“Just because you ask someone a question doesn’t mean they have to answer it.” Sully’s deep voice rumbles across the diner. To my surprise and thrill, his arm wraps around my waist, and he lifts me off my feet as he steps back a few feet. “Don’t want any glass to get on that petal skin of yours,” he says against my ear. His tone is back to being soft and sweet for me. “Charlie, can you get a broom out here?” he shouts to the back.
Slowly, Sully puts me back on my feet, but he doesn’t let me go. His arm stays tucked tightly around my waist. I wish I could drop my head back and look up at him to see his face right now. I’m not sure what it’s showing, but my father and Jeremiah aren’t looking so tough at the moment. I let myself sink back into Sully’s body, wanting to draw from his strength.
“She’s my fiancée, or did you forget?” Jeremiah gives me a pointed look.
“That so, Petal?” Sully draws out his words, almost sounding bored with Jeremiah and his question. As for me, all I can think about now is him calling me Petal, but somehow, I manage to shake my head no this time.
“I left a note,” I quickly add. I mean, do I really have to break up with someone I never agreed to marry? I was told. It was never a question.
“But not the ring.” Jeremiah is quick to point out.
“It was my grandmother’s. She left it to me.” I reach up and pull the necklace out from under my dress. I always keep it tucked away there.
It wasn’t the ring my father gave my mom, who was his fourth wife. No, it’s the ring my grandma on her side left to me when she died.
I don't believe she ever meant for it to be used in the kind of marriage Jeremiah is thinking we’d have, even if he is promising I’ll be his first wife. Not his first lover, of course, as he expects from me. No, I’ve heard those rumors. Some of the men sneak into some of the widows' homes, or they get dressed up in their fancy suits and go out to find the company of a woman.
While my grandfather did have two wives, he’d only acquired the second 'cause Grandma Noel nudged him to. I don’t think there was ever anything romantic with the second wife, Gina. She was more like an aunt to me. She never had children, and while Grandpa was kind to her, I never saw any romance between the two. As for Grandma and Gina, they were best friends.
I know Gina was a widow, and I don’t think she wanted anything to do with any man after her first husband died. Grandma Noel and Gina had some kind of sisterly bond. I truly think she was a roommate that lived out her days doing what she wanted. If I recall correctly, Grandma Noel held tightly to Grandpa, and he held her just as close. I remember telling her I wanted what they had. After she passed, she’d left me her ring, and I took that as her telling me that I could have what she had if I wanted.
“You stole it,” my father interjects. “It was mine to give to your future husband of my choosing.”
“Not sure that’s how wills work.” Sully’s voice is getting deeper by the second. All the coldness has left my body now. His hold on me keeps on tightening. I’m all but surrounded by him now.
The ring, a few of my belongings, and cash I’d been slowly tucking away that I’d earned is all I took when I left.
“I’m not so sure you know who you’re dealing with,” my father tells Sully. He has to drop his head almost all the way back to even meet Sully’s stare. If my emotions weren’t all over the place, I might giggle. However, that doesn’t stop Dixie from doing it.
“So she’s a thief? I knew it!” Roxie hisses loud enough for everyone to hear.
“Roxie,” Dixie snaps in her no-nonsense tone. It’s the one that tells everyone they better watch what they say next.
Roxie seals up her cherry painted lips real quick.
“You agree to marry this man, Petal?” Sully asks me as he ignores everyone else. His forefinger and thumb come to my chin to turn my head to look up at him.
“You don’t really get to agree to much where I’m from. You’re just told.”
“I don’t know what they or anyone else has been telling you, but you do get to agree on who you marry. You want to marry this man?”
“No, I don’t want to marry him.” Gosh, it’s so much easier to answer when I’m staring into Sully’s eyes and he’s got his hands on me. I feel utterly safe.