It was a solid choice, and one I was glad to have made. Rory walked me through each of the steps in such a way that I felt nothing but confident about the selections I made.
“I’ve called our head designer, and she confirmed that we can procure a six carat flawless yellow diamond within the next seven to ten business days. Once we have the diamond on-site, the head jeweler will place the stone in the setting you’ve chosen. All told, you’re looking at a three-week wait. Does that work for you?”
“It’s perfect,” I answered. “She’ll be back in a little over four weeks, so that gives me plenty of time to plan a proposal.”
Rory grinned as she finished typing up the purchase agreement for the ring on her tablet.
“You just gave me another reason to pull for the next few weeks to pass quickly,” she chuckled.
Leaning back in the chair, I crossed my arms over my chest and snickered. “I should thank you, by the way. Before you, Mason’s shoots were all over the place, time wise. Five weeks, twelve weeks, six months, hell, once he was gone for a year filming a trilogy. He enacted the six-week rule at the perfect time for me,” I joked.
“I’m so glad it worked out for you,” she teased. “On the subject of Mason, he was stunned when I shared with him that you were coming to see me about engagement rings. He told me to pass along his congratulations. We’re both so happy for you, and for Allie.”Turning my office chair to face the wall of windows behind me, I looked out to Santa Monica Boulevard and let out a long sigh. Spending time with Allie in Chicago had been incredible, but coming back to Los Angeles and getting used to being without her all over again sucked. I was hoping the time to my next visit would pass quickly. I figured it didn’t hurt that I was working so much because it meant I had less time to focus on what I was missing. No matter what I was doing, I was always aware of her absence.
It still blew my mind that I’d gone from being alone to missing someone as much as I did her. I made a mental vow to do whatever it took to keep us together as much as humanly possible in the future. If her next script sale came with the potential to be an on-set advisor, her work had the potential to take her all over the world. I knew that in order to keep us from long separations, I would need to delegate even more of my on-air work, and I was fine with that.
Falling for Allie so fast might seem foolish to anyone on the outside looking in, but I didn’t care. Allie was my life, and I planned to tell her as much when I got to Chicago on Friday. I knew she felt as strongly for me as I felt for her, and I was anxious for us to start our future together.
As I reached out my hand to compose an email to her with a reminder that we would see each other again in four days, my phone rang. Without looking at the display, I picked up the handset and forced myself not to bark into the phone as I asked, “Yeah?”
“Vaughn. I need you.”
Four simple words, but the tone of James’s voice told me something was wrong.
I sat up straight, every part of me on red alert. “Is everything okay? Where’s the household staff? What’s going on? Should I call your doctor?”
“I’m physically fine,” he said, his tone flat. “We need to talk in person. I can’t discuss it over the phone. You’ll understand when you get here.”
He sounded seriously off, exhausted and maybe even depressed, which was a departure from the day before. Whatever was happening, I knew I needed to get to him immediately.
I was up and out of my chair between one breath and the next. “I’m leaving now,” I told him.
“Wait. This is important. If Marcella is here when you arrive, you can not act as if anything is happening. If she asks, tell her you have a work question,” he instructed. “What I need to talk to you about is just between us.”
“I understand.”
I didn’t speak to Marcella much to begin with. Something about her had always rubbed me the wrong way. I tolerated her because she was James’s wife, full stop. Marcella had been a working actress who had falling out with her family over something they did to James. Always classy, her shitty family then blacklisted her in the industry as retaliation. They also cut her off financially.
She and James had something in common back then, a shared foe that made their union seem logical. Although twenty-two years ago that had been true, they’d miscalculated what that would mean for them long term.