Page 49 of True Ruin

He pulled them to their feet because he was starting to feel dizzy.She’d said yes.“I looked a lot,” he murmured, blood rushing through his veins.

Taking the box, she opened it gently, her exhalation breaking on a soft, startled sound. Her gaze skipped to him, then back to the ring. A yellow diamond glowed from its platinum setting, to him, near the shade of the sparks in her eyes.

“It’s an antique, from the twenties. I was searching for this color specifically.” He shrugged, cheeks for sure going pink. “I knew what I wanted, aside from you.”

“I—” She touched the stone with the tip of one finger, almost cautiously, as if it might disappear, lifting her gaze back to his.

Dallas plucked the ring from its velvet folds, not allowing gentle handling on something she’d wear for the rest of her life, day in and day out. “Sam said it’s the size of a kitten.”

“Sam?” Gabi asked, voice breaking.

Dallas laughed, steadying her hand as he slipped the ring onto her finger. With a little help from Lainey and Fontana, he’d made sure it would be an ideal fit. “He’s upstairs, in his room. He lit the torches.”

“He has aroom?” Gabi flexed her fingers, and the stone, in a final bit of genius, cast a dazzling pattern of gold across the floor.

Dallas brushed his knuckle over the freckle above her lip, happiness rising like a tide inside him. “Wanna see it?”

Linking her fingers with his, she tugged him toward the stairs, that occasional, irresistible giggle bubbling out of her. “We have a house.”

Dallas exhaled a tight breath, again hoping he hadn’t gotten in over his head. “Abighouse.” Although he would enjoy christening every single room a thousand times over. Gabi was veryinventive.

Halfway up the staircase, she paused, turning to him from the step above. “I just thought of something. Engaged men can’t participate in the Bachelor’s Auction.”

Dallas caught her face in his hands and kissed her deeply enough to make his position clear. And he loved when she got jealous, because he was a depraved man. “TheDispatchwas a sponsor. I had no control over who bid, Gab.”

A pout pulled at her mouth. “I was working that night, the guitarist from Spartanburg who just got that big record deal playing. Otherwise, no one would’ve outbid me. Certainly not Julie Arnett.”

“It waslunch, Sparkle. One silly, boring lunch. For charity. This year, Ransom can stand in for me.”

“You love this.”

He shrugged, his lips quirking. “I put up with Todd, the insurance asshole, showing up at Wilder Grounds on the regular. Wonder why that is. Can you flash your ring in his face tomorrow morning, please?”

“I love the suit,” she whispered, trailing her finger down his chest. “So Dallas-True-means-business. The first time I saw you in one, at the journalism awards in New York, I about passed out.” She slipped one finger between the buttons of his shirt, sending heat straight through him. “Do I get to take it off later?”

“You can do anything you want, Sparkle.”

Then Dallas followed her upstairs into the noisy, unfinished, beautiful life that was finally theirs.