CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: I Never Could Say No to You
Facing Vanessa again after that day in the hospital was the hardest thing Blair had ever had to do. He didn’t call her until he’d spent two weeks in a rehabilitation clinic and was sober. He was also seeing a psychotherapist paid for by the state, and was attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings at least four times a week.
There were times when the urge to drink was very great, and he had come to depend on telephone calls to Vanessa to help him out of those slumps. As time passed, he would do just about anything for her, and he was beginning to think that the feeling was mutual. Vanessa was a very dear friend, just like Horace. Years of drinking hadn’t made Horace an alcoholic, but because of Blair’s troubles, he agreed to stop his drinking, too. “A man’s gotta have positive role models,” Horace told him. And boy, was he a good one.
After driving out to the graveyard, Blair and Vanessa visited Cynthia’s grave together. Vanessa was still pretty broken up about Cynthia’s untimely death. Blair put his arm around her shoulders as she stood there, and that seemed to surprise her. Her surprise soon relaxed into a warm satisfaction, and she stood closer to him.
“I’m going to miss her,” Vanessa said of Cynthia.
“Me, too.”
Vanessa pulled away from him and knelt beside the grave. After hesitating to stare at the marble monument with Cynthia’s full name, an eloquent epitaph, and the years she’d lived engraved on it, Vanessa placed a bouquet of yellow roses on a shelf built for that purpose.
Blair smiled when he noticed the name cut into the marble right beside Cynthia’s. It read: Kevin Martin Massey, loving son of Sarah Massey and Calvin Maxwell. It was wonderful to think that Kevin had finally found a place in the Maxwell family. When Vanessa stood up again, she smiled at Blair.
“So, you said you’re going to open your own dental office,” she said.
“Well, sort of. I can’t afford to rent office space, so I’ve decided to open a mobile dental facility. I bought a van that Horace and I are converting. Calvin Maxwell was nice enough to loan me the money for it. I’m going to pay him back by working two days a week in his office.”
“That’s wonderful, Blair.”
“Yeah. Horace and I will be taking our services to folks who aren’t able to get to a dental office on their own. Convalescent and mental health centers are already lining up to be included on our list. They can’t wait for us to get started.”
“That’s wonderful. I’m very happy that things are finally starting to work out for you.”
“I’ve got a lot of continuing education classes to catch up on to renew my license, but I’m sure I’ll make out all right.”
“I’m sure you will,” she said, staring at him. There was a tenderness in her eyes.
“I’m glad you’re helping Dr. Maxwell out. You know, helping to keep his office open while he’s experiencing so many legal troubles. Besides Corinne’s woes, he’s got a few of his own.”
“Giving police officers payoffs is still against the law.”
“I know it is. Hey, thanks for returning that slow-speed handpiece, boy scout.”
Blair smiled. “Thanks for the loan. Giving a drunken bum a piece of equipment worth several hundred bucks shows an enormous amount of trust on your part.”
“I never could say no to you,” she said, and that drew his attention. She looked away from him, obviously embarrassed by the way that must’ve sounded.
“There’s something I want to show you,” he said.
“All right.” He took her by the hand as they walked along; he just wanted an excuse to touch her.
Blair took her over to the other side of the graveyard, the place where the graves were old and sunken into the ground. The headstones were either small, ground level markers or notices on metal stands just distinguishing one body from the next. Some had no distinguishing marks on them at all.
When he reached the right place, he let go of her hand and then got down on the ground. He pulled up a clump of grass that had been cut away from the rest and was there just to cover a hole. Some of the grass was dying, but not enough to call attention to the spot. Blair used his hands to dig up the dirt and unmask the treasure beneath it. All of the digging made his shoulder start to ache.
After Blair dug up the rubies, Vanessa sat back and stared at them as if she thought her eyes were playing tricks. Even the dirt on them couldn’t hide the brilliant beauty of the red corundum. Ultraviolet rays of the sun enhanced the redness of the rubies, making them appear fluorescent. Blair picked them up and held them closer to her. They soaked up what was left of the light from the setting sun, and looked like three, deep red beacons lighting the palm of Blair’s hand.
“My God!” Vanessa said. “They’re beautiful!”
“Here,” Blair said, handing the crystals to her. When she took them, her hand dropped from the weight.
“They’re so heavy! Are these what you thought you’d find in that Massey lab bin?”
He nodded. “The key impression was to a strong box where these had been.”
“You were right all along, then.” She smiled at him, folding her skirt under her legs. Blair sat down beside her.
“I was hoping you’d help me decide what I should do with these crystals.”
“Me? Why me?”
“Because I trust your judgment. I trust you.”
She smiled, resting the crystals in her lap. Running her finger over the edge of one of them, the hexagonal form was amazingly definite. “The closest I’ve ever been to corundum is holding an emery board to file my fingernails.” She looked at him again. “I can’t tell you what to do with these, Blair.”
“Would you be disappointed if I gave them away?”
“Disappointed? You can do whatever you want with them.”
“I want you to understand the value of these crystals. Just a few years ago, a ruby ring weighing just shy of sixteen carats sold at Sotheby’s in New York for two hundred and twenty-seven thousand, three hundred dollars per carat. That works out to be over three million, six hundred thousand dollars for the stone. The smallest ruby in this limestone is more than twice that size, Vanessa. Each of those crystals is worth millions of dollars. Most people would call me an idiot for even thinking about giving them away.”
“Life certainly would be a lot better for you if you kept them,” she said. “Days of living on the street for you would be over. The money would also help out with your plans to practice dentistry again, maybe even help you to open up your own office.”
“But these rubies don’t belong to me. They’re Vinnie’s.”
“You wouldn’t feel right selling them and keeping the money for yourself. Is that it?”
“Yeah,” he said, looking away from her and staring down the dirt path. A couple of maroon-colored dragonflies were darting around as if playing with one another.
“Why did you come to me about this?” she asked him, and so he studied her face intently. This time he looked deep into those big, blue eyes of hers. He was trying to read them, to size up her feelings. It was important that he be tactful at this point but at the same time be blatantly honest with her. His heart was racing. Some folks would call this the moment of truth; others would refer to it as plunging. The latter expression made him cringe; that sounded too much like a man diving into Lake Michigan with a washing machine strapped to his back.
“I was up all night trying to think of something brilliant to say to you,” he said. “But when the dawn came, I still didn’t know what to tell you.
“The conclusion I’ve come to is this,” he continued. “I’m awfully fond of you. I wouldn’t call it love, but I’m hoping that something permanent will come from the feelings I have for you.”
“I’m fond of you, too, Blair. But I would have to mean more to you than a bottle of gin.”
“You do,” he said, gazing down the path again and pulling up a few blades of grass. He tore the grass into little pieces, one at a time, and then let
them drop. “I’ve done a lot of things that I’ve regretted in my life, but getting to know you isn’t one of them.”
She smiled. “That’s a wonderful thing for you to say, Blair. Thank you.”
“There it is,” he said, glancing up at her and then looking down at the grass again.
“There’s what?” she asked, leaning over until her shoulder lightly touched his.
“That smile of yours. It’s to die for.” He dropped the grass and looked at her, sitting just a little closer. He took the liberty of caressing her face with his hand, and then gently kissed her on the cheek. When he looked at her again, he could tell that she thought a lot of him, too. Vanessa pressed her shoulder against him, so he put his arm around her.
“You wouldn’t like me better if I were rich?” he asked her.
“Not at all,” she said, handing the rubies back to him.
Blair nodded, putting the corundum back in the hole and kicking some of the dirt over them again with his foot. “Horace was right,” he said.
“About what?”
“I think I have already met the woman of my dreams.”
“Well,” she said, smiling so much that dimples were starting to show in her blushing cheeks, “you know, you’re not so bad yourself.”