Chapter Thirty-Seven
December
Liam
Sneaking around is not one of my strengths. I can skate. I can make killer pancakes. I can make Ellis happy – in and out of bed. Sneaking, not so good. I think my face is just too guilty.
Every time my phone pings my eye twitches and I know she can tell. This is why I refuse to play poker with the guys, throwing my money away gets old. I have tried to leave the house today and each time Ellis has asked me to do something. Normally, I would do anything she asked but I need to go out today.
I tried getting dressed and slipping out while she slept, but apparently Charlotte is laughing at my downfall because as soon as I laced my shoes she started to wail. She was hungry and wet and wanted out of her crib. I could deal with all that, but then Ellis and Jack woke up.
Then Jack asked for pancakes. I couldn’t say no to his big puppy dog eyes. He might not look like his mom, but they have me wrapped around their fingers the same way. Damn, so does Charlotte and she can’t even talk.
So, pancakes were made, fruit was sliced and dishes were washed. Ellis got Charlotte ready for the day just in time for her pancakes to be done and I got side tracked with my family. Until Edge texted me again. This group chat is going to be my downfall today.
I thought I could make a breakaway after breakfast, but Ellis needed to get some orders in for when she goes back to work. I couldn’t argue with that. She built that business from the ground up and I am going to support her however I can.
I needed to distract the kids for an hour while she worked. Jack played with his remote-control car, driving it into me while laughing maniacally while Charlotte had tummy time next to our Christmas tree. My little girl is enamoured with the twinkling lights. It is the first time I have ever had a tree, I am usually travelling so it felt pointless. Not this year. This year I have gone all out. Garlands and snowflakes, elf statues and reindeers. If I could fit it through the door it is here. My phone pings on and off every few minutes but I don’t bother looking because I know what’s there. Everyone asking what the plan is. But I just don’t know.
I thought it would be easy, slip out of the house while Ellis slept, buy a ring and be home before lunch. Now lunch is slowly approaching and I am still here.
Ellis eventually comes out of the office while I am giving Charlotte her bottle and even with my simmering anxiety this is one of my favourite things about being a father. The way her lips suckle at the bottle and her eyes slip shut in contentment makes me feel like I’m holding an angel.
Her hair is coming in more every day and it wisps at my arm where I cradle her. She gripes and grumbles while I burp her.
“I’m going to put her down, being up half the night is catching up with her,” I tell Ellis and she pecks my lips as we pass. “Why don’t you try napping while she does, that is what all the books said to do?”
“I am sleepy… work is hard when you haven’t slept.” She yawns. She takes a softly snoring Charlotte from my arms and walks up the stairs while I stare after her. “Oh, and take Jack with you wherever you are trying to sneak off to,” she adds.
My mouth falls open. She knows I am up to something and Jack is going to blow my cover. I love him, but that kid is not known for keeping a secret. No kid is, but he isn’t exactly a prime engagement-ring shopping guest. There is nowhere else I can take him though. Maybe Rook can distract him outside whatever jewellers we end up at so he has plausible deniability.
“Jack!” I call him and straight away I hear him stampede towards me.
“Are we going out?” he asks.
“Yeah, bud, but I need you to make me a promise.” I kneel down to his level keeping my voice low in case Sunshine thinks of eavesdropping.
“Okay!” he stage whispers.
“I am buying a gift for your mom but it is a secret gift so you can’t tell her what we buy okay?”
“Will you buy me McDonald’s?” he whispers again. The cheeky little troublemaker is blackmailing me. And it’s working.
“Fine.” I am resigned.
“Yesssss!” Then he’s off running to put his shoes and jacket on, leaving them unlaced in his haste.
By the time I finally pull into Edge’s driveway everyone is already there. I think they have been here for a few hours at this point, but Jack is not deterred. He jumps out of his car seat and bangs on the front door before I’m even out of the car. The house is capped with frost but there are no decorations here; if this is how boring my place usually looks I’m glad I made a change.
“Hey little guy.” Jack walks right in and Edge just watches him shaking his head.
I follow the two of them inside and I find Jack hugging his Auntie Lyndsey and questioning the guys about where we are going; not that any of them know. I’m not even sure where we are going. I was too scared to google anything in case Ellis saw.
I never knew I was so paranoid. Superstitious, yes, but paranoid? No. When I walk into the room everyone turns to me expectantly. I think Anders sees on my face that I don’t have a plan. He rolls his eyes before standing up and pulling his phone to his ear.
“Hey Felix, yeah man I’m good… But I have a question.” At the sound of his favourite player’s name, Jack sits up straight as a meerkat.
“Where did you buy your engagement ring?” Anders asks on the phone.
We all look at each other perplexed while Anders chats away in the background asking for directions. Soon enough he is herding us into cars. Apparently Felix got his wife’s ring from a place downtown and he is going to call ahead and tell the head jeweller we are on our way. The last thing I expected was for Anders to be the hero of the day; if I find the ring, I might just bake him a cake myself.
Loaded into my car are Jack and Rook, who have talked the entire drive as I follow behind Lyndsey, Anders and Edge in the captain’s car. I zone out the noise in the car, running through every piece of jewellery I can think that Ellis owns for clues on what kind of ring she would want.
Lyndsey was a great help in pointing me in the right direction, reminding me that Ellis wears silver. She even stole one of Ellis’s rings the last time she came over so we know what size to buy. I can’t exactly just ask to see every silver or white gold ring they have. I know finding the perfect ring might not happen today, but I feel it in my bones. Today is supposed to be the day, I don’t want to go any longer without one hidden away for the perfect moment.
After a while, Anders pulls into a parking lot and has jumped out of the car by the time we pull into the spot next to him. He nods his head towards a row of shops before we all start off towards them. As we get closer to the bright white storefront I am almost blinded by the shimmering jewels behind the glass. Through the windows I can see case upon case of every type of jewellery I could imagine. Before we walk into the shop, aptly called Shimmering Elegance, Rook pulls us into a huddle. Before anyone speaks I drop down on to my knees in front of Jack.
“Okay bud, we’re here to buy your mom a ring but I want to ask you something…?” I cough slightly, unsure of how to ask him for his blessing.
“You can marry her.” He interrupts me.
“What?” I laugh. This kid shocks me at every turn.
“That’s what a ring is for right? To get married? I want you to marry her because then you will be my dad for real,” he tells me, my heart breaks and mends itself in one as he looks up at me with love and hope in his eyes.
“You are already my son, come here.” I pull him into my arms, resting my head on top of his. Out the corner of my eye I see Lyndsey wipe a tear.
“Here’s a plan: just buy her the biggest rock in there. You’re rich after all, that’s what I’d want.” Lyndsey laughs trying to change the subject to hide her growing emotions, clearly joking about the huge diamond, but Jack misses the humour in her tone.
“No! Don’t do that!” Jack yells as the door to the shop opens making everyone in the store swing their attention to him. When none of us reply he continues, “When Mum is sore her hands swell, she can’t have something heavy or that would make it worse.”
“Damn, I didn’t even think of that, bud, it’s a good job you’re here.” I ruffle his hair with my hand in approval as Lyndsey winks at him. And to think I wasn’t planning on bringing him. I never planned on just buying her the biggest one anyway, but it didn’t even cross my mind how her fibromyalgia might affect her jewellery.
“Also, you should buy two,” he tells me matter of fact.
“Why?” Anders laughs but not at Jack, more at the fact a bunch of grown adults are being outsmarted by him.
“For when her hands swell, so she can still be wearing one,” he says it like it is so obvious and he can’t understand why we didn’t all figure that out ourselves. I understand the logic; Ellis would feel guilty if she couldn’t fit her ring on when her knuckles swell. She feels enough guilt as it is, all the pressure she puts herself under, and there is no way I am going to add to it.
The guys take Jack and look through every cabinet as I sit down with Lyndsey as the head jeweller Louis approaches us to introduce himself, telling him all of the new requirements I have thought of. Silver, lightweight but still dazzling, I need it in two sizes, maybe something blue because she looks so good in blue. He takes in all the information and begins gathering a selection. Lyndsey was quick to tell him the ring isn’t for her, the only woman in a shop now crowded by men it would have been a realistic assumption, so I am glad she set the record straight.
I don’t know how Felix found this shop, but it felt like Louis jumped right into my brain. After talking for a few minutes he gives me this smile as he hurries off to the back room and reappears with a little velvet tray in his hands.
Without saying a word, he places the cushioned tray in front of me with Ellis’s engagement ring on it. I know this is it. From nowhere the guys are looking over my shoulder as I pick up the white gold band, there is an emerald cut diamond in the centre with two smaller baguette style sapphire stones on either side of the band. I look at it from every angle: it is perfect.
My mind paints a picture of Ellis’s hand adorned with this ring no matter the price. Frankly this guy could take me for millions of dollars and I would still thank him for it. I watch him box up both sizes of the ring and I pay for them without question but only after Jack has given me the go ahead. I remind him once more to keep it a secret and he zips his lips before giving me a wink with both eyes.
Close enough.