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could have a wedding.
    His mother was shopping, so it was just him and his father at home. Shane stuffed the money in his wallet and shoved his wallet in the pocket of his jeans. Then he tore down the stairs, jumped in his car, and drove to the mall. They always had deals on rings at the mall, didn’t they? He knew her ring size, because a few months before she got pregnant they were seeing a movie at the mall and before the show started they stopped in at a jewelry store. It was all pretend and silliness, but he remembered her size. Six. The lady had said Lauren had beautiful, slender fingers. He parked and ran inside. The first jewelry store he saw, he walked straight in and up to the sales clerk.
    “I need a ring.” He was out of breath. The money felt like a million dollars in his pocket.
    “Very well.” The woman was older, with soft wrinkles across her cheeks and forehead. “Is this a promise ring, young man?”
    He was about to tell her no, that this was an engagement ring. But before the words would come, he realized how they would sound. Ridiculous, that’s how. He was just seventeen, and most people told him his baby face made him look younger than that. He met the woman’s eyes. “Uh, yes. Yeah. A promise ring.” He managed a nervous smile. “Anything like that?”
    The woman stood and led him to a section in the glass cabinet with smaller rings. Some of them had white little stones on them, and others had pink or blue. A few had what looked like diamonds. He lifted his eyes to the woman. “I want something real.”
    “Okay.” She smiled again. “A diamond, then?”
    “Yes.” Definitely a diamond. He’d loved Lauren Anderson since he was in fourth grade. She made him feel things he’d never felt before. She was fun and witty and his best friend of all. Nothing less than a diamond.
    “Very well, have you thought of what size stone?” She folded her hands and tilted her head to the side. “Diamonds come in many sizes. Full carat, half, quarter, and so on.”
    Shane’s eyes lit up. “Let’s try the full carat.” His mother had something like that. A full carat would make a nice ring for Lauren.
    “All righty then.” She opened the case from behind and pulled out a velvet pad with eight rings stuck into separate sections. Each one glistened and shot colors across the glass counter. “They start at fifteen hundred dollars.”
    He felt suddenly ill. The smell of mall popcorn and cinnamon buns filled the air, making him queasy. He looked at the woman and gave a tight shake of his head. “Not that big.” His shoulders fell a little. “I have three hundred and eighty dollars.”
    “Well.” The woman returned the tray of brilliant rings back to the counter. “We have something in that range. It’ll be a circle of maybe some crusted diamond chips. Something totaling about a quarter carat.”
    The rings she brought out this time were much smaller, without the shimmer. He tried not to frown at them, but he couldn’t help it. “Hmm.” Then he had an idea. Excitement rang out in his voice in a way he couldn’t stop. “Can you engrave them?”
    “Definitely.” It’ll be an extra twenty dollars.” She looked over her shoulder at an older man sitting behind a glass partition. “You’re in luck. My husband does all the engraving. He can get it done in a few minutes, if you have time to wait.”
    “Perfect.” His palms were sweaty. He rubbed them on his jeans. “I’ll wait right here.”
    She helped him pick out a size six ring that would work with his budget, even with the cost of engraving. The ring was small. The diamonds made a crusty little heart at the center and the band was white gold. But it was pretty, and it would serve the purpose.
    While he waited he thought of the talks he’d heard at youth group since he and Lauren had slept together. Just the day before there’d been one. Lauren wasn’t there — her parents didn’t let her go anymore. But the message hit him