Page 112 of Kylie

Chapter Forty-Five

Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Travis

“Did you notice Kylie hasn’t said anything about her weddin’ ring?” I asked Gage as I steered the SUV toward the resort.

I could feel his eyes on me, knew he was trying to figure out where I was going with this topic.

“What the hell are we supposed to do?” I asked when he didn’t answer. “We melted down her damn rings. They’re gone forever.”

“They’re not gone forever,” Gage said, his rational tone infuriating me further.

Because I was driving, I couldn’t wave my ring in his face, so I grabbed his left wrist and shook his hand. “Her rings are gone.”

“They’re not gone,” Gage repeated, pulling his arm away.

I huffed, staring out the windshield. On some level, my brain processed the scenery, but it was a sort of tunnel vision. I’d done it so many times, I could probably drive to work with my eyes closed. Good thing, too, since my mind was preoccupied with thoughts of my wife. She’d been home now for three weeks, and things didn’t feel any different than they had the first night she was back. She was still walking around as though she didn’t belong. And worse, we were letting her.

“We can take our rings, have them melted down,” Gage said.

I glanced over, urging him to continue.

“The jeweler can add more metal and create new ones for all three of us.”

I turned my attention back to the road. I saw the resort in the distance. We were two and a half minutes away, a fact that seemed ridiculous to know.

As I steered, my attention shifted from the road to my left hand and back. The ring on my finger was a combination of all of our rings. Something Kylie had requested we do in the letter she had left for us. The diamonds had been removed from her rings, used to create necklaces for the girls. And the metal had been melted down and used to create two bands, one for Gage and one for me. We’d put those rings on each other’s fingers the day we got married in front of the magnolia tree in my parents’ front yard.

Because there was more I wanted to discuss and I didn’t want to wait any longer, I pulled into a parking spot rather than up to the valet. I put the truck in park and sat back, staring at the resort my brothers and I had built.

“I talked to a lawyer about our marriage,” I told Gage, hating that we even had to discuss this.

I could feel his surprise.

“And?”

“He said it’s complicated.”

“I can only imagine.”

I continued to stare straight ahead. “He said that technically, because there was a death certificate, my marriage to Kylie was dissolved in the eyes of the law. And our marriage—yours and mine—still stands because we entered into it in good faith.”

“That makes sense.”

My gaze cut to him, my fury igniting. “Does it?”

As he was known to do, Gage took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “I didn’t say it was fair, Travis. I said it makes sense. I’m sure we can get a lawyer and go through proceedings to get it fixed.”

I frowned. “Get what fixed?”

“Get our marriage nullified, and your marriage to Kylie reinstated.”

I stared at him, both shocked and hurt. “You don’t want to be married to me?”

“Of course I do.”

“Then why would we do that?”