Second Chance Mess (Bad News Billionaires #1) - Lucia Jordan Page 0,41

long pause of silence that I didn’t have a clue what size it needed to be.

She giggled and said it was fine. That any of these would be a close fit and that they could always be resized if necessary. It was a tough decision, but there was one of the four rings in particular that reminded me of one of the brightest stars in the Cassiopeia constellation—the star that rested on the hip of the mythological Greek queen for which the constellation was named after. That was the one that I needed to get. It was stunning, and I was excited.

The saleswoman put the ring in a beautiful little velvet box and tied it with a thick ribbon for me. Then she ran up the amount on the register and looked at me as if she were waiting for me to hand the ring back over to her and leave. I smiled and handed her my bank card. She was even more surprised when I left a gratuity for her because she had been so helpful. I hoped she rubbed that generous tip right in the face of the snotty old woman who snubbed her nose at me when I said I wanted it to look like the stars. I thanked her and hurried back to my car. I needed to get back to the mountain house and get some more work put in on Brooke’s little dream home before the sun went down.

When I got there, Max was still hard at work. This time he was working on installing a little hobbit stove into the living area of the home. The small woodburning stove not only looked like something out of a fairy tale, but it was also super-efficient and cozy. Everything about the build was incredible and would be perfect. I pulled him away from his work for just a second so that I could show him what I had gone into the city to buy. When I pulled it out and opened the box, his mouth dropped open.

“Wow,” he said as he stared at the sparkling diamond. “Is that for—”

“Yes,” I interrupted. “What do you think?”

“I think it looks like a star fell out of the sky and into that tiny box.”

I laughed. “Perfect! That’s exactly what I was going for.”

“But are you sure, man? I mean, this is a huge deal. This isn’t the kind of thing that a nice dinner or hell, even a house can fix. You can’t screw this one up if you decide to do it.”

“Geez, Max,” I chuckled. “Have a little bit of faith in me.”

“I do,” he said as he patted his hand on my shoulder. “I actually have a lot of faith in you. I just want you to know that you’re absolutely certain before you do something like that.”

“I am,” I said confidently.

“All right then,” he said. “Congratulations.”

“I don’t think you congratulate me until after,” I said jokingly.

“Oh yeah, true. When are you going to do it?”

“As soon as this house is ready,” I said.

I went to put the piece of unbelievably expensive jewelry inside before something happened to it. Then I texted Brooke. I hadn’t known what else to text her since the last time, and I was trying not to push her. But I really felt like I wanted to hear from her, anything just to let me know that she was still hanging in there. I figured that being honest was the best thing to be, even if it was just over a message.

Hey. I miss you. How are you?

I stood there for a while and stared at my phone as I waited for her to answer. I thought that maybe she was at work, but then I saw the three little bouncing dots that indicated she was typing. I waited for what seemed like forever; she must have been typing an entire novel. But then the three bouncing dots stopped, and I still didn’t get a text. Maybe there was a glitch, and the message didn’t send. Or maybe she got called back to her shift and couldn’t be on her phone again. Or maybe she just didn’t actually want me to see what she had wanted to say. I wanted to go to her right now to make sure that she was okay and to get the feeling back that everything was going to be great in just a few more days.

But instead, I went back outside with Max to keep finishing