Page 24 of Scottish Seducer
I went inside with him but asked as we approached a counter, “To the jeweler?”
He nodded and said, “I ordered a few things.”
He handed his credit card to the clerk who completed the charge and handed him a bag. My face was hot as I said, “I don’t need gifts.”
He pushed the bag in my hand and signed the receipt. Once he finished, he said, “No, you get them because you deserve to be treated well.”
I ignored how my body buzzed when I lived in this fantasy and said, “Charlie Grannd, you do know how to make a girl feel special.”
He shook the bag and pointed inside. I reached in and took out one of the two boxes while he hovered over me like an eager kid, already asking, “Do you like it?”
I unwrapped the black box and lifted out and held a perfect replica of Jane Austen’s topaz cross up to the light. “It’s perfect!”
He took my free hand and said, “I had it specially made.”
No one had ever been this sweet to me. I kissed his cheek and said, “Thank you. It’s better than I ever dreamed of having.”
He pointed to the other box. Nothing could beat the necklace, but I took out the other little black box. As I opened it, he said, “These are for every day.”
“Diamond earrings?” I asked and realized these were bigger than some rings I’d seen on my friends’ fingers.
He took them out of the box and handed them to me as he said, “My mother used to say she felt naked without hers.”
My mother had survived abuse and somehow found the strength to raise me and my sisters in a house full of love. She’d always said falling for my father had been her saving grace, and my daisy necklace was the same one he gave her when they married.
I had no idea what happened with my brother-in-law, but I needed to hear his story and to tell him to leave Carter alone. I swallowed and said, “We should swap stories about family and how I’m loyal to mine.”
He nodded and said, “Excellent. Let’s do it over lunch.”
Hopefully, there was a logical explanation for what happened with my brother-in-law. I’d hate for us to have a misunderstanding like the one between Lizzie and Darcy inPride and Prejudicebecause we believed the wrong people. A lot of what was published on the internet wasn’t true, or the facts were twisted.
So I locked my arm with his and said, “Lead the way.”
