Chapter 43
forty-three
Briar gazed into the ring case, the diamonds all glinting back at her with such pretty faces. “I feel like this is way beyond me,” she said.
“Oh, come on, sweetheart,” Tarr said from a few paces down. “You’ve worn crowns before.” He flashed her a smile, and Briar tucked it away inside her heart.
“Okay.” The man who’d been helping them bustled up with a velvet-lined tray in his hand. “I’ve got the pink diamond, with the princess setting, in the white gold here.” He slid the tray onto the glass case as Tarr joined them.
“This won’t be the right size, and it’s more ornate than you want, but this will give you a good idea of what the cut looks like, in that color.” Grayson lifted the ring pinched between two fingers.
Briar pulled in a breath as the diamond caught the overhead light and flung it around the shop. “I really like that.” She leaned into Tarr as he put his arm around her. “The pink diamond and the cut.”
She did not like the extra diamonds all clustered around the large middle one, but this wasn’t her custom ring.
“And the white gold is nice,” Tarr said. “Since you don’t like yellow gold.”
Briar hadn’t known that until she’d walked into this shop that she didn’t want to wear anything shiny and gold on her finger. But she’d had a violent negative reaction to it, and she’d been listening to her gut and instincts more and more lately.
“How do you feel about the size of this diamond?” Grayson asked.
“It’s too big,” Briar said. “It makes sense on this ring, because it’s like…a whole garden of gems. But I just want one diamond.”
Grayson wore a dubious look. “Let me show you some of our simpler pieces, now that you know the shape of the princess cut.” He stepped over to another case and asked a woman there for several pieces.
She brought them over and Briar listened as he pointed out a simple cluster of diamonds that would look nice with the pink princess center gem. She tried to imagine how they’d look and couldn’t quite do it.
She pointed out her favorites, answered the questions, and an hour later, Grayson and his assistant had a digital mock-up of her potential wedding ring. It rotated in 3D on the computer screen, and Briar sighed and sat back.
“I love it,” she said. “Tarr?”
He looked up from his phone, a frown sitting between his eyes. “Sorry.” He stuffed his phone away and met Briar’s eyes. “Tuck’s already talking about me going to San Antonio ‘just for a couple of weeks’ to go to some training.”
He blew out his breath. “It’s nothing.”
Briar laced her fingers through his and squeezed. “I think this might be the ring.” She nodded to the screen, glad when Tarr’s expression cleared and he leaned forward to peer at it.
“Yeah, that’s real nice, sweetheart.”
Him and that drawl. Briar loved it, and she loved his patience with her, and she loved sitting here in this shop with him.
Then Grayson said the price, and, “We’re about seven weeks out right now.”
Tarr lifted up onto his left hip and pulled out his wallet without blinking, but Briar’s breath had caught in her throat. “Tarr,” she managed to say.
He paused in pulling out his credit card. His eyes narrowed slightly. “What’s wrong?”
“He said twelve thousand dollars,” she hissed. “I don’t need—”
“An engagement ring isn’t about need, sweetheart.” Tarr smiled at her and handed Grayson his card.
“We can do three payments,” he offered.
“Just do all of it,” Tarr said. “And seven weeks is just fine too.”
Briar swallowed hard, trying to get all the words she wanted to say to go back down.
Tarr wouldn’t want to argue with her in front of others, and she didn’t want that either.
She knew he had money, and she managed to wait until Tarr had his receipt, a tentative delivery date, and they’d left the jeweler before she couldn’t hold back any longer.
“Have I ever told you that I have a…significant amount of savings?” Briar laced her arm through Tarr’s and kept her attention facing forward.
“No, you haven’t,” Tarr said just as casually. “I mean, I assumed, what with your career and all, but no. You’ve not said much about it.”
“I nearly lost everything,” Briar said. “My last boyfriend claimed to also be a financial planner, and I think that was the first time in my life that alarms went off in my head and I actually listened to them.”
Briar didn’t like revisiting her past, but it wasn’t nearly as painful now as it had been in the past. “I broke up with him, and I managed to get my money out of his control before he spent it, or stole it, or moved it.”
She released her breath and stepped in front of Tarr. “I just have to say it.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less, sweetheart.”
“Twelve thousand dollars is a ridiculous amount of money for a ring.”
Tarr tilted his head in that annoyingly sexy way he had. She heard him ask, “Is it?” in his gorgeous voice before he actually asked it.
She cocked her hip right there on the sidewalk, only steps from Maven’s. They weren’t going to eat next anyway, as Tarr hadn’t realized the animal shelter was doing an adoption event that day and wouldn’t be open afterward.
He’d looked up the one on the south side of the city, and they were driving there next.
“Sweetheart, it’s a token of love. It endures all things, and it’s a power that nothing else can compete with.
It’s not about the diamonds or the gold or the shape or the cut.
It’s about me telling you, I love you, every time you look at it.
It’s about you thinking, he loves me so much, every time you slip it on your finger. ”
Tarr reached up and swiped his cowboy hat off his head, ran his fingers through his hair, and put himself right back together.
“Love needs a token, and I will pay any price to give you the one you love most, so that every time you see it or feel it on your hand, you’ll know that it’s a symbol or our love.
” He added a smile to his statement and pulled his keys out of his pocket. “Now, can we go get my dog?”
Briar watched him for a moment, and then another one. The emotions running through her felt heavy and light at the same time, and they sparkled with nothing but joy upon joy upon joy.
And she now knew what loving a really, really good man felt like.
“I know it’s a long drive, but—”
“I’m in love with you.” Briar practically shouted over him. He fell silent, and actually stepped back, his eyebrows now riding high on his forehead.
Briar swallowed, but this time it wasn’t to keep words down but an attempt to steady herself so she could say what teemed beneath her tongue. Down in her chest. In her heart. Everywhere.
“I love you, Tarr Olson,” she said, her voice cracking on his last name. “And I can feel it, and I know what it is, and it’s—it’s—it’s incredible.”
Tears streamed down her face, but Tarr laughed right out loud and wrapped her up in his strong cowboy arms. He spun her around until she was laughing too, and when he set her on her feet, the world stayed tilted for only a single moment.
Then she looked into Tarr’s eyes, and everything became absolutely right. Her chin shook, but her resolve and her feelings remained rock solid.
“I love you,” she said again.
“Yeah, you do.” He kissed her, laughing at the same time, and pulled away. Then Tarr sobered, gathered her close, and pressed his cheek to hers. “I love you too, honey.”