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“Why couldn’t the expo center be on the other side of the fair?” Lauryn whined and waved her hand in front of her face while we paid for our tickets. “I hate that it’s right next to all the livestock. No one wants to smell cows when looking at jewelry.”

“I dunno. It’s kinda growing on me.” I took a sip of my coffee.

“I wonder why that is?” She winked at me.

But we weren’t here to talk about that. Today was about my best friend. About tradition.

We hurried to the poultry tent and then to the Graham Building, where they kept the cows.

Cows!

Maybe I could convince Reed to convince his grandparents to start raising livestock? That could definitely help them with money. I took a quick pic with some cute ones and almost sent them to Reed before stopping myself.

The guy hasn’t texted you in like forty-eight hours, Eliza. Now is not the time for freakin’ cow selfies.

Lauryn pinched her nose the entire time—and to think, I was the one people called Princess—until we stood at the expo center’s main entrance, where she finally breathed in deeply.

She smiled brightly as we entered, her eyes shining the same way they did when I helped her and her mom decorate their Christmas tree every year. “So where to first?” she asked me.

I linked my arm through hers. “You tell me, boss.”

She tugged me over to a “Welcome” table where there were tons of brochures and picked up one of each. “Oh!” She pointed to the cover of one. “The Crabtree emerald. I’ve never seen one up close. Let’s go there first.”

Lauryn almost cried when she stepped in front of the dark green, black, and white stones. She touched their unpolished surfaces as if they might break under her fingers, like dried beach dollars. “They’re so beautiful,” she whispered.

I stepped away from her as my eye caught on two matching rings with an oval-cut emerald in the center. Both were set inside a white-gold band with a wave pattern winding around it. As Lauryn talked the ear off one of the associates, I paid for both the rings and hid them behind my back.

“What are you holding?” Lauryn asked as we left the table and headed toward the crystals section.

I smiled and reached into the large bag before pulling out both rings and handing her one. “Happy early birthday.”

She gasped and slid it onto her middle finger. “Oh my God. I love it. And you’ve got one too?”

I nodded and pulled mine onto the same finger as hers.

“Friendship rings.” Lauryn held hers up. “Puts our ‘Friends Forever’ bracelets to shame.”

“Hey, I loved that bracelet. That was the first piece of jewelry you made for me.” And then I had to go and lose it at Cape Hatteras in fourth grade. I still haven’t forgiven the ocean for that.

“Well, these will definitely last us forever. Just like our friendship.”

I hoped so.

But the way Dad so casually dropped that line about moving if we lost the stadium now made me wary of words like “forever.”

We stopped at a table covered with wooden displays of black tourmaline bracelets and pendant necklaces. “Do you think these look too…rugged for my style?” she asked. “I’ve been thinking about using tourmaline, but I’m not sure.”

“Oh, black tourmaline would be awesome to add to your collection!” I picked up one of the larger pieces. “Imagine this wrapped in silver, with maybe green accents. Wicked style.”

“That’s brilliant! I need to add that idea to my notes.” She took out her phone and started typing furiously. “What about point pendants? Yay or nay?”

“Hmm.” I scanned the table till I saw a size that I thought fit her vibe. “Yay, but I wouldn’t go bigger than that one.”

“Got it.” Lauryn took a quick pic of the one I pointed to.

An announcement came over the PA system about a demo of the newest model of a cabbing machine happening in the demonstration zone close to the food vendors, and Lauryn all but sprinted in that direction. I followed close on her heels.

With some creative crowd-weaving and strong elbows, we managed to squeeze our way to the front of the group packed around the large table that held a sparkling, impressive-looking machine with different colored wheels and an LED lamp on an adjustable neck.