The Sapphire Pendant (44 page)

He looked handsome in a gray shirt and black trousers. He appeared so carefree and dashing; Jessie wondered if she had dreamed last night. “Hello ladies.”

“Oh, hello Kenneth,” Deborah cooed. “Your fiancée was just talking about you.”

He glanced at Jessie. “All good things I hope.”

“The best of course,” Deborah said. She abruptly stood. “I’ll see you around.” She grabbed the bill then left with Tracy trailing behind.

Kenneth slid in next to Jessie. “What did she say?”

“The usual.”

He rested his arm behind her head. “Want to tell me about it?”

A jewelry maker and pseudo-socialite? She blinked back tears of anger. “I don’t know why I allow her to get to me.”

He gently massaged the back of her neck, sensing her controlled fury. “What happened?”

“I told her that the engagement was a fake and that you’d only said it so I’d sleep with you. She found that harder to believe than a real engagement.”

“So what?” He pulled her fingers from her mouth. “Stop biting your nails. If you need something to nibble on, you can nibble on me or some food.”

She pushed Deborah from her mind. “Your ear looks very tasty, but I’d prefer to look at the menu.” She kissed his cheek. “I’ll have you for an afternoon snack.”

His arm fell to her waist. He brought her close. “You shouldn’t tease a man when he’s hungry.” He kissed behind her ear.

“Kenneth stop,” she demanded when he began kissing her neck. “They could kick us out of here for lascivious behavior.”

He grinned. “You call this lascivious behavior? I hear the ghost of your mother’s upbringing. Let me show you lascivious behavior.” His hand inched its way up her blouse.

She pinched his arm, hard.

He jerked away. “Ow!”

“I think you need to move your seat until you learn how to keep your hands to yourself.”

He playfully pouted and took the seat in front of her. “I suppose the lesson can wait.”

“Yes. Right now I’m starving.” She stared pointedly at the menu not seeing a thing. She couldn’t believe she was here with him. In this fancy restaurant, flirting with him as if they’d been lovers all their lives and that last night he had…Heat rushed to her face at the memory. No it couldn’t have been real.
 

“Jasmine.”

She glanced up from her menu to see him watching her from the top of his, his brown eyes bright with amusement.

“Yes?”

“It was real.” He winked then disappeared behind his menu.

Chapter 26

Days of bliss followed nights of pleasure. Sensing the new tender feelings between them, Syrah and Freda were often absent. This morning was no different. Kenneth watched Jessie prepare her tea. It had become routine for her to wake early and sit with him before he left for work. She was not a morning person, but sat with him anyway while her dark eyes clung to sleep, and her soft mouth in a pout like a toddler woken too soon. Kenneth didn’t care. He treasured these moments, the early sunlight crawling through the windows, splashing across the red-brown on the table and the bright chirping of birds.
 

“Jasmine, will you marry me?”

She burnt her tongue on her tea and swore. She put the cup down and stared at him incredulous. “Did you just ask me to marry you?”

He nodded.

She began to laugh until she realized he was serious. “You want to marry me for real?”

He nodded again.

Jessie waited for the rush of overwhelming joy. The man she loved, the man she’d once placed all her hopes and dreams on, wanted to marry her. Wanted her to be his wife. In place of the expected joy was fear. A fear she couldn’t quite name. She looked at him knowing he was waiting for an answer.

“Do you want children?”

He hesitated. She saw a longing that he quickly hid. He wanted to be a Dad, but feared his past prevented it. “You don’t think that’s fair?” he asked.

“I do think you should have kids, but what if they end up looking like me?” She stopped, recognizing how absurd the statement sounded.

His jaw twitched. “If you don’t want to marry me just say so, but don’t start thinking up ridiculous excuses.”

She flashed a sly grin. “Well, you have to think about it. Would you really want a little me running around the house?”

He didn’t smile. “Yeah.”

“Hmm.” She bit her lip. Why did she feel this doubt? With him she felt beautiful and powerful and courageous. She glanced down at the ring on her finger. She had the chance to make the meaning of this symbol real. But could she be his wife, the mother of his children? What if she failed to be what he needed? She looked up at him and noticed he was too still. She kicked him. “Breathe.”

“I’m waiting for an answer,” he said in a tight voice.

Jessie chewed her bottom lip. “Oh.”

“Does that mean yes?”

She saw a woodpecker whiz past their window. She smiled. “Do bras fly?”

He nodded slowly then stood. “Okay, I’ll see you when I get home.” He walked to the door then halted. He spun around and Jessie nearly laughed at the expression on his face. “Did you just say yes?”

She nodded.

He came to her and rested his hands on the table. “Say it.”

“Say what?”

“Yes.”

She grinned.
 

He waited.

“Yes, I will marry you. Yes, I will have children with you.” She stood and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Yes. Yes. Yes.”

Thank you
. Kenneth held her close. He didn’t realize he hadn’t said the words aloud. He closed his eyes and held her close. Praying. Pleading. Hoping he could keep this happiness, that nothing would take this joy away from him, he was close to living the path reserved for other men. He brushed his lips against her forehead. How he loved her and she was going to belong to him. Be his to claim. He was redeemed. She would not blame him for his secrets, did not despise him his cowardice. She would carry his name and share his life when he’d thought he’d always be alone.

Jessie bit her lip to keep from giggling. She wanted to laugh, cry, scream, dance. Joy was finally breaking through, brushing away all doubts, all fears. It mingled with the love she felt for the man in her arms. She was strong, she was brave, she was beautiful, she was his and he was hers.

He drew away and looked at her. “Are you crying?”

Her chin trembled. “I’m trying not to laugh.”

“You think this is funny?”

“I think it’s hilarious. I mean you and me, married?”

He grinned. “I know how you feel.”

Freda walked into the room as they stared at each other like kids up to mischief. “What are you two up to?”

“Jasmine’s going to marry me.”

“The whole county knows you’re engaged. Are you just finding that out?”

Kenneth and Jessie looked at each other and laughed.

* * *

Leticia ignored the filet in front of her, her fingers stroking a wineglass. It always amazed her how even candlelight could not soften the blow of disappointment. Kenneth had barely spoken, that wasn’t unusual, but the sadness was gone. There was a happiness in him that kept her mesmerized, as if a filter had been removed and she now saw a clear image of him, and at that moment she realized why she didn’t want to lose him.

“Is this goodbye?” she asked casually.

He glanced up surprised then chagrined, but his joy quickly replaced the expression. “I’m going to be married.”

She tightened her hold on the glass. “Congratulations.”

“I had to see you and say goodbye and thank you.”

She frowned. “Thank me?”

“This.” He gestured to the room then his gaze fell on her. “And you allowed me to dream when I thought I had nothing.”

She felt her throat constrict and shrugged his compliment aside. “You paid for it.”

He covered her hand. “I know what we had meant nothing to you, and would be considered immoral and crude to the world, but you were one of the few things that kept me from feeling numb.” He dug in his coat pocket and pulled out an envelope. He pushed it across the table. “I want you to take this. Put it towards your retirement. May you find your way to Rome.”

Leticia had never been speechless—she had a hustler’s affinity with words—but for once her mind was blank, filled with something much more: compassion. She knew all her love could not have healed his wounds the way this nameless woman had. He deserved his joy.

He stood and kissed her cheeks. One kiss causing heartache, one giving hope. Then he walked out of her life as simply as he had walked in all those years ago. She ran her hand over the red tablecloth, her mind setting itself. She would not be selfish this time. She wouldn’t threaten to tell anyone. She would let him go.
 

She called Jack. “I want you to forget all that you uncovered on Kenneth Preston.”

He laughed an ugly, dirty sound. “Sorry, babe, but what I found out about him is too good to forget.”

“I’ve got money, if that’s what you want.”

“Wait a minute, what’s going on? You getting soft on me in your old age? Blackmailing clients has always been our claim to fame, baby. It’s the way we do things. You know that.”

“He’s different.”

“Yes, bigger game.”

“I’m warning you, Jack.”

His tone hardened. “I suggest you don’t, Leticia. You might get hurt.” He hung up.

Leticia gripped the phone, feeling bile rise up her throat. She ran to the toilet, losing her meal. Her life had caught up with her. She had finally found one man who had truly cared for her and she had created a plan that was about to destroy him.

* * *

Kenneth stretched out on the bed and smiled at Jasmine as she stared at the chess board. He had never realized how dark and masculine his bedroom furniture was until Jasmine came into it. Draped in her platinum nightdress, she added a softness the room had never seen, and the sweet smell of her lotion clung to the sheets and drifted towards him while a standing lamp they’d bought kept the evening darkness at bay. “Why don’t you just move a piece so I can beat you?” he said.

“Be quiet.”

He yawned.

She frowned at him. “I’m not taking that long.”

He glanced at his watch. “I suppose a half hour is adequate time.”

“It has not been that long.” She studied the board then made a move.

He quickly beat her—again.

“You play with your emotions,” he said.
 

He went on to describe how she could win, she vaguely heard him. Chess had never been her game, but she played because he enjoyed it so much. She was happy, yet something was missing. Somehow the Sapphire Pendant still called to her, especially in quiet moments like this. Not with warning shouts or bells, but as a whisper—a calm plea. She could not deny the fact that she still wanted it, not with the desperation that had driven her in the past, but with a deep desire that was unexplainable. She pushed the thought aside and set the pieces back in place. He took her arm and slid something on her wrist. She looked down and saw a bracelet of glass beads. “Kenneth, you must stop giving me gifts.” He’d made it almost a habit to surprise her: a basket of chocolate chips, earrings, perfume. Something about it worried her, as if he were constantly trying to please her.
 

“I like to give you gifts.”

“And I like getting them but—”

He pressed a finger against her lips. “Do me a favor?”

“What?”

He held her hand. “Do a reading for me.”

“It’s late.”

“It’s not that late and you have the stones here. Please.”

She hesitated.

“Are you afraid of what you might read?”

Jessie chewed her bottom lip. It was silly to be this apprehensive. What harm could there be in a simple reading? She nodded. “Okay, I’ll do it.”

A few moments later they sat facing each other with a black velvet cloth on the table and the nine stones Kenneth had selected. Jessie stared at them. She didn’t like what she saw. She knew stones were only a vehicle for her intuition, but the sight of the nine stones—from the rich red of a jasper stone to the tiger’s eye—filled her with dread. She didn’t like the shapes he had chosen or the way he had positioned them.

“What do you see?” he asked in a whisper.

She saw devastating betrayal, hurt, anger and aloneness, which could either mean freedom or isolation, she didn’t know. She regretted playing this game.

“Well?”

She began to bite her nails then stopped herself. He looked so eager and happy, how could she douse that joy when he had struggled to gain it for so long? “I see many changes in your life,” she said vaguely. “You’re going to have to make a lot of decisions. It will be difficult, at first, but you’ll succeed at the end.”

He nodded satisfied. “Good that means the August meeting should go well. Do you see anything else? Anything specific?”

She swallowed. “Someone close will betray you.”

A tense silence filled the room. Kenneth broke it by letting out a deep breath. “Well, that’s good to know. Don’t look like that, Jasmine. I know how to look out for myself.” He pushed his chair from the table then patted his lap. “Come here.”