“I can just see it now. Us on the bestseller list. Auddie Cranston. And Sloane Livingston.”
“Oh,” I said, heart thudding hard suddenly. “About that…”
Gunner – 9 months
“This is so sad,” Sloane said, leaning into me slightly.
“It’s supposed to be a happy occasion,” I reminded her as we watched Jules talking animatedly to Aven and Miller.
“I don’t mean for Jules,” she said, taking a deep breath. “I mean for Kai.” Her voice sounded a little thick, drawing my attention down to actually find her eyes somewhat glassy as she stared at Kai across the room. As he watched Jules flash around a ring. A diamond. On the fourth finger of her left hand.
The poor fuck.
She was right.
I might never have gotten his thing for Jules. And most especially his steadfast determination not to act on his feelings. But there was no denying the man had been fucking head-over since the first week he started at the office. It had only grown since then. It had become something almost painful to watch – his unwavering dedication, and her complete ignorance of it.
We’d all known this moment was coming.
In fact, we were all a bit surprised it had taken this long.
She’d been dating a guy for about a year. They had moved in together after three months. The shit was serious. We’d been expecting this to happen for almost five months now.
We’d even said that we thought it would be good. For Kai. So he could finally move on, find a girl who understood how into her he was.
But seeing him now, fuck.
I felt bad for even thinking that shit.
I don’t know if I had ever seen a man look so devastated.
And then Jules’s head turned toward him, bright, excited, eyes and smile just beaming. “Did you see, Kai?” she asked, thrusting her hand out at him.
I knew that must have been a punch to the gut. Fucking knocking out all his air.
But this guy, this guy who – as far as I was convinced as I watched this – no woman would ever deserve, he swallowed back his pain, grabbed her hand, and gave her a smile that would be convincing to anyone. Especially Jules who was always so clueless about him.
“I’m so happy for you, Jules,” he told her, giving her hand a squeeze.
“Okay. Fuck. You’re right. This is sad,” I agreed.
Sloane – 2 years
I never gave much thought to this before.
To settling down.
To building a life that was more than just my own.
It had just never seemed like something I could have, so it was pointless to wish for it, to look for it, to dream about it.
It was possible now, though.
Mateo was all but running every aspect of my company. I really didn’t even need to go into the office all that much. So, well, I didn’t. Just here and there, to consult on big projects, for staff meetings, to approve new hires.
I had ample ‘free time,’ something I barely knew even existed before. I spent a lot of it with Gunner. The rest, on art. Sometimes for the books with Auddie, sometimes just for fun, for myself, for the walls in our homes, for our friends.
So things had always been changing, shifting, going in a direction that was new to me.
But this, this was the newest of it all.
My hand felt heavier.
That was silly, of course. I had worn rings all my adult life. Many with stones just as big as this diamond.
It wasn’t a physical thing.
It was deeper than that.
Because it wasn’t just a ring.
It was a ring that stood for something.
That promised things.
Things I hadn’t given much thought to in the past.
Not even after Gunner and I started genuinely living together, after he had caught me looking at apartments in Navesink Bank, slammed my laptop shut, and informed me that I would be living with him. Since I had been the one to decorate his place – from paint colors to art to new tile and countertops and curtains – it did seem fitting.
That had just felt like a rational thing to do, to live together. Since we spent most nights together. It was impractical to pay another rent, another round of utilities.
This was different.
“Duchess,” Gunner’s voice called, making my head snap up as I realized I had been staring at my own hand for what had to have been a long few minutes. “You alright?” he asked, smirking a little at my obvious discomfort.
“Yeah. This is just… I don’t know. It’s big.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, nodding.
“I never gave much thought to settling down.”
“I figured. Me either. Before you, anyway. It didn’t sound like my kind of thing.”
“But?”
“But, as it turns out, you are my kind of thing. And the things I like, I lock down.”
“That is very romantic,” I told him, words dripping with sarcasm.
“It is though, if you think about it.”