“You’re the best.”
The second I hung up, I called Allie, but she didn’t answer.
She could have been walking home and missed the call. Or maybe she was on the bus. Or maybe she realized that I’d been a complete asshole for ghosting her, and blocked me.
In a flash, I decided to drive to her place and wait for her. There was a chance that if I could talk to her, we could work things out.
As I was about to open my car door, I looked across the street to see Allie coming out of a jewelry store. She had the sweetest smile on her face, her fingers fluttering over a silver necklace around her throat.
“Oh, hi,” she said, looking up at me in surprise as I rushed over.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
She smiled politely, but it didn’t touch her eyes as much as I would have hoped. Her thumb hooked into the silver chain of leaves around her neck, holding it up. “The clasp broke, and I couldn’t wear my favorite necklace for a few months. It was driving me crazy.”
Glancing up at the sign, it was the company from the brochure that had been in her pocket. “How did you find this place?” I asked.
“Cheryl’s cousin owns it. We were talking about jewelry.” Allie paused, shooting me a look as she rolled her eyes. “Well, she was talking about jewelry and showing off that huge ring I had to pretend to like. You know how it is. But she promised that this place was great at repairs.”
I pulled her under the awning of the closed bakery next door so that we could pause for a moment. “Yeah, I saw you two into the girl talk . I thought you were admiring her ring?”
Allie’s nose crinkled. “I was just being polite. It was too big and a bit tacky, I thought. But to each their own, you know?”
“Doesn’t every girl want a big diamond ring?”
She shook her head. “I don’t even like diamonds, actually. I’ve always thought they looked a bit cold. Someday, way down the road, if I were looking for rings, I might buck tradition and just have a tiny sapphire. ”
Her eyes were so soft and open as she said, ‘way down the road’. Something unlocked deep within me. She clearly wasn’t looking for anything too fast. My stupid paranoia was completely unfounded.
I was an idiot. Through and through.
I’d let my family issues poison my mind and make me suspicious of something that wasn’t even a problem.
Relief coursed through my veins like a dam bursting. My arms reached out for her without thought, pulling us together as I kissed her gently. “I’m sorry I was such an ass,” I murmured against her lips. “You’re the one, Allie. I know you are. I swear I’ll never go more than a day without talking to you again. I just need us to take our time before we end up at a jewelry store for anything permanent. Okay?”
She pushed me back a few inches to look up into my eyes in shock. “Oh my God, you didn’t think… Kellan, I just want to be your girlfriend and see what happens. Anything else…” she waved her hand toward the jewelry store dismissively, “would be years away.”
I needed to beg her forgiveness on a larger scale. Taking her by the hand, I pulled her back into the store. “Let me get you a little something to apologize for being an ass,” I said. “Like a bracelet, maybe.”
We quickly went through the selection of delicate silver bracelets, finding one that almost matched the necklace she just had repaired – a simple silver chain with some leaf and star charms.
Watching her wearing a token of my affection did something strange to me. A soft, warm pressure spread across my chest as she smiled. My hand wrapped around her waist, needing to stay connected with her.
As we walked out of the store, she spun the bracelet around her wrist. “Thank you. It’s beautiful.” Allie took a breath and looked up at me. “Kellan, I accept your apology, but when things come up in the future, call me first.”
Pulling her around the corner, I pressed my back to the wall, holding her in my arms. “Yes. I’m so sorry, gorgeous. I accidentally saw your journal lines about manifesting a man, and husband potential. Then the jewelry store brochure. I guess I freaked out.”
She reached up to place her palm along my cheek in a feather-soft tap. “We need to talk to each other before freaking out if we’re going to make this work.”
“Absolutely.”
Allie stretched up to meet my lips, kissing me for a moment before pulling away again. “I know that I’m sometimes a little anxious, but that’s not your problem. It’s my issue to deal with. So if you need to talk to me, please always come to me first. Okay?”
“You got it.”
Her body tucked against mine so perfectly as I held her close while people passed by on the sidewalk. “Hey, maybe someday, when we’ve been together a few months, we could do one of those planning projects together,” I suggested. “What kind of house we want to live in someday, what kind of wedding we want to have, all of those details.”