Wyoming True - Diana Palmer Page 0,53

raunchy as they get older. It’s not that way with me. I like good food and good company to share it with.”

“Well, when you put it like that,” she said. She studied his lean face. He was very handsome. There were so many advantages to what he was proposing, the most notable being that she wouldn’t have to worry about being hunted by other men, ever again. Jake would protect her. And if he was willing to forgo adventures in the bedroom, then that was an added bonus. She was uncertain that she’d ever be able to get over what Bailey had done to her.

“You’re thinking about it, aren’t you?” he asked after a minute.

She nodded. “If you think you could live with me, like that,” she said. “Separate bedrooms, I mean,” she added and flushed, averting her eyes.

“I can,” he replied and meant it.

She drew in a long breath. “I feel very safe with you,” she said gently. “I know that’s probably not what a man likes to hear...”

He smiled. “It makes me feel good inside, that you think of me that way.”

“You’re a kind, gentle man,” she said unexpectedly. “I’d be honored to marry you.”

Sudden heat ran through him like molten lava. He felt his heart go up like a rocket, felt the blood rushing through his veins like a flood. He couldn’t explain it or understand it, but hearing her say the words made him feel invincible. Strong.

“I’d be honored to have you accept, Ida,” he replied.

She flushed, too, and then she laughed softly. “I suppose it’s not an everyday sort of marriage.”

“Nobody’s business but our own, either,” he pointed out.

She nodded.

“So,” he said on a sigh and smiled, “what sort of ring would you like?”

* * *

IT WAS TWO days before the snow stopped and the roads were clear. Jake took her by the vet’s office to see Butler, who was improving nicely, and then on into Catelow to the jewelry store.

Old Brian Pirkle had owned Catelow Jewelry Company for fifty years, and he was still around, although his son, Bill, waited on Jake and Ida. Brian’s eyebrows went up, as silvery as his hair, when they walked to the counter that displayed wedding sets.

“You’re not getting married, Jake?” Brian exclaimed.

Jake chuckled. “I wasn’t. But I am now.” He looked down at Ida, who flushed prettily.

“Well, congratulations!”

“Thanks,” they chorused.

“What sort of ring would you like?” Jake asked Ida.

She was hesitant. Charles had bought her a diamond. Bailey had let her buy herself an emerald set.

She looked up at Jake. “You should decide, too,” she said. “I’d like them to match. You’ll wear one, too?” she added hesitantly.

“Oh, yes,” he said, when he hadn’t planned any such thing. He got lost briefly in her wide blue eyes.

“Then what sort of stones do you like?” she persisted.

He smiled gently. “My grandmother loved rubies. I have hers in the safe-deposit box. Among them is a small, very simple yellow-gold ring with a faceted ruby in a Tiffany setting that her grandfather left her. Legend says that it belonged to a royal member of Isabella’s Spanish court in the fifteenth century. If you’d like to wear it as an engagement ring, we can get a band here to match it. Pigeon’s blood rubies,” he added, which were the most expensive.

“We should have an eighteen-karat yellow-gold band with rubies in that back section, Bill,” the old man told his son.

“Yes, sir, we do. Here it is.” He pulled the ring out and laid it on a cloth on the counter. It was an ivy pattern dotted with inlaid, faceted pigeon’s blood rubies, the sort of ring that would become an heirloom.

Ida caught her breath as she picked it up. “It’s the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen,” she said in a hushed tone.

“Here. Let’s see.” Jake picked up the ring and her left hand. He slid it gently onto her third finger, where it fit as if it had been measured for her. He looked down into her soft blue eyes and felt another unexpected jolt like a burst of electricity.

“Do you want it?” he asked her.

“Oh, yes, please.” She searched his eyes. “You have to have one, too.”

“There’s a matching men’s band, a little less ornate,” Bill told them and pulled out a wider gold band with inlaid rubies just in the center. It wasn’t fancy, and it was definitely a man’s ring. “We have a designer who works with us. He’s in New York, but he sends us mailings