He jabbed his thumb at himself. “This is all on me?”
Her answer came in the form of a hmph.
He reached over and tapped her slender shoulder. “Neve, lighten up. I’m just having fun. If I had slept with you, I would remember. That’s not a detail I’m likely to forget, no matterhowshit-faced I was.”
“Oh.” Her eyes misted over as she darted them away from him. “Well, we should at least be able to return the rings and get your money back.”
“You sure about that?” He wasn’t going to be able to put this off, was he? He returned his attention to the road.
“Pretty sure. Elvin and Alma’s store doesn’t have their refund policy posted online, but most otherreputablejewelers have a thirty-day return policy, as long as the rings are in mint condition. And ours are.”
He lifted his butt off the seat and dug into his pocket. “Take a close look at the inside of my band.”
He sensed more than saw the pleats form between her brows as she reached for it. He knew her that well. “What? Why?”
“Just look.”
“I can’t. It’s too dark.”
She held on to his ring until they were back inside her cozy home. There, she made a beeline for the kitchen and turned on a lamp that sat on the counter.
He pointed at the ring. “It’s engraved. Can’t return it.”
She hissed a curse and retrieved the jewelry box that held her extravagant diamond and matching band. In his peripheral vision, he saw her mouth drop when she examined her ring under the lamp. “Oh no!”
“What does it say?”
“Same as yours. ‘Best ½ of Couple #3.’ We’re screwed.”
“Hey, at least we’reequallyscrewed. Get it? Same words? Equal?”
“Reece, this isn’t funny.”
“No, it’s not, but humor—lame as it is—helps keep things calm so we can keep working toward a solution.”
“Oh no,” she whispered. “There’s engraving inside the diamond ring too.”
Curiosity nudged him toward her. Soon he was peering over her shoulder, trying not to inhale her sweet scent. “What’s it say?”
“Another abbreviation. ‘R& N 4ever.’ I doubt the ring came that way.”
“Yeah, not a lot of companies putting our initials inside their rings.”
“Reece, we can’t return these,” she wailed.
He slid her a sidelong glance. “I know.”
She stuffed the three rings inside the box, snapped it shut, and let out a long, anguished exhale. “How long do you think we can keep this a secret?”
“About the rings? A while, except Dixie did notice them and is already yakking, so …”
“Don’t remind me.”
“As for the wedding, I’m counting on Noah and Charlie to deflect for us. That’ll buy us time. Maybe even enough to get this thing undone.”
Her head swiveled toward him. “And if they don’t?”
He shrugged a shoulder. “I’ll take out their knees on the ice next week.”
