The Blessing Read online

  Walking into the nursery, she went to her baby, gently blotted his mouth, tucked the quilt about him, then returned to her room to fetch her nightgown. It was flung over the end of the bed, and she was careful not to wake Jason as she put it on. But she needn’t have worried, for both her men were in what she called “coma sleep”—you could perform major surgery and they’d not know it.

  Smiling, Amy bent and kissed Jason’s forehead, then put on her old robe and went into the living room. For a moment she was disoriented, as the Christmas lights were on and the pile of gifts was as tall as the sofa.

  “Santa Claus,” she read as she looked at tag after tag on the white packages.

  “David,” she whispered, then felt a bit guilty at the way she’d treated him at the ball. She went into the kitchen to fix herself a cup of tea. She was wide awake, and now, in the middle of the night, when Max was asleep, was the only time she had to think. As the water boiled and she got out a cup and a tea bag, she thought about the ball. She was sure that every other woman in the world would have loved the ball, but Amy had been bored by it. Sure, it was lovely and everyone had looked splendid, but all she’d wanted to do was go home to Jason and Max. There she was wearing a Dior gown and pearls—fake but who could tell?—and all she really wanted was to be home in her old bathrobe with her son and her gay boarder.

  Everyone at the ball knew everyone else, and of course everyone knew Dr. David, so Amy had had time to sit alone at a table with a nonalcoholic drink and think—and remember. In all her life she didn’t think she’d had a happier, more secure feeling than she’d had in the last few days. Every minute had been an adventure. Since David had entered her house with his gorgeous gay cousin, Amy’s life had been turned upside down. Mr. Wilding—or Jason, as she called him to herself—seemed to have a magic wand he could wave to fix anything. It wouldn’t surprise her to wake up one morning and find that the roof over the dining room had been repaired.

  And, now, tonight, she thought with a sigh. Tonight he’d said he loved her, told her he wasn’t gay, said . . . Oh, she couldn’t remember all she’d heard or felt tonight. All she knew was that this ball had changed her life.

  When the kettle boiled, she poured hot water over the tea bag, liberally added milk, then went into the living room to sit and look at the Christmas tree. Now she could smile when she remembered how she’d felt tonight when she’d looked up to see Jason walk in with that gorgeous redhead on his arm. At that moment if someone had handed Amy a shotgun, she could have blown a hole through Miss Cherry Parker’s tiny never-had-a-baby waistline. Better yet, Amy thought, she’d have liked to fire a cannon and hit both of them.

  When Jason and that woman sat down at the table with Amy and David, she wasn’t in the least surprised. What had surprised Amy was the instant animosity that came from mild-mannered David. Immediately, the two men had said things to each other under their breath, things Amy couldn’t hear.

  Taking a deep breath, Amy had leaned toward the tall, divinely beautiful Miss Parker and said, “What will happen to Baby Heaven now?”

  The woman was closer to Jason, so maybe she could hear what the two men were saying. And maybe the fact that she could hear and Amy couldn’t was why Amy decided to engage her in conversation.

  “Baby Heaven?” the woman said, reluctantly pulling away from where Jason and David were engaged in furious conversation.

  “Where you work,” Amy said loudly. “That is where I saw you, isn’t it?”

  “Oh, yes, of course.”

  The two men stopped arguing for a moment, and Miss Parker turned to Amy. “What was it you asked me?”

  Amy cleared her throat. “What will happen to Baby Heaven now that all the merchandise is sold? Will you have a job?”

  “Oh, yes.” The woman kept looking at the two men to see if they were going to start arguing again.

  “So you will have a job,” Amy said loudly, demanding the woman take her attention away from the men.

  “Job? Oh, yes. The owner has many businesses. Baby Heaven is just one of them.” She looked back at the men, who’d started again.

  “I see,” Amy said even louder. “Where will you work? Abernathy or somewhere else?”

  “New York,” the woman said over her shoulder, her eyes and ears on the men.

  “Ah, so you’re slumming. I thought so. You have the look of a big city about you. Ever seen a tractor, Miss Parker?”

  The woman turned and gave her full attention to Amy. “Mrs. Thompkins, I grew up on a farm in Iowa. I was driving a harvester at twelve years old because I was nearly six feet tall even then and I could reach the pedals. By the time I was sixteen I was cooking daily for twenty-three ravenous farmhands. So tell me, Mrs. Thompkins, how many calves have you delivered?”

  Amy gave the woman a weak smile and excused herself to go to the rest room. So much for her attempt at being catty. “Better stick to what I do best,” she said to herself, then wished with all her might that she knew what that was.

  It was in the rest room that she had the strangest encounter. A woman with long dark hair, expertly pulled back into a chignon, wearing a slinky red satin dress, was putting on lipstick to match her dress. When she saw Amy, she nearly jumped, and for a moment Amy thought she was supposed to know the woman. It’s the dress, she told herself. Not too many Diors in Kentucky, but when Amy left the stall, the woman was still there and she made no pretense that she was doing anything except waiting for Amy. And, for some reason, Amy wanted to bolt. She had her hand on the door before the woman spoke.

  “So, you’re with Jason Wilding.”

  Amy took a breath and straightened her spine before turning back to the woman. “Not really. I’m with Dr. David, his cousin. Miss Parker is with Jason.” And Amy had no doubt that Miss Parker could handle anything this woman was about to dish out.

  “Oh? That’s not what I saw and heard,” the woman said. “From what I could hear David and Jason were fighting over you.”

  “What did they say?” Amy said before she thought to control her tongue.

  “Are both those men in love with you?” the woman asked as she looked Amy up and down.

  At that Amy relaxed, smiled, and decided to wash her hands. “Oh, yes,” she said. “They want to fight a duel over me. Pistols at dawn. Or maybe they’ll use swords.”

  The woman turned back to the mirror. “More like scalpels and cell phones.”

  Amy laughed and decided the woman wasn’t predatory, as she’d first thought. “How about fax machines versus color copiers?”

  “Or your Internet dialer against mine,” the woman said, smiling at Amy in the mirror; then she paused for a moment. “That’s some dress you’re wearing. Buy it around here?”

  “Hardly. I won it in a contest. It’s a Dior from a shop in New York.”

  “Ah, I see. A contest.”

  Again Amy wanted to leave, but somehow, she couldn’t. “Do you know Mr. Wilding?” she asked tentatively.

  “Dr. David?”

  Amy had a feeling the woman was teasing her. “Jason.”

  “Ah, that Mr. Wilding. I’ve met him. How do you know him?”

  “He’s living with me,” Amy said brightly, then smiled smugly at the woman’s look of shock. But she soon recovered.

  “Living with him? Not married to him?”

  Amy laughed. “You don’t know him very well, do you?” She’d love to tell the woman Jason was gay, but, on the other hand, let her think Amy had reeled in a hunk like Jason. The woman didn’t answer Amy’s question.

  “I think I should ask how well you know him. And what’s he doing at a dud of a thing like this?”

  That snobby question made Amy’s lips tighten. “Jason Wilding is here because he likes it here, because this state makes him happy.”

  At that, the woman put away her lipstick and looked at Amy in amusement. “I don’t know what’s going on, but a man like Jason Wilding doesn’t attend some cheap affair in Nowhere, Kentucky, because it makes him