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“It’s your business to tell. But why tell me?” I fiddled with my brush for a moment.

“Because if you’re the one he’s with, I want to know if you’ll be the one to hold his hand. Can you do that?” He stared me down, his eyes a greenish brown with a watery, sort of shrunken texture to them behind thick lenses. Lex got his smile from his father, and it was not unattractive in his growing age. If we grew old, that would be a face I would still love.

“I can and I will. Lex adores you.” I offered him a small smile, but it saddened me I’d have to hold that secret. “And he’ll be cared for. I started my life without a safety net, so I spent my life building a good one. We’ll be decently off.”

“There’s a decent amount of inheritance on my side. Nothing extravagant.” He waved me off.

“Then Rachael will be well cared for.” It hurt to say it, but I got the feeling he was attempting to get me to ask questions about money, and I wanted it clear that I had no need or want for it.

He locked eyes with me and nodded once. “She better be.”

He held out his hand, and I offered mine before we shook in some unspoken agreement.

“Now, how long has Alexei really been hiding you from us? He’s only been gone a few months.” He gave me a rascally look, but I cleared my throat and glanced away.

“We’ve only been involved these few months. But we travel in similar circles. But we know one another well. Can’t exactly say how long we’ve really known one another.” I put on a puzzled look, but Lex and I had talked it over and kept it vague.

“Well, the best relationships are ones that start out as friends.” He sniffed and laughed, offering me a sad smile. “But if you hurt my boy, I’ll haunt you. I’ll make one hell of a dybbuk and you’ll never get rid of me!”

I whistled. “Can’t be having that.”

“I mean it.” He grabbed his figurine and went back to painting before giving it a light shake in my direction. “Don’t rush a wedding on my account.”

“I would if you asked.” I stifled a laugh. “I’m sorta ring shopping, though. Eyeballing the idea of it. If you’d give your blessing. I know you don’t know me.”

“You can tell a lot by how a man paints and his handshake.” Mike pursed his lips and glanced me over. “Well. I have some of the finest Russian diamonds money can buy.”

I’d never been told my shake was particularly strong. “Handshake? Mine is strong?”

“Dead fish, boy. But you looked me in the eye. You’re scared I won’t like you.”

It was the truth, and I forced a crooked grin. “Can’t really help the fear.”

I flinched as he stood and patted my shoulder. “One moment.”

He walked away, a slight limp to his step as he took a deep breath and situated himself to look more put-together as he loped off.

I went back to painting for lack of anything else to do, and found myself getting really into it when the door to the garage opened and he shuffled in before tapping down a little velvet bag. “Open it. I can’t fumble with the knots anymore.”

I plucked at a silk cord, golden on black velvet worn with age with little bald spots and flecks of lint, spots of other colored velvet as if the bag had company wherever it came from.

A leather box fell out, an older style ring box, flatter and leather cracked. It had a clasp instead of a pressure hinge. I popped it open at his gesture and stared at a simple wedding band with an almost full karat diamond in the center, a rose cut in a gold band with worn filagree. The facets were slightly uneven, but no less brilliant despite the slightly cloudy diamond’s age. I’d seen many like it as a boy.

“My grandmother’s. Those were some of the first diamonds my grandfather ever cut.” He fondled a ring of messily cut diamonds around the center stone as he reached to pull it out. “There’s enough gold here to make something nice. What would you have made?”

“Well, he’s a seven on his ring finger—I sized some of his costume jewelry.” I cleared my throat in embarrassment. Knocking someone up made a man go out and think of things like that. “Probably commission a seven and a half or eight and put a spacer on it—your fingers grow with age a little.”

Mike laughed and nodded.

“I would try to preserve the filagree, add some gold to widen the band to make it a little more masculine and swap from a basket to a bezel to keep it from catching pages while he works.” I’d put thought into it, what I wanted for him, and if that ring had meaning…

“You think of things. I like you.” He pulled out his phone and opened a text window. “Gimme your number.”

I took his phone and plugged mine in before he redirected me to his text messages. “Type what you just told me. My typing is clumsy.”

I typed it out and handed him his phone back where he hit send and took a picture of the ring. “Always have a jeweler buddy.”

“Can’t say I have one.” I did have a Requisitor and a book or two I could slip into. Couldn’t rightly say that, though.