The Blessing Read online

  Since all Jason’s clothes were made for him, it wasn’t unusual that Parker should ask if he wanted something sent.

  “No. I want normal clothes. Denim. Blue jeans.”

  “With or without fringe?”

  For a moment Jason stared at the phone. In twelve years he had never heard Parker make a joke. Was this the first one? On the other hand, did she even have a sense of humor? “No fringe. Just normal. Country clothes but not too expensive. No Holland and Holland; no Savile Row.”

  “I see,” was Parker’s toneless reply. If she had any curiosity about any of this, she didn’t say so.

  “Now call Charles and tell him to get down here and make this kid something good to eat.”

  There was a pause on the phone, which was unusual for Parker, as she usually agreed to anything he said instantly. “I was wondering where Charles would be staying, because he’ll want proper equipment.” Considering that Jason’s private chef was a snob as well as a genius, this was an understatement.

  Max was trying to pull himself to a standing position by dragging on the faded cloth on an old end table. If he pulled it off, three flower pots were going to crash onto his head. “Just do it!” Jason snapped into the phone, then shut it off and went to retrieve Max. Was this the fifth or sixth time the baby had tried to kill himself in the space of an hour?

  “Okay, kid,” Jason said as he untangled little hands from the cloth and picked the baby up. “Let’s go see what we can do about lunch. A lunch with no sugar, no salt, no butter, no flavor at all.”

  At that Max again planted another wet raspberry against Jason’s whiskery cheek, and Jason found the feeling not unpleasant.

  CHAPTER SIX

  “GET THE JOB?” JASON ASKED AS SOON AS AMY ENTERED the house.

  “No,” she said despondently, then reached eagerly for Max. “And I’m bursting with milk.”

  To Jason’s embarrassment, she plopped down wearily on the worn-out old sofa, unfastened her dress, unsnapped her bra, and proceeded to feed Max, who eagerly began sucking.

  “How about dinner out tonight?” he asked. “My treat.”

  “Ow!” Amy said, then stuck her finger in Max’s mouth and made him release her breast for a moment before he latched on again. “Teeth,” she said. “You know, before he was born, I was in love with the whole romance of breast-feeding. I thought it would be something sweet and lovely, and it is, but it’s also . . .”

  “Painful?” he asked; then when she smiled in reply, he smiled back.

  “I think I would have known that you were gay even if David hadn’t told me. You’re very perceptive, and for all that you look hard and unfeeling, you’re really a bit of a softie, aren’t you?”

  “I’ve never been called that before,” Jason said as he glanced at a faded and cracked mirror hanging to his right. Did he actually look hard and unfeeling?

  “So what did Max get up to while I was gone?”

  At that Jason smiled and soon found himself expending a great deal of energy into making a funny story of his afternoon with Max. “I think for Christmas I’ll give him a set of knives, something he can easily hurt himself with. As it is now he has to work so hard to hit himself in the face and to try to crack his skull. I think I’ll make life easier for him.”

  Amy laughed and said, “Knives with strings attached. Don’t forget the strings, because how else can he choke?”

  “Ah, yes. The strings. And I think I’ll take him to visit a paper factory. I’ll set him down in the middle of the place and let him eat his way out.”

  Amy switched Max to the other breast, and when she did so, Jason motioned for her to lift her arm so he could slide a pillow under it so she wasn’t supporting the weight of Max’s head. “And don’t forget drawers that he can roll out then close on his fingers.”

  They were really laughing now, and Jason suddenly realized that for the first time in years a woman was genuinely laughing at his jokes.

  “How about a pizza?” Jason said abruptly. “A huge one with everything on it. And giant Cokes and garlic bread?”

  “I’m not sure I should because of my milk,” Amy said hesitantly. “I’m not sure babies should have garlic-flavored milk.”

  “Doesn’t seem to bother the Italians,” Jason answered.

  “That’s true,” Amy said, then smiled at him. “Pizza it is. But only if I can pay for my share.”

  Before he thought, Jason said, “You’re too poor to pay for anything,” then was shocked at what he’d said.

  “Too true,” Amy said good-naturedly. “Maybe over dinner we can figure out what to do with my future. Do you have any ideas?”

  “None whatever,” he said, smiling. “You could always marry some nice young doctor and never work again.”

  “Doctor? Oh, you mean David. He’s not interested in me.”

  “He’s mad about you,” Jason answered.

  “You are funny. David is in love with all the women in this town; that’s why he’s so popular. Besides, I’m not a gold digger and I don’t want to live off any man. I want to do something, but I’m not sure what I can do. If only I had a talent, like singing or playing the piano.”

  “It looks to me like you have a talent for being a mother.”

  Amy cocked her head to one side. “You’re very sweet, you know that? Can you dial for pizzas on that phone of yours?”

  “Sure,” he said, smiling.

  Later, as Max slept on the sofa, they lit candles and talked. He asked her about her life with Billy, and after an initial protest, she started talking, and he soon realized that she was hungry to talk.

  And as she talked, he began to see the town drunk in a different light. Billy Thompkins had been a joke to the people of Abernathy since he was fourteen years old and began to drink. He wrecked cars as fast as he could get into them. His parents mortgaged their house to pay Billy’s bail to get him out of jail time after time. But Amy saw something inside the man that no one else had.

  Jason had ordered a giant pizza, and while Amy talked, she didn’t notice that she ate three quarters of the thing. Long ago Jason had forgotten what it was like to be in a position that a pizza was a rare treat.

  As soon as the last bit of cheese was gone, Amy gave a great yawn, and even though it was only nine P.M., Jason told her to go to bed. Standing, she bent to pick up Max, but Jason brushed her hands away, then scooped the baby up without waking him.

  “You’re a natural daddy,” Amy said sleepily as she led the way into her bedroom.

  Smiling at Amy’s assessment, Jason put Max into the beat-up old playpen that was his bed, then quietly left the room. Oddly enough, he too felt sleepy. Usually he didn’t go to bed until one or two in the morning, but something about pulling a baby away from one danger after another had exhausted him.

  He went to his bedroom, pulled off his trousers, and fell into bed in his shirt and underwear and was aware of nothing until he heard a high-pitched scream from Max. Leaping out of bed, he ran into the kitchen, where he saw Max in his booster seat and Amy feeding him. They were both fully dressed yet it was still dark outside.

  “What time is it?” Jason asked, rubbing his eyes.

  “About six-thirty. Max slept late this morning.”

  “What was that scream?”

  “Practice, I guess. He likes to scream. Shouldn’t you get some clothes on?”

  Jason glanced down at his bare legs. “Yeah, sure.” Then he looked up at Amy’s red face. She bared her breasts before him yet was embarrassed by his wearing more than he’d wear if he went swimming? With a smile at her turned head, he felt a little rush of pleasure that she was attracted to him.

  David, he thought. David. David is in love with Amy.

  “This was stuck in the front door this morning, and there’s a car outside,” she said, nodding toward a rolled-up newspaper on the kitchen table.

  Ignoring her plea for him to get dressed, he rolled the rubber band off the newspaper and took out a note wrapped around th