I miss her so much already. I can’t believe she’s gone. I’ll never forgive myself for letting this happen to her.
“Okay, I’ve got one.” Jack pokes at the fire with a stick. “My favorite memory of Lindsay is the day I first met her. I was carrying this care package from my mom up to my room, and I saw this really beautiful girl on the stairs, and I got so flustered, I dropped the whole thing and the box opened up. There were brownies everywhere!” He grins. “But the best part is that Lindsay and I ate the brownies off the stairs.”
“Ew!” I laugh.
“That’s all right.” Jack pats his gut. “I’ve got a strong stomach.” He squeezes Michelle. “How about you?”
Michelle frowns. “What?”
“What’s your favorite Lindsay memory?” he says.
“Oh.” She shrugs. “I didn’t know Lindsay very well.”
“Yes, but you must remember something about her…”
Michelle grits her teeth. She does not want to participate in this game. Truth be told, I don’t think Michelle liked Lindsay any better than she liked me. And Lindsay didn’t think much of Michelle. She’s so cold—like she doesn’t have any real emotions, Lindsay used to say.
“She had nice hair,” Michelle finally says.
I shoot her a dirty look. Of course, if Lindsay is somewhere up there listening in, I don’t think she would be unhappy with that memory. She would want to be remembered as having nice hair.
“I’ve got one,” Noah speaks up.
His hazel eyes are staring into the fire, and there’s a ghost of a smile on his lips. It makes me realize how infrequently I see Noah smile these days.
“So when I decided to propose to Claire,” he says, “I asked for Lindsay’s help picking out a ring…”
I raise my eyebrows. “You did? I never knew that.”
He smiles crookedly. “Yeah, and you’re lucky I did. You don’t know what ring I would’ve picked out on my own.” He shrugs. “Anyway, she helped me pick out the ring, and she even bargained for a better price. I mean, it was this fancy jewelry store and somehow she was haggling with them. But it worked. I never would have gotten such a great ring without her.”
“It was a really nice ring,” I say softly. I never wear my engagement ring because it’s too nice. I’m afraid I’m going to lose it or get mugged or something.
His eyes are distant. “And she made me review what I was going to do when I proposed. She insisted I had to get down on one knee, even though I thought it was cheesy. She was like, ‘Noah, the one knee is not optional.’”
I find a smile touching my own lips. “I did love your proposal.”
“Yeah, well…” His eyes drop back down to his sneakers. “I really, really wanted you to say yes.”
There was no way I wasn’t going to say yes to Noah. We had graduated a couple of years earlier, and we were already living together. Even though we had been together since college, I was still so infatuated with him. He could’ve proposed to me with an onion ring and I would have said yes. But I loved that he got down on one knee in the middle of a nice restaurant and presented me with the most beautiful ring I had ever seen in my life.
“How about you, Warner?” Jack says.
Warner frowns. “I don’t know. I don’t have a favorite memory.”
“You don’t have any memories of Lindsay?” I say. That probably came out a bit more confrontational than I meant it to. “None at all?”
“Not really. Nothing that stands out.”
Something about this man is really starting to irritate me. “But you were dating for six months. How could you not have any memories of her?”
“I have memories of her,” Warner says patiently. “I just don’t think any of them are worth mentioning.”
I fold my arms across my chest. “She told me you were going to propose this week.”
His mouth falls open. “She told you that?”
“She certainly did.”
A smirk plays on his lips. “Well, I’m afraid she would have been very disappointed.”
I blink at him. “She told me you hinted you were looking at rings.”
“Yeah, well.” Warner kicks at the dirt with the heel of his shoe. “Lindsay had a very vivid imagination, as I’m sure you know.”
I want to jump off the ground and strangle Warner with my bare hands. My hands ball into fists, but before I can do anything stupid, I feel Noah’s palm on my leg. I look over at him and he shakes his head.