Getting to his feet, he reached into the pocket of his jeans. “I got you something,” he whispered. “Something a lot more significant than a BFF necklace.”
Something more significant than a BFF necklace?
OMG. Was he about to...was he going topropose?
My mind whirled. How could this be happening? We barely knew each other. Although, really, we’d been through some pretty major crises together. If marriage was for better or worse, we’d already run that gamut in just the first few weeks we’d known each other.
“Glory O’Bryan,” he said, his face very serious. “I would be honored if you would wear this.”
With that he held up his hand and opened his fingers, from which dangled a very sparkly, very big...
Heart-shaped necklace.
When I say it was sparkly and big, I mean this thing was the size of a golf ball, and the deep, full red of a ruby, edged in tiny diamonds. As I watched, the two halves of the heart separated.
I stared at it, both mesmerized and confused. “Is that another BFF necklace?” I asked.
“No.”
“Because it looks like another BFF necklace.”
“It’s not a BFF necklace.” He held it closer. “See? It’s a VBFF necklace.”
“VBFF?”
“VeryBest Friends Forever.” He held one half of the heart out to me. It dangled from a thick, bright gold chain that looked like it would absolutely turn my neck green in hours. “I think we’ve gone beyond BFFs.”
“Did you steal this too?”
“Glory O’Bryan! Of course not. You were so concerned about the fact that I might have...let’s go withliftedthe last one that I knew better than to steal anything nice for you.” He flashed me a knowing grin. “I got this out of one of those little machines at the grocery store. For a quarter, if you can believe it.”
I could. I could very much believe it.
But when he clasped the necklace around my neck, the cheap half heart glowed with a brilliant light and I felt the tingle of magic.
For a man who stole pretty much everything he wanted, the fact that he’d bought this for me meant something.
Maybe it had just been a quarter, but it was something.
And it meant even more when he dropped the other half of the heart into his shirt pocket, patting it gently. “There,” he said. “It’s safe with the other one.”
The other one.
“You keep the other BFF necklace in your pocket?” I asked.
“Of course. It’s where I keep everything that matters to me—my pipes, Oomy, and now you.”
I blinked, trying to hide the tears that threatened to well up. Maybe Roger was right that my complicated relationship with my sister had made me need extra reassurance from friends and romantic partners, and I was sure that was something I would keep working on with him in the future.
But maybe I also needed to work on recognizing that reassurance when I received it. Horst had made a deal with the devil—well, Quill—in order to save me. He’d figured out how tolead my rats out of danger and back into their cage. And he’d purchased the world’s tackiest—and somehow most beautiful—necklace for me because I hadn’t worn the first one he’d given me.
Something to keep in mind. If I didn’t wear this necklace, he was likely to find something even worse.
He reached out his hands for mine. When he had hold of both of them, he pulled me to my feet. Carefully tucking my hair behind my ears, he scanned my face and whispered, “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
And then he kissed me, the kind of kiss that had us awkwardly fumbling our way through the door to the cat section, headed for my apartment.
We’d made it halfway through the cat area when we heard it: the scratch-scratch of a cat in a litter box.
