Робин Грейди – The Billionaire’s Fake Engagement / Man from Stallion Country: The Billionaire’s Fake Engagement / Man from Stallion Country (страница 15)
He made to drop it in her hand but she shrank back, hesitant to touch something so precious. It must be worth a fortune.
“I promise there’s no ghosts attached,” he told her. “Or none that I know of.”
She studied the humor in his eyes then laughed at herself. It was just a coin, a very old, queer-looking coin. It wasn’t as if she could lose it on him or anything. She put out her hand and the gold piece slid into the cup of her open palm.
It was warm from his touch and she tested its weight. “Heavy. And not at all round.”
“Doubloons were made with an ounce of gold and minted by hand. It’s been handed down from generation to generation. Passed on from Ramirez firstborn son to firstborn son.”
So that’s why he’d been examining it so intently. He’d been thinking that if Bridget’s baby was his, if the baby was a boy, by virtue of tradition this coin should be handed down to him.
“It’s presented to the eldest boy of each generation on his twenty-first birthday,” he went on. “My parents made a big deal of it when they gave the coin to me. It was the first and only time I saw tears in my father’s eyes.”
He was peeling off his layers, letting her in, wanting her to see what truly lay beneath the tycoon’s cool facade…a man who valued and respected his family, past and future.
Her fingers unfurled and she handed the coin back.
She wished she could give him that son. She wished she could see that same emotion Alex had seen in his father’s eyes the day his boy had turned twenty-one. Pride. Devotion. A sense of immortality. She could only imagine.
The moment stretched as he studied the coin.
“That phone call I made last night,” he finally said. “I contacted a numismatic auction firm. A coin dealer.”
“You want to sell this?”
His flashing eyes jumped to hers. “Never. It will stay in the Ramirez family. It certainly won’t leave my possession until my son is twenty-one.”
Alexander had had his share of romantic affairs, but it was clear how he saw his future. Married with children, particularly a boy. A son who would accept this tangible reminder of who and what he was above all else.
A Ramirez.
“Then why did you contact a dealer?” she asked.
“To hunt down another coin in case…” He exhaled and cleared his throat. “If Bridget Davidson’s baby is mine and a male, he ought to be acknowledged appropriately. But circumstances such as these…I don’t know that it’s happened before.” His gaze bore into the doubloon. “I’d always envisaged this coin going to the son of the woman I married.”
He pushed up tall and shrugged. “Unfortunately the dealer isn’t hopeful of securing another. This specific type of doubloon is the most sought after coin in the world.”
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