She would if she knew.
Didn’t seem to make a difference because I was drawn.
Compelled.
Pushing deeper into her orbit.
Her back thudded against the hallway wall as I towered over her. Too close but unable to move away.
“Need to give you somethin’.” The words creaked out of me.
A confession.
Regret and grief and the barest flicker of surety.
Eager anticipation rippled through her as she peered up at me.
Her tongue stroked anxiously over her lips. “Okay.”
That ball of razors in my throat rolled, slashing and cutting on its way down to the pit of my stomach as I dug into my front pocket and pulled out the small velvet bag.
Could feel the crash of confusion twist through Daisy before she expelled a soft gasp when I dumped the ring into the palm of my hand.
For a moment, we both just stared at it, and I swore I could feel the circle searing into my flesh.
A scourge and a blessing.
“It was my mother’s. The last thing I have left of her.” The words broke on my tongue.
“Oh, Cash.” Awe wisped from between her lips.
“It’s really tiny,” I choked, overcome by emotion at the sight of it. “I remember the way my father tried to convince her to get an upgrade on their twentieth anniversary.”
The small engagement ring wasn’t even close to being flashy. Just a simple gold band with a small round diamond.
“She refused. Said the only thing that mattered was what it represented. The promise he made when he asked her to marry him. Figured it could represent the promise I made to you.”
Tears blurred Daisy’s eyes. “Cash…are….are you sure?”
“Can’t imagine anyone else wearing it.”
“I’d be honored,” she whispered.
It was a wonder I could pick it up with the way I was quivering, and I took Daisy’s dainty hand and slid my mother’s ring onto her finger.
The diamond glinted in the bare light. A strike of something profound.
Lightning that pierced me somewhere deep.
“It fits,” I muttered as I stared down at it on her finger. Guess somewhere deep down, I knew that it would.
Daisy sniffled. “It’s beautiful.”
“She loved you, too, you know.” My voice cracked with every word.
Daisy let go of a soggy laugh as she peeked up at me. “That was when she wasn’t chasing me out of your room.”
Couldn’t help but return one, mine hoarse and raw. “She never believed we were only friends.”
