“It’s a stunning ring. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one with an aquamarine stone.”
“Ah, probably something we should have covered,” he said. “Just so that you know the story if anyone brings it up.”
“Okay.”
“My grandparents weren’t very well off when they were younger. My grandmother’s birthday was coming up and Gramps was determined to get her something nice. He asked to join a poker game some men were having down on the railroad where he worked.”
“Yes, you said he was a mechanic there.”
“Yes. He was way out of his league with these guys. He was an excellent poker player, but he didn’t have the kind of money they had. Still, he did okay for himself. He was winning and one of them, thinking he finally had my grandfather beat, wanted to raise his bet, but he didn’t have any money on him, so he offered up a piece of jewelry.”
“Why would a man working at a railway station have a ring like this on his person?”
“No, no. He didn’t. The man didn’t work there. He was a friend of one of the other guys who had stopped by for the game. He was a local jeweler. He backed up his bet with jewelry of my grandfather’s choice.”
“Wow. It seems like a very nice piece of jewelry to lose in a hand of poker.”
“From what Gramps said, the man lost and then lost some more. He kept trying to get back what he lost, so the price on the piece of the jewelry kept getting steeper and steeper. He had just intended to win enough money to get her something nice for her birthday, but he lucked out and got something way beyond his means.”
“But you said it was a birthday ring. How did it get to be an engagement ring?”
“Her birthday was in March, so that is why he chose the stone. There were still several weeks before her big day and, in the meantime, he got called up for the war. He was to ship out in a matter of days and afraid he wouldn’t come home. Like so many men, he wanted to make sure she was taken care of if anything happened to him while he was gone, so he used the ring to propose to her instead.”
“Obviously, she accepted.”
“Yes, she did, and by the time he came home from the war, he found he had a baby boy for each hip.”
“Ah, another of those honeymoon blessings, as they call it.”
“Yep. My father and my uncle. My grandmother had experienced some complications and was never able to have more. My uncle got sick when he was little and didn’t make it, so my father was their only child.”
“Yes, you had told me that, just not the background.”
“Well, there you go. I guess we need to get ready to go. I’ve already put the car seats in the back of the Mercedes. It’ll be a quieter ride for the girls than being in the crew cab of the truck.”
Leslie nodded and took her plate to the sink to rinse it, putting it in the dishwasher. She headed to the stairs to get the girls and was surprised when he caught up with her.
“I’ll help you. Do you need to do anything else before we go?”
“Nope. I’ve got their diaper bag packed and a cooler with the bottled milk for you. Did you put the stroller in the car?”
“Yes, it’s in the trunk.”
“That’s us set then,” she told him.
They made their way up to retrieve the babies, now up, fed and dressed by Marla. She helped them carry everything down before departing for her own day off. They were quickly on their way, Leslie doing her best to not be nervous about the day to come or the days beyond that. This was what she had come here for and it was important that she not fail, both for herself and for him.CHAPTER NINE“Tucker? Wow. This is quite the surprise!” a rotund woman with a blotchy face exclaimed as they emerged from the large parking lot beside an open pavilion. People milled around, too engaged in conversation with one another to pay any attention to their arrival, all but this woman.
“Becky. Good to see you. This is my wife, Leslie,” Tucker told her.
The woman looked surprised, glancing from him to her and then down toward the stroller.
“My God, how things have changed. We all thought you had moved off to be a hermit up on your own private little mountain and here you are with such a young, lovely wife and three babies! How old are they?”
“Almost three months old now,” he replied.
“Sweet age. I can’t even remember mine being so little anymore.”
“They are what, teenagers now?” he said.
“Try twenty, twenty-three and the oldest four are twenty-four.”
“I had no idea it had been quite that long since I’ve seen them. They grow fast, huh?” he said.