Starlight for No One

Owen Hale carefully deveins a shrimp at dinner and sets it aside, not for the woman across from him but because Lina Ward is back. Skye Hart has spent years being told she is rough and careless, the kind of partner who does not need peeled grapes or a thermos of warm brown sugar water. When Owen leaves to meet Lina at the airport, carrying a container of braised shrimp and a list of foods she cannot eat, Skye quietly removes her engagement ring.

Owen is a jewelry designer who spent weeks cutting his fingers to craft a bracelet for Lina, yet chose Skye's ring by asking only which style sold best. He never notices her tears, never reports where he sleeps, never wonders why she is upset. Lina returns smiling, wearing the same scent as Owen, and calls Skye the strong one who once saved him from a filthy alley.

Skye sends a wedding ring design to an unfamiliar number and waits for an answer, while the broken-glass wind chime Lina made years ago finally goes into the trash.