“All right,” Nate said, stepping into the jewelry store and stopping immediately. “We only have a few minutes. Have you got that list?” He looked down at Connor as a salesman came toward them. Thankfully.
“Yep.” Connor held up the lined, yellow paper Nate had scrawled a few notes on. He and Connor had been slipping questions into normal conversation with Ginger for the past few weeks to find out what kind of ring she might like.
He’d learned she didn’t like anything too big or gaudy. Connor had learned she liked gold more than silver. Nate had asked Emma about the cut on the diamond, and learned that Ginger liked the sparkliest things.
Nate could use the Internet, and he’d learned about a brilliant diamond with the most shiny facets—the Gassan diamond. He wanted that one, and he wanted it to be simple.
“Good morning,” the salesman said. “My name is Chandler. What are you looking for today?”
Connor looked at Nate, and Nate looked at Connor. “An engagement ring,” he said, a smile immediately following the words. “And we have a list.” He nodded to the boy, and Connor handed it to Chandler.
“Oh, okay.” Chandler grinned at Connor, and then he focused on the list. “Something small, but expensive. Princess or brilliant cut. Gold band. Simple. Gassan diamond.” He lifted his eyes to Nate’s, his eyebrows going right up too. “A Gassan diamond is very expensive, sir.”
“And I want it to be very white,” Nate said with a smile. “Do you have something like that, or do I need to special order it?” He knew the Gassan diamonds came from the Netherlands, but he assumed he’d be able to talk to a good jeweler and get some answers.
Ginger had agreed to give him twenty minutes in the mall alone with Connor, though Nate wouldn’t tell her what they wanted to shop for without her. She had to know, though.
“We have a catalog,” the man said. “If you’ll come over here, I’m sure we can find you something, and I’ll make a call.”
“Let’s go look at the catalog,” Nate said to Connor, though he knew the child wouldn’t be any help. Nate wasn’t one to beat around the bush, and he knew what he wanted. The salesman probably studied this catalog in his spare time, because he flipped straight to the section with the gold banded, brilliant-cut rings with all the facets that made them the shiniest diamonds in the world.
Ginger was going to love her ring.
He found the one he wanted—a chunkier band, with the stone set down in but also raised up because of its size—on the third page. He pointed to it. “That one. Can we get that one?”
“Let me find out.” He took the catalog through a back door and into an office, and Nate glanced at his phone to judge the time. They had maybe ten minutes, and then Nate needed to get out of this store. Thankfully, Chandler came back within a couple of minutes and said, “I can get you this one. It’s thirteen thousand dollars.”
“How long?”
“They’ll put it in the mail this evening, and it’ll be here by Friday.”
As it was Tuesday already, Nate thought Friday was fairly fast. Quite fast, in fact. “Perfect,” he said, reaching for his wallet. “If I know the size, can I call and get it sized before I pick it up?”
“Of course.”
“Okay, I’ll work on that.” He handed Chandler his credit card, and the transaction only took a few moments. Chandler took down all of Nate’s information, and he herded Connor out into the busyness of the mall, glancing around to see if Ginger had come in yet.
He didn’t see her, so he hurried Connor across the way to a smoothie shop. He’d ordered and had all three treats before turning around to look for the woman he loved again. This time, she raised her hand from over by the indoor fountain, and Nate said, “Over there, bud. Go on, now.”
Connor skipped through the people to where Ginger sat on a bench, and she grinned at him and took him right onto her lap. Nate walked at a much slower pace, the noise and chaos around him fading to nothing as he looked at Ginger and Connor. No, they didn’t look like they came from one another, but that didn’t matter. Connor’s shocking white hair reminded him of himself and Ward as children, and Ginger, with her auburn hair and those dark, hazel eyes, took his breath away every time he caught a glimpse of her.
“Hey, beautiful.” Nate handed her the Styrofoam cup with her mango and orange smoothie and sat beside her.
“So, did you get your shopping done?” she asked, making a show of looking for a bag. “You don’t have anything with you.”
“Couldn’t really find anything,” Nate said casually. “We’ll have to come back this weekend.” He sipped his smoothie like he loved hanging out at the mall, and for how often he’d come here, an outsider would probably think he did.
“Mm hm,” Ginger said, sipping her smoothie too.
“Ginger?” Connor asked. “You got any coins?”
“Sure thing, baby,” she said, dipping down to get her wallet out of her purse. She handed him a quarter and a penny, and he went to toss them into the fountain.
“Thank you for loving him,” Nate said quietly, and Ginger whipped her attention back to him.
Her wide eyes drank him in, and he just smiled at Connor before looking at Ginger. “He’s a great kid,” she said.
“Yeah,” Nate said. “He is. And his dad was great too.”
“Missing Ward today?” Ginger linked her arm through Nate’s.
“Every day,” he said. “Some days are worse than others.”
“Only a month until release.”
Nate nodded, wondering how on Earth he was going to conceal a thirteen-thousand-dollar diamond ring from her for a month. “Listen,” he said. “I wanted to ask you something.” He hesitated, because he really didn’t want to ask her to marry him while they sat on a bench in the mall.
“Yeah?”
“You hungry? I hear there’s a great Chinese place around here somewhere.”
Ginger giggled and laid her head against his bicep. Nate liked how she made him feel strong. He liked how she made him feel necessary. He simply liked being with her.
“Let’s go,” he said, standing up. “Come on, Connor. We’re gonna go get noodles.”
Connor skipped back over to them, and Nate took one of his hands while Ginger took the other. They went back to her truck, and she drove through the parking lot to the Chinese restaurant.
“Hey, Laura,” Nate said as he walked in.
“Oh, my favorite family.” She grinned at them and didn’t bother with menus. Nate wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. She led them to a table out of the way, and said, “I’ll send over Kiki.”
“Sounds good.” Nate helped Connor sit, and then he handed the boy his phone. “You can do the airplanes or the teddy bears.”
“Do you have that snake game?”
“Snake game?” Nate shook his head. “No, I deleted that one.”
“Why?”
“Because I couldn’t download something else I needed.”
Connor stabbed unhappily at the phone, and Nate had half a mind to take it from him and say he couldn’t use it at all. Instead, he turned his attention to Ginger, who sat across from him.