Chapter 20: Will You Stay

Kendrick had planned the whole thing for eleven days, and he was terrified.

He had run boardrooms and outvoted his own uncle.

Only the ring box made his hands shake.

He sat at the end of the dock at the lake house in the first gray light.

The box was in his jacket pocket, and Max kept out of sight behind the boathouse.

The water was flat and cold.

Becky came down the path in his old sweater, with her hair loose and a mug of coffee in each hand.

"You said it was urgent," she said. "I assumed someone had died."

"Nobody died."

"You're pale."

"I'm nervous."

She stopped.

She set the mugs on the planks very carefully.

She sat on the edge of the dock next to his chair, with her feet hanging over the water.

"I found the box," she said.

His heart sank into his stomach.

"I know. Max saw the drawer open."

"I didn't look at it for long."

"You looked at it long enough to close the lid the wrong way."

He almost smiled.

"I didn't want you to find it by accident."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm not." He took a breath. "I'd like to do this properly."

He took the box out and opened it on his knee.

The ring was an emerald-cut diamond on a plain band, small and clear, nothing like the stone in the family safe.

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