Chapter Three #4
“I understand that you don’t want to live together.
And I don’t want to be your landlord any more.
I want to be your husband.” He paused. “You know how I feel about you, Dora. I’ve loved you and only you since we were sixteen years old.
When you came back into my life, I swore I’d never let you leave me again.
I got to thinking. . . . Your two sisters are getting married.
I know how close y’all are. Why don’t we join them?
Make it a threesome? It’d solve everything.
Aw, baby, say you’ll marry me and make me the happiest man in the world. ”
He flipped open the jeweler’s box and slid it closer to her.
Dora gasped. The ring was stunning by any standards, but more, she recognized it as one she’d admired in a magazine ad months earlier.
He’d casually shown her the ad in the Sunday New York Times and asked her which of the four rings pictured she liked best. She’d told him not to get any ideas, but when he prodded, she’d pointed to the three-carat, cushion-cut stone wreathed with small pavé diamonds. What woman wouldn’t want that?
And there it was, sitting before her. All she had to do was pick it up and let Devlin slide it on her finger.
Dora looked at Devlin’s face, flushed with anticipation.
So sure of his answer. When she’d first fallen head over heels for the wiry, tanned surfer boy on Sullivan’s Island, he’d been poorer than a church mouse.
Devlin Cassell was a self-made man. She saw in his face the pride that he could buy her such a ring now, when years before, back when they’d dated, he didn’t have one dime to rub against another.
She hoped that he knew she’d accept a ring from a Cracker Jack box when the time was right.
But the time wasn’t right.
“Oh, Devlin. It’s a beautiful ring. The most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen.”
“You did see this one.” He pulled the ring from the box. “In that ad, remember? You told me how pretty it was. I kept that ad and ordered the ring in your size.”
She smiled tremulously.
He reached for her hand. “Let’s put it on and see if it fits.”
“Wait.” She slid her hand back. Her heart was pounding in her ears in a way that felt very much like panic.
Devlin froze and studied her face. There was an awkward moment. Then his face fell and he put the ring back into its place in the box. “Right.”
“I love you, Devlin. You know that.”
“But you’re saying no.”
Dora shook her head. “I’m not saying no. I’m saying not right now.”
“Aw hell, woman. We’ve been through this before.
You told me last September that you needed to wait till the divorce was final and I waited.
Did I pester you to get married? No. I bided my time.
Dora, you’re a free woman now.” Frustration bubbled under his words.
“Your divorce is signed, sealed, and delivered.”
“I’m only just divorced. The ink’s barely dry. I still am figuring out who I am, what I want out of life, what I can do on my own. I need to love me before I can give myself to you. Fully and without doubt. It’s not about you. It’s about me.”
“That’s not what I’m hearing. I hear you saying that you don’t love me enough. Not yet.”
“That’s not at all what I’m saying.”
“Well, that’s what I’m feeling.”
“Dev . . .”
“What’s next, Dora? Tell me. What are you going to need before you say yes?”
“I don’t know. I . . .” She thought. “My starting work as a real estate agent is a big step closer. That’s good, right?
I suppose the last thing I need is to be financially settled.
Once that damn house sells in Summerville, I can pay off my debts and feel like I’m well and truly done with the past.”
Devlin furrowed his brows, listening hard.
“Dev, honey, I love you. I want to marry you. I just need to stand on my own two feet. I want you to be proud of me. Then I’ll wear that ring. I’ll hoot and holler and show it off to anyone and everyone. I promise.”
Devlin closed the top of the box with a snap.
It sounded ominous to her ears. He tucked the box back in his khaki pants pocket, then rose from the table.
“Well, darlin’, you put me between a rock and a hard place.
Something’s got to give. I’ll put my house on the market.
And I’ll put the cottage on the market. As planned. See what happens.”
She knew impatience, with herself and with him. “Fine.”
He pursed his lips and looked at her, as though holding back words. In the end he only looked toward the door and sighed. “It’s getting late. I have an early showing.”
Dora watched him walk to the door and grab his jacket from the hall tree. “Don’t leave mad.”
Devlin slipped into his jacket, stuck his hands in his pockets, and pulled out his keys. He looked at them in his palm, then lifted his head to her. “I’m not mad. I’m disappointed,” he said in a flat voice. “I just asked you to marry me and you turned me down.”
Dora lowered her head but didn’t respond., wincing as she heard the front door shut firmly behind Devlin’s retreating figure. There was nothing more she could say.