Ballet Shoes and Engine Grease (30 page)

With trembling hands,
Crimson flipped open the lid. Her heart
seemed to stop when she saw what was inside—a ring with three
stones embedded in a wide band of rich, yellow gold. The middle
stone was bright red and the smaller stones flanking it looked like
diamonds.

“
I wanted something you can wear all the
time,” Nick explained. “Even in the factory, or when you have to
put on gloves. That’s why I didn’t pick a stone in a raised
setting.”

“
Is this what I think it is?”

“
It’s not an engagement ring.”

“
Oh?” Her head snapped up.

A
wry smile tugged at Nick’s mouth. “I’ve been engaged once.
Didn’t like it much. I want to skip the engagement stage and go
straight to the wedding. Call it a
wengagement
ring, all in one.”

“
You want to marry me?
” She frowned at him. “But you don’t need
to…”

He contemplated her in silence, then spoke
in a low voice. “I think I fell in love with you when I saw you
dance on the boardroom table. It just took me a while to accept the
idea. And I was prepared to throw away a hundred and fifty million
dollars to make sure that you never had to doubt that I married you
for any other reason but love.”

Crimson
hesitated, found the courage to reply with equal
candor. “Before I met you, I used to daydream about you because I’d
heard so much about you from your father. It scared me to discover
that reality was better than make-believe.”

H
e raised a confident brow. “So, it’s a yes?”

“
Yes,” she told him, and her heart lurched
into motion again, a mad gallop fuelled by relief and happiness and
a sense of homecoming. But a small, ugly fang of jealousy cut into
her joy as words she didn’t even know she remembered whispered
through her mind.

Four carats of marquis cut
diamond.
For Marcela.
Her stone could not be more than a carat, and it looked like a
garnet. A cheap stone. Esmeralda had a necklace of garnets, a whole
string of them.

“
What’s the red stone?” she asked, striving
for a casual tone.

“
It’s a red diamond. Very rare. Very
expensive. Try not to lose it.”

Alarmed
now, she studied the ring. “How
expensive?”

“
I’ll give you a hint. Red diamonds cost at
least fifty times more than white ones. Roughly a million bucks a
carat. But I wanted a
crimson
stone for you. Which brings us to present number
three.”

He d
ug once more in the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a
key. “You need a car. The guys in the factory made you Crimson
Spur. Black and red. It’s their way of showing how much they
respect you. It’s parked outside. Let’s go and try it
out.”

Emotions
bombarded Crimson. To find a something solid,
something to ground her in reality, she homed in on the mundane. “I
haven’t passed my driving test yet.”

Nick grinned.
“I’ll drive. Put on a dress, something loose and
flimsy. And get lots of warm blankets. We’ll go out to the shore
and park on a bluff over the ocean, with fantastic views and total
privacy.”

“
Why?” Crimson asked. “It’s freezing out
there.”

Nick hauled her into his arms, kissed the
tip of her nose, and bent to whisper into her ear.
“Rumor has it that you’ve never
had sex in a car.”

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Epilogue

Crimson w
addled up the front steps, both hands supporting
her bulging belly. According to her obstetrician, at five months
some slender women hardly showed at all. Some of them ballooned.
She’d become a bloody zeppelin. At least she had stopped being
sick. And wanting sardines and ice cream. At the same time. Whose
idea had been to call it morning sickness, anyway? It should have
been called
twenty-four-hours-a-day
sickness.

“
I’m home,” she called out. It was a cue
for Myrna and Esmeralda to reveal their whereabouts, so she could
approach them, or avoid them, as the mood struck.

“
In here, honey.”

Crimson followed her mother’s voice into
the dining room. On the table stood two half
-finished dolls’ houses. The blasted
things were taking over the place. Nick was there too, stuffing his
face with leftover chocolate cake. Excellent. She could play the
crowd.

“
I have great news,” she
announced.

Nick licked a morsel a chocolate from the
corner of his mo
uth.
Something curled low in Crimson’s belly. What was it about him?
Even in her zeppelin state, he could render her to a quivering mass
of lust. He did it again, tongue leisurely sweeping along his
bottom lip. She noticed the gleam in his eyes and realized he was
doing it on purpose. She’d get him for that…later.

“
You passed your driving test?” he
suggested in all innocence.

Her
gaze narrowed on him. Was it a genuine question? No, she
guessed. Nick was trying not to smile. He already knew the answer
and was teasing her. She’d get him for that, too.

“
Almost,” she told him. “I’m told I’ll
benefit from some further practice.”

“
So, what’s the good news?” he
asked.

She patted her bump meaningfully.

Nick’
s dark brows drew together. “The baby?”

“
My grandson?” Myrna said.

“
My granddaughter,” Esmeralda
corrected.

“
Well…” Crimson drew it out, enjoying the
moment. “When there are two grandmothers who are likely to render
the poor child dizzy by tossing it between them every five minutes,
both wanting to hold it all the time, what does a clever woman
do?”

“
Throw the grandmothers out?” Nick said in
a hopeful tone.

“
Allocates time slots,” Esmeralda said.
“Like they do in the tax office.”

Myrna merely stared at Crimson’s bump. The
sharp look from the cool, blue eyes suggested to Crimson that if
she didn’t hurry up, her mother-in-law might steal her
thunder.

Nick, of course, already knew. They had
known since her first ultrasound at eight weeks, but she had wanted
to keep it a secret until she discovered the sex of the babies at
her twenty-week scan.

Crimson beamed all around
“Well, she has two, of course.
One for each.”

“
Twins?” Myrna said.

Crimson gave a happy nod.
“A boy and a girl.”

Esmeralda clapped her
hands
. “My
granddaughter.”

Myrna clasped the pearls around her
neck
and spoke dreamily.
“My grandson.”

Nick bou
nced up from his lazy slouch and walked up to her.
“My clever wife,” he said. “The most amazing woman in the world.
How do you do it? Always give everyone what they want? I’ve never
known anyone who is so good at everything. I’m sure you’ll ace the
driving test next time.”

While Nick
murmured away in that soft sugary,
let-me-adore-you
voice, he hauled her into his arms, and Crimson felt
herself melt. She’d never expected Nick to have the knack of
talking sweet nonsense, telling a woman that everything was
wonderful, even when they both knew it wasn’t. But somehow,
somewhere, around the time they got married in January, he’d picked
up the skill, as if he’d put some effort into it. She should ask
him about it.

Then he kissed her.

And she promptly forgot what she’d planned
to ask.

THE END

About the
Author:

Tatiana March
studied economics and enjoyed a successful career as a finance
director in several international corporations. Now a full time
writer, Tatiana lives in the UK near the river Thames with her
boyfriend of more than two decades. No kids, no pets, apart from
spiders and other forms of wildlife seeking temporary shelter.

You can read
more about Tatiana and her books on her blog

www.tatianamarch.blogspot.co.uk

Tatiana loves
to hear from readers. You can contact her at

[email protected]

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