Total pages in book: 143
Estimated words: 132834 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132834 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Savannah’s eyes fluttered shut as I kissed her again, meaning for it to be soft and seductive, thinking she’d stay frozen, trapped in her roiling thoughts. Instead, her arms wound around my neck, her mouth on mine demanding and possessive. Whatever she couldn’t straighten out in her brain, her body—and I thought her heart—knew exactly what she wanted.
I kissed her back, just as fierce, just as demanding and possessive as she was. I drew back before I got too carried away, before picking her up, setting her on the kitchen island, and fucking her there like I almost had all those years ago.
Instead, I slid a final chaste kiss across the highest point of her cheekbone, then her forehead, and I stepped back. “I’m going to go talk to Griffen. I’ll see you later.”
I left her there, staring after me, her eyes wide and dazed. I jogged back up the stairs, heading to Griffen’s office, not surprised to see him, Hope, and Miss Martha waiting for me. They all started talking at once.
“Where’s Savannah?”
“What happened?”
“Did you mean it?”
I looked at all three of them. “Savannah needs a little time to process,” I said.
Hope snorted with a barely suppressed laugh. “I bet she does. She didn’t know you were going to announce you’re engaged?”
“No,” I admitted.
“Did you know you were going to announce you’re engaged?” Hope asked, a teasing glint in her eye.
I didn’t answer. Hope was a great sister-in-law, but that was none of her business. What mattered was what I said next. “I love her,” I said, knowing I needed everyone in this room on my side if I had a hope in hell of convincing Savannah to marry me. “I love Nicky. And if I can talk Savannah into it, we’re going to get married. I think I can make both of them happy. I know they make me happy.”
I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, shoving my hands in my back pockets. “If anyone has any problems with it, let me know now because we’re not doing that thing during the ceremony where somebody stands up and objects.”
Miss Martha piped up, “No objections here. She’ll come around.” She stood to leave, giving me a quick hug on her way to the door. “She loves you too. I know she does. Even if she doesn’t know it yet.”
Griffen stood, looking down at Hope and Stella. “I think we’re going to have to go through those baby things another time.”
“That’s fine,” Hope said, nuzzling the top of Stella’s fuzzy head with her lips. “Stella and I are going to go take a nap.”
Griffen looked at me. “Finn, I have something for you. Follow me.” To Hope, he said, “We’ll be on my side of the closet.”
A gentle smile, brimming with love, spread across Hope’s mouth as she clearly understood Griffen’s cryptic statement. I didn’t, but I figured I would soon enough.
Chapter Forty-Two
FINN
I followed Griffen up the stairs, through the expansive master suite he shared with Hope, and into his side of the walk-in closet. At the very back, behind a row of suits I’d never seen Griffen wear, he revealed a built-in safe as tall as he was and at least three feet wide. Expertly turning the dial one way, then the other, he swung the heavy door open and began pulling out velvet-lined drawers.
Looking over his shoulder, I saw the drawers were trays of jewelry. I hadn’t known anything like this was in the house. “What is all this?” I asked.
“The Sawyer family treasures,” Griffen said with a hint of sardonic amusement, another sign he wasn’t all about being the Sawyer. He was so different from our father; sometimes it still took me by surprise. “I went through all this with Harvey after the dust settled from the will reading and all of us moving in.”
He pulled out another tray, scanning the contents, clearly looking for something specific. He opened and closed small boxes until he made a sound of satisfaction and pulled one out. Turning to me, he flipped up the lid, and I blinked.
Sparkly. That was my first thought. I took a closer look and realized it was a ring. An engagement ring. I’m not much into jewelry, but I was guessing the diamond in the center was bigger than a carat but not bigger than two, a solitaire surrounded by a halo of intricate pavé diamond flowers.
Griffen turned the box slightly, and I could see that tiny pavé diamond leaves ran down the sides of the band. It was an old ring. Delicate, yet substantial. And a lot of sparkle without being gaudy.
It would look great on Savannah’s finger.
“Where did it come from?” I asked. Griffen set the box in my hands.
“It was your mother’s,” Griffen said. “Before Darcy, Harvey thinks it belonged to another Sawyer bride. We’re not sure who. There’s probably a record somewhere in this house, but we haven’t found it. It’s a Sawyer ring. It was your mother’s ring, and as her firstborn, now it’s yours.”