I notice Sutton has only a few more bites left of her cake, and she’s so engrossed in what I’m saying, she’s not really paying attention.
“So we’re still a go for visiting him week after next, right?” she asks and then takes the last bite of her cake, barely glancing at it as she scoops it with her eyes pinned on me.
I nod assent to her question but then shoot a pointed look at her plate. “You scarfed that down.”
She grins at me guiltily and then looks down at her empty plate. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for, and Sutton’s eyes fill with tears as she stares at the crumbs she left behind. Because the plate has a message for her. It’s a very simple question, really.
It says, Will You Marry Me?, and I can’t help but hold my breath until I get the answer.
Her eyes lift to mine and a single tear escapes. I smile at her softly and wipe it away.
“Yes,” she says as she nods. She stands up quietly from her chair and my heart is beating so hard, I’m sure everyone walking by on the street can hear it. Walking up to me, Sutton turns her body and sits down on my lap. My arms go around her waist as her face tucks into the crook of my neck.
“I love you,” she says with so much happiness in her voice, I almost start crying. “Being your wife would make all my dreams come true.”
I hold her for a few seconds and try to get my raging emotions under control. I listen to her breathing and smell her sweet shampoo. We share a quiet moment together…just me and her.
Finally, I give her a little push to sit up on my lap so she looks at me. “We need to go ring shopping. I want you to pick out what you want.”
Grinning at me in excitement, she says, “This weekend?”
“Nope. Now,” I tell her and turn her around in my lap so she looks across the street.
Finneman’s Jewelers is directly across from where we sit, and Sutton’s jaw drops open when she sees the huge banner that is displayed. It wasn’t there as we walked up to the restaurant earlier, but it was surreptitiously hung while she was eating her cake by the wonderful owner, Mr. Solomon Finneman.
The banner says, Closed to Public—Private Ring Viewing
Sutton turns her head slowly to me, her mouth still hanging open. I push my finger under her chin to close it. “Careful…a bee might fly in there.”
“We’re going ring shopping now?”“Yup. You can pick out any ring in the store that you want, although I’ve had Mr. Finneman pull several that I like. But completely your choice.”
“Right now?” she says, still in bewilderment.
“I did just ask you to marry me and you said yes, right?”
“Right,” she affirms.
“Then let’s go,” I tell her as I stand up, gently setting her feet to the ground. I don’t need to pay as I had arranged all of that ahead of time with the restaurant. Instead, I step up to the iron rail that separates the outdoor seating from the rest of the sidewalk and step over it. No problem for my tall frame. I lean over and pick up Sutton, careful so her dress doesn’t ride up and lift her over to the other side.
I grab her hand and we wait for a break in traffic, completely jaywalking our way over to Finneman’s. She still has one more surprise and this is going to be my favorite by far.
As we step inside, Mr. Finneman is waiting for us. He’s impeccably dressed in a charcoal gray suit with a bow tie. He’s a third-generation jeweler, or so he told me when I came in to see him yesterday to make sure everything was set and to pick out some of my favorites so he could display them together.
“Miss Price…Mr. Crossman…welcome,” he says and motions us up to one of the glass cases. “I understand you’re going to be picking an engagement ring today?”
Sutton nods with a dopey smile on her face, and if I had to guess, I think she might be a little addled in the brain over all of this. She steps up to the case, where Mr. Finneman pulls out several velvet displays with rows upon rows of diamond rings.
“No,” Sutton says as she holds up a hand. “I only want to see the ones that Alex liked.”
Putting my hands on her shoulder and my lips near her temple, I tell her, “Sutton, you can have any ring in this store. You may not like what I picked out.”
“Yes, I will,” she says firmly. Then raising her eyes to Mr. Finneman, she reiterates. “Just the ones Alex likes.”
Mr. Finneman gives her a gracious smile and his eyes are sparkling. He pulls out the velvet display that has the rings I chose. There are seven in all and none of them has a price tag under five figures. Oh, well! I haven’t spent a damn bit of my money on anything nice in six years, so it’s about time to splurge a little.
“Oh, Alex,” Sutton says in wonder as she looks at the rings. “These are all so beautiful. They’re too much.”
“There’s no such thing as too much, where you’re concerned,” I tell her and kiss her on the head. “Now try each one on.”
She picks up the very first one and slips it on her left ring finger. It looks stunning there—three-carat oval in an antique setting with diamonds surrounding the center stone. It’s set in platinum, but then again, all of them are. Sutton’s not big on gold jewelry, so I figured she wouldn’t want a gold ring.
Holding her hand out, she admires it. Then she turns to look at me and says, “I don’t know how I’m ever going to choose. These are all just spectacular, and a little overwhelming.”