Greater Than Rubies, a Novella inspired by the Jewel Trilogy (2 page)

For Kaylee Anne …

T
fifteen, my daughter, Kaylee, read
Sapphire Ice
, the first book in
The Jewel Trilogy
. She fell in love with the book. As she read, she would enthusiastically discuss the characters and what she thought about the story with me. I remember the evening she sat on the couch across from me finishing up the book on her Kindle. I knew she neared the end, and I felt excited anticipation at the prospect of discussing how it all resolved with her.

Suddenly, she sat up and said, “That’s it?!”

I looked up and said, “What do you mean?”

“No wedding?” Kaylee waved her Kindle in the air. “You take me through all that and don’t give me the wedding? I need the wedding, Mom.”

So here it is, my darling daughter. This is my gift to you …

The wedding of Robin Bartlett and Antonio “Tony” Viscolli.

OBIN
Bartlett stood barefoot on the white beach with water lapping at her ankles while her toes slowly sank into the sand. The sun beat down hot against her neck, and the wind blew her cotton skirt around her legs. She took the rubber band out of her braid and slowly loosened her long blonde hair, wanting to feel the strands blowing in the Florida breeze.

She felt Tony Viscolli approach before she heard him or saw him. Some radar inside of her perked up and she slowly turned, a smile on her face. The sun reflected off of his jet black hair, and she swore that his olive skin had darkened in just a few hours of sun and sand. He took off his sunglasses and she felt her breath catch at the look in his dark eyes.

Tony stopped in his stride and she could tell that he wanted to simply drink in the sight of her in such a rare happy, relaxed state. After a few heartbeats, her warm, welcoming smile and the sparkle in her sapphire blue eyes beckoned him closer.

“I can’t believe that it’s Christmas Eve,” she said. She ran her hands along her bare arms. Bare arms – in December!” Do we even know what the weather report for Boston is today?”

The second he stood close enough to touch, his arm snaked around her waist. She loved the feel of him against her.” I don’t check the weather there until I have to go back. And I typically avoid going back during the winter months.”

Forgetting everything but the bliss surrounding her heart, Robin asked, “Why?”

Tony squeezed her close before releasing her. “I don’t like to be cold.” He gestured to the mammoth house behind him. “I’m like a bird. I fly south for the winter.”

Robin heard a squealing sound of glee and shielded her eyes to look up at the house and see one of the adopted O’Farrell children diving off of the high dive into the pool. They had come to spend Christmas with Tony and, from what Robin could understand, they accompanied him every year. An older laugh chased the squeal, and Robin saw her sister, Maxine, go flying off of the high dive. Obviously, they were engaged in some sort of game of tag.

“It looks like you typically carry a flock with you.”

Tony grinned. He turned back to look out over the aquamarine water that stretched out beyond his private beach in the Florida Keys. He pulled her closer so that she wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her head on his shoulder as they watched a sailboat meander along the horizon.

“Do you row here?” She knew he rowed on the river water in Boston as a way to relax.

“Only in my gym.” He rested his head against hers and closed his eyes. “I windsurf here.”

“That sounds like fun.”

“I’ll teach you how tomorrow.” He squeezed her close then pulled away, running the tips of his fingers down her arm until their hands linked. “Want to take a walk?”

“Sure.” She disengaged her feet from the sand and stepped in line with him. “I am so happy that you invited us here for Christmas. I love it here.”

“I do, too.” He gestured at the water. “God’s design is so perfect. It humbles me when I come here. It’s a place for me to come when I start feeling a little too full of myself, a little too big man on the campus. I come here and I look at this expanse and the gloriousness of perfection and remember that it’s all God, and it’s all about God.”

She stopped and smiled at him. “I love listening to you, especially when you’re talking about God.”

He turned slightly so that he faced her. “What do you like about me speaking?”

Admiring him in his cotton pants and white cotton short sleeved shirt, his skin dark in the sun, his eyes a rich chocolate brown, she felt the rhythm of her heart speed up. She suddenly wanted to kiss him, to keep kissing him, to never have to stop. She felt her tongue dart out, lick suddenly dry lips, as those images started popping up in her mind. “Well,” she said, stepping forward so that she could feel the heat of his body. “I love your voice. And I love your passion. And,” she said, feeling bolder than she had ever felt in her entire life, she reached up and put her hands on his shoulders, “I love the love in your voice when you talk about God.”

He put his hands on her hips. “You like my voice,
cara
?”

Grinning she leaned forward and ran her lips along his cheek, feeling for the first time ever, a day’s growth of stubble. “Especially when you say words like
cara
.”

“Oh?” His voice sounded suddenly thick. “You like Italian, eh?”

“Yes.” She skimmed her lips over his cheek, down his chin, and along his other cheek. “Very much so.”

He cupped her face in his hands and pulled her back just far enough to cover her lips with his own. He kissed her, drinking her in, tasting her. She felt as if she might just seep into his very soul. “How about this?” He asked when he finally tore his mouth from hers. His voice rang husky and thick in her ears. “
Te amo con tutto il cuore e con l’anima
.”

Robin looked into his eyes and saw the seriousness of whatever he was saying. She tried to pick through the words, find something that sounded familiar so that she could translate it. Did he just …?” Say it again, “she demanded.

“
Te amo con tutto il cuore e con l’anima
.” She started quaking inside of her stomach. His hands moved from her face down her neck until they rested on her shoulders. “I love you, Robin … with all of my heart and soul.”

The quaking left her stomach and radiated out to her limbs. With shaking hands she cupped his cheeks. “Tony,” she said, trying to talk around the huge smile on her face, around the nervous laughter bubbling up in her throat. “I realized I was in love with you the day of your party, but then Craig came and …” she stopped, not wanting to babble incessantly. “Let me try,” she said.

He cupped her hands with his and pulled them off of his face. Keeping one hand gripped in his, he stepped back a bit while her inexperienced tongue fumbled on the words. “
Te amo, con tat, no.
” she said, then gasped as he slipped the ring on her finger.

“
Con tutto il cuore e con l’anima.
” He finished for her. Trapping her eyes with his, he slowly descended until one knee rested on the sandy beach. “Marry me, Robin. Make my life complete.”

“I – I –” She couldn’t tear her eyes off the sapphire.

Tony’s face, always so stoic and guarded, could be read by anyone who saw it. He looked at her with naked need and tender hope. “I love you,
cara
. I don’t think that there was a moment in my life that made me happier than the day that you came to know Christ, the day that you gave your life over to the Lord. If you would do me the honor of being my wife …” He stopped and closed his eyes.

Holding her hand, he ran his thumb over the ring. “Let me love you in every way God commanded a man to love his wife. Let me treasure you, and abide in you, and protect you, and honor you.”

The quaking subsided. Peace flooded over her body, warmed her from the inside out. “Yes,” she said through the tears that fell unencumbered down her cheeks. He stood and their eyes came back to even again. She laughed and grabbed him and hugged him. “Yes, of course. Of course I’ll be your wife.”

He wrapped both of his arms around her and hugged her tightly to him, lifting her up from the sand and spinning them both around until he felt the wet surf beneath his feet. As he gently returned her to earth, his lips found hers and they kissed, standing in the sand with the water swirling at their ankles.

THE END
OF SAPPHIRE ICE