Page 44 of Five Stolen Rings

I whirl around to find her there—my name isn’t a question from her but a quiet announcement that she’s arrived. And even though every instinct in my body is telling me to go to her, to demand to know her thoughts and feelings, I stay where I am. I wait.

Because I know she’ll have something to say. She always does—and more than that, I can see it on her face. The lamp in the parking lot illuminates her features enough that I can see the tension, see her mind working.

She takes a small step forward in those blasted red heels, and I catch sight of what might be biking shorts as a sudden gust of air takes hold of her skirt. She smooths it down and then straightens up, her eyes on me.

Her words, when they finally come, are so faint that they die on the wind, silent by the time they reach me. I raise my brows, a request for her to repeat herself.

“How could you do that?” she says, louder now. The accusation emerges in a puff of breath that swirls away into the night, and I find myself wondering what that cloud would look like if she spoke different words.

If she told me she loved me and then told me she hated me, would those puffs of breath look the same? Couldsuch radically different sentiments create the same haze from her lips?

It doesn’t seem possible—but I’m not sure I’ll ever find out.

“How could I…what?” I say to her. I don’t mean for my voice to sound so mocking, but I’m struggling.

Her already flushed cheeks bloom pinker. “You kissed me,” she says as her gaze darts away.

“Ikissedyou?That was mutual,” I say severely. No way is she putting this all on me. “We discussed it beforehand?—”

“Weneverdiscussed kissing like that,” she says, her eyes flashing as they return to me.

I bury my hands in my pockets and stroll closer. “Maybe not,” I admit, my shoulders falling. “But did you tell me to stop? Did you push me away?”

“I—” She falters, and I nod.

“You didn’t,” I say. “In fact, you kissed me back.”

Her jaw drops, her expression outraged. “I wouldn’t say Ikissed you back?—”

“Your hands were in my hair, Princess,” I say with a snort, cutting her off.

And there’s that twitch in her jaw as her mouth snaps shut, the twitch that tells me she’s about to spit out a lie. I wait for it, trying not to remember how that felt—her hands in my hair, fingers twisting, curling.

“That doesn’t mean anything,” she finally says, and it’s so ridiculous that I almost laugh out loud.

“Really?” I say. I take another step toward her, my feet crunching over the snow until I’m close enough that I could kiss her again. Then, forcing myself not to hesitate, I lift my hands and slide them into her hair, careful not to touch the cut she got falling out of Maude’s tree. “This doesn’t meananything?” My voice is soft, but I can hear the challenge in my words.

Stella stares up at me, her eyes wide and cautious and so, so beautiful.

“Let me ask you something,” she says.

A jitter of wariness shakes me, but I nod, savoring the feeling of her warmth, her silky hair.

Her gaze sharpens on me. “Was the phone call you?”

And my heart sinks as a battle emerges suddenly and violently in my mind.

Tell her, or don’t.Open that Pandora’s box—full of possibility, yes, but also endless uncertainty—or leave it safely, securely closed.

Because if I tell her, she’ll know. She’ll know that as recently as two years ago, there was a part of me that couldn’t forget her, couldn’t let go of her.

My voice breaks as it leaves me. “No,” I say, shutting that box in my mind. “It wasn’t me. Stop asking.”

Her eyes dart over my face, and—am I imagining things?—she almost looks disappointed. But then she nods, and something changes in her expression. “The kiss doesn’t have to mean anything.” She clears her throat and wraps her grip around my wrists, gently removing my hands from where they’re still cradling her head. “We can pretend this never happened.”

I nod slowly, letting my hands fall away from her and stepping back. “Yes.” My voice is calm, controlled, but there’s a strange, painful throbbing sensation behind my solar plexus. “I think that would be best.”

She nods too. “Because I seem to recall you saying that you wouldn’t ever kiss me.”

---