The Blessing Read online

  So now what? Jason thought, looking at his watch. It was four A.M. and New York wasn’t open, so he couldn’t do any business. Ah, he thought, New York might be closed, but London was open.

  After putting his wool suit on to protect him from the cold, he retrieved his portable phone from his coat pocket and went to the window, where the signal would be better, and dialed. Five minutes later he was being hooked up to a conference call with the heads of a major company that Jason had recently bought. In the background he could hear sounds of an office Christmas party, and he could tell that the managers were annoyed to be missing the fun, but it didn’t matter to Jason. Business was business, and the sooner they realized that the better.

  CHAPTER THREE

  I DON’T LIKE HIM, AMY THOUGHT AS SHE LAY IN BED. FOR some odd reason, Max was still asleep; she could see the great lump that was him in the old playpen that had once been Billy’s.

  “I don’t like him, I don’t like him, I don’t like him,” she said aloud, then glanced anxiously toward the playpen, but Max didn’t move. She’d have to wake him in a minute or two or she was going to explode from milk, but it was nice to have these few minutes just to think.

  When David had proposed that she allow his gay cousin to live with her for a week, Amy had readily said no. “What will I feed him?” she’d asked. “I can barely afford to feed Max and me.”

  “He, uh, he . . . He loves to cook. And, well, I’m sure he’d love to have someone to cook for. He’ll buy everything you’ll need,” David had said in such a way that Amy didn’t believe him. “No, really, he will. Look, Amy, I know this is an imposition, but Jason and his boyfriend just broke up, and my cousin has nowhere to go. You’d be doing me a real favor. I’d let him stay with us, but you know how my dad is about gays.”

  Actually, Amy had met Bertram Wilding only once and she had no idea how he felt about anything except chili dogs (he loved them) and football (loved that too). “Isn’t there someone else? You know everyone in town,” she had wailed. David had been so good to her; he hadn’t charged her a penny for either of Max’s ear infections or the immunizations, and he’d sent over his nurse to help out when Amy was sick with the flu those three days. It wasn’t easy being a single mother on a severe budget, but with David’s help she’d been able to survive. So she owed him.

  “You have a spare bedroom and you need him. You don’t have anything against gays, do you?” he asked, implying that he may have misjudged her.

  “Of course not. It’s just a matter of space and, well, money. I can’t afford to feed him much less pay him for baby-sitting services and—”

  “You just leave that to me,” David said. “In fact, leave everything to me. Jason will help you do everything, and he’ll make your life much easier. Trust me.”

  So she had trusted him, just as everyone else in this town trusted him, and what did she get? A six-foot-tall sneering man who made her want to run and hide, that’s what. Last night, or actually, this morning at the two o’clock feeding, she had had to bite her tongue to keep from making a snide remark as she watched him look about the house, his upper lip curled in distaste. He was wearing a suit that looked as though it cost more than her house had and she could feel his contempt. Right then she wanted to tell David to take him away, that she wouldn’t let him near her son.

  But then she remembered all that David had told her about this poor man and his broken heart. But to Amy the man didn’t look depressed as much as he looked angry: angry at the world, maybe even angry at her in particular. When he’d demanded that David go outside with him, Amy had almost bolted the door against the two of them, then gone back to her warm bed.

  But she hadn’t, and now she was going to have to spend a whole week with the jerk, she thought. One whole week of her life being sneered at. One week—

  She didn’t think anymore because through the thin wall came the heavy thud of something falling, and it was followed by Max’s scream of terror. Amy was out of the bed instantly and into her boarder’s room before he could pick up the child.

  “Get away,” Amy said, pushing at his hands, as she snatched up her baby and cuddled him to her. “Hush, sweetheart,” she said, holding him tightly, her heart pounding. He had fallen off the bed. Had he hit his head? Was he all right? Concussion? Brain damage? Her hands ran over him, searching for lumps, for blood, for anything wrong.

  “I think he’s just scared,” Jason said. “He fell on the pillow, and besides, he has enough clothes on that you could drop him off a building and he wouldn’t be hurt.” At that he gave Amy what she imagined he thought was a smile.

  Amy glared at him. Max had stopped crying and was now bending at the waist as he moved his head downward, letting her know that he wanted to nurse.

  “Get out,” she said to Jason. “I don’t want you here.”

  The man looked at her as though he didn’t understand English.

  “Get out, I said. You’re fired.”

  She was having trouble holding on to Max as he jackknifed downward. “Take your . . . your telephone and leave.” It was easy to see that he had been standing by the window talking on the thing while he’d left a baby alone on a narrow bed. She wasn’t about to leave Max in the care of someone so careless.

  “I’ve never been fired from a job before,” Jason said, his eyes wide.

  “There is always a first time for everything.” When Jason didn’t move, she tightened her lips. “I don’t have a car, so if you want transportation, call David. I’ll get his number.”

  “I know his number,” Jason said quietly, still standing there looking at her.

  “Then use it!” she said as she turned away, her arms around Max’s squirming body. She stalked into the living room, put Max down on the two pillows on the couch, her hand behind his head, then angrily unfastened her nightgown to reveal her breast. Max made fast work of latching on, then he lay there looking up at his mother intently, obviously aware that something was going on.

  “Look, I—Oh, excuse me,” Jason said as he turned his back to her, and Amy could feel his embarrassment at seeing her breast-feeding. Pulling a baby blanket off the back of the couch, she covered herself and most of the baby.

  “I’d like a second chance,” Jason said, his back still to her. “I was in the . . .” He nearly choked on the word. “I was in the wrong to leave the baby alone on the bed. But I, uh, I meant well. I heard him, so I took him out of his pen. I just wanted to give you a couple more hours’ sleep, that’s all.”

  As far as Amy could tell, every word out of the man’s mouth was a struggle. You’d think he’d never apologized before in his life. No, actually, hearing the wrench in his voice, you’d think he’d never done anything wrong in his life before.

  “You’re asking me to take a second chance with my child’s life?” she asked calmly, still looking at the back of him.

  Slowly, he turned around, saw that she was covered, then sat down in the sunflower chair. “I am not usually so . . . so lacking in vigilance. Usually I watch over several matters at one time and keep them all going at once. Usually I can handle anything that’s thrown my way. In fact, I pride myself on being able to handle anything.”

  “You don’t have to lie to me; David told me everything.” When she said that the man’s face turned an odd shade of lavender, and she renewed her vow to get rid of him. I don’t like him, she repeated to herself.

  “And what did Dr. David tell you?” the man said softly.

  There was something about him that was a bit intimidating. She owed David a lot, but she wasn’t going to repay anyone at the expense of her child. “He told me that you’re gay and you’re recovering from a broken heart and—”

  “He told you that I’m gay?” Jason said quietly.

  “Yes, I know it’s a secret and that you don’t want people to know about you, but he had to tell me. You don’t think I’d let a heterosexual man stay here with me, do you?” She squinted her eyes at him. “Or do you? Is that what kind