Page 87 of The Encounter
Jace smiled down at her before looking back at Stephen. “Could you give us a quote for it, please?”
“Of course. Maddie, what color of amethyst did you want? It ranges from brighter purples to darker. I can show you a few examples of what we have.”
He pulled out a small sample of gemstones, and Maddie looked over them. She distinctly remembered that her mom’s necklace had a brighter purple on it. As a child, Maddie loved sitting on her mom’s lap and tilting it toward the sun to catch the light.
The perfect color jumped out to her, and Maddie pointed at it. “This one.”
“How about the size of the diamonds?”
He pulled out another sample of various diamond sizes, and she pointed at the size that she thought might be it. “I think it’s around this size. Honestly, I don’t remember, but this seems about right.”
Stephen nodded. “It was likely this one because of the cluster.”
Maddie smiled and looked back at the photo that Stephen had drawn. Jace watched as her fingers traced over the sketch, as if she were holding the necklace there in her hands.
Stephen excused himself to go to his desk to write up a quote. At that moment, Samantha stepped into the store. Jace groaned and turned his back to her.
“Maddie, I just want you to know that Samantha just walked in.”
Maddie immediately tensed and flipped the notepad over. If she hadn’t done so, he probably would have himself. It was no business of Samantha’s why they were in that store. Jace hoped Samantha wouldn’t see them, but seeing as they were two of four customers there, it was unlikely they would go unseen.
“Jace!” Samantha called before walking over.
Jace turned around and smiled tightly, and Maddie turned, giving her a smile similar to his. Samantha did little to hide her disgust for Maddie as she plastered a fake half-smile on her face and looked Maddie up and down.
“Oh. Hi Maddie,” Samantha said. Then she turned and attempted to put her back to Maddie, despite Maddie being tucked right up to Jace’s side. “What are you two doing here?”
Jace held Maddie to his side as he took a few steps away from Samantha, so her back wasn’t right in Maddie’s face.
“Just picking up an order for my mom,” Jace said smoothly.
Samantha raised an eyebrow. “That’s nice of you.”
“It is, isn’t it? Such a sweet guy,” Maddie said. Then she turned and ran her hand down his chest before gazing up at him and laying her head on his shoulder.
Jace smiled before he could stop himself. If Samantha could have blown her top, she would have.
Before Samantha could reply, Stephen walked out of the back room. “Oh hello, Samantha. I’ll be right with you.”
She nodded and stepped a few feet away, acting as if she were browsing the display cases, but Jace knew she had all of her attention focused on them. She would know he lied about why they were there, but it honestly didn’t matter to him.
“Maddie, I have the quote for you. Here is the breakdown for each aspect of the piece with the respective numbers. Your total is here at the bottom. This is just for the pendant, so you could select a chain from our display case for an additional amount if you don’t already have one you’d like to use.”
“This is perfect. Thank you so much, Stephen. Can I pay you now?” Maddie asked.
“Of course. If all of this looks good to you, I can get started on it immediately.”
Maddie passed a credit card over to Stephen, and Jace waited while they finished their exchange before he shook Stephen’s hand and thanked him for his time.
“It was a pleasure seeing both of you. Maddie, I will call you when it’s finished. It’ll be around two weeks.”
“Great! Thank you so much!” Maddie said.
Jace took Maddie’s hand and walked with her past Samantha and out the door. Samantha’s eyes followed them the entire way, and Jace caught her watching them as they walked to his car out front. She was, no doubt, cooking up some sort of story.
And Jace would be lying if he didn’t say he dreaded to find out what she would say next.
After they leftthe jewelry store, they drove over to the mall to look for Christmas decorations. Jace had never seen Maddie so excited in his life. Between getting the necklace she always wanted and now shopping for Christmas decorations, he wondered if she might burst from excitement.
