“You want to be a FBI agent?” she asked incredulously. “I thought you were going to say a basketball player or something.”
He snorted. “Those statistics equal lottery chances. No,” he said with a shake of his head. “I want to be a Special Agent and make the world a better place.”
“Why?” She held up a hand. “There’s nothing wrong with that, but why do you care?”
He stared down at his hands. “Because one day I want to bring kids in this world, and I want to know they have a chance for survival.”
Well he had done it, brought two girls into the world, but Guy wasn’t so sure it was a better place. “I don’t really know what to say.” He stared at her, noting the goose bumps on her arm. He shrugged out of his leather jacket. “Here, you’re going to freeze.”
She looked at his jacket suspiciously.
“It won’t bite. It might even keep you from rubbing your skin raw trying to warm up.”
“I get the point.” She took his jacket and slipped it on.
He sucked in a breath. It looked perfect on her. He rubbed his eyes and turned to look at the lake. Anything to get the image of his jacket wrapped around her body out of his head.
“Why don’t you start with why you’re shouting at the sky? Or were you talking to God in such a manner?”
He laughed at her cultured tone of voice. She only used it when highly amused and trying not to show it. How do I remember that? Then again, maybe she wasn’t amused but actually curious.
“I was talking to God.” He cleared his throat. “I don’t understand why some people get to live and some don’t.”
She snorted. “If that’s not one of life’s biggest mysteries, I don’t know what is.”
He hung his head. How could he have forgotten who he was talking to? Michelle lost both of her parents in a matter of minutes. He still remembered when she showed up at his house in tears. The heartache glittering in her eyes had been his undoing.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Why not? It’s true.” She waved a hand in the air. “Just because my parents died doesn’t make your statement any less true.”
“But it makes it insensitive.”
“Since when do you care about my feelings?”
He stared at her in shock. His mouth snapped shut when a fly came too close to the gaping hole that had showcased his bewilderment. “When have I ever not cared about your feelings?”
His stomach dropped to his feet. Before she could formulate her answer, he knew what she would say. Guy wished he could recall the words, but they were there, suspended in the air, like the scent of spring. He backed up, tensed as he waited for her response. The fury that filled her hazel eyes as she glared at him, fueled the heat climbing up his neck.
“Did you really just ask that?” Her tone filled with bitterness, slapping him in the face.
“I’m sorry.”
“Now you are.”
He winced. It was true. If he could go back in time, he’d give her a proper good-bye. But you would have still left her. “Michelle, I—” he stopped short as she held up her right hand.
Was that the ring... He stepped closer.
“Back up.” She snapped.
However, the anger in her voice didn’t penetrate his thoughts. All he could focus on was the silver ring on her right hand, glistening in the moonlight. The memory of it had him reaching for her hand.
“What do you think you’re doing?” She tried to yank her hand back, but he held on tight.
“Why do you still have this?” He stared into her cat-like eyes. The strain of his emotions hoarsened his voice to where he didn’t even recognize it. Why did she keep it?
Her eyes widened in horror. “Let go,” she said in a stark whisper.
“Not until you tell me why you still have this ring.”
She shook her head vigorously and tugged at her hand. “Please, Guy, let me go.”
At the sound of his name on her lips, he dropped her hand as if it had bit him. She whirled around and scurried off.
Chapter Seven
The sink continued to fill with bubbles as Michelle tried frantically to slide her ring off. Of all the times for him to notice it, why now? She bit the inside of her lip as she scrubbed soap around her ring finger in vain.
After a few minutes, Michelle finally shut the water off. It was no use. It hadn’t come off in thirteen years. Why would it be any different now?
“Because he saw it and is going to place more significance on it.”
Don’t you?
“Maybe,” she whispered.
She had tried to take it off a month after he had left, but it refused to budge. Over time, it had become like a second appendage. She never noticed it anymore; however, Jo and Chloe teased her for twirling it around her finger.
You’d think if she could twirl it, the thing would come off. But it refused. It was like it had a mind of its own. Never budging past her knuckles.
And now he’s seen it.
The knock on the door made her jump.
“Michelle, are you all right?”
She attempted a laugh but it quickly turned to a whimper. “Just having trouble getting this ring off.”
Jo came in the bathroom. Her friend looked from Michelle’s soapy hands, to the sink, and then met her gaze. “What is going on?”
“I can’t get it off.” She held up her right hand.
Jo frowned in puzzlement and leaned closer. “Why do you want it off? You’ve had it since senior year.”
“I know and now it needs to come off.”
“O...kay...you’re going to have to explain yourself.”
Michelle huffed out a breath. “I don’t
