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I grabbed my keys from her nightstand and checked my phone again.

More messages had come through while we were talking, along with two missed calls. That was how most of my days went. There was always somebody needing an answer, somebody waiting on money, somebody owing money, or some problem that apparently couldn’t be solved without me getting involved.

“I gotta go, baby.”

She sighed. “I know.”

Anytime it was time for me to leave, we both did the same shit—dragged it out like neither one of us wanted to be the first to let go. We’d stand there holding on to each other for a few extra seconds, stealing a little more time before we had to go back to the rest of the world.

My phone buzzed in my hand, interrupting the moment. I almost ignored it, but when it vibrated a second time, I checked the screen.

It was Muiz Redd, my jeweler.

Muiz had been handling my custom pieces for years. If I wanted something nobody else had, I called him. He was talented as hell, expensive as fuck, and almost as particular about his work as I was, which was exactly why I trusted him with Lakelyn’s ring.

A smile pulled at my mouth when I opened his message.

Muiz: Ring is finished. Came out perfect. I’ll be in your city by noon. Let’s meet today, if possible. I’ll be heading home first thing tomorrow morning.

A photo was attached beneath the text.

I opened it, and a slow smile spread across my face.

Damn.

Yeah, he bodied that shit.

The center stone was a huge, elongated cushion-cut diamond, with smaller stones running cleanly along the band. Beneath it, Muiz had added the detail I cared about most—a hidden halo of tiny black diamonds, something darker tucked under all that shine.

The inside of the band had been engraved too and carried two words meant only for her.

Come home to me.

Nobody else would see that part unless she took the ring off, but that was the point. That message wasn’t for everybody else; it was ours.

I had been waiting on that ring for well over a month, going back and forth with Muiz over every small detail because I wanted it right. I didn’t just want something expensive or flashy. I could have walked into any jewelry store in the city, pointed at the biggest diamond behind the glass, and bought that mothafucka without thinking twice.

Lakelyn deserved more thought than that.

I wanted her ring made for her, something nobody else had and nobody else could walk into a store and buy. I wanted her to be able to look down at her hand ten years from now and remember exactly how she felt the first time I slipped it onto her finger.

I enlarged the picture and studied it again, making sure Muiz hadn’t missed anything we discussed.

He hadn’t.

The ring was big enough that Willow was probably going to accuse me of trying to break her sister’s finger, and expensive enough that Lakelyn would fuss about how much I spent before secretly admiring it every five minutes.

I could already hear her.

Caspian, you did not have to spend this much money on a ring.

And I’d tell her the same thing I always told her when she worried about what I spent on her.

I didn’t have to, I wanted to.

“Good news?” Lakelyn asked, snapping me back to the moment.

I lifted my attention from the phone and caught the curious smile already spreading across her face.