Because of the Ring

by Stella Bagwell

  Pondering her daughter’s remarks, Marsha ignored the partially prepared salad.

  “Actually, your dad was relieved you left the ring behind. He was concerned you might let your thinking about the ring sway you in the wrong direction.” Marsha waved her hand in a dismissive way. “But I told him that was silly. You were too levelheaded to let yourself fall for a total stranger. You’re just not that kind of young woman.”

  No, Claudia thought sadly, she was the dull, scientific kind. No one would dream that she might long for a man to take her into his arms and make passionate love to her. No one understood that her teaching career was only a part of what she wanted out of life. Not even her parents realized how much she longed for a husband and family of her own. Yet now that she’d fallen in love with Hayden, she couldn’t envision herself with either. Unlike Betty Fay, she couldn’t go on with her life and marry someone else.

  “Uh, Mom, is that salad finished? I’m getting hungry.”

  Marsha quickly turned back to the bowl of raw vegetables. “Sorry, honey. It will only be a few minutes. In the meantime, would you make a pitcher of iced tea? And you need to set another place at the table.”

  Surprised by this news, Claudia looked at her. “Why? Is someone else going to be eating supper with us?”

  Before Marsha could reply, a female voice sounded at the open doorway leading into the kitchen.

  “Knock. Knock.”

  Claudia turned to see Liz entering the room. A dish covered with aluminum foil was in her hands and a wide smile was on her impish face. Just the sight of her dear friend brought a sting of tears to the back of Claudia’s eyes.

  “Liz!” She rushed forward and hugged the other woman. “What are you doing here?”

  “Your mother invited me. She thought you needed a bit of cheering and you know me, I’m usually good for a laugh, if nothing else.”

  “Oh, I’m so glad you came,” Claudia exclaimed then glanced affectionately at her mother. “You kept this a secret.”

  Marsha laughed. “I know it probably amazes you, but sometimes your mother can keep her mouth shut.”

  For the next hour the three women relaxed over the simple meal and once it was over Marsha shooed the two younger women out the back door with a plate loaded with chocolate brownies. Beneath the deep shade of a willow tree, the two women took seats in cushioned lawn chairs. Claudia handed the plate of brownies to her friend, then quickly declined when Liz offered it back to her.

  Leaning over in her chair, Liz placed the plate of remaining brownies on a nearby table, then turned back to Claudia.

  “Okay, now that your mother can’t hear us I can tell you that you look like hell! And why the heck haven’t you called me? From what she told me on the phone, you’ve been back in Fort Worth for a week or more! I thought we were friends! Good friends!”

  Claudia sighed. “We are, Liz. I just haven’t been up to talking to anyone. In fact, this evening is the first time I’ve been away from the apartment since I got back.”

  Still not mollified, Liz tossed her red head, then leveled a pointed look at Claudia. “It doesn’t take a whole lot of energy to punch a few numbers,” she said accusingly. “You just didn’t want to tell me what went on down there.”

  Wearily, Claudia pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’m sure Mom called you and filled you in on what happened.”

  “She told me about William Bedford and your grandmother and how you found the letters and journals. She also told me you left the opal with Hayden.”

  “That’s true,” Claudia said stiffly. “The ring is now his.”

  Groaning, Liz leaned over and plucked another brownie from the plate. “Your grandmother must be spinning in her grave right about now.”

  Claudia scowled at her friend. “I doubt that. I think she’s probably happy that her lover’s grandson now possesses the ring.”

  “She wanted you to have the ring. She promised it would lead you to true love!”

  With a bitter snort, Claudia gazed out across the neatly clipped lawn. Her heart was splitting right down the middle and there was nothing she could do to ease the pain. If true love felt like this, she wished she’d never found it.

  “That was just a bunch of Gran’s sentimental malarkey. I don’t believe in it any more than you do.”

  Liz shook her head. “Don’t classify me as a nonbeliever. I chase after rainbows, remember. And if I recall correctly, you didn’t believe in visions, either—until you had one.” Intent on making her point, she squared around in her chair so that she was facing Claudia head-on. “How can you say for sure that the ring wouldn’t eventually lead you to your soul mate? It took you all the way to south Texas. It helped you discover the truth about your grandmother’s young life. Now you’ve given it away and—” Liz’s words came to an abrupt halt and her eyes grew wide. “Wait just a darn minute here. Maybe it did lead you to your soul mate. Maybe that’s why you look sick. You’re in love with Hayden Bedford!”

  Claudia opened her mouth to give Liz a quick, loud denial, but she was unable to get so much as a sound past her lips.

  Seeing her hunch was correct, Liz swallowed the last of her brownie, then brushed the crumbs from her fingers before she urged, “Tell me about him.”

  Dropping her head, Claudia mumbled, “There’s nothing to tell, Liz. Except that I’ve made a fool of myself. Again.”

  Suddenly contrite, Liz reached over and touched Claudia’s shoulder. “It couldn’t be that bad.”

  Closing her eyes, Claudia shook her head. “I’ve never been so miserable in my life, Liz. I wish…I should have never worn that ring again. Especially after I discovered it was causing those visions.”

  Gravely, Liz studied Claudia’s lowered head. “I guess I’m the cause of that,” she said glumly. “I dared you to hunt for the man in those visions. I suppose I was hoping you’d meet him and instantly fall in love.”

  It might not have been instant, Claudia thought, but she’d fallen. Only she’d fallen for the wrong man. A man that would never return her love.

  Her voice hollow, she said, “That would have been impossible. The man in my visions is dead.”

  Liz shivered outwardly. “How eerie to think all that time you were seeing a ghost.”

  Claudia lifted her head. “I wasn’t seeing a ghost,” she said with a frown. “William was…well, he was just the image of a man who came to me to tell me something. And eventually he did.”

  “Funny that you should picture him back in his young life when he was in love with your grandmother.”

  “He was always in love with my grandmother,” Claudia corrected her as she pushed fingers through her brown hair, then rubbed at the dull ache in her temples. “Although you are right about the fact that I envisioned him as he was during the time their affair was ongoing.”

  “What about Hayden?” Liz wanted to know. “I guess your whole story about the ring came as a shock to him.”

  Claudia laughed bitterly. “He thought I was trying to pull some sort of con. At the very least, he thought I was a nut case. I’m still not sure why he didn’t just let me leave San Antonio that first day we met. I would have been a lot better off if he had.”

  “Really?”

  Liz’s simple question caused Claudia’s brow to wrinkle with confusion. “Why yes. I wouldn’t be going through all this pain.”

  The grimace on Liz’s face said she was clearly disappointed in Claudia’s reasoning. “Maybe not. But you wouldn’t have any answers, either. And you would have missed falling in love.”

  Claudia’s features tightened. “I wish I had missed it!” she muttered, then with a tormented groan, she shook her head. “No. That’s not true. The idea of not ever knowing Hayden would be like never seeing a rainbow in the sky.”

  The agony lacing Claudia’s voice had Liz quickly reaching for her hand. Giving it a comforting squeeze, she said, “You must love him a lot.”

  Nodding, Claudia whispered, “I’ll never love anyone else
, Liz. My grandmother was right. The ring did lead me to my true love. She just didn’t know that Hayden wouldn’t love me back.”

  “Oh, Claudia. What happened?”

  Shrugging with defeat, Claudia focused on the flowering shrubs growing alongside the privacy fence that surrounded the yard. “Nothing really. I fell in love and he didn’t. It’s that simple.”

  “Nothing about a man and woman’s relationship could be that simple,” Liz argued. “There has to be more. Is he married or something?”

  “He’s divorced. His wife was unfaithful and I think he blames himself for that. Since her betrayal and the breakup of his marriage…Well, he doesn’t want a woman in his life. And before you ask, yes, he made that clear to me right from the start. My heart just didn’t listen.”

  Liz grimaced. “A woman’s heart rarely listens to logic. Besides, it’s pretty obvious to me that the two of you were meant to be together. Or William and Betty Fay went to a lot of trouble for nothing.”

  Sadly, Claudia looked over at her friend. “That’s what I thought. But Hayden doesn’t believe in love anymore. He lost both his parents in a short time span. And then his marriage ended and his wife was gone. As far as he’s concerned, nothing lasts.”

  Thoughtful now, Liz reached for another brownie. “The man is scared, Claudia. He’s afraid to love you, because he’s afraid of losing you. And who could blame him? He probably feels like he isn’t supposed to have a family.”

  “I know that, Liz. But knowing it doesn’t help me get over the man! It doesn’t help this ache inside me.”

  Liz bit off a huge hunk of brownie and chewed. “Get over the man! What are you talking about? You’re not supposed to get over him. You’ve got to go back down there and make him see reason!”

  Claudia jerked upright and scooted to the edge of the lawn chair. “Oh, no! No way am I going back to San Antonio. Not to see Hayden. Walking away from him at the airport was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I won’t put myself through that sort of agony again.”

  “You’re in misery now. What would be the difference?” Liz wanted to know.

  “At least here he can’t humiliate me.”

  “He can’t love you, either.”

  Groaning with frustration, Claudia rose to her feet and began to pace back and forth. “I’ve been back in Fort Worth for over a week now. I haven’t heard a word from him. And I’m quite certain I won’t.”

  “Then you’d better decide right now whether this man means enough to you to make you swallow your pride and head south again.”

  Claudia stared at her friend. “Liz, it isn’t a matter of pride! I’m not a femme fatale, like you. I’m a practical science teacher. I don’t know the first thing about how to make a man fall for me!”

  Leaving her seat, Liz walked over to where Claudia stood and laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “You’re out of your mind if you think I’m a femme fatale, Claudia. When it comes to love and men, I’m just as scared and lost as you are.”

  Surprised by Liz’s comment, she studied her friend’s face. “But you’ve been married, Liz. You’re beautiful and confident. Men are always asking you for dates.”

  She smiled ruefully. “I can fake being beautiful and confident. But in truth, my marriage ended, so that goes to show you how much of a femme fatale I am. And just because I’m asked out on dates doesn’t mean I’m going to find love—the right love.” She squeezed Claudia’s shoulder. “Believe me, Claudia, it’s a precious commodity. Some people search for a lifetime and never find it. That’s why…well, what I’m trying to say is if you really love this guy, then you ought to at least give it one more try.”

  Could she? Claudia wondered. Leaving Hayden once had been bad enough. If she had to do it a second time, it might kill every hope, every longing, she’d ever had for a husband and family.

  “I’ll think about it, Liz,” she finally promised.

  Smiling, Liz gave her shoulder a little shake. “Don’t think about it too long. You need to strike while the iron is hot.”

  At the same time on a dusty rig site two hundred miles west of San Antonio, Hayden lifted the ringing cell phone from the dashboard of his pickup.

  “Hayden, here.”

  “It’s Lottie, Mr. Bedford. I was just checking to see if Vince had gotten there yet with the crew.”

  “Not yet. The last I heard he was about thirty minutes away.” Normally, Hayden didn’t make firsthand visits to rig sites that his crews were excavating and building for a drilling company. Most always he left that up to Vince, his right-hand man. But this particular site was going to be built on difficult terrain and the job was going to be costly, not to mention problematic. Hayden wanted to be here to get everything tapped off right from the very beginning.

  “Good,” she said, then quickly asked, “What are you doing?”

  Hayden rolled his eyes. Lottie was irreplaceable, but sometimes she could be too much like a mother. “I’m sitting here in this damn truck burning up, that’s what! And by the way, what are you doing on the phone? It’s nearly seven-thirty, you’re not supposed to be at the office at this late hour.”

  “I’m not at the office. I’m at home. And I called because I happened to be worried about you. This morning when you left, you just weren’t yourself.”

  Hayden hadn’t been himself for days. Not since he’d left Claudia at the airport. It surprised him that Lottie was just now noticing. Maybe he’d been doing a better job of hiding his feelings than he’d thought.

  “There’s nothing wrong, other than the fact that I need about five more new hands. Good ones that I can trust.”

  “I put several résumés on your desk this afternoon. Maybe some of them will be fruitful.”

  He drummed his fingers against the steering wheel and peered toward the red-gold haze of sunlight dropping rapidly toward the western horizon. If he was lucky, he’d get home before two in the morning. “I’ll go over them tomorrow.”

  Lottie let out a gasp of surprise. “You’re not staying out there tonight?”

  “There’s no place to stay, Lottie. Unless I drive up to San Angelo, and that’s out of the way. Besides, I have things back at the office I need to get to first thing in the morning.”

  “Don’t you think you’ll be needing a little sleep? It’s not like you’re going to be able to drive back home in an hour.”

  “More like three or four,” Hayden said as he wiped sweat from his forehead with the back of his sleeve, then wearily pinched the bridge of his nose.

  The few days he’d spent with Claudia had shown him a different side of life. Work, money, the company was not his sole purpose for living. At least, it shouldn’t be. Yet somehow he’d let Bedford Roustabout take him over. Especially after his parents had died and Saundra had moved out. Once his family was gone, he’d not had anything to fill his life, except Bedford Roustabout. Now a part of him wished he’d listened to Lottie years ago and hired someone to help him carry his late father’s workload, rather than try to do it all himself.

  “I always thought you were trying to kill yourself,” she said in a disgruntled voice. “Now I’m sure of it. When are you going to open your eyes and realize you can’t run this company by yourself?”

  Wondering if the older woman could see inside his head, he said wearily, “I don’t know, Lottie. And I’m not in any mood to discuss it now.”

  “You’re never in any mood for anything,” she snapped at him. “I’m just wondering how long it’s going to take before you’ll admit what’s wrong with you!”

  He pulled the phone from his ear and stared at it. Lottie had never been afraid to mince words with him. She was like family and she knew it. Still, she’d never spoken to him in quite this tone before.

  “Is there something wrong with me?” he asked blandly.

  She cursed in his ear. “Ms. Westfield is your problem! Furthermore, you know it. What I’d like to know is when you’re going to do something about it?”

&nbs
p; He closed his eyes as Claudia’s image washed through him. It hurt to think of her, yet her memory never left him for more than a few moments at a time. “After what Saundra put me through, you can ask that? Damn it, Lottie, what do you think I am, one of those people who thrive on pain?”

  To his amazement, she cursed again and this time the word she used turned his ears red. “Just because you got yourself tangled up with the wrong woman once, doesn’t mean you have to live the rest of your life as a monk.”

  “For your information I haven’t been living as a monk,” he practically snarled.

  Lottie snorted. “You can’t lie to me any better than you could lie to your own mother. I haven’t worn blinders for the past three years, Mr. Bedford. You’ve been going around with ice water in your veins. Marilyn Monroe could have walked into your office and you wouldn’t have so much as perked an ear in her direction. But Ms. Westfield comes in and—”

  “Forget about Claudia,” he interrupted. “She’s gone back home and there’s nothing I can do about it! But there is something I can do about you if you don’t quit sticking your nose in my personal life. And that’s fire you!”

  Lottie dismissed his threat with a loud laugh. “What personal life? You don’t have any.”

  The quick retort that came to Hayden’s tongue stayed there as he heard the click of the receiver on the other end of the line.

  Damn it, she’d hung up on him. His own secretary! He wasn’t going to let her get by with such disrespect. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to let her accuse him of being a half-dead man with ice water in his veins!

  Quickly, before his ire cooled, he punched in Lottie’s home telephone number. The moment she answered, he barked, “Lottie! What are you trying to do to me?”

  The older woman sighed. “Believe it or not, Mr. Bedford, I’m trying to help you. And I think it’s time I let you in on something.”

  Lottie’s tone of voice put Hayden on instant alert. “What are you talking about?”