The Sapphire Pendant (5 page)

“But what’s wrong with a guy getting a dri—?”

“As for men with jewelry,” Deborah interrupted, “personally, I don’t go for men who buy jewelry for themselves, because then they won’t have enough money left over for me.” Deborah stopped suddenly in front of the library. “Now here is a perfect place to browse. Why don’t we stay here and see what we can come up with?”

“Sure,” Jessie agreed. It seemed like a safe bet. Perhaps she would get lucky and snag some bookish homebody who was desperately in need of companionship.

Deborah sat down on the bench, pulling Jessie down with her. “I’m sure that the next single man that asks me to dance will be perfect for you.” She looked down at her watch.

“Expecting someone?”

“Perhaps.” Deborah toyed with her hair.

Jessie watched, fascinated, as a man tripped over his own feet while looking at Deborah. She shook her head. Were men really that dumb, or did Deborah have something she just couldn’t see?

“So you’re certain you want the next man that asks you to dance to be my target?”

“Pretty sure.”

There was a niggling doubt in her mind. Deborah’s cool demeanor made her uneasy, but that wasn’t uncommon. Jessie stretched out her legs and crossed them at the ankles. “That shouldn’t be too hard.” Just after the words left her mouth, Kenneth Preston walked out of the library. Even from a distance, he had a vitality that struck her like a lightning bolt. As he walked, people stepped aside to let him pass, as if he were royalty. A number of women nudged each other and stared in his direction. It took a few moments for Jessie to realize the true significance of his sudden appearance. Her mouth fell open, and she grabbed her chest to make sure that her heart was still beating.

“Oh, no,” she gasped, nearly choking on her words. She silently pleaded for him to pass them, for his date to grab his arm and lead him away. Anything to divert his attention. Jessie leaped to her feet. “I have to go.”

Deborah grabbed onto her shirt, pulling her back down, like she would a disobedient pet. “No, you’re staying right here,” she said behind a smile. She lifted her hand and called his name.

He came up to them and smiled. “I like a lady who’s on time. So, Deborah, are you ready for our dance?”

Jessie glared at her. Her voice was laced with ice. “You were already planning to meet here?”

Deborah stood up and continued to smile. “I doubt you two need introductions.”

“No.” His eyes trailed the length of Jessie’s shirt-and-trousers ensemble with sardonic amusement. “Nice outfit.”

“One of Aunt Rhonda’s charities, no doubt,” Deborah mentioned.

Jessie ground her teeth.

“Come on, let’s go,” he said, sensing Jessie’s rising anger. He was glad that for once, it was not directed at him.

“Before you two dash off,” Jessie said, taking hold of Deborah’s arm with a grip hard enough to make her wince, “I need to talk to you, Deborah.”

“Could you give me a few minutes?” Deborah asked Kenneth, fluttering her lashes in such a flirtatious way that Jessie wanted to glue them shut. He nodded, and she turned to Jessie. “What is it?”

“You set me up.”

Deborah blinked, becoming the picture of innocence. “Now, why would I do that? He’s just a man, after all.”

Right. Like Dom Perignon is just a drink; like Kilimanjaro is just a hill. Jessie glanced at Kenneth, who was talking to Tracy, then turned back to Deborah. She began biting her nails. “Look, I’m willing to do this dare with anyone but him.”

“Why? Think he’s above your league?”

“No one is above my league.” She desperately searched for words to explain. “I just…I don’t like him.”

Deborah lifted an eyebrow. “Impossible. Everybody loves Kenneth. He doesn’t have an enemy around. He’s absolutely perfect. You know you can’t get him, so you’re trying to make an excuse.”

“That’s not true. We’ve had a mutual dislike for each other since middle school, and I believe we have a good thing going.”

Deborah put up a hand and shook her head. “This isn’t middle school. You said that you could get any guy, and he’s the one that asked me to dance. Are you declaring defeat?”

Jessie shut her eyes. Defeat wasn’t an option. “No.”

“Good. So you have to get him to ask you to the Hampton Charity Ball.”

“But he either goes alone or with some hot floozy on his arm,” Jessie protested.

Deborah tossed a braid over her shoulder. “I went with him two years ago.”

“My point exactly.”

Deborah only smiled, showing a row of perfectly white teeth. “Jealous?”

Jessie focused her eyes on the back of Kenneth’s head. “No.”

Deborah brushed imaginary dust from Jessie’s shoulder. “Good luck, then. You’ve got stiff competition.” She went over to Kenneth and looped her arm through his. The way she laid claim to him made Jessie feel a little sorry for Kenneth’s infant escort. “Bye,” she called over her shoulder.

Kenneth turned around and casually waved. “See you around. Try to stay away from gardeners.”

Both Tracy and Deborah laughed at his attempt at humor.

Jessie stood there, watching them leave, wishing she could crawl into the ground and stay there. Why hadn’t she just kept her big mouth shut? Why had she allowed Deborah to get to her? Now she was destined to make an idiot of herself. She had to make Kenneth Preston fall for her and ask her to the Hampton Charity Ball. The guy she had tormented for years; the reason her family had lost the Sapphire Pendant in the first place.

Chapter 3

“Michelle, I’m in trouble,” Jessie said, bursting into her sister’s downtown office. Her sister owned the Clifton Center for Business and Enterprise, a company that helped establish entrepreneurs. It had started humbly out of their basement, but it now afforded Michelle the luxury of an office on the eighth floor of the exclusive Winfield Building. It had a fabulous view of the downtown area and Catlon Bay. Peach carpeting spread throughout the room, complementing the simple furniture.

Michelle looked up from a contract she was reviewing and frowned. “What happened to you?”

Jessie looked down at her clothes. “That jerk Kenneth spilled his food on me. Mrs. Ashford gave me something else to wear.” She felt utterly ridiculous standing in her sister’s posh office in an outfit only a color-blind mole or a flamboyant rich woman would wear. She might have been better off just going naked. Her sister, on the other hand, looked stylish, as usual. She had class and elegance that helped to diffuse focus on her face. Like Jessie, she had plain features—ordinary brown eyes and a simple mouth—but her cheekbones were solid, and her eyes had a sparkling intelligence few could dispute. In her classic blue suit, accented with gold earrings and an emerald ring on her right hand, her looks were not an issue.

“I see,” she said, going back to her contract. Her blunt, chin-length haircut fell around her face.

“But that’s not the problem.”

“What is it this time?” Michelle calmly asked, used to her sister’s dramatics. She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms, patiently waiting for her sister’s latest story.

Jessie flopped into a chair like a deflated balloon. “First, I was fired.”

Michelle fell forward, resting her forearms on the desk. “What? Do you know how hard it was for me to convince Montey to give you that job?”

“I know, I know.” Jessie threw her hands in the air in a dismissive gesture. “But it wasn’t my fault. Kenneth—”

Michelle shook her head and twirled a pen between her fingers. “Forget it. I don’t want to hear it. So now you’re unemployed.”

“But that’s not the problem.”

Michelle tossed down her pen and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I can always count on you for a headache. What is it, then?”

Jessie bit her nails. “It wasn’t really my fault,” she began. “It’s just that Deborah was insulting me. I had to do something.”

“What happened?”

She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “She even insulted you too.”

Michelle blinked, bored. “What happened?”

“Deborah dared me to get Kenneth Preston to fall in love with me. Well, not in love exactly,” she amended. “But I have to charm him. She wants me to get him to invite me to the Hampton Charity Ball.”

Michelle frowned, confused. “Why would she dare you to do that?”

Jessie shrugged. “I sort of set myself up,” she admitted, looking down at her bitten nails. She had chewed them pretty badly on her way over. “They were talking about me—”

“Who’s ‘they’?”

“Deborah and Tracy.”

“Oh, yes, the brilliant and influential minds of our society,” Michelle muttered.

“Will you just let me finish my story?”

“Go ahead, but make it quick; I have an appointment at three.”

Jessie glanced at her watch. “It’s only one o’clock.”

“I know. I’m hoping you’ll finish this story sometime before then.”

“Very funny,” Jessie said, not amused at all.

Suddenly Michelle’s buzzer rang. She softly swore and pressed the button harder than necessary. “Yes?”

“Your other sister is here to see you,” her assistant replied.

Michelle sighed, resigned. “Send her in.”

A few minutes later, Teresa made her entrance, carrying a bouquet of flowers. She had made it a habit of brightening Michelle’s office with flowers every week. As the middle child, she had inherited the Cliftons’ ordinary brown eyes and simple mouth, but she didn’t have her sisters’ temperament. Her face was round and soft instead of angular, and she had gentle eyes.

She unwrapped the sheer gold scarf she had tied around her head. “Oh, hi, Jessie,” Teresa said. She grabbed a vase from the bookshelf and filled it with water in Michelle’s small kitchen. “What are you doing here?” Teresa paused for a moment, then stuck her head out of the kitchen and glanced at her younger sister. She suddenly burst into laughter.

Jessie stiffened. “What’s so funny?”

“What are you wearing? I never thought I would see you in flowers.”

“And you’ll never see me in them again. It’s a long story.”

“Sit down,” Michelle said. “You’re just in time to hear your sister’s latest spectacle.”

“I didn’t make a spectacle of myself,” Jessie argued.

“From what I—”

Teresa raised her voice. “What happened?”

Jessie sighed. The more she repeated the story, the more ridiculous it sounded. “I bet Deborah that I could charm any guy I wanted.”

“Ah, but that’s not all,” Michelle added. “He has to ask her to the Hampton Charity Ball.”

“Do you know how much that event costs?” Teresa asked, arranging the flowers in the vase. “Why would you say that?”

Jessie sighed. “Because she implied that she can and I can’t.”

“But you can’t,” Michelle said, trying to help her sister see reason.

“That’s not the point. It’s about pride, dignity.”

Michelle drummed her fingers on the desk. “So you made this ridiculous bet with her in order to save your pride?”

“Yes.”

“Go on. I’m afraid I’m beginning to understand your motives.”

“So we decided to bet whether or not I could get any guy that danced with her. I really think it would have worked, but she set me up.”

“How?” Teresa asked, leaving the flowers in the kitchen and taking a seat.

“She said that the next guy that asked her to dance would be the one. She neglected to tell me that she had already scheduled a dance with Kenneth.”

Michelle nodded. “So you’re supposed to try to get Kenneth to fall for you. Am I correct?”

“Yes.”

“And ask you to the charity ball in a month…correct?”

Jessie nodded.

She rested back and clasped her hands behind her head. “The answer is simple.”

Jessie leaned forward, desperate for any advice she could receive. “What is it?”

“Just tell Deborah that you changed your mind.”

Jessie fell back in her chair and scowled. Teresa looked up at the ceiling and shook her head, her ponytail swinging back and forth like a wagging finger.

“I couldn’t do that,” Jessie scoffed. “That would be admitting defeat.”

Michelle folded her arms. “It’s a stupid dare. Besides, this isn’t high school. What could she do to you?’

“She could gloat. Besides, if I lose, I have to be her housekeeper for a year and wear a uniform.”

She held up her hands. “I’m sorry. I was wrong. This is high school.”

“But if I win, I get the Sapphire Pendant.”

Her sisters stared at her in silent awe.

Michelle finally shook her head, irritated that she had briefly entertained thoughts of winning. “It won’t work.”

Jessie turned to Teresa. “What do you think?”

Teresa thought for a moment, smoothing out her brightly colored gold-and-purple dress. The gold bracelets on her wrists gently clinked together. “Anything is possible. I think it’s a sign. Gran Sonya had to seduce someone to get it, and now Jessie has to seduce Kenneth to get it back.”

“Charm, not seduce.”

Michelle snorted, resting her chin in her hand. “Since you two have obviously made up your minds, I can get back to work.” She lifted up a business plan in front of her.

Jessie snatched it from her and scanned it. “The idea is good, but the plan will never work. I suggest you send them back and have them tighten their mission statement.”