THIEF: Part 6 Read Free Page B

jewels, “will you marry me?”
     
     
     

Chapter Four
     
     
                  “Jesus Christ, look at that thing!”Fiona and Jane yank my ring hand towards themselves, fawning.“It’s as big as Jane’s!” Fiona says, eyes wide.I give her a look.
                  Jane, oblivious to my nerves or Fiona’s insensitivity, sweeps me into a hug.“Congratulations, sweetheart!” she says, almost a song.“I can’t wait to hear the details.How’d he do it, candlelight dinner?One of those flash mob things?I saw a video online of one of those, you know.Not my style but very creative.”
                  Fiona snickers, and I glare at her again.She knows the real story—anal sex followed by a pajama proposal—but Alex and I have agreed on a romantic dinner for public retellings.“Just dinner at a restaurant,” I tell Aunt Jane.“He snuck the ring into my dessert.”
                  “You know what, hold on a sec.”Aunt Jane ushers me into her house and orders us to sit in the parlor while she finds the camera.I can hear her shouting to Killian, and my new uncle muttering responses that he has no idea where the camera is, or if he even still owns one.
                  Fiona kicks my shin lightly, but enough to smart a little.“You didn’t tell me you’d said yes.”
                  “I didn’t,” I hiss.“Well…not at first.”My sigh sounds strangled and weak, like a kitten’s.“It’s complicated.”
                  Truth is, it was incredibly simple—I was the one who complicated things.“You don’t have to answer right now,” Alex had told me, handing the ring box over and sitting beside me on the bed.I still couldn’t believe it.Just kept staring.“I know it’s kind of…out of the blue.So, you know, take your time.Think about it.”
                  I didn’t say anything.He pushed my hair back from my neck, kissing me, and looked at the ring over my shoulder.“My grandmother got that from her mom, and since she never had any daughters, and since my dad never had any daughters…she promised it to me.Said she’d hang onto it ‘til I found the woman I wanted to spend my life with.”I felt his lips against my skin, forming a smile.“So I drove up there, knocked on her door, and told her I needed that ring.I don’t think I’ve ever seen her walk so fast.”
                  I tried to laugh.To blink.To do anything but stare.It took more effort than I felt capable of, but I managed, “It’s beautiful, Alex.I…I don’t know what to say.”
                  “You don’t have to say anything yet,” he reminded me.“Think about it.”
                  And so I had.For four days straight, it was all I could think about.Alex promised not to pressure me, but I could feel how hopeful he was every afternoon when he came home, wondering if I had, finally, put on the ring.
                  But how could I?Here I was, only twenty.Pregnant when I thought I’d been infertile, at least for the time being, with a baby I wasn’t even sure was his.No job.No diploma.No idea how I’d contact the other possible father, or how I’d tell Alex if the test proved this baby was Silas’s.
                  Yet when I took the ring from its box on that fifth morning, just yesterday, I didn’t feel strange as I turned it in the light.I didn’t feel weird, slipping it onto my ring finger.
                  It felt right, wearing it.As though, despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary, I was ready to be engaged.To marry someone.And that that someone, regardless of Silas’s role in my life or memories, was meant to be Alex.
     
     
    Now, though, as Aunt Jane snaps close-ups of my ring and complains about Killian’s overly complicated camera, I feel guilty.This ring doesn’t belong to me.It belongs to the girl Alex thinks he gave it to—the one