“Oh, yes. You’ve been kinder to me than anybody in my whole life, except my dad and Agnes. I could . . . take care of you, you know? I mean if you got sick or hurt, I’d be there.”
A confusion of emotions turned him inside out. She wanted to take care of him. Damn! He’d never had anybody of his own. Not really. And this beautiful little blonde looked at him and didn’t see a haunted man with a missing arm. She saw someone she cared for.
“I’d do the same for you,” he replied.
“You already have,” she teased. “You rescued me from freezing to death in the snow.”
“I’d forgotten.”
“I didn’t. I never will.”
He drew in a long breath. “What happens when you end up with your mother’s house and those stocks? You’ve still got the will, and her lover won’t be able to get away with it forever. What then? When you have your old life back?”
“I don’t want my old life back,” she said simply.
He was still hesitant. His eyebrows drew together. “Esther, how old are you?”
“Twenty-three.”
His face hardened. He averted his eyes.
“What’s wrong?” she wanted to know.
“Honey, I’m thirty-six . . .”
“Oh, yes, you’re definitely over the hill, I can tell.”
His eyes widened as he looked at her. She was grinning. He burst out laughing.
“Thirteen years isn’t so much,” she said gently. “I think you’re gorgeous.”
He cleared his throat, embarrassed. “Well!”
“So, are you going to buy me a ring?” she asked. “Something inexpensive.” Her eyes twinkled. “I like turquoise.”
“It should be a diamond.”
“I don’t like diamonds,” she returned, and didn’t mention that she was wearing a real seven-carat one on her hand, and that she had a safety deposit box back in LA full of expensive jewelry. “I’d rather have something elemental, something natural. Something down-to-earth.”
“Okay, then. Suppose we go into town tomorrow while you’re on your lunch break and look in the jewelry store?”
She smiled from ear to ear. “That would be great!”
And it was. They avoided the diamond counter because she insisted, and they went to the gemstone section. But she fell in love with a blue topaz ring instead of the turquoise she’d originally wanted.
“Oh, that one,” she said, indicating it. “It’s Caribbean blue. I love it!”
“Could we see that one?” Butch asked Mr. Granger, who’d owned the jewelry store for thirty years.
The older man chuckled. “Yes, you may. Is it for a birthday?”
“No,” Esther said softly. “It’s going to be an engagement ring. I don’t really like diamonds,” she added.
Mr. Granger glanced at the huge seven-carat diamond on her right hand and saw at once that it was a real stone, with a clarity and brilliance that he’d rarely ever seen. But he didn’t remark on it. He pulled out the tray of rings and let Esther try on the blue topaz one.
“It fits!” she exclaimed, her eyes on Butch’s amused face.
“It looks good on that pretty little hand,” he replied with a warm smile.
She laughed. “I love it. Can I have it?” she asked, looking up at him with soft, shimmering blue eyes.
She could have had the store if she’d asked for it when she looked at him like that. He’d rob a bank, he thought amusedly. “Sure you can,” he said.
He gave Mr. Granger his credit card and waited while the owner ran it. He signed the ticket, they thanked the older man and walked out of the store.
“We are now officially engaged,” Butch told her.
“Not yet,” she said. She pulled off the ring, there on the sidewalk, and handed it to him.
“We’re not engaged?” he asked, and felt his heart sink.
“We’re not, until you put it on for me,” she said softly, searching his eyes. “Then it’s official.” She held up her left hand.
Heart hammering at his ribs, he slid the ring onto her finger. It was poignant, he thought. A moment that would live in his heart forever, no matter how old he got, no matter what happened down the road.
“Thanks,” she said in a soft whisper.
His fingers brushed her flushed cheek. He didn’t smile. The dark eyes piercing hers were full of some deep emotion.
She reached up and touched her fingers to his chin. “I’ll try not to embarrass you,” she said quietly. “I’ll never do anything to make you ashamed, and I’ll take care of you if you need me to.”
His lips compressed hard. He averted his eyes, because the emotions she was kindling in him were