was directing for her thesis. It was a comedy of errors set in the 1940s—and drew surprisingly big crowds.
There weren’t enough men in the cast, so Shiloh put on high-waisted pants and a pencil-thin moustache. Her hair was still bobbed. It was a very sexy look—she could tell because literally everyone in the cast paid more attention to her, male and female. She kept making the stage manager, a freshman girl from Bettendorf, blush.
Shiloh played the rake; she had all the best punchlines. Ryan was the shady mobster. They fought over the ingenue and both lost her to the fresh-faced soldier, played by another woman in the cast.
Shiloh and Ryan went shopping for rings that summer, in pawnshops and antique stores. She picked out a vintage ring with a small diamond and etched band.
She didn’t knowwhenRyan was going to propose—but she wasn’tsurprised when he pulled her out of the curtain call one night. All the other actors stepped back, like they knew what was coming.
Ryan glanced out at the audience, to get them on his side before he went down on one knee.
Shiloh was already smiling so wide. She was stupidly in love with him... Charming, handsome Ryan. Always the best part of every show. Always the best-liked person in every cast. Ryan, who liked helping people with their lines. Who liked helping build the sets. Who was excited about teaching and wanted to travel and spoke a little Italian and a lot of Spanish.
Shiloh was lucky to catch his eye. She was lucky Ryan didn’t mind being shorter than her. She was lucky that he didn’t mind her energy or her opinions. That he loved the way they looked together.
Being with Ryan was so easy. It was going to be easy to love him. He was going to be the soft, bright center of her life.
When Ryan asked her to marry him—in a voice that carried—Shiloh bit her lip and looked at the audience, like she wasn’t sure. Even though they all knew shewassure. They clapped and shouted. Shiloh laughed. She looked down into Ryan’s blue eyes and said, “Yes.”
The rest of the cast cheered and tossed confetti. One of their friends took photos.
It was perfect. It was everything she wanted.
Fifty-Nine
before
“So you haven’ttalkedto Shiloh about this...” Mikey was standing on the other side of a jewelry case. He wore Otis in a sling around his chest—both Mikey and Otis seemed so accustomed to the sling that they didn’t notice it. Mike supported the baby with a palm under his rump and held one of Otis’s chubby hands.
Janine had gone back to work. Mikey was with Otis all day now. He was home when Cary arrived from the airport.
“No.” Cary was looking down at the jewelry case. There were hundreds of rings, new and used. This place specialized in unusual jewelry. Antiques. Independent designers.
“Maybe youshouldtalk to her...” Mikey said.
Cary sighed. “You said you’d help me pick out a ring.”
“And I will. I will.”
“This is pretty.” Cary pointed at a ring. “Is this pretty?”
Mikey squinted at it. “It’s pretty. Yeah. It’s kind of normal. Shiloh’s going to want something no one else has. Maybe a different gem? Like an emerald?”
“Emeralds are soft. I want a diamond.”
