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I waggled my eyebrows. “A guy has his secrets.”
Namely, my sister Abby had helped me pick it out.
“Well, good job. But if we’re to hit both families, we should get going.”
As she took her marzipan order, I said, “We’ll stop and pick up some stollen on the way out.”
“You really are spoiling me, aren’t you?”
I wanted to say someone should. But instead, I merely nodded and placed a hand on the small of her back. “Come on. I’m sure there will be questions, and we should prepare ourselves.”
In addition to the stollen, I spotted a great gift for my aunt and bought that too.
Soon we were on our way back to my family’s house and getting our story straight. And the whole time, I kept stealing glances at the ring on Katie’s finger.
Chapter Eleven
Katie
Abby: Congrats!
Me: Wait, how did you hear about it already?
Abby: Well, I knew it was coming. But it’s all over the Starry Hills social media group.
Me: Sigh. I guess privacy is a thing of the past.
Abby: Nolan’s pretty good at being discreet, for the most part. But I think he wants people to know about your engagement. Like, he’s so smitten he wants to show you off!
Me: I guess.
Abby: What have you done to my friend? The one who’d boast about her boyfriend and how she planned to take L.A. by storm?
Me: I’m just tired and trying to celebrate with my fiancé before facing you all.
Abby: Don’t “celebrate” too hard. If you arrive with sex hair, I’m going to throw up.
Me: Hey, Nolan’s sexy. I can’t help it if you don’t notice since he’s your brother.
Abby: He kind of looks like my mom, so ew.
Me: You look like your mom as well. So does that make you “ew” too?
Abby:
Me: Love you back.
As soon as we were in the car, I couldn’t stop staring at the ring on my finger. The dark sapphire was set with white gold and not so big as to get in the way. “Thanks for not putting a boulder on my hand. I’m not strong enough for that.”
Nolan had been quiet for a few minutes and started at my voice. “Well, Abby helped me pick it out. That’s how I knew you liked sapphires.”
“You didn’t have to go to that much trouble, Nolan. I mean, a regular diamond would’ve been fine.”
“According to Abby, you think diamonds are boring and lack personality. So why would I get it for you? Even if it’s not real, you should have something you like. After all, you’ll be wearing it for a while.”
He tapped the fingers of one hand on the steering wheel, and I tried to judge his mood. It was somewhere between nervous and frustrated.
Although what he was frustrated about, I had no idea. Still, I didn’t like seeing him upset. So, without thinking, I laid a hand on his thigh and Nolan jumped. I nearly pulled it back, but he placed his hand over mine briefly and squeezed before taking the steering wheel again.
