Noble kept himself from shrugging his shoulders, mostly because he had a feeling that if he shrugged at her now she might start swinging at him. "I wanted to be honest for once," he admitted, as if he had been fully honest when he wrote her. Full honesty would have meant signing the letter — full honestly would have meant voicing the because I still love you that was threatening to bubble up through his throat.

"I'm sorry. I truly didn't think it mattered," he added. Why would it matter to her, what he thought? They hadn't been together in years.