Page 38

Chapter 37

Scuba

I looked into the rearview mirror to get a glimpse of Eric’s expression. Everything about today’s plans depended on Eric’s reaction to my idea. Okay, not everything. The trip to get pancakes would still happen.

Pretending I wasn’t nervous, I kept my voice light. “How would you feel if we were to get your mom a ring?”

Eric’s face lit up. He was so damn expressive, and I loved it. Now that he was settling in, it was seldom that I didn’t have a clue what was going on in his mind.

“Are you going to propose to her for real?” Eric asked excitedly.

I was so glad he knew exactly what I meant by getting a ring, but I was distracted by his statement.

My brow arched up. What was he talking about?

“What do you mean by propose for real?”

Eric looked toward the roadside, and I didn’t have a clear view of his face, but he sighed heavily. “When my mom was in the hospital, I helped Mr. Spencer pick out a ring for Miss Natalie, but she wouldn’t allow him to propose until next year.”

I chuckled. I had no clue that he wasn’t allowed to propose. Sure, they were absolutely besotted with each other, but they had just started to hook up. I loved hearing how she was a hard ass for him too.

After all these years, I had no intention of waiting to propose. Hell, I had no intention of really taking the time to be engaged. If I had it my way, by the end of the season, I’d be married.

“Yes, it will be for real. But I won’t if you’re not okay with it,” I told him sincerely.

I meant that last bit. If Eric wasn't ready for me to be married to his mom, then I would wait.

“That’s awesome. I would love for you and mom to be married. There’s only one problem.”

I looked at Eric again in the rearview mirror, but he didn’t look upset, so it was likely a minor thing.

“Oh?”

“I don’t want a new last name. Your name is super hard to spell,” Eric said.

I laughed. It was a damn hard name. There was a reason I went by Scuba.

There was a part of me that would love for him to change his last name to mine, but I understood his reasoning. With or without my last name, he was my kid, and there was no denial of that fact.

“Well, who says you need to take my name? You didn’t change your name when your mom changed hers. When I marry your mom, I would love for you to have my last name, but it’s okay if you don’t want to change it. You’re still my kid, and that’s the only thing that matters.”

Eric smiled and seemed content with that answer.

We made our way to the fancy jewelry store. It was so fancy that I needed an appointment in order to just look at the rings, so I made one in case Eric said yes.

I held Eric’s hand as we walked in. It was so easy to walk in, as if I was going to buy out the place.

A man in a dapper suit looked at Eric and commented, “Didn’t I see you in here not too long ago?”

Eric giggled and nodded his head. “Yeah, but this time, the ring is for my mom.”

Another slightly younger gentleman came toward us with his hand out. “Mister Scrubewski?”

I nodded and shook his hand. He also shook Eric’s hand, which I liked. So often, they ignored the kids at places like this, and I liked Eric getting recognized for having good manners even if I did nothing to instill them.

We were ushered to a table, where we sat down. Then, the gentleman pulled out a few trays and placed them in front of us.

“I know you said you wanted to design your own ring, but I wanted to show you some of the different style options.”

The trays had several rings that were all very pretty, but they didn’t seem quite right. The closest was one with some twisted metal, but it was all one color. I picked it up to look at it closer.

“This is the closest, but the stone is all wrong. Plus, I want to have Eric’s birthstone added in and maybe a streak of either rose gold or gold to go with the silver.”

The jeweler wrote notes down and nodded.

“Eric, what’s your birthstone?” I turned to him and asked.

Eric bit his lip and seemed unsure for a moment.

Granted, today was the first time I really asked about his birthday. Damn, I was a bad dad for not knowing his own son’s birthday. I mean, I had a rough idea of when it should be since I found out that Annette was pregnant with him on draft day, but still.

Since I couldn’t fix it for him, I whispered into his ear, “I don’t know your stone either. Just tell him what month you were born in.”

Eric nodded and said, “I was born in March.”

Oh damn, we had the same birth month.

Shit. His birthday was coming up, and we didn’t have a party ready for him. At least we had some time to really make his birthday epic. I’d talk to Petey to see if Eric could do something at the arena since he was so obsessed with hockey and the Legacy.

The jeweler smiled in acknowledgment. “That’s going to be aquamarine. Let me grab some of those for you to choose from. Why don’t you look at the diamonds for the ring?”

I was surprised he let us sit there while he went to get the other stones. Not that I would think about pocketing a diamond, but then I realized two bodyguards had us in total view.

I side-hugged Eric and said, “Why don’t you pick out the diamonds?”

Eric beamed and looked at the diamonds on the tray. Much to my surprise, he grabbed what seemed to be an emerald cut. “This one is really pretty, but I was hoping to get something bigger for Mom.”

I loved how he wanted to give his mom a big diamond. There was no denying that.

I pointed to the larger uncut diamonds. “I think that can be arranged. What about something like this size?”

Eric’s voice got super excited when he replied, “Yeah.”

Soon, the jeweler came back into the room. “Did you find what you want?”

“Yup.” I pointed out the stone we liked. “We want this in an emerald cut.”

“Perfect. And we can do the aquamarine in some princess cuts—the square style—to go near it.”