Homecoming - Chapter 7
Sunday
Matt
“Can you clean this for me?” I asked and pulled Brooklyn’s ring out of my pocket.
This was the third jewelry store I’d been to this afternoon.
And each store clerk told me the same thing after looking at the ring with disgust…
that I should just put the diamonds on a new band.
They immediately gave me the ring back and started showing me their newest inventory.
But that wasn’t what I wanted. I needed this ring back.
It was like it held a piece of my heart. I just wanted someone to fix it.
The old man adjusted his glasses. “Oh my,” he said in a thick accent. He lifted it out of my hand and put it up close to his face. “What happened to this?”
“It’s a family heirloom. We found it in the backyard when we were doing construction.
Buried in some dirt.” It was the same lie I’d told the other two jewelers.
I didn’t want to go into my sordid past with a stranger.
And digging it up from beside Brooklyn’s grave sounded bad.
Really bad. If he knew the truth, he’d probably call the cops and have me arrested for grave robbery.
“Hmm.” He turned the ring around in his fingers and looked up to me. “Buried, you say?”
I nodded.
“How long in dirt?”
I shrugged like I didn’t know for sure. “Maybe like…16 years or so.”
He pointed to the band. “Oxidized.”
“Is that why it’s black?”
“Yes, yes. But I can fix that. I’ll need time.”
“Yeah, of course.” I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Such a beautiful piece,” he said. He pulled out a cushioned box and placed it inside like it was a prized item instead of trash like the other jewelers thought.
I should have come straight here. Those new jewelry stores didn’t appreciate stuff like this. But this place had been around for ages.
“I’ll need your paperwork.”
My paperwork?
He grabbed a clipboard with a sheet of paper for my information.
Oh. Yup, this was definitely an old-fashioned place. The last jewelry store I tried had made me look at diamonds on an iPad after I specifically said I wasn’t interested.
I quickly filled out the information and handed the clipboard back to him.
“Come Tuesday or Wednesday. I have fixed this.”
“Thank you so much.”
“You have good day now.”
No upsell. Or cross-sale. Or anything. He lifted up the cushioned box and turned to go into his backroom again.
“Wait,” I said.
He paused in his tracks and turned around. “Yes?”
“I’m actually looking for a new ring too.” I was too annoyed at the other stores to really bother looking. But now that I knew Brooklyn’s ring was in good hands, I was ready to get back to what I needed to do.
“A new one?”
“An engagement ring, yes.”
He looked down at the cushioned box in his hand. “But this piece…I fix. I make beautiful.”
“I know. I just…I need a new one too.”
He shook his head and chuckled. “New is not better.”
His words hit me in the gut. I knew that. And that wasn’t what I was doing. I wasn’t replacing Brooklyn. I was just…choosing myself first for the first time in a long time. Kennedy wasn’t better than Brooklyn. She was different. She was good for me in different ways.
“That one’s for a friend,” I said, lies coming easy to me these days. “Now I need one for my girlfriend.”
He frowned. “You give this one to girlfriend.” He lifted up the box.
I shook my head. “I need a new one for my girlfriend.”
“No. This one better. You give this to girlfriend.”
“I can’t do that. I…” my voice trailed off. “Help me find a new one.”
“No.”
“What?”
“You give this to girlfriend. I fix. You have good day now.” He turned around and disappeared into his back room.
Well, that wasn’t very helpful. And now I was wondering if I should have entrusted him with Brooklyn’s ring. Maybe he hadn’t even understood what I wanted.
Or maybe he had. And he just didn’t understand why I’d give a family heirloom to a friend and a new ring to my girlfriend. I sighed and ran my hand down my face.
And what did any of it matter anyway? Buying a ring wasn’t going to make Kennedy suddenly text me and say everything was fine.
Rob was right…she’d dumped my ass. I pulled out my phone.
There were still no messages from her. Every ounce of me wanted to go back to her apartment and demand answers.
But that hadn’t worked out so well for me last night.
I had to respect what she wanted and wait.
After all these years with my life on pause, I thought I’d be good at waiting.
But I never meant to be 32 and still stuck in the past. On some of my worst days I still woke up and reached out for Brooklyn in my bed.
It had been 16 years. I’d spent half my life missing her. And I was done being stuck.
I’d go to a different jewelry store. Another older one without pushy store clerks. But one that was hopefully more helpful than this guy. Fourth time was a charm, right?
I pushed out the front door and was almost blinded by camera flashes.
“Shit,” I said under my breath as I backed up into the store again, covering my face.
The cameras kept flashing, taking shots through the window.
My stomach sank. Son of a bitch. One of the last jewelry stores I was in must have tipped them off.
And I knew exactly what the paparazzi was trying to capture.
I could already see it clear as day in tomorrow’s gossip magazines.
That I was here buying a ring for Poppy.
The cameras kept flashing and I turned around.
This was the last thing I needed right now.
Kennedy seeing me coming out of a ring shop with Poppy’s face plastered next to mine in a dumb magazine? She was already freaked out.
Fuck. I pushed back outside. “I’ll pay you for those photos. Double what you’re being offered by anyone else.”
One of the photographers stuck out their hand and I pulled out my wallet. Shit. I’d spent my last cash at the bar last night with Tanner. That cheap ass. I needed to get to an ATM. But I already saw one of the photographers climbing into a taxi and driving off.
I flipped the bird at the paparazzi. Not that ruining one shot was going to get me out of this mess. I hurried over to my car. Just because I didn’t have any cash on me didn’t mean I couldn’t fix this. One of the many perks of having a tech genius friend.
***
Scarlett opened the door with a huge smile on her face.
“Scar,” I said and gave her a stern look, wiping the smile from her face. “We just talked about this. No opening the door.” I walked into the apartment and closed the door behind me.
“For strangers. You’re not a stranger. You’re Uncle Matt.”
This little girl was terrible at following instructions. She was going to be a handful when she was older.
“So I can’t be in trouble.” She smiled again. “Let’s go play.”
“I’m actually here for your dad, kiddo.”
She stuck her lip out. “But I want to play Barbies.”
“Maybe after I talk to him.” I loved playing with her.
But Barbies was not my favorite. For some reason she never let me be Ken.
I always had to be her sidekick. She was used to playing with her cousin, Sophie.
I couldn’t wait till she was old enough for me to teach her poker.
And pool. I wanted her to be able to put any guy in their place.
“Daddy’s with Mommy.”
“Where?”
Scarlett shrugged.
That was not at all helpful. “Are they in his study?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Are they in the library?”
“No.”
I peered into the kitchen but didn’t see them. I walked past the kitchen and into the huge great room. They weren’t there either. But Scarlett had all her Barbie stuff out. “Are they even home?”
“Yes. We’ll wait for them and play.” She slipped her hand into mine and pulled me toward her toys.
I sighed as she sat down on the carpet.
“Kiddo, tell me where your parents are.”
“They’re busy doing grownup things.”
“Where?”
“Upstairs.”
Oh fuck. Were they having sex right now? Who was watching Scarlett? “Where is your brother?”
“Liam’s sleeping. He’s been real bad. He didn’t sleep at all last night.”
“Who’s watching you?”
Scarlett pointed to one of the cameras. “Secru…secur…secrutitty?”
I tried not to laugh. “Security?”
She nodded. “Mr. Briggs is in there. Or Mr. Porter.” She pointed to the camera again. “One of them is always in there.”
I wasn’t sure she understood that Briggs wasn’t actually inside that camera. And I knew they had security watching them at all times. But this was a little inappropriate to leave Scarlett all alone unsupervised in person.
A part of me wanted to go up there and yell at them for being bad parents.
And the other part of me thought it was probably not wise to see Penny naked.
Yes, I’d had a little crush on her for years.
But I’d finally squashed it. We were better off as friends.
I hesitated. Nope, it was still better if I didn’t see her naked.
And I certainly didn’t need to see James’ ass.
I sat down Indian style on the rug with Scarlett. “Okay, let’s play for a few minutes.” I reached for the Ken doll.
But she slid a blonde Barbie into my hand. “You be my best friend. We’re going shopping for dresses before the ball tonight.”
“How about I be Ken and tell Barbie what she looks good in?”
“Uncle Matt, Ken can’t see me in my dress before the ball. And his name is Axel, not Ken.”
“Axel, huh?” Axel was our friend Tyler’s son. It drove James crazy that Scarlett had a crush on Axel. But I actually found it quite entertaining. The two of them were adorable together.
“Yes. Axel is my boyfriend.”
“Whatever you say, kiddo.”
“I do say. We’re going to get married and have ten babies and live happily ever after.”
“I bet you will.”
She nodded with a smile. “You try this dress on.” She handed me a big, poofy dress in a hideous pink color. While she started changing her redheaded Barbie into a tight-fitting blue dress.
“This is the one you want your friend to wear?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“It’s a lot of material.”