He shrugged. “I’ll finish the champagne. You get the door.”
“Andrew?” I said as I answered the door. “What are you—and Tristan! We weren’t expecting you.”
Andrew and Tristan filed in and then I noticed Tristan holding Gabriel’s daughter’s hand. “Bethany! Where’s your daddy?”
“What are you two doing here?” Joshua asked as he saw Andrew and Tristan. “This one can stay,” he said, bending to pick up Bethany. “But the rest of you—” At that moment, Gabriel, Beck, Hollie, Autumn, Stella, and Dexter filed in. Dexter seemed to be carrying a briefcase. Stella a cake box and everyone else seemed to have a bottle of wine or champagne in their hands.
“We’ve come to celebrate,” Stella said.
Did they all know about Calmation? News spread fast in this city of nine million people.
“Yup, not every day Joshua makes a good decision,” Beck said as he leaned in to kiss my cheek. “You’re his best one to date.” If there was going to be a man who made me swoon other that Joshua, it would be Beck. He always seemed to say the right thing. Stella was a lucky woman.
Everyone needed drinks. I turned to find Joshua muttering to himself and pulling champagne glasses out of the cabinet. “You okay?” I asked, sidling up beside him as everyone else spread out on the sofas. Tristan held Bethany by the ankles.
“She’ll puke on you if you don’t watch it,” Autumn said to Tristan. “And I’ll be the first one to say you deserve it.”
“I won’t sick on him, Autumn,” Bethany said. “Just one more time.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Autumn said.
“We were about to have sex,” Joshua whispered in my ear, pulling my attention from Bethany’s giggles. He sounded like he’d just been told to take his ball and go home.
“This is nice. Your family have come to visit.”
“But why?” he asked.
“No idea. And we’ve got plenty of time for sex.”
“Here,” said Dexter, sliding his briefcase onto the counter.
Hollie slipped behind him. “I’m going to make everyone drinks while you play with your toys.” Dexter grabbed Hollie by the waist, bent her down, and planted a kiss on her lips like they were in a Hollywood film. Then he released her and went back to business as usual.
“I’m thinking about some new designs and wanted to know what you thought, Hartford.” I tried to check that Hollie had found the glasses but my attention was overtaken by Dexter as he opened the black suede case to reveal hundreds of dazzling rings. “What kind of shape do you like?”
I glanced at Joshua. “Subtle as a brick, mate,” Joshua said. He turned to me. “Clearly business isn’t going too well and Dexter’s turned into a door-to-door salesman.”
Dexter chuckled. “Come on, it’s good to know this stuff. Just in case. You know?”
“Wait.” It suddenly dawned on me what was happening. “Dexter, you’re trying to find out what kind of ring I want if we get engaged?”
“When,” Dexter and Joshua chorused.
“When we get engaged,” Joshua repeated, snaking his hand around my waist. “I suppose it doesn’t hurt to have a look.” How could this man, who up until a month ago only did casual, talk so casually about marrying me?
“Brilliant is obviously the most classic cut. Like this one.” Dexter pulled out a ring with a huge single diamond on it. And then he pulled out a second. “But you might want something more vintage-inspired, like an asscher cut—always been a favorite of mine. The cut is less expensive than a brilliant but there’s no disguising the stone with an asscher cut. It has to be flawless.”
“I love it when you talk stones,” Hollie interjected from where she was pouring champagne into a never-ending row of glasses.
“I want something a lot smaller. I won’t want to take my ring off for work, so it will need to be small enough not to rip my gloves constantly.” If only my seventeen-year-old self could see me now, picking out a potential engagement ring with Joshua Luca. No one should ever tell anyone that dreams don’t come true. “This is a lot to take in.”
“Yes, well, I’m going to leave this case with you for a few days,” Dexter said. “You can have some fun trying stuff on and then decide.”
I had a feeling it might take more than a few days.
“Do we all have a drink?” Andrew asked from where he stood over by the fireplace. People raised their glasses. “Good. Let’s toast.”
“Wait a minute,” Joshua said. “First I want to know how you got up here without the front desk buzzing you up. This is meant to be a secure building.”
Andrew just shook his head.
“No such thing,” Tristan said. “The Pentagon isn’t a secure building with me around.”
Andrew raised his glass. “To Joshua and Hartford. We wish you forever happiness.”
“Very poetic for you,” Dexter said, nudging Andrew.