“No one I wanted to put a ring on.” He rubbed the diamond band between his fingers. “Doesn’t mean my life didn’t turn out okay. It has. I guess finding this just reminded me of my one true love.”
A terrible thought crashed into Danny’s head and he jumped to his feet. Had Will shown up with a ring? “I’ve got to go. Good luck with the ring.”
“Thanks. You take care.”
Danny gave a quick nod and trekked back down the beach with the intention of…what? He slowed his step. He’d better damn well know what he wanted to do before he returned to his house. The thought of Will proposing to Liv killed him.
But.
The douche was the father of her child. She’d jumped in with both feet and loved him once. If Liv decided she wanted to be with Will again, he had to accept it. Even if it hurt like hell.
A bunched-up towel hit him in the side of the head. “Dude, I’ve called your name three times.”
“Really?” Danny said, turning to find Bryce closing the distance between them, a surfboard tucked under his arm. “I thought that was the seagulls squawking.” He actually hadn’t heard anything, too wrapped up in his thoughts.
“Your hearing going, too?”
Danny hurled the towel back at Bryce.
“Sorry. Low blow.”
“Something’s wrong,” Danny said, cutting right to the chase. He knew his best friend, and when Bryce said shit he didn’t mean it was because he was having trouble wrapping his head around his own problem.
“I bought a ring for Honor yesterday.”
Jesus, what was it with rings this morning? “Congratulations, man. That’s great.”
“What if she says no?”
“I’m pretty sure she implied you’ve got nothing to worry about at Thanksgiving.”
Bryce parked his board in the sand and plopped down, arms on his bent knees, eyes on the water. “Yeah, but I don’t think she realized I’d take less than forty-eight hours to act on it. What if I’m moving too fast?”
Danny glanced toward his house before planting his butt next to Bryce’s. “You’re not.”
“How do you know?”
“I may have seen a bride magazine in her shop,” Danny confessed. Bryce whipped his head around, his eyes wide with surprise. “Don’t tell her I saw it. She shoved it underneath some paperwork when I stopped in to say hey.”
“And you didn’t think this was intel I should know about?”
“I thought maybe you did and the two of you were keeping it under wraps.”
Bryce fell back into the sand, angled his face toward the overcast sky, and smiled. “She wants to marry me,” he said, smitten.
“Yep.” Danny had seen pretty much every expression on his friend’s face, but on this Sunday morning he saw a new one. One that had Danny bowled over by a sense of longing he’d never felt before.
Scratch that. He’d felt it—at the doctor’s office with his hand on Liv’s stomach, in the kitchen eating breakfast with her, in bed under the fort they’d made last night.
“So when do you plan to ask her?”
“I want to run home and ask her right now, but I’m thinking over a romantic dinner would be better. I’ll order her favorite take-out, light a fire, and get down on one knee.”
“She’ll like that,” Danny said.
Bryce pushed up. “Thanks, bud. I’m glad I ran into you. So what’s up with you?”
“Nothing.”
“Seriously? You think I can’t tell when something is going on that you wish like hell I’d leave alone?”
“That minor you have in psychology is a real pain in the ass.”
“So I’ve heard. Now spill.”
Danny buried his feet in the sand. “Will is here.”
“Who?”
“Liv’s ex. He showed up on our doorstep about an hour ago.”
“Shit. What does he want?”
“I assume to get Liv back.” Saying that out loud hurt like a spear through the center of his chest.
“Why are you out here instead of making sure the jerk doesn’t do any more damage?”
“Liv’s perfectly capable of handling him on her own.”
“You sound worried.”
“I’m not.”
“You are. You’re worried she’s going to pick him over you.”
“That’s ridiculous. There is no picking. The guy is the father of her child and she and I are just…”
“Don’t insult me, dude. You think it wasn’t obvious to everyone at dinner the other night that you two are sleeping together? You’re not just friends. I’m not sure you ever were just that.”