Page 34 of Seeking Happily Ever After

She shook her head again and crossed her arms over her chest.

Her stubbornness was so cute, Nick almost laughed. As it was, he smiled and lowered the ring. “Okay,” he finally conceded. “That one isn’t your style then. You pick one.”

“Really?”

He did laugh then. “Of course. This is your ring, Charlotte. I want you to love it.”

She looked at him with such a sweet smile that for a minute, Nick could imagine actually giving her the ring for real. It was a ridiculous thought, completely out of left field, considering what they were doing and that they really hardly knew each other at all. But still.The kiss.

Okay,allthe kisses.

Every time they shared a kiss, it was so much better than the one before.Would it always be that way?Damn, he hoped so. Because fake engagement or not, kissing Charlotte was one hundred percent real.

“Which one of these rings would you choose for your engagement ring?” Nick handed the solitaire he was still holding back to the owner of the jewelry store and stepped back so Charlotte could have full access to the display case. He watched as she approached and scanned her eyes over the section once, and then twice without picking anything out. “Really, Char. There must be something that catches your eye.”

She tilted her head and looked up at him with a sly smile.

“Which one is it?” he prompted.

“You’re never going to guess.”

Nick was not one to back down from a challenge. Ever. He stepped forward and scanned the rings Char had stopped in front of. “Well, I know it’s not that one.” He pointed to the five carat solitaire the jeweler had just returned to the display. “And it’s the biggest one in here.”

“Precisely what I don’t like about it.”

Nick glanced up at her, and Char raised her eyebrow with a quick wink.

He should have known. Flashy wasn’t her style. In fact…with a new idea, he examined the display case.

Something classic, but understated. Nothing too flashy or in your face. Elegant. And… “That one.” He tapped the glass in front of an oval-shaped emerald stone surrounded by tiny diamonds on a gold band. “Yes. Definitely. That’s the one.”

The jeweler smiled and silently moved to pick the ring out of the case. He handed it to Nick, who turned it over in his hand so the light could reflect from it. It was a stunning ring. Completely unpredictable and perfect for Charlotte. Slowly, he turned, the ring between his fingers. “Is this the one you would pick?”

The look on her face told him everything he needed to know.

She nodded quickly, her eyes shiny. “It’s beautiful.”

He nodded slightly, so she held out her finger and he slipped it on. “It looks amazing.”

Charlotte stared, unspeaking, at the ring on her finger. After a moment, she shook her head. “I can’t, Nick. It’s too much.”

He shook his head sharply. He wasn’t going to listen to this again. Surely she knew that money was no object, and it was the perfect ring for her. Now that he’d seen it on her hand, there was no other ring that would even come close to being suitable. There were no other choices. Nick turned his back to her and spoke to the jeweler. “We’ll take it.”

“No.” Charlotte was next to him, placing the ring on the counter. “We won’t.”

“Char…”

“No, Nick. I told you, it’s too much and…” A single tear slipped down her cheek, stopping Nick in his tracks.

The ring forgotten, he turned to Charlotte and put his hands on her arms. “What is it? Are you…” He couldn’t finish the sentence. If she was having second thoughts about the whole plan, he didn’t know what he would do. But he would never force her to continue with anything she didn’t want to do. “If you need to—”

“No.” She shook her head and forced a smile. “I’m being silly.” She moved to wipe her tear, but he beat her to it and let his finger linger on her cheek. “I don’t usually cry,” she said. “And I really don’t know why I am now. It’s just…” She took a deep breath and sighed. “You asked me to pick out the ring that I would choose for my engagement ring and then I started thinking that this”—she glanced over his shoulder and whispered into his ear—“isn’t real and it made me kind of sad that I might pick outthering and it wouldn’t be…well, you know.”

He did.

Slowly, he nodded.

She was giving him so much with this favor, Nick wouldn’t take that from her. She deserved to have the ring of her dreams, certainly. But not like this. “I get it.” And he really did. It also disappointed him more than he expected that he wasn’t the man to be giving her that.

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