The diamond in the middle is square but it's real flashy under the lights in the jewelry store. It sits up high in the setting and it’s got a ton of other little stones on it and the way Caitlyn looks at it when her eyes see it on her hand, I know it's the right one.
"How long will it take to get it sized down?" I ask the sales girl without taking my eyes off Caity.
"Umm," the girl looks through the computer and smacks her damn gum, "you could pick it up on Thursday."
Caitlyn takes the ring off before I can stop her and she sets it back in the box. Then her eyes catch the tiny little tag on the inside of the lid and I see her throat work in a hard swallow as she snaps the box shut and pushes it across the counter.
"Maybe we should just hold off, Josh," she says softly, "I mean, there are lots of designs, we could keep looking."
I reach out and grab the box, flick open the lid and eye the price tag. I don't know what fucking engagement rings cost but I saw the way Cait's eyes lit up when she saw it on her hand. There's no way in hell I'm letting her leave her ring on the counter.
"She can wear it out and we can bring it back to get sized right later?" I ask the girl behind the counter, who takes the empty box from me after I've pulled the ring back out.
"Yeah, that's fine," she says in a surprised voice as she reads the tag and grabs an invoice off the desk behind her, "do you want to open an account, Sir?"
"Hell no," I snap, probably a little unfairly, as I pull my wallet out of my pocket.
"Josh," Caitlyn's eyes are a little too wide and she looks like she's more scared than buying a damn ring oughta make her, "you don't have to-- I mean, we haven't really talked about--" her eyes look up and catch mine and she sucks her bottom lip between her teeth like she's trying not to say something.
For just a second I worry that she's backing out. Like she's trying to tell me she's not going to marry me after all even though I can't think why she wouldn't. Aside from living a thousand miles apart, we're hittin' on all 8.
"Josh, that's a really expensive ring."
I not entirely surprised by how intense the sense of relief is that floods over me when she finally spits it out.
My wallet is open and I pull the card out from in back of my library card, they both get about the same amount of use. I drop it on the counter with my ID and turn to face Caity with the ring in my clumsy paw.
"Look, Caitlyn, I ain't no billionaire. I don't have a private jet and I'm not going to whisk you off to Europe just for a nice dinner. I know we haven't talked much about money and we probably should cause I know that's a big issue for a lot of couples, but you gotta wear this ring for the rest of your life.“
I love the way her eyes go wide when I say that, like it really hits her, we're down here buying her motherfucking wedding ring and I'm dead serious about making her my wife. I take hold of her hand again and I drop down on one knee and try to ignore the 19 year old sales girl's little gasp. Shit, we're in a damn jewelry store buying an engagement ring, what does the kid think I'm doing here?
"Caitlyn," I know I look like a moron but I'm having a hard time being concerned with that right now, "this is not how I planned on doing this," I give her a nervous little laugh, "but this is the ring you want," I hold it up between my thumb and my forefinger, "so this is the ring I'm buying you."
My throat squeezes shut and swear to God my eyes are starting to tear up. I have to take a breath and compose myself, I'm in a goddamned jewelry store, not in front of a campfire where I'd be able to claim I got something in my damn eye.
"If you haven't changed your mind," I look up her and I know I look like a lost damn dog as I hold the ring at her fingertip, asking damn permission to slide it back on where it belongs, "I can afford the ring if you promise you'll never take it off as long you live."
I rush the words together cause I'm nervous as fuck and my hands are getting sweaty and I don't want to drop a 22 thousand dollar diamond ring on the damn floor.
"I'm definitely going to marry you, Joshua," Caitlyn whispers the sweetest promise I've ever heard and I manage to get the ring back on her finger even though I'm shaking like a leaf.
"Oh my gosh," the sales girl sighs dramatically, "that is so sweet."
I want her to shut up already so I can take my fiancé home but instead I just smile politely at the girl and sign the receipt.
Chapter 16
Caitlyn
He just put my ring on a credit card. Like it was no big deal.
I'm still spinning from what had to be the cutest wedding proposal in the history of proposing. I can't stop looking at the ring on my finger either. It's a 2 carat cushion cut in a halo setting-- which last time I paid any attention was still pretty trendy, but this one has pink baguettes on the sides set between rows of tiny little diamonds that run along the edges of the platinum setting. It's not exactly like every other ring I've ever seen and I absolutely love the way it looks on my hand.
Josh tells me he already wants to replace the center stone with a bigger one and I almost die laughing. This is already way more than I ever thought I'd pick for myself. It almost fits too, it won't slip off my finger but it does turn around easily, but that just gives me a reason to keep touching it and thinking about what he said when he put it on me.
I get to wear this ring for the rest of my life.
"You ready?" Josh grins as he parks in front of an old brick building on the outskirts of town, I finally get to meet Maureen in person.
His eyes are on the ring on my finger and when he notices that I'm looking at him he brings them up to meet mine, "Let's get this over with, I want you back in my bed." He gives me a wink and I'm tempted to tell him we can do this later. I want to be back in his bed too.
On our drive out to the bar that Maureen owns, Joshua has been explaining what he does for a living-- "not a damn lot"-- he said it shyly, like he was embarrassed.
"Our neighbor's house caught on fire when I was a kid, I saw the flames through the window and I knew they had a dog so I just charged in. It took me awhile to find her, she was hiding under the bed in their kid's room so I had to crawl under there to get her out.
"I got her but by the time I could get out of the house the fire was pretty bad. I had to turn around and bust out one of the bedroom windows.
"We got out, the dog was fine, but I was wearing a fleece shirt-- you know, that stuff that's all synthetic-- I got too close to the fire and it just melted the shirt to my skin. Anyway, I was still in school and I missed the rest of my junior year and part of my senior year while they did a couple of surgeries trying to minimize the scarring."
Josh shrugged the inked up shoulder, "Turns out, chicks don't dig scars as much as everyone says. The back of this arm and part of my back were pretty ugly and I was a dumb kid that was too worried about looking cool to wait till I was smart enough to not care. So I let one of my friend's brothers tattoo over the scars."
"That was done by a high school kid?" I was shocked to hear that, Josh's tats were really high quality.
"Hell no!" He laughed, "that dude made a mess out of me that was worse than the burns! But my parents sued the neighbors' insurance company for my medical bills," the laughter left Josh's voice, "I was pretty pissed off about it. Seemed like a dick move. I mean, my dad's got a good job, we had good health insurance that covered all my bills, there wasn't any reason to go after them even if was just the insurance company.
"I was a minor though, so I didn't have a say in the matter. So my folks won the suit and they got all my med bills reimbursed, plus they got a nice chunk of money for their mental anguish and I got damn near a million dollars in trust till I turned 18.
"I didn't really want the money, you know? I felt dirty about taking it and between the fire and the lawsuit, our neighbors ended up moving away. Turns out their insurance hadn't been updated and property values had skyrocketed in our neighborhood-- even with their settlement, they couldn't afford to rebuild.
"It was a fucking mess and I felt l
ike my parents just added insult to injury. I wanted to give the neighbors the money when I got it, but I couldn't find where they moved to. So I let the finance guy at the bank talk me into reinvesting the money and I ignored it for a few years.
"My parents were pissed that I wouldn't use the money to go to college. They were pissed that I wouldn't go to college period. Then they were pissed because I wouldn't live under their roof and let them make rules for me. I was crashing on couches where ever somebody would let me.
"I ended up working general construction, swinging a hammer for a handful of cash at the end of the day and that experience kinda led me out here. Just following the work, you know?"
I listened to Josh tell his story while I twisted my new ring in circles around my finger, waiting for the right moments to offer my sympathy or surprise.
Josh raised his arm and turned it to show off the colorful patterns that circle it now, "Meanwhile, I worked on getting some decent ink. Had to be kinda deep to cover up the fiasco my friend's brother put down first," he looked at his arm thoughtful for a moment and shrugged, "It's good work, you can hardly even see the burn scars now."
I feel bad, I mean, I've been here less than 48 hours but we've spent a good portion of that time naked. I didn't even notice the scars under all the tattoos, not even when I was taking my time to memorize every line of his body in the shower this morning.
"Don't worry," like he could tell what I was thinking, "it's just a little rough along the bottom of my arm and down the side of my back, it's hard to see unless you know what you're looking at.
"I'll let you have all the time you want to find it," he winked.
He says the up shot is that he has to keep in good shape so the scars don't tighten up, "Don't know what the deal is, all I know is if I get lazy, I start to lose some of my range of motion and seeing as how I'm a southpaw, that's not an option for me on that side."
"OK, so what happened to the money?" I finally asked, feeling like we'd gone off on a tangent.
"Well, it sat around making more money," he went on, "and somewhere along the line I went from swinging a hammer to calling the shots on the job site. Then I got chummy with a guy who was a developer and I learned how that worked. I had the money so I offered to invest in one of his projects. It went well, so then I had more money. So I invested in another project that went well."
"Oh," I said, not sure what to make of that.
"Like I said, Babe, I'm not a billionaire. At one point I might have been headed in that direction but it was more stress than I wanted to spend my life on.
"I hired a PI to track down my old neighbors and I set them up for life. Least I could do. Then I had a couple of deals that didn't pan out. I got more conservative with my funds and now I'm securely invested.
"I own a couple of rentals and when I start feeling unemployed, I still swing a hammer for my old boss. And I work at the Boar," he finished just as he pulled off the road into the parking lot.
Ah yes, Maureen's bar. The woman who's responsible for me and Josh finding each other. In a roundabout way.
I did a lot of talking to this woman before she settled on me as the best candidate for Josh. I owe her so much!
From what I understand, Josh isn't tight with his parents and now I know why. He says they're on friendly terms as long as he keeps some distance. It was Maureen and her husband that took him in when he found himself in this little town and it's Maureen that he tells me I'd better get used to seeing for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I'm looking forward to meeting her up close and personal. I owe her a huge hug and Josh is pretty sure she's going to approve of my ring.
Chapter 17
Joshua
I've got Caitlyn tucked up close to me under my arm and I'm so busy kissing on her that I don't see her at first.
A beer bottle goes whizzing by my head and hits the wall behind me. I push Caitlyn out of the line of fire before I even know what the fire is about.
"Son of a fucking bitch!" It sounds like the screech you'd hear if you put a cat in cement mixer, "I'm gone for five fucking minutes and you're already screwing some fucking whore!"
A shot glass hits the wall. It's still early in the day for Maury's place and the crowd's pretty thin. Not the sort that's going to get involved. A couple of guys grab their drinks and head for the back room, a few people from the back room grab their drinks and head out front to see what's going on.
Maury's place is out in the boondocks on the edge of town, it's the preferred hang out for motorcycle gangs that call themselves "clubs," rednecks that don't make the friendliest of drunks, and batshit crazy ex-girlfriends who just watched me making out against the hood of my car like a horny teenager with the hottest woman that's ever going to step across the threshold of the Wild Boar.
Nicole stomps across the front room, spitting a string of curse words as she makes a beeline straight for Cait.
"So where'd he find you? You don't look like Josh's usual side chick trash," Nicole gives Caitlyn a wicked sneer and I know she's trying to start a fight.
Problem is, I'm not sure if she's trying to start a fight with Caitlyn or between Caitlyn and me but then, any drama is good drama for Nik.
"You must be Nicole," I hear Caitlyn's sweet voice greet the crazy bitch that's called her a whore twenty times since we walked in with the sweetness of someone who deals with crazy for a living, "I've heard so much about you."
I know Caitlyn is about to get her ass kicked as she extends her hand toward Nikki like they're at a motherfucking Tupperware party or some shit.
Nicole's eyes narrow on Caitlyn, then on me, and back on Cait. For a second, I think she's actually going to shake Caitlyn's hand.
Then I swear, my woman does this thing that would make me laugh my ass off if it I didn't know she was playing with fire.
Caitlyn holds up her left hand-- the hand with her ring-- and casually moves her fingers across her forehead like she's brushing a stray hair off her face. It's so intentional it's hysterical.
In that moment, Nicole's eyes focus on the flash of the diamonds under the bar's recessed halogens and it takes her about point zero nanoseconds for her to get a hold of Caitlyn's hair and push her to the ground.
The looky loos are chanting "CATFIGHT CATFIGHT CATFIGHT" and I lunge toward the girls to pull Nikki off Caity even though I know Nicole's false charges aren't officially dropped till the court hearing next week.
One finger on the crazy bimbo and I'll give her exactly the sort of ammo she needs.
I don't fucking care, I'm not going to let Nicole get her hands on my fiancé.
I'm a step away from the fight when a fist makes contact with my cheek and I damn near lose my balance before registering what just happened.
"Didn't your mama ever teach you not to hit a lady?"
For fuck's sake, this guy must be new around here, he obviously doesn't know me-- or Nicole. I recover from his piss poor punch but before I can tell the fucker off or make a grab to pull the girls apart, he's on me again.
The only thing I can do is fight my way out this and hope that Maureen shows the fuck up. I sure as hell don't expect any of the drunk old men standing around watching to do shit to break up a couple of woman rolling around on the floor.
I slam my shoulder into Mr. Chivalry and he flies backward several feet. I think that should give him an idea of what he's dealing with but he's back for more. He's young and stupid and from what he says before I get a good shot as his jaw I gather he's with Nicole and believes every word of her delusional stories.
All I hear is Caitlyn screaming while the fuckers standing around them keep on taunting. I swear someone's taking bets.
As much as Nicole deserves to get her ass beat, it's not coming from me. I don't care about my record, as long as Caitlyn knows the truth, but I ain't about to hit a chick. No matter how much she deserves it.
But I'll motherfucking pound this asshole into next week.
I hear Maureen's voice boom
ing through the place and she is not amused.
Maureen doesn't fight fair, she says she doesn't have time for "all that male posturing bullshit," when Maury breaks up a fight, it stays broken.
Maureen is no delicate flower, she's damn near 6 feet tall, and anyone's who's fooled by her age or her weight has a shock coming when they see her in action. That's what the guy who attacked me is thinking right now.
I turn to pull Nikki off of Caitlyn and get a shock that almost has me doubled over with laughter. Sweet little Caity has got Nicole's face mashed into the unfinished concrete of the Boar's putrid floor. Her tiny hand so wrapped up in Nicole's hair that I'm sure there's no way she'll be able let go without taking a chunk of Nikki's hair out.
Nik's crying and begging for Caitlyn to let her go but my woman isn't through with her.
I have to admit I love seeing Nicole get what she has coming and I'm proud as fuck to see that my girl can defend herself.
Maury gets a hold of Nikki's arm and yanks her out from under Caitlyn. Nicole lands on her ass on the floor where Maureen dumps her and I've got Caitlyn in my arms, making sure she's all right.
I'm less impressed to see that Caity's got a nasty bruise on the side of her face and a couple of bad scratches down her neck. Nothing that's going to last long but the bruising is really starting to come in right now and she looks pretty bad.
"I knew you were a dumbass bitch but I figured you'd be smart enough to stay the hell outta the Boar after that shit you pulled on Joshua!" Maureen's giving Nicole the bitch out of a life time while Nicole's new guy rubs the side of his head where Mar knocked him, looking all confused and scared as he gets an earful of someone else's side of the story.
Just when it looks like Nicole might manage to convince her new boyfriend that she really is the victim, George Tipton walks in the place.
If there's one person Nicole doesn't want to see right now, it's gotta be the chief of police.
A Nice Boy: Arranged Marriage Romance Page 6
