would go better this time. I was now armed with knowledge. Though I didn’t know everything, I at least had a better handle on the dynamic than I’d had that disastrous night of the family dinner party.
“Have you heard back about the promotion yet? I mean, I know you’d tell me if you knew you got it but… I was just wondering what the progress was on that.”
He had his eyes on the road but his mouth thinned briefly, shoulders stiffening. He was obviously tense about it. Had he heard something?
“I submitted my proposal to Adam and Jordan this morning. The entire presentation with slides, mission statement and sample game design documents. They have everything they’ve asked for. Jeremy has done the same so we wait. I’m guessing it won’t take long for them to make the decision.”
I nodded. “Well for what it’s worth, I’ll cross my fingers for you.”
He shot me a look out of the corner of his eyes and quietly thanked me
Since I was prone to car sickness, I didn’t read on my phone and instead watched the countryside speed by. Unlike much of the Southern California urban sprawl, this was much more pleasant scenery to look at.
But this lack of anything to do led me to think. And fidget. Okay, maybe I was a little nervous. I shifted in my seat, laced my fingers together, unlaced them. I had a lot of fun twisting my wedding ring around my finger over and over again.
“That’s going to go flying off your finger if you don’t stop it. I knew I should have had it resized to fit your finger better.”
My brows shot up, and I glanced over at Lucas. I was unaware that he’d taken his eyes off the road for even a microsecond. He was a bit of an anal-retentive driver, hands at ten o’clock and two o’clock, textbook foot position, regular glances at the rearview mirror, the whole shebang.
“I promise I won’t lose it. It would kill me. It’s so beautiful and has so much history. Plus it isn’t even mine.”
I held out my hand again and wiggled my fingers to catch the light on the diamond. Then a stray thought occurred to me and I tossed him a glance. “Did… did Claire wear this when you two were married?”
Instead of getting upset at me for bringing her up, he snorted and rolled his eyes. “I proposed to her with that ring. That’s, I think, the last time she ever saw it. She rejected it and insisted I get her a new one.”
I pulled my hand back to look closer at it, completely baffled. The ring was exquisite and unique and just… I shook my head.
“She wanted a bigger diamond and apparently doesn’t like old things. That one has the original stone in it and I’m glad I saved it because you seem to appreciate it a lot more than she ever would.”
I blinked, stared at it again. I appreciated it, yeah, but I was probably going to be giving it up in a little while. No way would I think of keeping it no matter how much I liked it. I felt a strange twinge of something, an ache of loss. Weird that I’d feel that way about a ring.
“I heard you talking about the ring to your friends at the party. Those were some nice thoughts, about my great grandmother and all. That’s the whole reason I wanted to save it for my future marriage. But to be honest, I’m glad Claire didn’t accept it so it’s not tainted by that whole mess.”
I kept my eyes on the ring. “Did she… did she end up with the guy she cheated with?”
“Nuh uh,” he snorted again and shook his head. “All that mess and it resulted in nothing. Not sure if he didn’t return the same feelings or if they both lost interest once I noped out. She did come crawling back to me, though, begging for another chance.”
I frowned but didn’t say anything.
“I’d already come back to the US at that point. With all the shit going on, I’d been removed from the active team on my rowing crew. I also ended up failing my classes. So I hopped on the next plane and left. She called my family and claimed I’d abandoned her all by herself in England.”
I blinked. “Wow.”
“Yeah. And instead of going back to her parents in New York, she flew to California to get my family to pressure me