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Kat’s jaw dropped. “Are you serious? I haven’t even s
een him since he got back from China. We’ve spoken a handful of times on the phone. Proposing tonight? Really?”
Morgan nodded, a conspiratorial look on her face. “I’ve seen the ring. Sawyer took him shopping yesterday and it’s ah-mazing.”
She was stunned. This was just supposed to be a welcome-home dinner with the family. Her chance to see and talk to Finn in person for the first time since the night they’d gotten themselves into this mess. And he was proposing? In the moment, she wasn’t sure what to say. Thank goodness Morgan had given her a heads-up or she might’ve appeared like a very ungrateful recipient when Finn popped the question. After all, this was what she wanted.
Right?
“Anyway, I thought you should know. It ruins the surprise, but personally, I’d rather be prepared. If he does it in front of the whole family, it could be nerve-racking. Plus, I wanted to squeal a little with you about it ahead of time. This is just what you said you wanted the other night on the ship! I’m so happy for you!”
Morgan scooped Kat into a hug and she returned the embrace. Why was her future sister-in-law more excited about this than she was? She pinched her eyes shut and tried to push the image of Sawyer out of her mind. That was over and done. He was stepping aside so Kat could have the family she wanted. It was all coming together.
“Okay, I’d better get back before someone wonders where I’ve been. See you in there in a minute.” Morgan opened the door and dashed out of the bathroom.
Kat took a moment to compose herself. She checked her makeup and smoothed her hair. She wanted to look perfect for the moment. Finn should be proud of his bride, whether he’d intended for this to happen or not. After stepping out of the room, she turned and very nearly collided with Sawyer as he hung his coat in the nearby closet.
“Kat? I didn’t know you were here already. Are you hiding in the bathroom?”
“Of course not. I was just putting on some fresh lipstick.”
He nodded, trying and failing to look disinterested in her appearance tonight. “Have you seen Finn yet?”
“No. I saw Morgan briefly, but that’s it so far.”
He nodded again. There was a stiffness about Sawyer tonight. If he took Finn shopping, then he knew what was about to happen. He didn’t seem to like the idea very much. Lately, neither did she. It made her want to ask the hard questions while she still had the chance.
“Can I ask you something before we go in there with your family?”
“Sure,” he said, pasting on a polite smile.
Kat tried to think of how best to ask the question. “Can you give me any reason why I shouldn’t marry Finn?”
She wanted to give him his chance. His moment. Not to do the honorable thing, but to tell the truth about how he felt about her, even if it turned the whole night upside down. Her eyes searched his face, pleading with him to be honest. Marrying Finn had seemed like a good idea until Sawyer showed up in her life. Now, she wasn’t sure what she wanted, but knowing if he loved her the way she loved him would help her decide.
“I’m sorry, I can’t,” he said, looking away. Without making additional eye contact, Sawyer turned and walked across the hall, leaving her there alone and brokenhearted.
The rest of the evening was a bit of a blur, like she was walking through a dream. Kat was distracted and wallowing in her emotional turmoil. They gathered in the library for drinks and mingling before moving into the dining room.
As they migrated down the hall, Finn pulled Kat aside to chat in person at last. It was weird seeing him again after all this time, knowing he was her baby’s father, looking so much like the man she loved but not like him at all. Later, as they were eating, she realized she couldn’t really remember anything about their conversation. It had mostly been about himself and his work in China. Not once had he asked about her, the pregnancy or the baby. It made the news of his pending return to Beijing in a few weeks a little easier to swallow.
Besides that, it was hard to focus with Sawyer scowling at them. In the library, he’d pretended to be listening to what Grandma Ingrid had to say, but every time Kat glanced in his direction, he’d been looking at her as if he regretted not taking his chance when he had it.
Dinner wasn’t much better. She was seated beside Finn, of course, but somehow ended up across from Sawyer. While she tried to engage Finn and River, to her right, in conversation as they ate, she could feel Sawyer’s gaze on her.
She wasn’t sure how she was going to get through tonight. When the moment came, and Finn got down on one knee, how could she say yes with Sawyer watching? It seemed the thing she’d once hoped for had become an impossible feat.
As Lena cleared the dinner dishes in preparation for dessert, Finn pushed back his chair to make a toast. Kat froze in her seat, finally forcing herself to reach out and raise her glass of sparkling water.
“I’d like to thank everyone for coming tonight and welcoming me home from China. It was an amazing trip and I look forward to returning and continuing to assist in Steele Tools’ new venture there. It’s such a fast-paced and colorful culture in some aspects, and then so peaceful and quiet in other areas. I was able to find something for each one of you on my trip. The bag of goodies is in the library and I’ll hand them out after dessert. But right now, I have one special gift for Kat. I—”
Sawyer abruptly pushed his chair back from the dinner table. “You’ll have to excuse me,” he said, as he rounded the long table and practically ran into the hall.
Everyone sat in stunned silence for a moment before Finn recovered. “I hope he’s feeling okay. Anyway, I wanted to thank all of you for welcoming Kat so warmly into the family while I was gone. I have heard nothing but glowing stories about what a talented and lovely woman she is. And although we haven’t known each other for long, I look forward to having the opportunity to know her very well in the upcoming years.”
As Finn reached into his suit coat pocket, Kat’s heart started pounding in her chest. For a moment, all she could hear was its deep bass rhythm and the rushing of blood in her ears. She thought she might even faint. She closed her eyes, hoping the swimming in her head would pass before she made a fool of herself in front of these lovely people who had welcomed her into their family.
When she opened her eyes, she realized that Finn was down on his knee beside her. He had a small jewelry box in one hand, opened to display one of the most beautiful rings she’d ever seen in her life. The diamond in the center was a large and colorless oval stone, but what really caught her eye was the platinum band itself. The diamond was in a bezel setting with a knife edge designed band. There were three diamonds on each side that tapered in size to a double milgrain design. She could tell the intricate filigree etching had been hand done by an artisan who loved to work with metal and jewelry design as much as she enjoyed working with wood.
