Hollie widened her eyes. “I was not!”
I grinned at her and pulled out the black ring box from my pocket. “I suggest you try it on to be sure.”
Hollie’s mouth opened like it did when I caught her checking me out coming out of the shower, which I positively encouraged.
“This is for me?”
It turned out the queen of Finland was sentimental. And when I’d met her to present the princess with her wedding jewelry and told them both about my parents, they had offered me the ring. I’d insisted on making a substantial donation to their foundation in return, but whatever I’d paid wasn’t enough for the look on Hollie’s face now.
I didn’t take my eyes off her as I opened the box.
“Will you marry me?” we both said at the same time.
The crowd dissolved into laughter.
“Dexter,” she said. “It’s so beautiful.”
Hollie’s eyes and the emerald, princess-cut solitaire were a perfect match as I knew they would be. That ocean-deep green with hints of blue was as ethereal as the northern lights, as unique as Hollie Lumen.
I took the ring from the box and slid it onto her ring finger. A few months ago, she would never have accepted jewelry from me, let alone anything so beautiful. She kept saying that I’d changed her but she’d completely upended who I was.
“All I can do is try to make you happy. And if I succeed, it still won’t be enough because you’ve made me a better man.”
“You’re perfect to me already,” she said. “I love you so much.” She looped her arms around my neck and pressed her lips against mine.
“Is that a yes?” I asked.
“That’s a yes. In American.”
Hollie
I pressed cancel on my phone. “It’s impossible. I couldn’t have just had that call.”
A knock on the door of my office interrupted the conversation I was having with myself.
“You don’t have to knock,” I called out. Dexter insisted on knocking every time he came up here, even though I’d told him repeatedly he didn’t have to. We’d gotten rid of all the walls on the top floor of our four-story house and it was one enormous studio. Dexter had bought me a computer with all the best software for jewelry design, and he’d put me in touch with people who could fabricate my designs so that I could then sell. It took years to perfect the engineering and craftsmanship and that wasn’t where my passion lay, so I’d decided to concentrate on designing. If I got a chance to expand, I’d eventually employ someone who could manufacture the designs in-house. Dexter told me I had an eye for what worked, and given I’d never known him to tell a lie, I was prepared to believe him, even if I didn’t have the confidence in me that he did.
“Do you know a Clarissa Michaels?” I asked, wondering if Dexter was behind the phone call I’d just received.
“Doesn’t ring a bell,” he said, stalking toward me, his hair a little ruffled but his starched white collar revealing the most edible neck. “Should I know her?”
“I thought you might. She’s the fashion editor of Vogue in the UK,” I said, trying to sound casual.
“Why would I know—never mind, why are you asking?” he asked, flopping on the small gray couch under the window.
“She just called me.” I spun in my chair to face him. “I wondered if you’d mentioned me to her.”
“Well I didn’t. Did she say I had?”
“No, she said someone had given her one of my bracelets for a birthday present and she loved it. She wanted to talk about me supplying them for a couple of photo shoots.”
“In Vogue?”
I slid off my seat and went to join him. “Yeah. Is that even possible?”
“Sounds like the kind of advertising money can’t buy.” He reached out his arms to me.
“Right. And I’ve only put out those twelve pieces.”
“But they’re beautiful, Hollie.”
I beamed and took a seat next to him, hooking my legs over his while he draped his arm around me.
“You’ve clearly caught people’s attention, which I told you would happen.”
London was definitely some magical fairyland where everything that happened was almost unbelievable, it was so amazing. “I can’t believe it,” I said, giving way to a shy grin.
“Well, I can,” Dexter said, shifting to pull me onto his lap just as the doorbell rang.
“That will be Gabriel,” I said.
Dexter glanced at his watch. “He’s always right on time.”
“He’s making the most out of the babysitter.”
Dexter chuckled. “Speaking of which—”
“I booked in to see the gynecologist a week on Wednesday.”
“Who would have thought the word gynecologist would make me want to bang my fiancée?”
I sprang to my feet and hauled Dexter up after me. “Come on. It’s bad enough we have a chef for nights like these. The least we can do is show up and say hi to our guests.”