Chapter 34
thirty-four
Leaving Kelsea in that room was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
I know I overreacted, but her fears sparked fears of my own.
What if she’s right? What if a decade from now, she realizes the life I've given her isn’t what she wants?
I know she’s told me time and time again that her childhood was much darker on the inside than it looked.
But I can never give her the kind of life her parents did.
My business is very successful and still growing.
I’m damn proud of the man I’ve become. But I’ll never have generational wealth like that.
I gave that up when I wrote my parents off.
But despite all of my doubts and fears, I love Kelsea more than I’ve ever loved another living being.
I want her to have everything she desires in this life, even if that isn’t me.
But I'm not giving up that easily. I spent the night in my sister's guest room, letting Kelsea cool off and considering what I want most in my future.
Which is why I find myself standing outside the only jewelry store in Grovewood, waiting for Elijah to show up.
I hear the rumble of his approach before I see him turn the corner.
Pulling his bike up to the curb behind my truck, he swings his leg over the seat and straps his helmet onto the back.
“You’re sure about this?” he asks, giving me a back-slapping hug.
“Never been more sure of anything,” I reply, and he nods.
“Well then. Shall we?” He opens the front door, a bell above the door announcing our arrival.
An older gentleman stands behind the counter, wiping down the glass display cases meticulously. He smiles in our direction as we browse the selection of rings he has on display.
“Elijah! So nice to see you again, son!” he says, his voice gravelly with age.
“Mr. Parker, it’s nice to see you too, sir,” Eli replies, shaking his hand.
“What can I do for you boys today? Shopping for something for your new bride?” he asks.
Elijah beams back at him at the mention of my sister. “No, sir. Not this time. It’s his turn now,” he says, motioning towards me.
“Ah, Mr. Blake, a certain young lady has dazzled you already?” The old man quirks an eyebrow towards me and I laugh.
“You could definitely say that, sir,” I say. “I know it's only been a few months, but I think I’ve been gone for that girl since the day I met her.”
“Oh, I know the feeling, son. I met my Emma when we were just seven years old. Loved her for sixty-one years before she passed. I think we were only going steady for about three weeks before I proposed. When you know, you just know, right?” His eyes crinkle around the edges, misting over as he talks about his late wife.
“Ain’t that the fucking truth,” Elijah adds.
“Well, what kind of lady is yours, Everett? Is she a princess cut, something traditional and sophisticated? Or maybe something with a beautiful gemstone like Mrs. Harding?” He places a few rings on a cushioned tray on the counter. They’re all nice, but I don’t see anything that screams Kelsea.
“Man, I don’t know. What do you think, Eli?” I rub the back of my neck. I didn’t think this would be so fucking difficult.
“I don’t know her as… intimately as you do, Ev. But I can tell you that ‘traditional’ and ‘sophisticated’ aren’t really words I would use to describe Kelsea.” He laughs.
“Tell me this, young man. If you had to pick just one word to describe your lady, what would it be? Don’t think about it, just pick.” Mr. Parker asks.
“Bewitching,” I scoff, remember a line from a book she read to help calm me down after a particularly rough nightmare. “That woman has definitely fucking bewitched me.”
“I see. A romantic, huh? Perhaps something in a vintage style?” He suggested, walking to the far left case and pulling a tray out onto the counter.
Eli and I make our way down the counter to meet him.
Before he makes another suggestion, I see it.
In a flash, the next sixty years of my life flash before my eyes.
I see myself sliding that ring on Kelsea’s finger, her walking down the aisle like the fucking goddess she is, bringing home our children, however they come to us.
I see the fights and apologies, the nights spent comforting each other through every obstacle we may face.
I see the image of Kelsea’s beautiful face, worn from age but still as radiant as the day I met her, opening her eyes on the pillow next to me and smiling that smile that steals my heart every single day.
I want to make those visions a reality more than I’ve ever wanted anything before.
“That one,” I point, and he knows which one I’m talking about without question. As long as he’s been doing this, Mr. Parker has grown quite an eye for ring selection.
“Ah, an antique. Years and years of love have already woven their way through every inch of this one,” he says, holding it out to me.
The center stone is a classic oval diamond, not huge, but not small.
But the tiny rectangular diamonds framing it are what drew my attention.
They fan out around the center like a starburst, creating a beautiful shimmering halo.
It screams ‘Kelsea’, and I know I can’t leave here without it.
Something about the way Mr. Parker said it already has years of love woven into it sounds personal. “What do you mean it’s an antique?”
He gets a mischievous but all-knowing look on his face, and I’m even more intrigued.
“When my Emma fell ill, she made me promise to pass that ring on. To let it become part of someone else’s love story with all the years of our wisdom and devotion to each other as a legacy for the couple who chose it.
I think she would be over the moon to see it pass on to you, son. ”
I find my eyes stinging a bit as I realize what he’s telling me. He loved his wife for sixty-one years with that ring on her finger, and now it’s my turn. I look at Elijah, who’s doing his best to cover up a sniffle.
We both clear our throats at the same time, adjusting our posture like the manly men we are. But we both know the right woman can bring even the strongest men to their fucking knees.
“I’d be honored to take it with me, sir,” I tell him.
As he cleans it up and slips it into a dark green velvet box, Elijah smiles over at me.
“You’re really gonna do this?” He asks one last time. “Big bad Everett Blake is gonna let a woman lock him down for life?”
“If there was ever a woman capable of it, it’s Kelsea fucking Sawyer,” I smirk.
I take the bag from Mr. Parker and shake his hand, promising to bring him a wedding photo in the future for the wall of photos he keeps behind the counter.
As Eli and I step out of the store, we run straight into my sister as she leans against Eli’s bike.
Her hip is cocked to the side, full of attitude, and she looks like she’s got a bone to pick with one of us.
“Everett Blake, what kind of shitty ass proposal is ‘marry me, Kelsea’?!” She says, hilariously mimicking my voice.
“Look, it wasn’t exactly planned out, Sparky. If I’d had time, I could have done better,” I defend myself, but she doesn’t seem to be buying it.
“Well,” she says, holding her arms out wide. “You’ve got time now, Ev. What are you gonna do with it?”