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Only her wedding band and engagement ring.
Of course, they now managed to sparkle and shine like little beacons, pulling her in and reminding her of Jack. Of when he’d given her the engagement ring with the flashy diamond. Of when he’d put the band on her finger at the wedding.
Alana had kept the rings on her finger for the first year. She’d done that partly because of the guilt she’d felt over his death, but she had also done it for Tilly. Even though the woman hadn’t come out and said it, she had needed to see Alana wearing those rings because it allowed her to hang on to some small part of her son. After all, Jack hadn’t hurt Tilly, he hadn’t done anything to violate his mother’s trust in him, and Tilly’s grief hadn’t been mixed with the other things Alana had felt.
After a year, Alana had moved the rings to the chain, wearing them first in plain sight and then tucking them away beneath her clothes. But those days were over. Hanging on to tiny shreds of her love for Jack was over, too. She was ready to hurl the rings into the water and never lay eyes on them again.
Egan and Remi were almost certainly cursing themselves for what she’d overheard, but Alana knew she should thank them for it. Thank them for putting it right there in her face so she could once and for all lay the past to rest. But what she’d overheard had hurt.
Mercy, had it hurt.
Was Jack in love with her, too?
That’s what she’d heard Egan ask Remi. Alana had also heard the part of their conversation before that about the woman Jack was cheating with.
Alana hadn’t waited for Remi’s answer because it hadn’t mattered. The woman had loved him, and that told Alana that the relationship almost certainly hadn’t been just a one-off and that it hadn’t been just about sex. Even if the love had only been one-sided on his lover’s part, it was still there.
That and that alone should be more than enough for her to toss the blasted rings. But Alana continued to hold them while the rain slid down her face. While she grieved all over again.
She spotted a lazy daisy, a rain-soaked white petaled wildflower that grew along the banks. A favorite of hers. And the primary decision-making tool she’d used as a kid. Should she tell her third-grade crush that she’d love him forever? Well, the lazy daisy could help with that.
“Do I tell him?” Pluck a petal. “Don’t I tell him?” Pluck a petal. And so on until the last petal revealed the answer. Usually it wasn’t the answer she’d wanted and that had often caused her to either toss or stomp on the now bare stem while grumbling about how stupid flowers were.
That hadn’t stopped her, though, from using the “petal plucking” forecaster again and again.
Alana picked this one. “Should I toss the rings?” she asked.
However, before she had a chance to move on to the second question, she heard the sound of an approaching vehicle. She cursed because she had a good idea who it was, and she got confirmation of it almost right away.
“Alana,” Egan called out.
She cursed some more when she heard him coming toward her, understanding that he probably felt as crappy as she did about what she’d overheard. Understanding, too, that she got no satisfaction whatsoever out of a “misery loves company” deal. She’d wanted to do the ring toss for a long time in an effort to finally get over her cheating husband who might or might not have been in love with another woman.
“How did you find me?” she asked when Egan stopped right next to her. Unless the rain had partially blinded him, which was a possibility, he would have seen the necklace and rings she was holding before she squeezed her hand around them.
“I crossed off any places that you might have gone with Jack,” he explained. “Jack wasn’t a fan of the creek.”
True. In fact, Jack hadn’t been a fan of water, period, and it was the reason he’d chosen the Air Force over the Navy. He hadn’t even learned to swim before he’d gone to Combat Rescue training.
Alana spared him a glance and noted that no, he wasn’t partly blind, thanks to his Stetson. The rain was dripping off the brim, creating a little umbrella effect for his face and eyes. His shirt and jeans, though, weren’t faring nearly as well since they were just as wet as her dress and hair.
“There was no need for you to come,” she insisted. Of course, her insistence wouldn’t do any good, but she wanted to spell something out to him. “I’m not here to toss myself in the creek.”
He made a sound to indicate that no spelling out had been necessary, and he tipped his head to her hand. “You came here to ask the lazy daisy if you should toss those,” he said. Not a question before he did another head tip toward the creek. “The wedding band Colleen gave me is somewhere in there.”
Alana frowned. She hadn’t known that, and she hadn’t guessed it was something he’d tell her now.
“Did tossing it make you feel better?” she wanted to know.
“Not much,” he readily admitted. “The moment I hurled it through the air, I thought about the money I could have donated to a charity if I’d sold it. People could have benefited from Colleen’s cheating and our marriage ending.” He paused. “I suspect there are a lot of diamonds, gold and silver nestled below the creek rocks. Thousands and thousands of dollars’ worth.”
He had a point since she had, indeed, heard rumors of guys tossing engagement rings after their proposals had been turned down. When she’d been a teenager, Alana recalled Colleen herself chucking in a promise ring given to her by a then boyfriend who’d broken up with her two days before the junior prom.
While Alana contemplated all of that and realigned her thoughts to selling/donating rather than tossing, the silence settled between them. So did some of her anger.
Some.
It was no longer on a full boil but rather the usual perpetual simmer when she thought of what Jack had done.
