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“You like it?” I murmured gruffly.
“Like it?” she said. “I like all of it. To tell you the truth, I always preferred the phone store to the jewelry store. But it’s beautiful.”
I watched her in profile as she reached up and tucked a strand of her long, brown hair behind her ear. Saw her green eyes reflected in the display case as she stepped slowly to the right. I did my best to suppress a tingle in my pants as I watched her stand up and straighten her shoulders. I loved the way Jamie looked.
“How’s your dad?” I asked.
“Good,” laughed Jamie. “He’s happy, you know. His business is doing okay, I guess. But mostly he just wants to know what we’re working on.”
“You tell him?”
“A little. You boys ought to have something to talk about when you see each other, right?”
“Right.”
“You are going to see him soon, aren’t you, Eric?”
I felt my cheeks sting a little and turned away to gaze down a long row of necklaces, shimmering under the tasteful lights of the jewelry store.
“Sure,” I said. Jamie and I hadn’t talked about Tom at all since we last saw each other. I thought that now we were keeping things professional so that I could feel better about hanging out with her dad. But I think we both knew that the mysterious forces that flung us together and tore us apart over the last few weeks weren’t finished yet. And even if I was sleeping a little better, I couldn’t help but think of the day at Jamie’s house. The little girl who looked just like me. The girl who, beyond a shadow of a doubt, was my daughter.
“Good afternoon!” said a young woman as she strode down the aisle towards us. “Mr. Slade, it’s a pleasure.”
I shook hands politely with her. “Katherine, right?” I replied.
“That’s right. And you must be Miss Reed. You know, I saw the helicopter story in the paper. That was some storm, huh?”
Jamie cringed a little. More than once or twice people at work have stopped me to discuss the rescue. It was exaggerated to the point where the story painted me as a hero, flying in on a helicopter into the heart of a cyclone to pluck Jamie from beneath a collapsing tree. The truth—that we walked through two miles of mud to crash in Old Man Locke’s fishing hut—was a lot less exciting. But it didn’t hurt. The trade papers were already reporting that Jamie had come to work for me after the incident. And I was having to fend off reporters who wanted to interview me.
Katherine led us down to the basement, where she’d laid out a few samples. Even though we were just browsing, Katherine knew instinctively from our past business dealings, that whatever I was up to, it was wise for her to handle our business transactions.
“So, we have a few items here that may be of interest,” she said and pulled a dark cloth from above a set of ring holders. We looked down at the tiny gemstones, glittering.
“How about this?” I asked as I pointed at one of the rings. “Looks great, huh?”
The ring was enormous, for one. It was a gigantic diamond under a cross-lattice of gleaming gold. Around the side of the jewel were tiny carvings of animals and plants.
“What’s the retail on that?” I said to Katherine.
“$250,000” she replied quickly.
“What do you think?” I said to Jamie.
But after she’d stepped close to me and inspected the ring, she shook her head and looked up at me. This close I could smell her perfume, a sweet and heavy scent that left me feeling lightheaded.
“Are you kidding?” she said.
“What?” I said, incredulously. Katherine’s eyes widened. She wasn’t used to hearing Jamie’s no-BS approach to conversation.
“It’s ginormous,” she said. “You don’t want something like that. We need something which is going to draw attention to the diamond.”
“That would draw anyone’s attention,” I said.
“Yeah. Because it’s an eyesore. No offense,” Jamie said quickly to Katherine.
“None was taken,” replied Katherine. “How about I leave you guys to it? I think I can trust you,” she said.
“No,” I said, uneasily. “Please, stay.” I didn’t want to be left alone with Jamie in here. I didn’t trust myself, not when we were standing so close. Not when I could see her, smell her, almost taste the soft flesh of her skin the way I had just a few weeks ago…
