Page 164 of The Golden Hour

Mason steps back and gazes down at Honey as she reclines on her elbows.

Out of the corner of her eye, she can see her belly rolls and her breasts drooping. She knows that her hair probably looks like a disaster in its messy bun, her leggings are the paint-stained ones, and there are bright yellow socks with cute little ducks on her feet.

And yet Mason is looking at her like she’s pure art.

“Lucky is an understatement,” Mason rasps, his voice thick.

Honey smiles widely, crooking a finger for him to come to her.

He takes one step, and then freezes.

“Wait,” he says, his eyes lighting up. That sight is the only thing keeping her from panicking that he’s suddenly regretting this. He bends to peck her lips. “Don’t move, I’ll be right back!”

Honey watches, confused as Mason walks backward to the door, not wanting to take his eyes off her. The problem is that he runs into the wall by the door before righting himself and rushing out of the room. She covers up her face to smother her snort.

Then she hears a crash in the hallway.

“Mason?” she calls. "Are you okay?"

“I’m okay!” he yells back, before she hears him grumble, “Stupid fucking rug…”

She flops back on the bed with a laugh, and he rushes back thirty seconds later, holding a very tiny box in his hands. He doesn’t stop until he’s standing directly in front of her, his eyes both excited and anxious.

“What do you have there?”

“They had to cut your rings off,” Mason says.

Honey’s heart starts pounding when her mind connects the dots.

The size of the box.

The absence of the wedding band she thought Mason had removed for the heavy lifting.

“Mason—”

He kneels and opens the box.

She gasps when she sees inside.

Three rings.

One is a shiny gold wedding band, thicker and clearly made for Mason.

And the other…

An oval diamond, framed by smaller diamond clusters that look like the petals on a flower, set on a beautiful yellow-gold band. Two marquise-cut diamonds sit on the side, looking like leaves. It’s funny that from a certain angle, it looks like a flower blooming, and from another, it looks like the sun. Beneath it, there’s a matching wedding band with tiny diamonds that follow the curve of the ring perfectly.

Her vision goes blurry for a moment, and Honey blinks back the tears, not wanting to cry in this beautiful moment.

She raises her eyes to meet Mason, and he smiles, almost shy.

“I melted down mine, because getting rid of it altogether felt… wrong. You gave it to me, you slid it on my finger when we spoke our vows. So they combined the old gold with new gold and made this band for me.”

Mason smiles.

“We’re starting fresh, but I don’t want to pretend that old life never existed. It gave me you. It gave us Daisy. It taught me everything I refuse to ever take for granted again,” he says, taking a deep breath. “And I had them design this for you…”

“Sweetheart,” Honey says, her fingers reaching out but not touching the rings. “It’s beautiful.”