Page 14 of Sterling Fight

Judd body blocks her, keeping his hands out and upright, the ring still pinched between his fingers. Her chest bumps his.

“Heather,” he warns. “Attempt to touch her and you’ll be sorry.”

Heather instantly snaps her attention back to Judd, narrowing those icy eyes to shard-like slits. “Are you threatening me?”

“I’m stating a fact,” he warns, his voice calm but from my view of the set of his shoulders and the stiffness of his back, Judd isn’t letting Heather get anywhere near me.

Hoping to defuse the intensity of their staring-contest, I curl my hand around Judd’s bicep.

Heather’s head whips to her left. “Is that it?” She glares at the ring in Judd’s pinched fingers as if it offends her.

My lack-of-filtering cannot be stopped. “I think it’s precious.”

“Precious?” Heather reiterates like Golem within his dark cave. Spittle might even release from her disgust. “It’s pathetic.”

“It was my mother’s.” Judd’s voice grows bolder, louder, almost menacing. Almost.

Shock strikes me. Why on earth would Judd give me something so special to him?

Heather’s gaze leaps back to Judd’s face. “You’re pathetic, Judd Sylver.”

Spittle actually leaves her mouth but does not quite make it to Judd’s chin, if that was her intention. Instinct tells me to step around Judd. Wedge myself between him and her, but then Heather turns on her spiky high heels that are not conducive for the uneven flagstone and she wobbles toward the back yard.

“Are you okay?” I ask, still standing behind Judd. He hangs his head a second before turning around.

“Yeah.”

We silently stare at one another a second. The snap-crackle between us is missing the pop, but the fizzy energy slowly rebuilds.

He said I was his fiancée. He has a ring.

“You should have just told her it wasn’t what it looked like.”

Judd continues to watch me. “Maybe I want it to look like what it looked like.”

“You want Heather to think you got engaged to someone else on the same day you broke up with her.”

Judd lowers his head. “Well, when you put it that way, it doesn’t sound so great.”

“What way would you put it?”

Judd hesitantly lifts his head while holding up the ring between us and dropping his gaze to it. “I was going to ask you to wear my mother’s ring.”

“I don’t know, Judd.” This isn’t a symbol of his love or a sign of future commitment. This would only be as a means of getting out of something complicated. A complete misunderstanding. For a minute, I picture Heather running to my mother like the little tattletale she once was, and the look of disappointment on my mother’s face that I’ve somehow hurt poor Heather’s feelings.

God forgive me, but for once, a little ding toward Heather would feel good.

Most of all, though, I’m not certain I’d feel right wearing Judd’s mother’s ring.

“It’s only for show. For now.” Judd’s voice sounds a little trembly, almost panicked again, like he’s trying to convince me this isn’t for something other than getting out of a messy situation. Not for something real. But then, Judd gently takes my left hand and lifts it between us. “Genie Webster, what do you think? Check yes or no.”

Funny, that’s how I’d communicated with Judd when we were kids. On lined paper with unicorns. My thoughts flash to the tattoo on his bicep. The one familiar and . . . It can’t be, can it?

One thought bulldozes the next and I realize Judd isn’t really asking me anything. He isn’t proposing. He’s simply offering me this ring. His mother’s special ring.

And while I’d be saving face in front of my mother, I’m terrified of losing something that holds so much importance to Judd. Then again, I can always give the ring back to him later, right?

Because Judd is positioning the ring at the tip of my third finger and then I’m watching as it slides down to the notch, settling against the webbing at the base of my finger. I spread all my fingers wide, then pull them back together.