AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I am.” I could hear the smile in her voice, and I couldn’t help but smile back. “I’m passing some stores on my way. Do you want me to grab anything?”
“No.” But really, I wanted to ask her about the peonies, why she hadn’t replaced them or why she let them wilt like that. Had she not stayed in the penthouse at all since I left? But I didn’t want to stir up drama. “I just want to see you,” I said instead.
***
“I lost the ring,” Paige murmured under her breath, her eyes growing tired. I had been home for three days now since my trip to Europe, and I was so glad that she and I were now physically close again. Another trip away from her might just make me combust.
“What ring?” I asked, staring up at the ceiling. The duvet covered our naked bodies as we hummed from the afterglow of sex.
“The one you gave me for our anniversary. The diamond-studded one.” Oh. It was custom-made that ring, and although it wasn’t a big deal that she had lost an expensive piece of jewelry, I had wished that it would be too sentimental for her to lose it.
“Where’d you lose it?”
“Lola and I went to the beach two months ago in California. I must have lost it in the water. I’m sorry.” I ignored the voice in my head telling me that something was wrong.
She hadn’t told me about a trip. I wasn’t the type of person to berate my girlfriend into telling me all the things that she did in her life, but Paige had always been the type of girl to tell me every small detail, from a simple stain on her shirt to her buying up the last Dior accessory in the store.
But a trip halfway across the country? That seemed off. But again, I let it go because Paige and I were strong, and I knew that she wouldn’t do anything stupid.
“It’s okay,” I assured her. “Rings can be replaced.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, turning on her side to face me, tucking an arm under her chin. “I feel so bad.”
“Don’t. You’re all that matters to me. I don’t care about some stupid ring.”
I didn’t tell her that I was planning on getting her a different ring. One that really mattered.
“Don’t leave for Europe again without me,” she said.
“I promise.”
***
“Man, Europe was that bad?” Ryan asked. He had arrived an hour ago and went directly to my penthouse to see me. And he saw me yawning because it was clear that I was still jetlagged.
“It was bad because I was alone.”
“I’ll go with you next time,” he promised.
I was on my computer, checking Parker St. James’ financial statements and revenues from the past six months. I had kept that side of work from my head when I was in Europe researching because I trusted Ryan to take care of everything and I knew that he wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize the business.
“How’s Reagan?”
“Huh?” His head was cocked to the side, genuine confusion in his expression.
“You said you couldn’t come six months ago because something came up with Reagan,” I reminded him, and his face showed recognition immediately.
“Right. Right,” he laughed nervously. “She’s fine. You know, college life was taking a toll on her. But she’s okay now. She just needed a little breather.”
“Good. Look, Ryan, I checked our income statement last night, and Parker St. James lost a million dollars in four months.”
“What?”
“I was in Europe, man,” I pointed out. “And I thought you were going to spearhead everything. I didn’t check anything because I thought you were going to handle this.”
“I did, Matthew,” Ryan argued, but there was clear guilt on his face.
“So why did we lose over a million dollars?” I asked, and I studied the way he played with the ring pendant on the silver chain around his neck. I knew that ring. The light reflected at the diamonds around the band, and one of those diamonds was darker than the rest because it wasn’t a diamond, it was Sapphire—Paige’s birthstone.
