Page 62 of Only Be Mine

The ring warmed beneath my skin, and for one disorienting second, I could smell him.

Cedar and clean cotton.

Not sharp. Not overpowering. Just steady. Familiar. Like coming home without realizing you’d been lost.

I want to keep choosing you. Every day. Even when it’s hard.

I smiled and pulled my hand back, curling my fingers into my palm. “I couldn’t get rid of it.” My throat tightened as I swallowed past the ache. “It felt like erasing him.”

A crease formed between her brows. “What does Trevor say about you wearing John’s ring around your neck?”

I shook my head. “He doesn’t know.” I hesitated, then added, “I think he’d understand. I just… don’t want to explain it.”

“But,” Amy said carefully, “he’s your fiancé. You shouldn’t be keeping secrets from him.”

I leaned back and huffed out a breath. “Seriously? You mean to tell me you’ve never kept anything from Jim?”

She opened her mouth, then closed it.

“Exactly,” I said gently. “It’s not like Trevor has anything to worry about. I think it’s pretty clear John’s not coming back.”

The words tasted wrong the moment I said them.

I twisted the ring around my finger, a nervous habit I’d never quite broken. With the wedding so close, memories kept surfacing uninvited - soft, insistent, impossible to shut out.

I loved Trevor.

But loving him had never erased the fact that I loved John too.

“Do you remember when I told you about us?” I asked quietly.

Amy nodded. “How could I forget? I’ve never seen Trevor so happy.”

“I meant John.”

Her expression shifted, subtle, but immediate.

I closed my fingers around the ring again, the metal pressing into my skin like a reminder. “He said we had time,” I murmured. “All the time we needed.”

The silence between us stretched.

Amy’s voice was gentle when she finally spoke. “Cate…”

“He believed it,” I said, staring down at my hand. “That there was no rush. No expiration date. That love didn’t have to be hurried or proven or protected from the clock.”

I swallowed hard.

“And maybe that’s why I still don’t know how to accept that he’s just… gone.”

Amy didn’t argue this time.

She just reached for my hand again and held it.

Chapter 21

Cate

November 1 - Eleven Years Ago