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“You were right. Besides, I don’t want anyone but you.”
“I’m glad.” They sounded like they were truly involved, not just having fun. It scared her. Just not enough to make her stop. Besides, she was probably imagining the look in his eyes. So sincere, so…loving. Oh, damn, what is happening?
“I’ll be right back,” he said and left the room.
When he came back he was wearing his jeans, though he was still bare-chested. And what a nice chest it was. Ripped but not overly so. Washboard abs. Beautiful, tanned skin. She looked away before she started to drool.
Nate pulled something out of his pocket. “Hold out your hand.”
Mystified, she did so.
He put something in it and closed her hand around it.
“What—” She opened her hand. In her palm lay a beautiful diamond, in a setting made to wear on a chain. “What is this?”
“A diamond.”
“I know that. I mean what’s it for?”
“Your engagement ring.”
*
Damaris stared at it for a long, long moment. Then she closed her fingers around it and said, “No. No, no, no. We aren’t—You said—What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Well, there was his answer. Sure enough, she’d flipped out at the thought of anything real between them. He sighed. “Relax. Grandma gave it to me to give to you.”
“Relax? Are you kidding? You let her think we were going to get married? We didn’t agree to that.”
“Basically we did. I mentioned it at first, when I asked you to be my girlfriend.”
“Girlfriend. You said girlfriend, not fiancée.”
“I said girlfriend and maybe fiancée at some point.”
“That’s quibbling. But it doesn’t matter. I’ve thought about it and I don’t believe it’s a good idea. Pretending to be dating is one thing. But if we lie about being engaged? That will just make everything that much harder.”
“What was I supposed to do? She said Grandpa had given it to her on their fiftieth wedding anniversary and she wanted me to have it to give to you for your engagement ring.”
“You should have said no.”
“And break her heart? I can’t do that.” That was why he’d started all this in the first place. Of course, it wasn’t the only reason but obviously he couldn’t tell Damaris that right now.
“What were you planning to do when it came time to tell her we’d broken up? You never did say.”
“I hadn’t figured that out.” He put his arms around her and pulled her close. “Besides, why do we have to break up?”
She stared at him. “Because that’s what we agreed on.”
“That doesn’t mean we can’t change our minds. We’re good together. We enjoy being with each other. The sex is great.” She frowned but she didn’t deny it. “You trust me. If you didn’t you wouldn’t have gotten an IUD, would you?”
“No.”
“I’m not saying we have to get married, but we don’t have to break up either.”
She sighed. “At some point we’re going to have to tell Grandma K the truth. You know this can’t last forever.”
Why not? He wanted to ask, but it was clearly too soon. Too soon for Damaris, at any rate. He kissed her jaw. Whispered in her ear, “Since we’re not breaking up right now, there’s no reason to worry about it.”
