If Forever Comes (Take This Regret #2)(26)
Author: A.L. Jackson

Awe pumped a steady beat with my heart, wound with expectancy and hope. Somehow I knew whatever waited inside, her gift was going to become one of my most cherished possessions.

Slowly I extended my hand out between us, palm up, and watched as she carefully sat the gift upon it.

“Thank you,” I murmured as I glanced up at her with a soft smile, then down to tug gently at the satin ribbon.

Cautiously, I unwrapped her offering. Tearing away the tacks of tape, I pulled the paper free. I lifted the lid to the small box.

“Mom,” I whispered. Nested inside the white satin lining was a ring.

But not just any ring.

My grandmother’s ring.

An old yearning slammed me. It hurt and comforted and filled me whole. I missed my grandma so much, and to be given this was beyond anything I’d ever have expected.

The white gold band appeared the antique it was, worn, though it still boasted the intricate design that wrapped and curled. Delicate tendrils crawled up to cradle a baby blue stone. Pinching it between my fingers, I spun it through the rays of late afternoon light that streaked in through the window, let the colors shimmer and dance and play.

Something old and something blue.

“She gave that to me a few days before she passed,” Mom said. A distinct current of homesickness slipped into her tone. “She told me it belonged to you, and that I’d know exactly when I was supposed to give it to you.”

Wistful emotion played where it danced along the lines set deep in her face, her mouth quivering. “I know that day’s today, Elizabeth. That ring was meant for you to wear on your wedding day.”

She swallowed hard. “I have to be honest and tell you I’ve been worried over all this for you. When Christian came back into your life, I was scared for you, I guess because of all of my own insecurities…the things I had to go through in my own life.” She kind of laughed, though it was drenched in sadness. “For so long, I viewed the two of us the same, and somewhere inside me, I thought we’d live out our days the same way…alone. Like we had this common bond we both had to bear.” Her voice strengthened. “What I never imagined was Christian would turn out to be the man he is. But there is no mistaking it in him. I’m so thankful you’ve found a man to love you the way you deserve to be. Completely.”

“Mom,” bled from my mouth in a torrent of thankfulness. I rushed to pull her into an eager embrace. “I can’t tell you what this means to me. This ring…you saying this. Thank you…so much. You don’t even know.”

She hugged me tight, her arms wrapped around me in an unwavering declaration of support. “Yes, I do,” she whispered back. “I just want you to be happy.”

I edged back an inch, still clinging to her, clinging to the ring I had pinched between my fingers. God, I was crying again, but I felt so full. So loved. How could I stop them? Today…well, really, these past few months, had been perfectly overwhelming. Flawlessly breathtaking.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy.”

She touched my cheek. “I can see it. You radiate it. Don’t ever let it go.”

That promise was easy to make. “I won’t.”

Chapter 11

Present Day, Early October

On Monday night, I turned the key on my condo lock. I held the door open and flipped on the light. “Go on in, sweetheart.”

With a passing grin, Lizzie scampered around me into the living area.

I had her pink overnight bag slung over my shoulder, and I dropped it to the floor beside the door.

A wistful smile played at my mouth as I watched my daughter enter my condo. God, I’d been missing her. The last time I’d spent any time with her was Saturday morning before I dropped her back home, and she’d spent the last two nights with Elizabeth. I’d had an early meeting this morning, so I had to ask Elizabeth to take her to school and then she picked her up this afternoon. I’d been anxious all day, wishing the hours away so I could head to Elizabeth’s to pick Lizzie up to spend the night with me.

There’d been something I couldn’t quite read about Elizabeth this evening.

Maybe I was grasping, but I thought I sensed a change, something I couldn’t quite pinpoint. Like maybe there was a subtle difference in her eyes. Like maybe there was a flicker of life. It’d been missing for so long, I almost didn’t recognize it, but she’d dropped her gaze faster than I had time to study her, to understand her.

I shook my head. I just didn’t know, didn’t know what she wanted, didn’t know what I could do.

But I knew I was going to have to do something. How much longer would I just sit idle? Doing nothing? An overbearing feeling of helplessness had held me back, kept me down. But I felt it all coming to a head.

I quietly latched the door behind us.

Rays of sunlight streamed in from the floor-to-ceiling windows in my loft. Burning streaks of oranges flamed against the fading blue on the horizon, glimmered across the rippling bay as daylight slipped away.

Lizzie went right for the windows, her favorite spot at my place. “Look at all the sailboats,” she whispered, almost pensive as she pressed her face and hands to the glass. “I wish I got to see the ocean every day.”

I crept up to her side and rested my hand on the back of her head. “It’s really beautiful out there, isn’t it?” I cast her a soft smile.

She returned one that eclipsed anything happening outside. “The ocean is my favorite, Daddy.”

“I know, princess. I know.” It’d become my favorite, too. Something so special to Elizabeth and Lizzie had inevitably become my own. We’d been looking at houses near our beach when everything fell apart. Lizzie had been thrilled, running through each house with unadulterated wonder as she proclaimed almost every single house we looked at as the one. I could only pray one day we would finally make it there.

I nudged her chin. “Are you hungry?”

“Uh-huh.” She dropped one earnest nod, and a sudden cheerfulness took over her expression. “I’m super hungry, Daddy.” She scooted away from the window and into the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator door and peered inside.

Making dinner had become one of her favorite chores. She always wanted to help plan and cook. These cherished moments we spent in the quiet ease of my kitchen had become one of the things I most looked forward to.

“What should we make?” she asked, a flurry of excitement flooding her voice from where it echoed back from the refrigerator. She had her head buried inside, searching through the stock of food I had ready for her.