Chapter 22
Specifically, in the workshop of Uncle Bruce’s jewelry shop back in Providence. She was picturing him working on the pendant she was sketching right now in her notebook. She could see the tiny pliers, the miniature torch and that curved, pronged thing she never remembered the name of.
He could do it. He could turn her design into reality—if she ever got it right.
She’d been making sketches—and then tearing them up—for three days now.
This had to be perfect. If it was going to embody everything she felt for Daniel, everything she hoped he still felt for her, everything she couldn’t put into words…
“Miss Langley?” Professor Morrison’s voice cut through her thoughts. “Is there something you’d like to share with the rest of the class?”
She could have—should have—mumbled an apology and sunk into her chair like a normal person. Any other day, if she’d been thinking about anything else, she probably would have.
“Sure.” She stood up, notebook in hand, and walked to the front of the room.
She stood eye to eye with her teacher—well, eye to hairline; she was a good three inches taller than the man.
She showed him what she’d been working on while he’d been lecturing.
“I’m designing a necklace. For—for someone who’s really important to me. ”
Professor Morrison blinked in confusion. “Did I hear you correctly? A necklace?” Nora heard chuckling—and sniggering—behind her. She didn’t care.
She flipped through the notebook, letting him see the dozens of previous versions. “Yes. Like I said, for someone special. Someone who’s always going to be in my heart. So it has to be perfect.”
Now she heard a couple of gasps from her classmates. They had to know who she was talking about.
“And you think this is the best use of your time here in class, Miss Langley?”
She laughed; what else could she do? “No. But also yes. He’s graduating in May, and it’ll take my Uncle a few weeks to make it.
He’s a jeweler, he makes custom designs all the time.
See?” She pointed to her latest sketch. “Two stones. Sapphire for me, aquamarine for him. Together, always. If it wasn’t so important, I wouldn’t be doing it during class. ”
Her professor looked almost impressed despite himself.
Almost. “I think I understand. And I must say, you do have some artistic talent. That’s quite a sketch.
And—your honesty is refreshing, if perhaps a bit misplaced.
” He paused for a moment. “But perhaps we can all return to the finer points of libel law for the remaining ten minutes?”
Nora nodded and went back to her seat. She was sure she’d be the talk of the class for the next few days, but that didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered—well, after the next ten minutes, anyway—was making sure the necklace was absolutely, positively perfect.
Daniel , March 10
“So tell us about the job already,” Dad said. “We’ve been waiting two weeks to hear the details, Daniel.”
He was sitting at the kitchen table, Mom and Dad both looking at him expectantly. Daniel had only gotten the final, renegotiated offer on Friday and faxed back his acceptance. He hadn’t wanted to tell his parents over the phone. Really great news—not just bad news—should be delivered in person.
“Valerie helped me—she told me what to counteroffer, and exactly how to say it. Otherwise it wouldn’t have been nearly as good. But they’re going to pay me $41,000 a year, plus a $2,000 bonus with my first paycheck. And they’re paying $2,500 for moving costs—I’ll get that first week in May.”
His father looked like he was about to cry; he opened his mouth but couldn’t seem to think of any words to say. Mom, though, focused on one word. “Valerie?”
Daniel hadn’t mentioned her at all—he wasn’t sure why.
Mom, at least, would have been supportive.
“She’s a law student—she’s in the computer lab a lot, and we got to be friends.
So she offered to help me negotiate. She got them up from $34,000, and there wasn’t any starting bonus at first. Oh, and she got them up to three weeks of vacation instead of two. ”
“Is she single? That’s the kind of girl you should be going for, Daniel,” Dad said, finally finding his voice. Daniel thought—hoped—he heard teasing in there somewhere.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen, Dad,” he said. “But I definitely want to get her a thank-you gift. If it wasn’t for her, I would have taken the first offer on the spot.”
Later, after he’d answered every question his father had about the job—or tried to answer; Dad had asked about some important details Daniel hadn’t even considered—he went up to his room to unpack. He was just about done when there was a knock at the bedroom door, and his mother walked in.
“Daniel, if you want to talk about her, it’ll be between us. I won’t say anything to your father.”
She sat down on his bed, and he joined her. “There’s not that much to tell. She started coming into the computer lab in the fall, and she needed help…”
It took him an hour to tell Mom “not much to tell.” When he was done, she hugged him, and kissed his forehead.
“You know something, Daniel? Now I know for sure we did a good job raising you. I’m so proud of you. You’ve grown into such an amazing man.”
“Because I can’t get over Nora?”
Mom sighed. “Well, I guess we still need to work on a couple of things. I’m proud of you because you put yourself out there for Valerie even though you weren’t sure.
And then when you knew you weren’t ready to be more serious with her, you told her honestly.
And kindly. You didn’t lead her on, and you didn’t hurt her. That’s how a good man behaves.”
It hadn’t felt good or kind in the moment—but he and Valerie were still friends, weren’t they?
“I guess.”
Mom signed again, this time with full dramatic flair.
“ You guess . I’ll take that for now.” She hugged him again.
“And it goes without saying, but I am so proud of you about the job, too. I’ll miss you—you’ll have to come home for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
You can afford it with the extra money your law student negotiated for you, right? ”
“Right, Mom. I promise.”
As if she needed to ask.
Nora , March 13
“This is beautiful, Nora. If the journalism thing doesn’t pan out, you can come work for me.”
Nora sat with Uncle Bruce in the workshop in the back of his store. “It took, I don’t even know, a hundred tries to get it right? Or two hundred. I lost count.”
He patted her on the back. “That’s how it works, honey.” He laughed. “Well, I’ve got it down to ten or fifteen versions for a custom piece before I’m ready to show a customer. But I’ve been at it a long time.”
She wondered if Mom had ever ordered anything custom from her brother. And if she had, how many different versions she’d made him go through before she was happy with the final design. But she wasn’t going to ask him about that.
“Can you make it?”
He nodded. “You already knew I could.” He gave her a look. “You want to know if I can finish it before you go back to school this weekend.”
She hadn’t wanted to say it that bluntly, but Uncle Bruce was like that, always getting to the heart of things without much small talk. “Yes. I knew you were closed this week, so I was hoping.”
He finished his coffee before answering. “You didn’t know I was supposed to go on a cruise this week, but your Aunt Dorothy got chicken pox—who knew you could get that when you’re fifty? So instead of being in—I think it’s the Bahamas today—I’m here helping my favorite niece out.”
Wow. That sucked. And she hadn’t known that adults could get chicken pox, either. “I’m sorry. If you don’t want to do it…”
“I was just giving you a hard time, Nora. I’m happy to do this for you. And since I’ve got all this free time, I can definitely get it done by the end of the week. Especially with your help.”
She hadn’t been expecting that. “But I don’t know anything about making jewelry!”
He gave her a kindly smile. “Neither did I, once upon a time. You’ll learn.” He paused. “We didn’t talk about paying for it, by the way.”
“I don’t care. Whatever it costs, that’s fine. I’ve got money saved up.”
He closed his eyes for a moment, mumbling to himself and tapping his fingers one at a time.
“Since you’re going to work on it, and because you’re family, I’ll just charge you for the materials.
Depending on the stones, it’ll be around $400, give or take.
But something like this, if I was selling it, I’d probably charge $1,500. Maybe $2,000.”
He waited for her to react, but she just stared back at him. She would have paid the $2,000 if she had to. She didn’t know where it would have come from, but she’d have made it work somehow—this was too important. “I’ve got $400 in my savings account, Uncle Bruce.”
“Okay, honey. Then let’s get to work.”
Over the next two days, she got a crash course in creating fine jewelry. She’d never really watched her uncle before, and it amazed Nora how he was able to do such exacting work with his huge hands.
He had her do the final adjustments on the heart—while he used the torch to soften the metal, he had her shape it as she’d drawn it. It took two hours to get it exactly right.
“Now all that’s left is putting the clamp on for the chain. I’ll do that—it’s tricker than you’d think. And then we have to set the stones. And you’re going to help with that, too. First we have to pick them out.”
He opened a drawer, pulled out two little trays filled with precious stones—sapphires and aquamarines. She went through them slowly, picking up each stone in turn before she finally found two that were just right.
“Very nice. You’ve got a great eye, Nora.” Neither stone was huge—Uncle Bruce estimated them at just over one carat each—but they were cut perfectly.
It took another two hours to set the stones, with Nora doing the final step herself.