Chapter 24 Orion #3
“Oh damn, you guessed it,” I said.
She laughed nervously and placed the shoebox-size present on the table in front of me then gave it a small push. “Merry Christmas, Orion.”
She bit her lip and watched as I unwrapped the paper. The shoebox wasn’t a shoebox but an antique wooden box with a hand-painted grand piano on the lid, set against an ivory-colored sheet music background. Black notes drifted behind the piano like birds.
“This is amazing,” I said. “Stunning.”
“There’s more,” she said, still nervous. “Inside.”
I opened the latch, and my damn heart clenched. “A protein bar.”
“It’s the second one that Bandit spit out the day we met,” Harper said.
“You kept it,” I said, marveling at the implications. “Because you knew even then…?”
“Maybe.” She smiled, tucked a curl behind her ear. “It’s stupid, I know…”
“No, it’s perfect,” I said. “Because that moment was perfect.”
And we both knew it.
Harper cleared her throat, still shy. “There’s more, of course.”
Under the protein bar, wrapped in tissue paper, was an antique brass metronome in two parts. I took it out of the box and put the two parts together, then set it in motion.
“Holy shit again,” I said.
“I thought this would be a good way for you to keep time, since it’s not the easiest for you to find on the page. And also, I just thought it was really beautiful.”
“Where did you find this?”
“Antique store downtown.” She bit her lip again. “Do you like it?”
“It’s absolutely perfect. Thank you, Harper.”
“There’s one more.”
I shot her a smirk. “Now who’s going overboard?”
The last item in the box was a piece of paper folded into a square and tied with a thin red ribbon. I untied it to see sheet music. “Chopin’s Nocturne. It looks handwritten.”
“It is,” Harper said. “One night I was working late, and I overheard you play this at the Academy. And it was just one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard, and so…I don’t know. It’s meaningful to me, and I wanted you to have it too, so I wrote it by hand.”
“You wrote this?”
She nodded. “I don’t know why I did that, but…”
“I love it,” I said, my throat thick. “I love all of this. These are the most thoughtful gifts anyone has ever given me. Thank you, love. Truly.”
I leaned over the table to kiss her, then sat back, staring into the box—a treasure chest. My own chest felt heavy and full, and Harper was so beautiful in the candlelight, and I never wanted to sit across from anyone else, and Ezra’s words about the end of the year came back to me…
Fucking hell.
“Our food is taking forever…” I said loudly and pretended to tear into the protein bar.
Harper’s eyes widened with a laugh. “What—”
“I’m kidding, I would never.”
I put it back in the box and closed everything up and put it away for later.
Later. I don’t have to figure it all out right now.
“Your turn.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out the very ring-shaped box.
Her eyes widened again. “I knew it. The Titanic diamond.” With trembling fingers, Harper unwrapped the box and opened it. She gasped, her hand flying to her throat. “Oh my God, Orion.”
She pulled the ring from the box—eighteen-karat gold with a two-carat square peridot, surrounded by four round pearls alternating with four round amethyst gemstones.
“It goes here,” I said, and touched the middle finger of her right hand.
“It’s so beautiful,” she murmured. “Suffragette colors.”
I nodded. “I saw it and it made me think of how strong you are and how you fight for what you believe in. How you fought for me,” I said softly. “I really wanted those pearls to be diamonds, but I restrained myself, so there…”
Harper put the ring on her middle finger, where it fit perfectly. “I’ve never had something this nice before. I don’t even know what to say.”
I reached for her hand across the table. “Say you’ll come with me to the UK.”
She looked up sharply. “What? When?”
“Over the break.”
“But…I can’t leave my mother and brother for Christmas.”
“After, then. We’re off school until the first week of January. Plenty of time.”
She stared, absorbing this, thinking. “If I can go—if—it can only be a little while. I don’t trust my mother. But maybe for a few days? Maybe I can ask Mrs. Andolina to check in on them?”
“So will you?”
“You want me to meet your family?”
“More than anything. You’ll love my brothers.”
“And your parents?” Harper looked uncertain. “I’m not…what they’re used to.”
“You’re perfect,” I said. “Please, come. A stamp in your passport.”
“Okay,” she said, her dark eyes lighting up with the idea. “Yes. I’ll see what I can do.”
“Brilliant.”
Harper shook her head, disbelieving. “I love you...and...I love this damn ring.” She looked up to see my triumphant smile. “And oh my God, you can take that smug, victorious look right off your face.”
“No,” I said, laughing. “I don’t think I will. I think I’m going to wear this for the rest of the evening, thank you.”
She laughed too, and we ate our expensive seafood and went back to my place, and I took her to bed where the ring was the only thing she wore for the rest of the evening.