Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
S tanding on the tarmac, I tapped my foot on the pavement, impatiently waiting for Nick. "Where is he?" My gaze flicked to Anthony, who was patiently waiting with me.
"He said he had something to take care of before he left." Anthony shrugged. "I guess it took longer than he expected."
I glanced at my watch. "He's thirty minutes late." Anthony nodded. "We were supposed to be in the air by now." I was anxious to get back to Florida and put my past behind me. All of it.
A sleek black Cadillac Escalade rounded the corner of the airplane hangar. "There he is," Anthony pointed.
"About time." I rolled my eyes.
The Escalade eased to a stop in front of us before Nick's door flew open. The driver of the SUV jumped out and ran around to the back, popping open the hatch and pulling out Nick's luggage.
"Sorry I'm late." Nick's shoes crunched across the pavement, his tie whipping in the breeze. "Had to pick something up before we left."
I crossed my arms. "Are we ready now?"
"Almost." A smile played at the corners of his mouth as he slipped his hand into his pocket. The black box emerged like a magician's reveal. "Here."
My gaze narrowed on the box as he held it out to me. "What is that?"
"It's your great-grandmother's wedding ring." He opened the box.
The world tilted beneath my feet. I knew that ring, the way the center stone caught the light. A thousand Sunday mornings flickered through my mind: Mom at the kitchen counter, absently twisting it as she read the paper. Her hands cupped my face, the metal cool against my cheek when she kissed my scraped knees better.
"This was my mom's..." I couldn't finish. My fingertips hovered over the ring, not quite touching, as if it might dissolve like a mirage.
"A family heirloom." Nick's voice gentled. "Your grandmother gave it to your father when he proposed.
The last memory hit harder—the empty spot on Mom's dresser the morning after Emmett pawned it. I'd thought that piece of her was lost forever.
My irritation at Nick's tardiness evaporated, replaced by something more complicated—gratitude mixing with the sharp ache of old wounds reopened.
"You did this for me?" My voice caught, torn between gratitude and the instinct to protect myself from hoping too much, from trusting too easily again.
"Olivia, I would do anything for you." The raw honesty in his voice made something deep inside me ache.
He handed me the ring box. "I'm so sorry I didn't tell you everything. I never meant to hurt you. I hope that someday you can trust me again and that someday I'll be able to slide that ring on your finger."
My eyes narrowed. Wait, was he planning to propose to me? But now he wasn't. "When I found out that Emmett pawned it, I started looking for it, and I planned to propose with it, but..." He snapped the box shut, and my gaze blinked up to his. "I still wanted to make sure you had this piece of your mother."
My gaze shifted from him to the black box in my hand, Anthony's words playing back to me. I couldn't even imagine how Nick found this ring. If anyone had asked me if there was one thing I could get back from my mom, I would have said this ring. I didn't know how he found it or what he'd paid to get it back, but he did it for me.
"You bought it to propose." The words caught in my throat, barely a whisper. "You wanted to propose to me?"
Nick's shoulders tensed. "Yes."
My heart hammered against my ribs. "And you don't anymore?"
"I do still want to marry you, Olivia." He swallowed hard, his voice rough. "But I understand why you wouldn't want to marry me."
I pressed the box into his palm, my fingers lingering against his skin. "You don't know anything unless you ask."
He stood frozen, looking from the box to my face like a man trying to decode a message written in stars.
His gaze flicked between the box in his hand and me, his face twisting with confusion.
His mouth opened and closed in shock. He pressed his lips into a tight line, his eyes studying my face like he was either trying to read me or decide his next move.
"Olivia Ryan." The rough asphalt bit into his knee as he sank down. His voice carried across the tarmac, steady despite the tremor in his hands. "I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?"
The ring caught the sunlight, throwing diamonds of light across my face. My fingers twisted together. "Promise me—no more lies."
His free hand pressed against his heart. "Never again."
I took a shaky breath. "And promise you'll see me as your equal. Your partner."
The word "Always" escaped him like a prayer.
"Yes." I smiled, holding my hand out so he could slide my mother's ring on my finger. "I will marry you."
"Really?" When I nodded, he unfolded from the ground in one fluid motion, his eyes never leaving mine. "You forgive me?" His hand trembled as it found my cheek.
I turned my face into his palm, breathing in the familiar scent of his skin. "Yes. Nick, I love you."
He drew me to him, and the world dissolved into the press of his lips against mine, until a chorus of cheers reminded us we weren't alone on the tarmac.
"Ready to go home?" Nick's palm found the small of my back, guiding me across the sun-baked tarmac toward the waiting plane. The heat of his touch burned through my silk blouse.
The platinum band slid cool and familiar against my skin as I twisted it. Three generations of love caught the light—my great-grandmother's courage, my grandmother's quiet strength, my mother's grace—now merged with my own story, precious as the diamond it held.