I forced a laugh. “I’m not a little girl anymore.”
“Indeed not,” he said with warmth in his eyes. Was that affection for me as a sister? Or affection for me as a woman? “That reminds me, I have a birthday gift for you.”
“Ooo, what is it?”
He pulled a velvet box out of the breast pocket of his suit and handed it to me. Part of me flared with hope that it was an engagement ring and this would be a proposal, but that would have been ridiculous in such a large crowd, with Cas standing right here after he had just called me his little sister. The small hope was squashed when I realized the box was too big to be a ring.
“Happy birthday, Leona.”
I handed Cas my glass and took the box with barely trembling fingers. Max got me jewelry for my birthday.
Inside was a delicate white gold chain inlaid with small sparkling gems and a beautiful pendant hanging at the end. The pendant was a starburst with a huge center-set diamond that glimmered under the party lights. The design itself was set so delicately, yet the size of the stones indicated this necklace wasworth a fortune. It was large enough to literally take my breath away, but it wasn’t so large that it would overwhelm my neck.
I ran my finger down the starburst. “Max, it’s beautiful.”
“Just as you are,” he said. My cheeks flared with heat. “Want me to help you put it on?”
I nodded, biting my lip to not squeak out my excitement. He gently picked up the necklace from the box and gestured for me to turn around. I had to suppress a groan as he gathered my hair to the side, and his fingers brushed against the sensitive skin at the back of my neck.
The necklace settled on my body, sliding down my chest and hanging between my cleavage. It was the perfect complement to my gown. The starburst hung brilliantly, already catching the light. It had to have cost a quarter million dollars at the very least.
This was a gift for awoman.
“My little sister, all grown up,” he said as I turned around. His hand slipped inside his jacket pocket, pulling out a single blood-red rose with the thorns removed. “And it wouldn’t be a birthday without this.”
Our fingers briefly brushed as I took the rose from his hand.
Our mothers used to cultivate a rose garden together. Max and I had spent many years playing amongst the branches and pricking our skin on their thorny bushes. Since our mothers died, he’d given me a single rose on my birthday to remind me of them.
I swallowed the lump in my throat as I put the blooming flower against my nose and inhaled its beautiful scent.
“Thank you, Max,” I murmured as I stared at the flower.
His thumb and forefinger gently gripped my chin, lifting my face to meet his serious gaze. He studied me silently for a few moments—long enough that I swore he could feel myracing pulse beneath his fingertips—like he was searching for something he couldn’t quite find in my features.
“I’ll always take care of you. Remember that.”
My brain’s logic and body’s emotion warred in cognitive dissonance. How was I supposed to feel right now? His words did not match up with the gift he had just clasped around my neck or the rose in my hands, and none of it matched up with how he made me feel. My heart was on fire. My body burned where his fingers lingered on my chin. But it seemed like he was making a point that he didn’t think of me the way I thought of him.
Was he promising me a future? Or was he shutting me down?
If he was promising to always be there for me, why did I suddenly feel like bursting into tears?
I didn’t quite know what to say or do, so I smiled and pulled him in for a hug. I breathed in his rich cologne, all the nerve endings in my body lighting up as my chest pressed against his. But it was over all too fast. After only a few seconds, he stepped back and cleared his throat.
“Thank you,” I said again, trying to regain control over my emotions before I made a complete fool of myself.
He nodded, pulling his phone from his pocket. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I have to take this. Please, excuse me.”
I watched him answer his phone before disappearing onto the back patio, where my father laughed while surrounded by a group of men in suits.
“Did he just take a phone call as an excuse to get away from me?” I whispered, looking up at my other best friend.
Cas stared after him, a hard glint in his eyes. “You want the honest answer?”
I frowned. “Well, I guess not when you say it that way.”
“In that case, no, he did not just use a phone call to escape your hug.”
