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“So, along came suitor number three. Now, he had bought a ring from the chosen jewelry store, but he’d bought a ring that he liked, and it had an emerald in it and not a diamond.”
“Don’t tell me, Aunt Maisey sent him packing.”
“She did. And she was mad, even though my mother told her that the ring didn’t matter, the person did. But Maisey was determined.”
Piper slowed her steps and turned to him. “So, what happened?”
“Suitor number one married another local girl, moved away, and became part of an electronic company. We suspect he made millionaire status. Suitor number two married a friend of Maisey’s who happily wore his family heirloom ring.” Dawson raised his eyebrows. “That ring is now apparently insured for $200,000.”
Piper’s mouth fell open. “What?”
Dawson laughed. “Oh, yeah.”
“And suitor number three?”
“He gave his emerald to Lessie Haughton.”
Piper’s eyes widened at the name of the Hollywood starlet who was famous worldwide. She’d had seven children, all of whom had gone into acting.
“He married Lessie Haughton?”
“Yup. For a while at least. Her first three children are his. I think he married someone else after that.”
Piper lifted her hand and put it on his chest, a crease in her brow. “But wait a minute. What happened to Aunt Maisey?”
Dawson started steering her forward again, his arm still around her shoulders. “Aunt Maisey saved and bought her own ring. She never married. And spent most of life quite indignant with the world.” He gave a smile. “She left the ring to her favorite nephew.”
“You?”
“Yup.”
Piper’s words seemed to stall in her mouth. “So… so what have you done with it?”
Dawson looked at her for a long moment. “I’ve kept it safe in the hope one day I can give it someone who is happy to wear a family heirloom.”
Piper gave a nod. “Somehow I suspect if someone said no, your Aunt Maisey might haunt them.”
“You can bet on it. But I’m hoping I’ll choose wisely and that won’t happen.”
Piper’s stomach clenched as she asked the next question nervously. “You haven’t met any potential candidates before now?”
He bit his bottom lip, looking straight ahead as he answered. “No one that has felt quite right.”
Now her stomach fizzed, because she got it. She knew exactly what he meant. Because that was exactly where she was, too. While some of her friends had met the person of their dreams and married in their twenties, Piper had never really been ready for that. Her longer relationships had been steady, but fizzled out slowly. Her latest dating attempts had been one disaster after the next. She was beginning to think there really wasn’t someone out there for her.
They’d reached the end of the Christmas lights and started down the dimmer path that led to the conservatory in the park. As the night progressed, it was getting colder, and Piper leaned into Dawson.
“So, we’ve got the right park, just not the right spot.”
“Oh, I wrote a list.” Dawson fumbled in his jacket pocket and pulled out a list.
Piper squinted at it then pulled out her phone to look properly. “What is it?”
“Paintings. I wrote a list of paintings from some of the French impressionists.”
Piper’s eyes ran down the list and stopped. “You have got to be joking,” she whispered.
“What?”
