Mortification wasn’t the reaction I'd been hoping for when I handed my wife the bridal set I'd bought her from Tiffany's, but that's what I got.
Maybe I should have chosen a more private location to give her the gift. A gym full of sweaty men wasn’t exactly romantic.
I was fucking clueless…
"You can exchange them for something else if you don’t like them," I said as I watched Teagan study the diamond engagement ring and matching wedding band. "I know you said you wanted something more permanent, but every man should buy his wife a ring." Or at least that’s what I'd thought.
Going off Teagan's reaction, I'd got it wrong. Very wrong.
"Noah," she whispered, cheeks reddening. "It's too much." Swallowing deeply, she looked up at me. "These must have cost you a fortune."
One hundred and thirty grand, but I wasn’t about to tell her that.
"You're worth it," I went for instead. "And a hell of a lot more besides." She needed to know that our wedding might have happened on a whim, but our marriage was something I'd been planning for a long time.
There was only one woman for me, the only person I'd ever commit myself for a lifetime to, and she needed to know that woman was her.
"They're perfect," she whispered, cheeks stained pink. With shaking hands, I watched Teagan slide both rings onto her ring finger.
"So am I forgiven?" I dared to broach the subject. "For hanging up on the call?"
"I suppose you are." Teagan cocked a brow, clearly deep in thought. "If you promise to never tease me about the dinosaur thing ever again."
"Thanks for this," Teagan said. She had taken a seat in the back row of the theatre and I had handed her the bucket of popcorn she'd demanded. "It means a lot," she continued to say with her mouth full of popcorn.
"It's fine, Thorn." Guilt swarmed inside me as I took my seat beside my wife.
She shouldn't have to thank me for taking her to the goddamn movies.
It was something I should be doing on a regular basis.
Reaching my arm around her slim shoulders, I pulled her close.
"I've heard good things about this one," she said, snuggling into my side.
Teagan continued to ramble on throughout the entire movie and my mind continued to torment me with images of her with that prick…
"I need to leave," Teagan blurted out towards the end of the movie, startling the shit out of me.
"Why? What's up?" I turned to look at her and was fucking horrified to see tears streaming down her face. "Jesus, Teagan, are you okay?"
"I-I can't…" Blubbering, she wiped her nose with a tissue I hadn't realized she'd been holding and shuddered. "They killed him, Noah."
"Yeah…" Confused, I looked back at the screen to see if I was missing something.
Nope, I wasn't.
"Thorn, he was the bad guy, baby."
"It's just so sad," she sobbed into the tissue. "I didn't want him to die."
I racked my brain. "The guy just killed millions of innocents?" Was she kidding? "You didn't want him to die?"
"Don't make me feel bad for it," she wailed, jerking out of her seat…
Smothering my laughter, I nodded. "Consider it done."
"Whatcha got there, man?" Tommy said when he came to stand beside me, eyes locked on Teagan's hand.
"Nothing," Teagan was quick to reply.
Frowning in confusion, I watched as she tucked her hands behind her back.
Letting out a whistle, Tommy reached out and grabbed Teagan's hand. "You better win your next three fights if you want to break even after buying that."
"I didn’t ask him to buy it," Teagan hissed, looking up at Tommy like she'd done something illegal.
"What?" Shaking my head, I looked down at my wife. "He knows that, Thorn," I said slowly. "Right, T?"
"Right, man," Tommy agreed. "It suits you, Teagan," he offered before wandering off in the direction of the punching bags.
"Why are you so embarrassed?" I asked her once Tommy was out of earshot. "Is it because of the price? Because Tommy was only screwing around about winning three fights, Thorn. I can easily afford it."
Teagan's face flushed bright red. "It's just… I'm not used to this," she confessed, biting down on her plump lower lip. "The last present I got from a man was –" She frowned for a moment before looking up at me. "Well, from you. Back when we were in high school."
An abnormal amount of guilt shot through me then.
Guilt for being gone all those years.
Guilt for not being there for her…
"Well, get used to it," I said, tone gruff and thick with emotion. "Because this is only the start of what's to come."