Page 50 of Hell Bent (Portland Devils #5)

It was an earring. One earring. I took it out and held it in my palm.

A cuff with a sort of quilted pattern embossed into it, maybe three-quarters of an inch in diameter.

The gold wasn’t too shiny, somehow, but rich, if you know what I mean, and the piece looked classic but not in the least boring.

Especially since it was, you know, a cuff.

I stared at Sebastian, and he said, “What? No good?” Trying to smile, but it wasn’t working .

I said, “Would you put it on my ear?” Nobody else said anything.

He took it from me, put it over the top edge of my ear, then slid it on down so it rested just above the lobe. I said, “I don’t have a mirror. I want to see. Maybe?—”

Jennifer said, “Here,” and handed me a little pocket mirror. And I looked.

Well, yeah. The cuff encircled the outer edge of my left ear, above the tiny gold hoop that was my pierced earring, and it looked so good there. Elegant. Modern. Simple. Perfect.

I said, “It’s beautiful. I love that it’s not so …

so shiny.” Tears pricked behind my eyelids, which was stupid.

Not for the gift itself, or not exactly.

That Sebastian, who’d taken in Lexi and Ben, who was losing his sister, who was under so much pressure in only his second season, had thought about me enough, had understood me enough, to buy me something so right.

I didn’t know how to say all that, so I put my arms around him instead, and when he hugged me and said, “Happy birthday,” in my ear, quietly enough to tell me how much this had mattered to him … well, I teared up for real.

“Good work, man,” Blake said. “That’s a right nice piece. And that’s Chanel beige gold. Eighteen carat, but they tone down the shine. Discreet.”

Jennifer said, “It’s beautiful, and it suits you perfectly. And I’m sorry, but—could you open the other one? I’m dying to know.”

Oh. I’d forgotten the other one. I said, “Why do I have two presents, though?”

Owen said, “Because he was worried you wouldn’t like one of them. Thought, ‘If I get her two, I’ve at least got a fifty percent shot.’ It’s all about the stats.”

Everybody laughed, and Sebastian said, “That’s about it. I also thought they kind of went together. Call it a parure, if you want. And, yeah, I’m pretty nervous, so if you’d go on and open it …”

I did. This time, the box was wood and said Dries Creel, which I’d never heard of, and when I lifted the lid …

A pendant on a fine gold chain. A curved slab of gold maybe an inch and a half across, like the outer edge of a section of circle, it was almost quilted, like the ear cuff, even though it was from a whole different company, with lines scored throughout so the whole thing was divided into many diverse triangles, etching the golden surface and making it look not so much shiny as …

gleaming. Textured. Warm, like the whiskey bottles on the shelves in here.

Each triangle was studded with one or two tiny diamonds, too, that winked against the soft gold like stars.

None of it was exactly symmetrical. All of it was perfect, and nearly, oddly, mystical.

“It’s called the Lotus pendant,” Sebastian said.

“Looks kind of Egyptian, I thought. Kind of old.” He cleared his throat.

“Like something an Egyptian princess would wear. The lotus rises from the mud without stains every morning. Symbol of strength and resilience, and I’d say that’s you.

You don’t wear much jewelry, but I thought you might like this. ”

I didn’t answer. I lifted my hair from the back of my neck, turned in my chair, and said, “Please. Fasten it.” And when he did, I put my hand over it where it lay against my skin, above the wine-colored sweater I’d worn for him, and said, “It’s perfect.

It’s right. It feels like you see me. But it’s—Sebastian.

It’s too much.” How much did one gold cuff earring from Chanel cost?

I’d bet it was a whole lot more than a cuff earring from almost anywhere else, and the pendant didn’t strike me as exactly cheap, either.

Though my mother would be thrilled. Which reminded me that I hadn’t called her today, and what was odder, she hadn’t called me. Was she actually that furious? And what was I going to do about that? I couldn’t go back to school just to make her happy. I’d tried that. It hadn’t worked.

Sebastian sighed. “How am I going to learn to be a legit NFL player with all these mixed messages? My nephew Ben,” he told the others, “disapproves of my car, my condo, and my general lack of bling. My wardrobe, too, for that matter. He told me today, ‘Just because you’re Canadian, that doesn’t mean you have to wear plaid flannel shirts.

How come you don’t have any clothes that have, like, style?

’ Whereas Alix gets itchy when I get takeout. What’s a guy to do?”

“I do not get—” I was saying, but I was also laughing.

And touching my gorgeous pendant. Delicate, but somehow bold, too, like the earring.

Unique. Perfect. A symbol of strength and resilience, and that’s you.

I gave it up, wrapped my hand around the back of Sebastian’s neck, kissed his mouth, smiled into his eyes, and forgot about my mother and everybody else.

“Thank you,” I told him. “I don’t need these things, but I sure do love them.

You’ve messed up all my resolutions, and I’m more confused than ever about my future, but I’m glad I met you anyway.

I guess you don’t always get to plan life. ”