'I can see you've been very busy this morning, Adam,' Andie interrupted. 'But shouldn't you have consulted me first about the type of engagement ring I would like? You-'
'I thought the emeralds would go with your eyes.' He shrugged. 'But if you have other ideas … ?'
An emerald and diamond engagement ring sounded wonderful, especially in view of the fact that until yesterday she hadn't known she was going to have one at all. But, even so, Adam instructing the jewellers that was what they were to show her was just another example of his high-handedness.
'Not particularly,' she dismissed, turning to pick up her bag. 'I would just like to do my own choosing, if you don't mind.'
'I don't mind at all,' he accepted, taking a light hold of her arm as they left the apartment. 'Your father has some good news too. He's managed to secure a church wedding for us at three o'clock three weeks on Saturday,' he announced.
'It's not what you know but who you know,' Andie muttered, her earlier excitement giving way to irritation. She had the feeling much like being on a runaway express train-with her merely a helpless passenger!
'Quite honestly, Andie, I don't care how Rome managed it,' Adam stated as he held the car door open for her to get inside. 'Besides, that extra couple of weeks will allow time for any other arrangements we want to make.'
'It will also allow time for me to look even more pregnant,' Andie pointed out.
Adam turned to smile at her as he got into the car beside her. 'I told you, Andie; you look beautiful. Pregnancy obviously suits you.'
She was also, she inwardly acknowledged, starting to sound like a shrill-voiced harridan. She really didn't have any objection to any of these arrangements-apart from the fact that her father and Adam seemed to have taken over! Besides, she didn't want Adam to think he was getting a shrew for a wife …
'I'm sure it will all work out,' she replied noncommittally.
Adam reached out and squeezed her hand. 'I'm going to be the model husband and father,' he assured her huskily.
Andie couldn't help it, she spluttered with laughter. 'Now that I just have to see,' she chuckled once she felt able to talk again. 'Adam Munroe, one of the world's most eligible bachelors, a model husband and father! Do you have any idea how to go about achieving that?'
Adam arched arrogant brows at her laughter. 'Your father managed it, so why shouldn't I?'
Her humour faded completely. Her father had 'managed' it because Barbara had been his wife and the mother of his children; Adam only had her.
'Perhaps you're right,' she responded flatly, turning to look sightlessly out of the car window.
She had known in Majorca, when she'd accepted Adam's proposal, that this marriage was going to be fraught with emotional tension. But actually living it was completely different from knowing it …
'What did I say wrong now?' Adam asked softly at her continued silence.
Andie forced her panicked feelings back into the recesses of her mind. There was no reason, absolutely none, she told herself firmly, why her marriage to Adam shouldn't be a complete success.
'Nothing.' She reached out and lightly touched his arm.
The choosing of her engagement ring was much more fun than she had imagined it would be, Adam's indulgence knowing no bounds as he encouraged her to try on any ring that took her fancy.
There were no prices on any of the rings-the exclusivity of the jewellers clearly indicated that if you needed to know the price then you couldn't afford it!-but even so some of the jewels were so big as to be garish in Andie's eyes.
The ring she finally settled on was definitely not in that category, an emerald and diamond cluster, one large emerald surrounded by eight smaller diamonds.
'There is a wedding ring to complement this particular ring,' the male assistant told them.
'I-'
'We'll look at it,' Adam answered the man firmly. 'And a plain gold wedding ring is suitable for me,' he added decisively.
Andie turned slowly to look at him as the male assistant moved unhurriedly to get the requested rings. Adam intended wearing a wedding ring?
He looked at her in amusement at her obvious surprise. 'A model husband and father, remember?' he teased.
'And that includes wearing a wedding ring?' She couldn't say she wasn't pleased that Adam intended to wear this public announcement of being a married man; she was just stunned that he was choosing to do so.
'Yes, it does,' he told her with certainty. 'I-'
'Here we are, sir, madam.' The assistant returned with the matching wedding ring to Andie's choice of engagement ring, and another tray containing an assortment of male wedding rings.
Her own wedding ring was shaped to fit around the cluster, also studded with emeralds and diamonds. But, to Andie's amazement, Adam took as much time choosing his wedding ring as she had her engagement ring, finally settling on a thin plain gold band. She had to admit, it suited the long, artistic slenderness of his hand.
Although Adam wasn't quite so happy with his own choice when Andie insisted on buying it for him!
'That was unnecessary,' he told her stiltedly when they left the shop a short time later, Andie's engagement ring firmly on her finger, the two wedding rings packed away in their respective boxes.
Andie reached out and touched his arm. 'Not to me,' she assured him. If he intended wearing a wedding ring, then it was going to be one that she had bought for him. Otherwise it just wouldn't mean the same thing.
He seemed about to say something else, but then thought better of it. 'Thank you,' he finally accepted.
She gave a mischievous smile. 'You're welcome. Not very good at accepting gifts yourself, are you?' Her own rings must have cost several hundred times more than Adam's wedding ring had cost her.
He grimaced. 'Probably because I've very rarely been given any.'
Andie looked up at him thoughtfully. 'Not even when you were a child?' she probed gently, realising, and not for the first time, just how little she really knew about his early years.
Adam gave a bitter laugh. 'Especially not then!'
'But-'
'Leave it, Andie,' he grated. 'I promise I'll try to be a little more gracious about accepting the next time you give me a gift, okay?' he added with deliberate lightness.
But Andie wasn't fooled for a moment. What sort of parents had he had not to know the joy of receiving gifts from them at Christmas and on his birthday … ?
There was still so much about Adam she didn't know, so many facets she wasn't aware of that had made him the man he was today. Well, maybe she didn't know them now. But she would. Oh, yes, in time she most definitely would!
Adam watched her face as they entered the dining-room of the restaurant he had booked for lunch, knowing by the pleasure that lit up her features as she saw her father and Audrey already seated there, along with Andie's sister Harrie and her husband Quinn, that he had done the right thing in inviting them here to share in their celebration.
Up until this moment, he could only hope that he was doing the right thing in organising this surprise for her. Although he had also realised that by presenting a fait accompli to her family today it was going to be less awkward for Andie in the future; the last thing she wanted, or needed, at the moment was to go around explaining herself to all of them.
'We'll go out with Danie and Jonas separately once they're back from their honeymoon,' he assured Andie as they went to join the rest of her family at the table.
She turned to give him a glowing smile, emerald-coloured eyes over-bright with unshed tears. 'Thank you.' She squeezed his arm gratefully.
They might have started this off all wrongly, Adam had decided as he'd lain alone in his bed the previous evening, but that stopped right here. Andie deserved to have the best, and a celebration lunch for their engagement was going to be the start of it.
'My, my, my,' Harrie said as she stood up to congratulate them both. 'Some people will go to any lengths to throw a party!'
Andie laughed softly. 'It's Adam's party.'
'Our party,' he corrected firmly.
Harrie reached up to kiss him warmly on the cheek. 'You've been an honorary member of our family for so long, it will be nice to make it official.' She smiled at him.
Adam glanced at Andie, realising she was very close to letting those tears overflow and spill hotly down her cheeks. 'Show Harrie and Audrey your ring, Andie,' he instructed teasingly. 'While us men get down to the more serious matter of studying the menus!'
Lunch was a resounding success, Andie relaxing completely in the company of her family, laughingly happy, even indulging in a sip of the champagne Adam ordered for a celebration toast.
Now all he had to do was try to get her to become that relaxed in his own company. All he had to do … ! That wasn't going to be so easy.