“Just try to have fun.”
As Raina spoke, the crowd parted and Lucy got her first glimpse of Dex’s office. The Messina Diamonds offices were both more and less impressive than she’d expected.
Less, because she somehow thought they’d be bigger. The office took up a modest six floors of a downtown skyscraper. Only six. Which seemed tiny for a multi-billion-dollar business. Of course, they also had offices in Toronto, New York and Antwerp.
At least the logo etched in the massive wall of glass that faced Lucy when she exited the elevator on the fifteenth floor said so. The words Messina Diamonds arched across the glass, and underneath was the image of a diamond ring laying on its side, the diamond cut in a distinctive elongated oval. In smaller letters underneath that the four cities were listed.
She stared at the image of the ring for a long moment. “I know that ring.”
“The legendary Messina family diamond.” Raina nodded.
“Legendary?”
“Of course.” Raina pushed open the heavy glass door and led the way into the lobby. “That’s the first diamond discovered by Derek and Dex’s father. The elder Mr. Messina, I mean. By the time the diamond mine was operational, their mother had already passed away. But Mr. Messina had the diamond set in a ring for her anyway because she’s the only woman he ever loved.” A hint of wistfulness had crept into Raina’s voice, revealing the romanticism she tried so hard to hide. “He carried it with him until the day he died.”
“And then he gave it to Dex,” Lucy murmured as her heart sank under the weight of the story.
So it wasn’t just any ring Dex had given to Isabella. Not just a trinket a diamond magnate would thoughtlessly bestow on his child. This was a ring of great importance to Dex.
Raina’s head whipped around and stared at Lucy. “How did you know that?”
“Not because he gave it to me, if that’s what you’re worried about.” She had to work to keep her own hint of wistfulness from her voice. Her disappointment was too illogical to share with someone else.
Raina flushed. “I wasn’t worried, I just…”
“Ah. You thought I might abscond with the family heirloom?”
“It’s not that. I was just surprised. Mr. Messina gave it to Dex on his deathbed. He wanted him to give it to the love of his life.”
“Which explains why he gave it to Isabella.”
Raina’s expression softened. “To Isabella? That’s charming.”
“Yes. It is.”
Dex really loved Isabella. And the fact that he’d given the ring to her was a sign he’d really welcomed her into his heart.
She should be thrilled. So why did the smile plastered on her face feel like it was cracking around the edges?
Surely not because she was jealous? That was absurd. It wasn’t as if she wanted Dex to love her. Was it?
Eleven
“C hampagne?”
“Hmm?” For a second, Lucy stared blankly at Raina, who had snagged a waiter wandering by with a tray of champagne flutes.“Or there’s an open bar if you’d prefer wine.”
“No. Champagne’s great.” And maybe if she sounded excited enough about it, Raina would even believe her.
The reception was being held in the lobby of Messina Diamonds offices, with the open bar set up in one corner and tables of appetizers along the walls. However, the crowd of tuxedoed men and elegant women had spilled out to the elevator bay and beyond the lobby to the conference rooms.
Though she wouldn’t have thought the lobby of a business was the perfect place to hold such a glamorous event, somehow it seemed appropriate. Everything about the lobby spoke of austere elegance—frosted glass, brushed metal and creamy, golden marble. The room was crescent-shaped, with the glass wall facing the elevator forming the shorter side, and the opposite wall arcing from corner to corner in a broad arch.
The center of that wall also bore the Messina Diamonds logo. On either side of it, in two wide columns of foot-high letters, was printed “The Story of Randolph Messina.”
“I can give you the nickel tour if you’d like?” Raina asked.
“Maybe later. You don’t have to babysit me all evening.” Even in the short time they’d been there, several people had nodded at Raina in greeting. “I’ll be fine here. I’m just going to…” Lucy let her words trail off as she pointed to the paragraphs printed on the wall.
After a few minutes of convincing, Raina wandered off to work the room, leaving Lucy to read about Messina Diamonds. She felt slightly voyeuristic, but excused the feeling by telling herself that—if Dex had anything to do with it—Isabella would someday be heir to this company. Besides, it wasn’t as if Dex had been exactly forthcoming about his family history.
Of course, her curiosity was ridiculous. She knew that. Despite the single night of breathtaking passion they’d shared, nothing had changed. He still wanted Isabella. She was still lying to him. They still had no future. So why did her heart ache a little at the idea of losing him? Surely she hadn’t gone and done something really stupid, like fall in…No. Even she wasn’t that dumb. No, if anything, she was merely vulnerable to his charisma. Whatever she was feeling was a temporary glitch in her emotions. Nothing more.
Forcing her attention away from her troublesome feelings and back to the real world, she scanned the text before turning her attention to the picture inset into the left column of text. The black-and-white photo of a stocky, rough-looking man in a cowboy hat with his arm around a willowy woman with flowing long hair. He indeed looked like he’d stepped out of a gold mine from 1849. She, however, looked like she’d stepped off a runway in Paris.
Dex had obviously gotten his height from his mother’s side, but she could see his father in the curve of his lips and the shape of his eyes. And unless she was mistaken, Randolph’s eyes would be the same piercing blue-gray as Isabella’s.
“There’s a better picture of them upstairs.”
Lucy spun around to see Dex with his elbow propped on the receptionist’s desk. Like all the men she’d seen tonight, he was dressed in a tux. Somehow on him, it looked even more impressive. It might have been the breadth of his shoulders or the clean lines of the tux, which was obviously custom-made. Or perhaps just the casual confidence with which he stood there. Dex may pretend he was just an ordinary guy, and until tonight she’d been fooled, but he was obviously as much in his element here as he was back at the house playing on the floor with Isabella or sitting by the pool drinking a Shiner.
“You look lovely.”
The appreciative gleam in his gaze warmed her to the core, reminding her of the intimacy they’d shared. She blushed, remembering, and had to force herself to respond. She ran a hand down the front of her gown. “Raina has excellent taste.”
“I wasn’t talking about the dress.”
Her blush deepened at his compliment and she found herself at a loss for words. You look better in a tux than James Bond were the words that popped into her head.
After a moment, he took pity on her and asked, “Would you like to come up and see the rest of the offices?”
“Actually, I’ve been enjoying the story.”
Dex grimaced. “That was the PR department’s idea.”
“It sounds like your dad was a bit of a character.”
“He was the last of a dying breed.”
Lucy looked sharply at Dex. “And there’s no pride in your voice when you say that.”
He looked a little surprised at her observation. “No. I suppose not.”
“And yet,” she pointed out, “it says here he was devoted to your mother and to his family. That he was a brilliant geologist.”
“That’s the work of the PR people again. ‘Devoted to his family’ merely means he dragged us all over South America when we were kids. ‘Brilliant geologist’ really means headstrong and foolhardy. He believed he’d find diamonds in Canada and no one else could convince him otherwise.”
“But he was right.”
“In the end, yes he was.”
Dex didn’t continue and she guessed there was a lot he wasn’t telling her. Resentment, perhaps, at being “dragged all over South America” as a kid? Or perhaps just a troubled relationship with his headstrong and foolhardy father?
“You don’t talk much about your family.”
“You haven’t said much about yours, either.”
“True enough.” She shrugged and then rattled off the highlights. “Raised by a single dad. Mom left when we were young. I have one sister.” Better to be as vague about that as possible. “Dad was a CPA,” she added quickly.
“You must have gotten your love of numbers from him.”
“My love of—” Then she broke off with a chuckle. “Oh, I see. Because I’m an actuary. Um. No. Sorry, not from him.” If her father had loved his job, he certainly hadn’t let her see it. He hadn’t passed a love of anything on to his children. Doing so would have required showing too much emotion.
Feeling suddenly self-conscious—as if she’d given away far more than she’d intended—she rushed on. “No. The whole actuary gig was just more of me being practical. I was always good in math. And there are lots of scholarships and job opportunities in that field. Especially if you’re a woman.”
“You remind me of my mother.”
When she looked up at him in surprise, an odd expression crossed his face, giving her the impression he hadn’t meant to say that aloud.
“That sounds like something that could have been a compliment, but wasn’t,” she observed.
“Always so practical. Always doing the right thing. Making sacrifices for other people.”
“Those aren’t bad qualities.”
“They are if they keep you from doing what you really want with your life.”
Lucy returned her attention to the photo on the wall, to the smiling faces of the couple. Randolph was smiling into the camera, but the woman, Sara, had her head cocked just slightly toward her husband. The expression on her face, the tilt of her lips, suggested she was seconds away from a full-blown chuckle, as if her husband had said something outrageously funny mere seconds before the picture had been taken.