“The rings.”
Rebekah reached over to squeeze his knee. “Right. The rings. So it became a tradition that newly married couples in the family would start their marriage wearing these very same rings until they could make their fortune and afford new ones. Then they’d replace them and save the silver rings to pass on to their children. By the time of my dad’s generation, things weren’t so tight financially, so he and Mom did use the rings in the ceremony, but they traded them for new rings right after.”
Eric lifted his hand over the steering wheel to look at the ring on his finger. “So we aren’t supposed to wear them forever?”
“We can wear them as long as we want,” she said. It wasn’t as if they’d be able to have children to pass them on to. Well, at least not blood-related children. She wondered if her ancestors would be okay with an adopted child wearing the rings.
“What if Dave wants them when he gets married?”
Rebekah smiled, hoping someday soon her brother would find someone he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. “Then I say we let him have them. They’ve been blessed with many generations of love, including ours. We can’t really expect him to give that up.”
Eric smiled sadly. “I wish I had a cool story to tell you about my ancestors, but I know nothing about them. I probably come from a long line of derelicts and criminals.”
“I doubt that,” she said. “You have too good a heart, Eric. I have to think at least some of that is genetic.”
He concentrated extra hard on the road. They were still miles from home.
He was silent for a long while, and she didn’t press him further. She didn’t want him to be sad today. She almost wished she hadn’t told him the story about the rings, how they connected generation after generation of her family. It had to make him feel completely disconnected from his own family.
They turned onto the gravel road that led to Eric’s sunny yellow Victorian-style house in the country. He stopped in the driveway and shut off the engine, but didn’t make a move to get out of the car.
He took a deep breath and turned toward her. “I never really thought much about my family—what I was missing by not having one—until I found you.”
Her heart panged. “Baby, if you want to try to figure out where you come from, we can go look through records and stuff, figure out who your relatives are. I’m sure there are plenty of interesting stories in your ancestors’ pasts.”
“I wouldn’t know where to start.”
“With your birth certificate. Also, as a former ward of the state, you have a file somewhere.”
He laughed. “Oh, I have a file all right.”
“If you don’t want to know, that’s fine,” she said. “I don’t mind being your entire family.”
“You and my band. It’s enough,” he said. He took her hand in his and kissed her knuckle just below her wedding ring. “But I’ll think about it. Maybe knowing the truth about who I am and where I came from will be a bit less terrifying with you beside me. You make me feel I can overcome any obstacle.”
Her shoulders drooped, and she relaxed into her seat with a dreamy grin. “You’d better stop making me swoon,” she said. “I’m liable to melt right into this seat.”
He grinned. “I like to make you swoony. Never had a woman get swoony over me before.”
“Then you must have not shown a single woman who you really are.”
“You don’t think this sentimental sap is really me, do you? I just act this way to get in your pants.”
Blue eyes twinkling with mischief, he winked at her.
She laughed. “It is effective in that regard,” she admitted. “But I’m not wearing pants. And I’m not sure your swooniness is enough to get you under my skirt.”
“When we get in the house, you won’t be wearing your skirt either.”
She opened her mouth to tease him further, and he added, “Or your panties.”
She laughed. He knew her well; she had been going to tease him about the extra swoon requirement for getting in her panties.
His teasing smile faded and he simply stared at her for a long moment. His eyes searched her face as if he was trying to decide if she really could handle being there for him for things other than great laughs and hot sex. Her heart rate accelerated when his eyes finally settled on hers and she steeled herself to support whatever he’d decided. She wouldn’t force him one way or the other. She might push a bit, because she believed knowing what he came from would give him some closure, but she wouldn’t force him to face it if he didn’t want to.
“I’ve spent the last twenty-five years trying to forget I ever had a family,” he said. “I’ve lived my entire life focusing on the present. For the first time, I’m ready to concentrate on my future and building it with you. And I don’t think I want my past to intrude on that.”
Planning their future was more important, but for her, the future was far more terrifying than the past. They’d already survived their pasts. The same could not be said for their futures.
“That’s fine, baby.” She touched the cleft in his chin with one fingertip and then cupped his face between her palms. “I’ll always support you. Always.”
His eyes flicked up to stare at her forehead, and he flashed a perfect set of white teeth at her when he grinned crookedly. “You realize I’m going to have to test that promise, don’t you? Make sure you mean it by being obnoxious and picking fights.”