Chapter 24
Silas
I’d asked June to marry me in as informal a way as possible…but she’d said yes.
And that meant I was putting a ring on her finger as soon as possible.
When Grandma Hazel passed, she’d left explicit instructions that we were to take whatever we wanted from her jewelry box, but that we should only do it when we knew we’d found the one.
I was lucky enough to have found two.
And now it was June’s turn to get one of Hazel’s rings.
“About damn time,” Rhett said as we climbed the stairs, as if me and June hadn’t been moving way faster than anyone would consider normal. “Ever since she came back to town, I’ve been thinkin’ you must be comin’ by for a ring soon.”
Rhett had baby Hazel on his hip, the little thing chewing on a teething toy shaped like a peach. She looked just like her mama—wide golden eyes, rosy cheeks. She made blubbering little noises, kicking one foot as we climbed the stairs.
“You gonna help him pick one out?” Rhett asked, bouncing her lightly.
“Sure hope so,” I said. “Bet she’s got better taste than you.”
Rhett scoffed, but Hazel cackled—immediately setting him grinning too. “Never heard Willow complain about hers.”
We reached the landing and took a right toward the extra bedroom, where Rhett and Willow had carefully brought a lot of our grandmother’s things once they’d started clearing out the attic.
Letters, her old sewing machine, and—of course—the antique jewelry box.
It was an old chest about the size of a shoebox that us kids had been obsessed with trying to get into when we were little, solid oak with secret compartments and puzzle keys.
Grandma Hazel would just chuckle and bat us away, saying we wouldn’t find a damn thing in there until it was time.
Now was the time.
“So…how’d you pick out Willow’s ring anyway?” I asked. “Feel like I never even saw that thing until y’all decided to tie the knot—and it suited her like it was made for her, perfect fit and everything.”
“You’re not gonna believe me,” Rhett said with a smile, little Hazel now reaching up to tug on his beard. He didn’t seem to mind it as we opened the bedroom door, stepping inside.
“I’ve seen too much to doubt at this point,” I muttered.
He huffed a laugh. “Alright…well, the jewelry box was lost for a bit after Hazel died, tucked away somewhere in storage. And you know, when Willow showed up…all kinds of other stuff started appearing too—and I found this box nestled in some roses with a secret compartment already opened on the side. It was like Grandma picked it herself.”
Hazel gurgled as if in agreement.
The jewelry box was sitting on top of an old vanity table, a chair tucked beneath it. I pulled the chair out to take a seat, while Rhett sat just a couple feet away on the edge of the bed, Hazel bouncing on his knee. Her eyes were wide, fixed on the jewelry box as I inspected it.
“Yeah…still don’t know exactly how to open this damn thing,” I muttered, running my fingers over the gold engravings on top—stars and moons and flowers, a few esoteric symbol I recognized from my books.
I’d’ve been lying if I said I didn’t take after our grandmother—more of a witch than any of my brothers were, anyway.
I peered down at some of the symbols, humming.
“Huh,” I murmured.
“See somethin’ interesting?” Rhett asked.
“It’s a hexafoil,” I said, gesturing at the little six-petaled flower etched into the center of the lid. “Remember? Grandma used to carve them into everything…almost habitually, right? Little protection symbols. I carved one into an amulet for June after she got bit.”
“Looks familiar,” Rhett said. “Push it.”
I frowned. “Don’t look like a button.”
“Well, may as well try,” he started.
But before I could do anything, Hazel took it upon herself to do the honors.
She flopped forward, a huge smile on her face, and slapped one little hand against the lid…
…and it popped open with a whisper of breath that smelled like roses.
She let out another one of her signature cackles, knees bending as Rhett held her in a standing position, bopping up and down. Her whole body seemed to reach for the box as I opened the lid, eyes finding not one ring…but four.
Furthest to the left, a teardrop sapphire in a golden band, the setting encrusted with diamonds. It gleamed like a baptismal font, like love, like truth.
Beside it…a silver band with an unusually dark amethyst, along with two moonstones on either side that shone like eyes in the dark.
Next, a ring I’d seen before: a small, classic diamond that Delilah had snatched from the jewelry box more than once when we were kids, only to have Grandma catch on and chastise all six of us for being little thieves.
And last—rose quartz in a filigree rose gold band that wove like vines, tiny leaves framing the rough-hewn stone.
Rhett let out a low whistle beside me. “Damn,” he said. “And here I thought we’d all be bachelors for life…but it seems Hazel had other plans, huh?”
His daughter let out another squeal of agreement. Rhett chuckled.
“Not you, sweetheart. Your great-grandma.”
She cackled.
Yeah…I wasn’t sure if there was all that much of a difference.
Hazel kept her eyes on me, still bopping in Rhett’s arms as I hovered my fingers over the rings. Each was unique…different, like they were made specifically for very specific kinds of women.
And I knew which one was made for my June.
The sapphire.
Shaped like a teardrop…like we’d both come from grief, like we were in each other’s blood, surrounded by those small diamonds. Beauty in the healing. I plucked it from the box and Hazel squawked, loud and joyous.
“Think that’s Hazel’s favorite,” Rhett said, and again, I wasn’t sure if he was talking about his daughter or our grandmother.
I turned the ring in the light, the sapphire catching it like holy water—like the flash in June’s eyes when she was ready to throw down or throw her arms around someone. “This one’s hers. No doubt in my mind.”
Hazel let out another chirp and promptly tried to dive headfirst for it.
“Hey now,” Rhett laughed, reeling her back in before she could faceplant off his knee. “That ain’t a snack.”
“She’s got good instincts,” I said, tucking the ring into my breast pocket. “And fast hands.”
“Wonder where she got that from,” Rhett muttered, smoothing down her curls. “You gonna ask her soon?”
I chuckled. “Kinda already did…this is just the physical confirmation.”
Rhett snorted. “Let me guess—you blurted it out during some kind of divine revelation?”
I gave him a look. “Gonna keep that to myself for your daughter’s sake. Remember—little pitchers have big ears.”
I closed the jewelry box again and we both stood up, Rhett tucking Hazel securely against his hip.
She gurgled and set to playing with his beard again—a far more interesting activity now that the rings had vanished.
We didn’t say much as we went back downstairs and out onto the porch, where Rhett took a seat on the porch swing—his eyes straying to the garden, where Willow was on her knees in the dirt, preparing for the chill of fall.
“So,” I said after a minute, “you think Whit’s next?”
Rhett raised an eyebrow. “Who’s to say that diamond ring ain’t for Delilah and someone else? She was as much one of Hazel’s grandkids as any of us…and Whit don’t even have his own place. Hell, I have no idea where he lives.”
I laughed softly. “Fair enough—but you have to have noticed the way he looks at her.”
“I’ve also seen the way she looks at him,” Rhett said. “Like she’s debatin’ whether to kiss him or kick him in the teeth.”
“Same difference with those two,” I muttered. “That diamond’s gotta be Delilah’s, though. Remember how many times she tried to steal it when we were kids?”
“She also tried to trade it for a potbelly pig in the third grade, so…”
We both laughed as Rhett trailed off. Hazel was getting sleepy now, curled into his arms, eyelashes fluttering like she was trying—and failing—to stay awake and listen to the conversation.
“So Hazel might be gettin’ a cousin soon?” Rhett asked.
Thoughts of June rushed through me—June asking me to put a baby in her, picking out wallpaper for the nursery as if the decision was already made. Rhett must have recognized the look on my face, because he laughed softly.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
“You can take it as a we’ll see,” I said. “Not gettin’ my hopes up.”
Rhett peered at me, cocking his head to one side. Hazel started to snore, little fingers curled in his t-shirt.
“I think you’ve earned the right to get your hopes up at this point, Silas,” he said. “Spent long enough thinkin’ nothin’ would go right for you…take the blessings you have, little brother.”
I swallowed hard, looking back toward the garden—toward the woods, past Willow.
Rhett was right.
I’d spent years clinging to my pain, living in that haunted church like I was just waiting for Amelia to come back and tell me I could rest. And then…she showed up. She brought me June.
And now June was in my bed, in our house, humming old hymns and writing her own story. She wasn’t here to save me necessarily…she was here because she wanted to be.
But that in itself was a blessing.
Willow stood up and brushed off her overalls, grinning from across the garden when she saw me. She waved, and when I looked at Rhett, I could see the deep and abiding love etched in every line of his face as he looked at his wife.
“We are some real lucky men,” he said.
And for the first time in years, I believed it.