The One That Got Away by Kelly Hunter Page A

on.’
    ‘Absolutely not,’ said Max with a shudder. ‘I’m over marriage
for the time being. I might try being in love with the person next time. Just a
thought.’
    ‘How are we going to get the money for the civic centre
bid?’
    ‘Overdraft for some of it,’ said Max. ‘I’ll put my place on the
market.’
    ‘I’ll put mine on,’ Evie said with a sigh. ‘We’re still going
to come up short.’
    ‘Business loan,’ said Max bleakly. ‘Here, before I forget.’ He
fished in his pocket and pulled out something small and round and
silver-coloured, those bits of it that weren’t a dazzling, glittering blue. It
was a sapphire ring the size of Texas. Evie didn’t understand. ‘My mother wants
you to have this as a memento of our engagement. Something about payment for
your trouble.’ He held it out towards her.
    ‘No.’ Evie took a hasty step back. ‘Whatever your mother’s
opinions are, just...no. I’m all for forgetting we were ever engaged.’
    ‘I told her you’d say that.’ Max reached for her right hand and
slipped it swiftly on her middle finger. Not her ring finger, not even the
proper hand. ‘She seems to think I owe you a ring. That we were engaged, however
briefly, and that you deserve some kind of compensation. Wear it. Flog it. I
don’t care. Just take it. I’m a man in search of family harmony and my mother
wants you to have it.’
    ‘I don’t want it,’ muttered Evie, tugging the ring off just as
swiftly as it had gone on. It was too bulky anyway. Too much the reminder of bad
decisions too hastily made. ‘Please, Max. Just give it back to her. Tell her I
don’t want it.’
    But Max’s attention had drifted to a point just over her
shoulder, his eyes narrowing fast, and Evie knew, even before she looked over
her shoulder, that Logan was heading their way. ‘Take it,’ she said, trying to
push the ring into Max’s hand, only he wasn’t having it, and then Logan was upon
them and Max automatically moved to make room for him.
    ‘Change of heart?’ murmured Logan, looking at the ring, and
shock flared deep in his eyes; right before those same eyes turned bitter and
then carefully blank.
    ‘This isn’t what it looks like.’ Max’s words came low and fast.
‘It’s not an engagement ring. We’re not engaged. The wedding’s off and it’s
staying off. You know that.’
    ‘Where’d you get the ring?’ asked Logan, and didn’t wait for
Max’s answer. ‘She give it to you? Our mother? She tell you to give it to
Evangeline?’
    ‘Yes.’ Max looked uneasy. Evie was uneasy.
    ‘Take it,’ said Evie urgently. ‘I don’t want it. Would someone
please just take it back?’
    But Logan wanted no part of it. He knew that stone, the
ocean-reef-blue of it. He’d seen it before. He looked towards the small crowd of
people in the adjoining room. Those who hadn’t drifted out onto the patio or
into the gardens and his mother was one of them. What was she doing? What the
hell was she thinking giving Evie this particular ring? She had that look about
her; the one that said I’m worried about you and I’m scared of what you’ll do
and he wished to hell she’d just stop looking at him like
that! Look to her own flaws, for once, and not only to his.
    ‘Logan?’ said Evie, and put her hand to his forearm to draw his
attention, and something twisted deep in his gut. ‘Logan, what’s wrong?’
    ‘Nothing.’
    ‘Bull,’ she snapped, calling his bluff. ‘You’re hurt.’
    ‘No. It’s her ring. What do I care what she does with it?’
    ‘Logan, who gave your mother this
ring?’ Evie asked tightly.
    But Logan refused to answer her.
    ‘It’s the one your father gave her, isn’t it?’ said Evie.
    ‘No,’ said Max.
    ‘Doesn’t matter.’ He wouldn’t let it matter.
    ‘Logan, this can’t be that ring,’
continued Max doggedly. ‘She wouldn’t do that.’
    But she had.
    Max wouldn’t recognise it; she’d never worn it in front of him.
Different lifetime.