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Chapter Twenty-Nine

I had seven more days until I had to fly back to California. The thought of leaving here was killing me. Leaving without Maddie would be like leaving half of my heart behind. I needed to make her mine.

Officially.

Hell, if I had my way, we would just fly to Vegas and get the deed done before I flew back to California, but after hearing about Drake’s wedding and Evie’s wedding, I knew that wasn’t going to fly.

At minimum, I needed to get a ring on her finger before I left. I considered who to take with me to pick out a ring for Maddie. It was definitely going to be one of her sisters. But which one?

Chloe! Her name exploded in my head, as I remembered Maddie hugging on Chloe right after she’d been rescued.

Yeah, Chloe would realize that I’d know her circumstances, but who in the hell cared? The important thing is she’d have an idea of what kind of ring Maddie would like.

Now all I needed was Chloe’s number.

I called Simon.

“Yeah?” Simon answered. “What can I do you for?” he asked me.

“I need to go ring shopping,” I told him.

“Congratulations, Beau. I couldn’t be happier for you. But don’t ask me to help you decide on one. It took me a whole day to find the right one. But I can tell you the name of a great jewelry store in Nashville, if that will help.”

“That would be great. I’m also calling for Chloe’s number. I want to take one of Maddie’s sisters with me when I go shopping.”

“If you can get her out of her apartment, that would be fantastic. Trenda and I were amazed when she showed up in Kentucky to visit Maddie in the hospital. She’s turned into a recluse. Trenda has confronted her, but that went nowhere. I suggested an intervention.”

“How’d that go?” I asked.

“Trenda isn’t for it. I said my piece, now I’m staying out of it. But if you could tempt Chloe out of her cave, that would be great.”

“I’m going to need her number. I’ll text her first. I figure she won’t answer an unknown number.”

“You’re right about that,” Simon agreed. “I’ll text you with the name of the jewelry store, too. I don’t remember it off the top of my head.”

“Thanks.”

After I hung up, it occurred to me I didn’t even know what Chloe did for a living. All I knew was she was living as a hermit in an apartment in Gatlinburg since she’d moved out from the home she’d shared with her husband, Zarek.

Maybe she wouldn’t be available on a weekday to go ring shopping.

I went into the laundry room and pulled out Maddie’s delicates that I had washed. I hung up what needed to be air dried and put the rest in the dryer on low. My phone pinged, and I read Simon’s texts.

I looked up the address of the jewelry store and saw that it was on the east side of the city. It was still fairly early, only nine-thirty in the morning. That meant that if we left soon, Chloe and I could get to Nashville in three-and-a-half hours, spend an hour dithering over a ring, and be back here by six, since we should miss Nashville traffic.

I winced. I suppose I shouldn’t consider it dithering.

I laughed to myself. Maybe don’t be a screw-up and buy the first thing they show you. Yeah, that’s it.

I texted Chloe and asked her to call me. I hoped she would call soon. That is, if she would even bothering calling me back.

I gave a slow grin when my phone rang, and her number came up.

“Hi, Chloe, this is Beau.”

“Hi. You caught my interest. So, you want to go ring shopping for my sister, huh?”

I wasn’t expecting this. I was expecting shy and hesitant. Not somebody who kind of sounded like Maddie.

“Yeah. The thing is, the jewelry store that Simon is recommending is in Nashville.”

Husky laughter came over the phone. “I’m not surprised.”

“What do you mean?”

“What kind of ring do you want to get her?” Chloe asked.

“Something special. Not one big diamond. You know? Something colorful and pretty.”

“Hmmm. You’re not going to be here in town much longer, are you? Are you hoping to propose before you leave?”

“Yes.”

“When are you leaving?”

I frowned. “Sunday.”

“This could work. Come pick me up. I’ll text you my address.”

“Can you get off work?”

She laughed again. “Don’t worry, I don’t have a deadline.”

She hung up.

Deadline?

* * *

I pulled up to a five-story building that wasn’t close to anything. It looked like some kid had made a Lego apartment building and plopped it down in the middle of nowhere. When I got there, I saw Chloe’s apartment was on the top floor, and the elevator wasn’t working. That was fine with me, but it sure would be a problem for anybody moving in or out.

All in all, I couldn’t imagine her husband being thrilled about her living here.

I jogged up the five flights of stairs, then got to her apartment and knocked on her door. Today she was dressed in leggings and another shirt that was two sizes too big for her. She had her hair in a ponytail, like most of her sisters often wore theirs. But she pulled hers back so tight, I thought it might hurt. Almost like she was trying to keep every aspect of herself tightly under control.

“What?”

“What-what?” I asked,

“You’re staring at me.”

“I’m just noticing how much all of you Avery girls look alike,” I said as we started walking down the stairs together.

“Weird. Mostly, people only comment on Zoe and me looking alike.”

“I’ve seen pictures of the six of you together. Yep, there is definitely an Avery girl model.”

“Huh,” was all she said as we made it to the parking lot. She didn’t sound like the woman on the phone.

“My ride is over here,” I said as I pointed to the Escalade.

“Nice,” she murmured.

“There was a screw-up with my original rental. They upgraded me.”

“Huh.”

Uh-oh. I hoped I wasn’t destined for a monosyllabic conversation for the rest of the trip. If I was, I hoped she liked the same music I did.

I opened her door and waited for her to get in before closing it and hopping into my side.

“Before we head on out of here, I want to show you my idea,” Chloe said.

Hallelujah, a full sentence .

She reached into her large purse and pulled out a folder. “I called Brantley Hawkins. He said he could fit your project in, depending on the stones you want to use. He’d charge you a small rush fee, but I think he’s worth it. I printed out some of his designs to see if you like them.”

She handed me eight sheets of glossy printer paper with beautiful pieces of jewelry. Six of them were rings, two of them were pendants. All of them were like nothing I’d seen before. “What are these stones?” I asked.

“I’m pretty sure this is a pink sapphire, but I’m not sure about the lighter pink. Then those are diamonds. So, are those the two styles you like the best? They don’t look like traditional engagement rings.”

“But Brantley has made them?”

“For different clients. He’s amazing. If I had my way, he would design all the rings for all my sisters. Now, he wouldn’t do anything exactly the same for you. He could come up with something similar, using the stones you want. He charges fifteen percent over materials, and then he normally has a ten percent rush fee, but he would give you a three percent rush fee.”

“Three percent?” I frowned. “Why so cheap?”

“You’re a friend of mine, and you’re in the military. His sister is in the Coast Guard. So, do you want to go over to his shop?”

“Absolutely.”

“Head for downtown Gainesville. Let me get you his address so you can put him into your navigation system. I’ll give him a call.”

It took us less than fifteen minutes to get to Brantley’s studio. I’d figured it would be in a shopping strip, but instead it was in a professional building next to a dentist's office. It had good security, and we had to be buzzed in.

I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t a stylish man about my age in a suit and tie.

“Chloe! When are you coming out with your next issue? I need another hit of Seris. I need to know what comes next for her.”

I watched as Chloe blushed. “Her story will come when it comes, Brantley. Can’t tell you more than that.”

“I forgot, you’re indie. You get to decide your own deadlines.” He grimaced. “Must be nice.” Brantley turned to me. “You must be Maddie’s guy. Chloe’s told me about you. You’re quite the hero. It would be an honor to work with you on an engagement ring for Maddie.”

He held out his hand, and I shook it.

“Let’s go have a seat in my conference room. We can look at designs, gems, and discuss prices.”

We sat down, and I pulled out the printouts of the two rings that I thought would be good for Maddie.

Brantley looked at them, then tapped his finger on the two pieces of paper. “Can you tell me why you thought these would be good for her?”

I shook my head. “That’s a hard question.”

“Humor me.”

“Well,” I started slowly. “I haven’t seen anything with gold in her house. It’s all silver or stainless steel, so that’s why I discarded these others.” I motioned to the rings with gold bands.

“Makes sense,” Brantley nodded. “What else?”

“She’s down to earth. She doesn’t wear a lot of make-up, but she always wears pink lip gloss. That’s why I think she’d like the pink.”

He nodded.

I was getting into this. “Neither of these are too high, like those single diamond rings are, so they won’t catch on things.”

“Makes sense. All of these are sensible reasons. Anything else? Anything emotional?”

“Emotional?”

Aw, shit. Woo-woo .

I looked down at the two printouts. Then I looked at his tray of gemstones. “May I?”

“Sure, look through them,” he nodded.

I sorted through the stones. There were purples, blues, greens which I was pretty sure were emeralds. Diamonds, of course. I finally found one of the light pink stones, like what was in the one picture. I set that one aside. I liked that it was a rectangle cut. It looked noble. The color reminded me of the color Maddie’s cheeks would get when she blushed. I kept pushing through the other stones, placing each one beside the pink one. The bright pink stones were nice, but too overwhelming, whereas the less glittery diamonds really set off the light pink stone. The pink in the middle with small square diamonds on either side looked regal.

Strong.

Like Maddie.

It took me more than a minute to explain all of that to Brantley, but I managed to. When I looked up from the tray, I saw there were tears in Chloe’s eyes. She immediately looked away.

“Did that answer your question?” I asked Brantley.

“It definitely did. Can I have your e-mail? I think I can give you preliminary sketches tonight. In the meantime, let me price out the light pink sapphire, and let you know what you’re in for on that. I’ll be working in platinum, so I’ll give a ballpark on what that will cost. I’m not sure what I’m going to design, but the ballpark should be pretty accurate. I won’t know on the diamonds. But when I e-mail you the designs, I’ll be able to give you pricing.”

The three of us stood up. “Let’s go to my office, where I have everything.” Brantley smiled as he picked up his tray of gems.

“I’ll leave the two of you to it,” Chloe said. She pulled out a sketchpad from her tote bag. “I’m going to draw for a bit.”

“See what you can do about drawing more of Oracle’s Silence. I’ve been on the fan page, and the natives are getting restless. I’m not the only one jonesing for the next installment,” Brantley said before we left the conference room.

“Yeah. Yeah.” Chloe waved us away.

When we sat down in his office, I asked Brantley what he was talking about.

“Don’t you know?”

“Know what?”

“Chloe writes one of the most popular manga series out there. She has a huge cult following. She hasn’t released in over a year. Doesn’t matter. Me and the rest of her fans will wait for years if necessary to read the next installment of Seris’.”

“Huh.”

I thought about one of the guys on my team who read manga. I wondered if he’d ever heard of Oracle’s Silence.

“I’ve got to tell you, Beau. It’s going to be a pleasure working on Maddie’s ring. How you explained things has really inspired me.”

I looked at the man in surprise.

“Seriously. I can tell you really know her. Not many men do. I hope one day I find a woman to love like that.”