standing up to dig inside his duffle bag.
He sat down beside me and placed a small woven box in my lap. “Open it,” he smiled.
I pulled at the lid. Sitting on tiny shreds of palm fronds sat the ring I’d tried on in the village. A smile broke across my face.
“You liked that one, right?”
“I loved that one,” I said.
The sadness from our departure intertwined with how touched I was that he somehow went back to the village and bought the ring without my knowledge. Tears formed rapidly in my eyes.
Jared lifted the ring and held it between his fingers. My eyes darted from his hand to his eyes; he seemed nervous about something.
“I have a request,” Jared said, smiling sheepishly.
I raised an eyebrow. “A condition?”
“No, no…just a request. Once I put this on your finger, I’d like for you not to take it off until I replace it.”
My pessimism all but forgotten, I didn’t hesitate. “I promise.”
“You don’t have to promise, it’s just a request,” he said, heartened by my reaction.
“I promise,” I insisted.
Jared beamed as he slipped the silver band on my left ring finger. It fit perfectly.
“You had it sized?” I asked.
His smile widened. “I wanted it to be perfect.”
He laughed at me each time he caught me lifting up my fingers to stare at my left hand. I was still sad to say goodbye to our island, but knowing I had brought a piece of it with me made the trip home a bit easier.
Once we landed, I stepped onto the wet tarmac and pulled my coat tightly around me. The bitter cold wind swirled around me, and I was glad when Jared offered his warm arms as insulation.
“Why don’t you go ahead with Cynthia? You don’t have to stand in the cold with me,” Jared said.
I began to argue, but I saw the clouds in his eyes. “What is it?”
Jared’s brow fell inward, and I could see he didn’t want to tell me. Beyond Jared’s shoulder, a tall dark figure caught my eye.
“Samuel?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said through his teeth. “It must be pressing, or he wouldn’t have come.”
“I’ll meet you in the car.” I choked back the tears. We had barely touched the ground and already the harsh reality of our lives in Providence insisted we pay it attention like a spoiled child.
“If you love him, you’ll have to accept that this is the way it will be,” Cynthia said apathetically.
I watched Jared from inside the car. His expression was grave; it was not good news. He nodded once and walked towards the door Robert dutifully held open. Samuel was no longer there. He didn’t disappear, he didn’t fizzle out or his form blink from the space it occupied; he was there one moment, and then he wasn’t.
Jared slid into the seat beside me. “You can go, now, Robert.”
“Yes, sir,” Robert said, nodding in the mirror and then looking ahead.
I watched Jared work to keep the tension from his face. I didn’t need supernatural perception to know what he was feeling. He had the same look on his face when he pulled the book from the safe. He was afraid.
Chapter Fifteen
The Last Supper
Jared instructed Robert to drive us to the loft, and then take my things to Brown. I noticed that he didn’t speak much on the way, but there was no point in trying to talk to him. Not with Cynthia sitting on the other side of me.
When the car slid in next to the curb, I kissed my mother goodbye. Jared led me up the stairs with one hand, his duffle bag and luggage in the other. He put a few things away, and then trotted down the stairs.
From the railing I watched him mill about. I wasn’t sure when reality would finally set in. His perfection was something only seen on the silver screen or a magazine cover, and yet he casually walked around just below me. He was thumbing through his mail until he paused to look up at me.
“Everything all right?” he asked.
“I should be asking you that, shouldn’t I?”
“No, not necessarily, why?” His face was too relaxed, his features intentionally at ease.
“You’re not going to tell me what Samuel said?”
Jared smiled, seeming to ignore my question. “If you’re worried about your things, I had Robert take them to be laundered. We’ll pick them up later and swing by Andrews to get anything else you need.”
“Jared…Samuel—,”
“Lillian wants to meet you,” he interrupted.
“She wants to meet me? But…I’ve met her,” I said, bewildered.
“Nina, you haven’t been around her since you were a girl. And she wants to be properly introduced to my girlfriend, not to mention Bex has been dying to meet you. You’re sort of a celebrity at my house.”
“A what?” I said dubiously.
Jared laughed. “Imagine your father guarding the king, and your big brother, whom you idolize, guards the princess. You’ve never met either of them….wouldn’t you be excited to hear that a princess is coming to dinner? He’s eleven. He’s excited.”
“Yes, Her Royal Highness, the Princess of Crime,” I grumbled.
“Tomorrow night. She’s making pot roast.”
“Ugh! You’re not fighting fair!”
His face contorted from playful to concern. “You don’t want to meet my family?”
“Of course I want to meet your family. It’s just that…being around your mother — who I desperately want to like me — and in the same room is Claire…who wishes me dead. It’s going to be awkward.”
Jared smiled warmly. “It will be fine. Claire will be on her best behavior, I assure you. My mother is less forgiving about Claire’s attitude than I am. And you don’t have to worry about Lillian. She’s always loved you.”
I nodded, wondering what I had ever done to deserve her kind regard.
We set out on perfectly normal errands. He held me against his side while we waited for our developing film, and while walking the aisles of an antique store to find the perfect frame for our new picture. On the surface it appeared that our normal days on the island hadn’t ended, but Jared had purposely made it seem that way. He was hiding something.
He seemed to have to work harder to hide his unease when he wrapped his arms around me for the night.
“You’re not going to tell me, are you?”
I felt him tense. “I was hoping you’d let it go.”
“Why? I thought truth was the cornerstone of our relationship? That was so important to you before Spring Break,” I pointed out.
“It’s still important,” he sighed.
“Then what is it? Why are you keeping what Samuel said from me?”
He sighed. “Before we left you needed normal. While we were gone, we had normal. I want you to have that here, where we live. If that’s what you want then you should have it. We could live like Jack and Cynthia. She didn’t ask questions, he didn’t divulge information, and they made it work.” He pressed his lips against my hair. “Leave the details to me.”
I considered that for a moment. “That’s what you want?”
“I just want to make things easier on you.”
I kissed his shoulder. “And when do things get easier on you?”
“You’re safe in my arms. I’m not outside Andrews in my SUV listening to you talk about some guy you’re dating, wishing it was me. The fact that you know what I am and that we spend so much time together, my job is
