She shrugged. “Not much to tell. No siblings. My mom was never in the picture, and my dad died when I was thirteen. I lived with my Aunt Gigi until I left for college.”
“I’ve never seen you back down from a duty. And you’re so dedicated to marketing, why didn’t you graduate?” I asked.
Was that a spark of fear in her eyes? She swallowed hard, and her shrug was anything but offhand. “Money, partly,” she said, her pointer finger and thumb clicking away. “My aunt got sick—she’s fine now, though.”
I eyed the clicking fingernails, and she laughed nervously. “What about you? I know Mr. Bocharov is married to your cousin.”
Pushing aside the fact that there was more to her reason for leaving school than she was letting on, I told her to call him Gavril from now on, since we’d be in-laws. “I have so many cousins here that it would take a spreadsheet to keep them straight. And that’s not even bringing the ones back in Moscow into it. Just remember my two older brothers, Mat and Dan. You’ve met my cousin Lilia that time she came to the office with Gavril, and her sister is Masha. Those are the ones I grew up with in Moscow.”
“Have I ever visited?” she asked. “I mean, for the story? I could research any areas you think I need—”
“Let’s stick as closely to the truth as possible. Now, let me guess your favorite color. Turquoise.”
“That’s right,” she said, beaming. “Yours is red.”
“How can you possibly know that?” I demanded, and she reached across to tug on my tie.
“Every single one you wear has red in it.”
“We know we both like to read,” I said.
“With science fiction being our favorite—hey, should that be how we first fell in love? Talking about books?”
“That sounds about right,” I told her, watching her every move and facial expression with delight.
As conscientious as she was, she kept wanting to take notes, and I placed my hand over hers as our dessert arrived. “Stop stressing. I think we’re a natural couple.”
“Let’s hope the Koboyashis agree,” she said, blushing some more.
We had spent the entire dinner lost in conversation, finding things out about each other and discovering more thingswe had in common. Growing up on the East Coast, she loved boats, but hadn’t been sailing since her father died. I’d have to remedy that one day.
I found I had a new appreciation of dogs since everyone I was close to seemed to be adopting them, and she said her favorite part-time job as a teen had been dog walking. While I wouldn’t have minded lingering over wine, she reminded me there was a morning meeting with accounting scheduled the next day.
Right. To her, this was only business. For now.
For me, it was only the beginning.
“One last stop,” I said on our way back toward the office.
That stop was a jewelry store I had already told to stay open until we arrived. Not too difficult since it was owned by one of my cousins and I’d helped defend it during a recent attack. They were much too discreet to say a word of any of that as the manager greeted us like visiting royalty.
I led Clem over to the diamond engagement rings and told her to pick one. She laughed, a tiny bit tipsy from the fine wine.
“Is this a joke?”
“Am I in the habit of making jokes?” I asked.
Her giggles stopped abruptly. “You can’t,” she said, dropping her voice to a whisper. “A fake one will be fine.”
The master jeweler and I both made separate noises of dissent. “According to your research, Mrs. Koboyashi has a long family history of wealth. She’ll be able to spot a cheap ring a mile away. It has to be the real thing.”
She pointed to the smallest one, and I glared at her until she finally admitted it wasn’t her favorite. “You need to actually love it,” I said.
I watched her eyes settle on a pear-shaped stone of medium size, surrounded by brilliant diamonds. There was no denying it was her favorite, but she balked at the price, still trying to insist a lesser ring was good enough.
After some back and forth, I took her hand and placed the chosen ring on her finger. She admired it and then started to take it off. “It is so beautiful, but…”
I stopped her, also sliding on the matching wedding band. “Wear it from now on, so you’re comfortable and don’t fidget.” And because I liked seeing it there. My ring on her finger.