“Hayden,” she gently interrupted, “I’d bet my bottom dollar that there’s plenty of schools in San Antonio that could use a science teacher. And as for children—” She paused as her cheeks tinged pink and a soft smile tilted her lips. “I’m hoping we’ll eventually have a few of our own for me to take care of.”
Overwhelmed with emotion, Hayden buried his face in the curve of her neck. “Oh, Claudia, I thought it was meant for me to never have a family. Thank God you came along with that ring of yours and turned my thinking upside down.”
“Hmm. And to think I wanted to throw it away,” she said with a soft laugh.
Easing away from her, he dug once again into the front pocket of his jeans. Holding up the opal, he said, “Speaking of rings, I haven’t had a chance to get you an engagement ring yet. Will this one do for right now?”
The sight of the ring and all it stood for caused a wave of emotion to tighten her throat and to turn her voice husky. “I can’t imagine a more perfect one.”
Gently he lifted her left hand and slipped it onto her finger. “Do you think it will cause you to start seeing my grandfather’s face again?”
Shaking her head, she raised up on tiptoe to press a kiss to his cheek. “I somehow believe that William and Betty Fay know they’ve accomplished what they set out to do. And that was to bring us together. Now they’re going to leave it up to us to finish the rest of the job.”
The look he slanted her was both amused and curious. “‘Job’?”
She tilted her face up to his. “Yes, my darling. To love each other for the rest of our lives.”
“Hmm. That won’t be a job,” he whispered against her lips. “It’ll be a pleasure.”
Epilogue
The late evening shadows of the spreading oaks made a cool canopy over Claudia and Hayden as they strolled hand in hand behind the house that had been their home since their marriage nearly fifty years ago.
Across the groomed yard, family and friends filled the screened-in back porch and spilled over to the shaded patio. Laughter and bursts of animated conversations punctuated the warm summer air.
“I think Gayla has enjoyed her birthday party, don’t you?” Hayden asked his wife. “She seemed totally surprised when she walked in and saw all the decorations and guests and gifts.”
Claudia laughed softly. “Our granddaughter thought she was coming over here to give the dogs a bath. It’s a good thing her mother and I had thought to have something a little nicer than a pair of jeans and T-shirt to change into. Otherwise she might not have ever forgiven us. Especially when there’s several male friends of hers here tonight.”
Hayden slipped his arm around the back of his wife’s waist. “Speaking of male friends, when are you going to give Gayla the ring?”
Claudia glanced over her shoulder to the group of young people gathered around the barbecue grill. “I’ve told her mother to send her out here to us so we’d have more privacy. Hopefully she’ll be along in a few minutes.”
“I don’t think our son much likes the idea of his daughter getting the opal. He’s not ready to lose her to a husband yet,” Hayden said with a bit of fond amusement. “But I told Will to look at his parents’ long and happy marriage and that ought to be enough to make him feel good about Gayla wearing the opal.”
Smiling with a love that had only grown deeper with time, Claudia lifted her face up to her husband’s. Although time had lined his face and grayed his once dark hair, he was still as handsome to her as the day they’d repeated their marriage vows. “The years have passed by so swiftly, my darling. It seems like only yesterday that I walked into your office and saw you for the very first time. I was shocked.”
He chuckled at the memory. “I was shocked, too. Especially when I kissed you. I thought a firecracker had gone off in my hands.” Halting their slow walk, he pulled her into his arms. “And you still do that to me, honey. You know that, don’t you?”
To make sure she got the message, he bent his head and placed a lengthy kiss on her lips.
Behind them, a young woman discreetly cleared her throat. “Am I interrupting something here?”
Claudia and Hayden both turned to greet their granddaughter, but not before they’d exchanged a look that said they’d take the kiss up again once all their guests departed.
“Not at all,” Hayden assured her.
“Mom says you wanted to see me.”
Gayla’s dark hair and blue eyes resembled her grandfather’s while her soft features favored Claudia. And in her, the couple saw themselves as they had been fifty years ago when the opal had first brought them together.
“That’s right,” Claudia told her. “We have something to give you.”
Hayden pulled the velvet box from the pocket of his shirt and handed it his granddaughter.
“And we’ve been waiting for twenty-one years for this moment,” Hayden added.
She giggled. “Well, I can’t imagine why you had to wait so long. I’ve had twenty other birthdays besides this one.” Gayla flipped open the box, then stared in surprise at the opal ring gazing up at her. “Oh, a ring.”
Claudia and Hayden moved closer as they both carefully watched their granddaughter’s reaction.
“It’s not just a ring, Gayla,” Claudia told her, repeating the same words she’d heard from Betty Fay so many years ago. “It’s a special ring.”
Gayla looked up at her grandparents as though she was worried about approaching dementia. “What do you mean by ‘special’? It looks old to me.”
“It is old,” Hayden told her. “Your great-great-grandfather got it over in Europe from an old Gypsy woman back during World War II. The ring is blessed and has absorbed the power of everlasting love.”
“And when you wear it, the ring will lead you to your one true love,” Claudia added.
Unconvinced, but clearly pleased with the ring itself, Gayla slipped the opal onto her finger, then held her hand up to admire the stone. “How could you know such a thing, Gran? The whole thing sounds like a farout story to me.”
Laughing, Claudia looked up at her beloved husband. “That’s the same thing your grandfather said to me fifty years ago. But now we believe in stories and in rainbows. And in love.”
ISBN: 978-1-4603-5334-9
BECAUSE OF THE RING
Copyright © 2002 by Stella Bagwell
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*Heartland Holidays
†Twins on the Doorstep
Because of the Ring Page 16