by Janet Dailey
"Much better. I'm not as open - minded as Belinda," Maggie warned him.
"The thought of spending my second honeymoon in her family's boat —"
"— touched a spark to your temper?" Wade finished the sentence for her.
"Something like that," she admitted.
"It's fitting, isn't it?"
"What?"
"For us to be leaving Seattle for Alaska, the same way the prospectors did, using this place as the jumping - off point on their way to the goldfields."
"I suppose so, except we aren't going to find gold."
"No. The only gold I'm interested in is a plain hollow circle to go around your finger." Wade found her left hand carried it up to kiss her ring finger. Then he glanced at the bareness of it. "What did you do with your rings?"
"Don't ask." Maggie shook her head and tried to withdraw her hand from his hold. "It's better if you don't know."
"Why? What did you do with them?" Her answer had fully aroused his curiosity.
Maggie knew he wouldn't leave the subject alone until she answered him. "I threw them in the river."
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Chapter Nineteen
"YOU DID WHAT?" Disbelieving anger darkened his eyes.
"You threw your wedding band and your diamond ring in the river?"
"I told you it would be better if you didn't know," she reminded him of her warning.
"Why on earth would you do that?" he demanded.
"I was mad. That day you left for Alaska, you brought Mike home, but you never came in to say goodbye to me.
"The next day I was at my lunch break. There was the river and there were the rings on my fingers. I decided if you didn't think enough of me to say goodbye, I didn't think enough of you to wear your rings. So I took them off and threw them in the river."
"Oh, Maggie!"
His anger dissipated into a rueful smile. "I didn't come in to say goodbye because I knew I'd never be able to go if I did. It wasn't because I didn't want to see you. I couldn't."
"We must be the most stubborn people in the world. Neither one of us wanted to be the first to admit we'd made a mistake about the divorce."
"It's a communication problem that isn't going to happen again. I love you, Maggie. Whatever else I say, for whatever reason, always remember that," he ordered.
"Yes, sir," she agreed with mock obedience.
"You're being impertinent!"
"You'd better do something about it," she suggested. "Try a little communication."
"We're going to have a lot of communication, but first there's a problem that needs immediate attention."
"Oh? What is that?"
Maggie challenged the thought that anything could be important.
"A place to stay. I can't very well stay at Belinda's home now that I've broken the engagement."
"That is a problem," Maggie agreed. "I guess you could always move in here. You can always sleep on the couch."
"The couch, hell!" he growled against her lips.
