Forever Love at Wildflower Lock (The Wildflower Lock #4)

Chapter 45

45

Twenty minutes later, Daisy left the antique jewellery shop with a new, temporary engagement ring. It was gold-plated with a cubic zirconia stone cut in a square shape. To Daisy’s untrained eye, it looked remarkably similar to many of the ones in the expensive first shop.

‘We will get you something real as soon as you find it,’ Theo said. ‘And budget really isn’t an issue.’

‘I like this one,’ Daisy said, stretching out her fingers so that the stone caught the sunlight and glittered even more than it did in the shop. She had decided on the second costume piece she tried on, mainly because it was a decent fit, but the more she looked at it, the more she liked it. Of course, getting a real diamond that size was out of the question.

‘I get that you like it,’ Theo said. ‘But I’m pretty sure it’s going to turn your finger green at some point. And I don’t think the stone is meant to wobble like that either. Still, it’s nice seeing you smiling after yesterday.’

‘Am I smiling?’ Daisy said. Only then did she become aware of the ache that was spreading across her cheeks. The type of ache that only settled after an extended time spent grinning like a Cheshire cat. With a newfound lightness in her chest, she tightened her grip around Theo’s arm. Together, they wandered up and down the little streets, their paces perfectly matched as they walked. Occasionally, they stopped to look in shop windows or browse inside one or two, but there was no urgency to the way they were moving. Their only purpose was being together, until a little before midday when Theo suddenly stopped and looked at his watch.

‘Wow, we should get going,’ Theo said. ‘The hotel’s a forty-five-minute drive from here, and they said we could check in early, you know, because they didn’t have a room last night.’

‘That’s nice of them,’ Daisy said, already knowing that the evening was going to go far smoother than it had yesterday.

‘Right?’ Theo agreed. ‘I also mentioned that we got engaged on Friday, so fingers crossed, they are going to throw in a bottle of wine for us, too.’

A bottle of wine, Theo, and no one to disturb them. It almost sounded too good to be true.