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Ten Months Later
After staring for the hundredth time at the diamond ring in the velvet box, I closed the top and stuffed it back inside my drawer, hiding it behind some clean socks.
Each day I went through the same routine. I took the ring out, looked at it, smiled, and quickly put it back in its hiding place. I’d always known that Claudia was the one, which was why I’d had the ring for months.
I guessed it was true what guys always said, that you’d know it was the right girl the moment you met her. Hell, I knew she was the right girl the second I first saw her.
That fact was a lot easier for me to swallow and admit now. Everything with Claudia had fallen into place so quickly and easily, but in the back of my mind, I had kept harboring residual guilt over the way our love story had started.
It took me a while to get past what I’d done to Shelby by moving on so quickly, even though my heart told me with every beat that I had done the right thing. Regardless, my conscience still liked to punish me over it every now and then.
But an email from Shelby where she actually thanked me for breaking up with her helped me a lot. She told me she could see clearly now how we had stayed together for all the wrong reasons, and for way too long. Hindsight for her had been twenty-twenty once we finally split up, she’d said. She also wanted me to know that she had moved on, had found love, and was really happy. It helped me tremendously to know that she was okay.
It helped Claudia as well, who had teared up when I told her that Shelby was dating someone. Claudia genuinely wanted Shelby to be happy, and it only made me love my girl more. Neither of us had wanted our coming together to be at someone else’s expense, but it had been, and that fact had taken a toll on us both. Even though we tried not to focus on it, some days were harder than others. Shelby had given us a huge gift by sending that email.
Claudia still worked at the bank and lived with Britney. Even though I wanted her to move in, I respected her decision to wait and give our relationship time to grow. It was ironic, considering she spent almost every night at my place anyway, but I knew better than to push my feisty Colombian before she was ready.
“What are you doing?” Claudia called out from the kitchen.
“Nothing, why?”
“Then where the heck are you? Your food is getting cold!”
I hustled into the kitchen with a smile.
“It’s like you don’t even appreciate my culinary skills,” she said before kissing my cheek and sitting next to me.
I looked down at the burned toast and rubbery scrambled eggs on my plate and laughed. My girl wasn’t a chef, but I couldn’t have cared less. She was the best at all the things that mattered, like keeping me on my toes and smiling and challenging me in the best ways. Claudia made me a better man, and I hoped I made her a better woman.
Our relationship was give and take, so perfectly balanced that sometimes I felt like I should pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I didn’t even care when Ryan made fun of me for turning into such a romantic sap, especially when he admitted that he was just jealous. I finally understood what he had been whining about, the one thing he claimed to always be searching for. I’d found it, and everything made sense after that.
When I took a tentative bite of my toast, it crumbled into tiny black pieces. “Delicious. Thank you,” I mumbled while I chewed.
“I got distracted,” she said.
“Huh?”
“That’s why it’s burned. I got distracted online and forgot I was making it.”
Her words made me smile. My girl was always burning things. A cook, she was not.
“It’s okay. I don’t mind burned toast.”
She laughed. “You’re a terrible liar, you know that?”
Reaching out, I wrapped my arms around her and tugged her onto my lap. “I’m not lying,” I said against her skin as I kissed her shoulder. “I don’t lie to you.”
I kissed her neck and her head tipped to the side, an invitation that I didn’t have time to take her up on, unfortunately. I moved to her mouth, my tongue sweeping along her bottom lip before dipping inside.
“I’d love nothing more than to make love to you right now, babe, but I’m already late.”
When she grinned against my ear as she sucked and bit at my lobe, I instantly hardened.
“Claudia,” I growled, and her whispered response into my ear only made me even harder, if it was possible. “Dammit, woman.”
I stood up, carrying her giggling in my arms as I moved this conversation into the bedroom.
Tossing her on the bed, I pretended to scowl as she scooted away from me playfully.
