I pulled away from the spot I’d been parked at all morning. If I stayed there too long, I’d arouse suspicion. I was pretty sure I was ready for my job at the loan shark company. I just had to nail down a few final details about the security schedule.

I turned a corner and parked the van at a new spot, then I left to grab coffee and something to eat. There was a good coffee place a few blocks away, in a better neighborhood, and I decided to walk.

It was a beautiful afternoon, and I passed a school teacher taking what looked like an entire kindergarten class on a field trip to the park. The kids were all holding onto a leash to keep them together. It was nice.

They didn’t used to do that with kids when I was little. I stopped to watch them, then proceeded through a fancy shopping district. I stopped dead when I saw a familiar face.

“Lacey,” I called without even considering what she might be doing there.

“Grant,” she said, flustered. “What are you doing down here?”

“Scoping out a job,” I said.

“Not this jewelry store, I hope.”

“Why? Do they have something you like?”

She hesitated before answering, and her cheeks flushed. “What?” I said. “Did I say something wrong?”

“No, of course not. I was just doing some window shopping.”

“What for?”

She looked embarrassed again, as if I was prying into some deeply secretive part of her life. And then the penny dropped. She was looking at engagement rings.

“A ring!” I said.

She nodded, shyly.

“Oh that’s awesome. Did he buy you one here?”

“Well,” she said, hesitantly, “he didn’t exactly buy it yet.”

“So he picked out a couple?”

“Not exactly.”

“What do you mean?”

“He didn’t choose a ring at all, Grant. He told me to go out and pick one I liked.”

“What?”

“He wanted to make sure I got something I liked.”

“Sure, I get that, but isn’t the guy usually supposed to put a ring on your finger when he proposes? I mean, I’m no expert on wedding stuff.”

“No, you’re not.”

“But he’s supposed to give you a ring, right? I mean, not just send you out shopping for one, but actually pick one out and give it to you.”

“Usually that’s how it goes.”

I looked at her and felt bad for being so hard on the guy. She looked like she was about to cry. It wasn’t her fault Rob was such a failure in the romance department.

“Well, I hope you picked something expensive,” I said.

She nodded, more enthusiastically than I’d seen her agree with anything I’d said about her wedding in a long time.

“I did,” she said. “It’s my dream ring, Grant. And it probably cost almost as much as Rob’s apartment.”

“What? They make rings that cost that much?”

“They sure do.”

“I guess you can’t put a price on true love.”

“You can, actually,” she said. “I just saw it.”

I laughed. “I guess you did.”

“I just hope he pays for it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, he’s kind of been a disappointment so far. He didn’t want to come to dinner when I announced the engagement to you guys, didn’t want to come looking at flowers, and didn’t even want to come look at rings with me.”

“Well, show me the ring.”

“Really?”

“Sure, I’d love to see it.”

“You don’t like this sort of stuff, Grant.”

“Lacey, I love it.”

She looked at me for a second, when I said the word love, and it made my heart pound in my chest. She turned and pushed through the heavy brass doors of the jewelry store. Inside, the place was really beautiful. I noticed four security cameras, a few detectors, probably for motion, possibly for temperature, humidity and other things.

“Stop it,” Lacey said, scolding me.

“What?”

“You’re casing the place out for a job.”

“No I’m not.”

“Just stop, okay. Promise me you’ll never do a job here. This is a nice place.”

I smiled. “All right,” I said, “but promise me you won’t ever pay for your own engagement ring.”

“He wouldn’t make me do that,” she said, sadly.

“He won’t if you don’t let him,” I said.

Lacey went up to a clerk and asked her to show me the ring she’d selected.

“Is this the lucky guy?” the clerk said, eyeing me up like a piece of meat at the butcher shop.

“Oh, no, this is Grant. He’s my …”

I finished her sentence for her. “Brother,” I said.