The Blessing Read online

  It was a room for a little boy, with blue-and-white striped wallpaper with a border of boats sailing a rough sea. The bed looked like a new version of a sleigh bed, but with safety bars and sides that lowered; a whole set of Winnie-the-Pooh characters were tucked into a corner. The linens of the bed were hand embroidered with tiny animals and plants, something that Jason knew Max would love to look at. To test his theory, he put Max in the bed, where he immediately pulled himself up, then began to grab at the mobile until he got a horse’s head in his mouth.

  The rest of the room was filled with furniture of equal quality. There was a rocking chair, a changing table, a car seat, a high chair, a toy box that had to have been decorated by Native Americans, and in the corner was a stack of white boxes.

  “More linens and a few necessities,” Parker said as she followed Jason’s eyes. “There are a few pieces of clothing, but I wasn’t sure of the size . . .” She trailed off.

  “This costs more than I have,” Amy said, and there were tears in her voice.

  “Two hundred and fifty dollars for the lot,” Parker said quickly.

  Amy squinted her eyes at the woman. “Are these things stolen? Is this an outlet for stolen goods?”

  “I would imagine that in a way, yes, they are stolen,” Jason said quickly. “If these things are still in the possession of the store owner come tax time, he’ll have to pay taxes on what they’re worth. But if he sells them at a loss, he can write off the loss and be taxed on the amount he has received, which is a pittance. Am I right?” he asked Parker.

  “Perfectly,” she said, then turned back to Amy. “Perhaps you don’t like this room. We have others.”

  “No, it’s perfect,” Amy said, then before she could say another word, Jason spoke up.

  “We’ll take it. Have it delivered today.” As he said this, he glanced at his two executives leaning on brooms and watching the scene with smug little smiles. By tomorrow everyone is all his offices would know about this. “And I think you should throw in someone to hang the wallpaper.”

  At that Amy gave a little whimper that said she was sure Jason was going to make the woman retract the deal.

  “Certainly, sir,” Parker said without a hint of a smile, then turned to Max in the bed. Now he was on his back and trying to kick the sides off, the sound reverberating through the store. “What a beautiful child,” she said, then held out her arms as though she meant to pick Max up.

  The baby let out a howl that shook the bed. Immediately, Amy was there, her arms out to Max. “Sorry,” she muttered. “He doesn’t take to strangers very well.” And at that Max made a leap into Jason’s arms.

  Jason wasn’t going to look at his two vice presidents because he knew that they would assume that Max was his. How else to explain that Jason wasn’t a “stranger” to the child?

  “I’ll pay while you look around,” Jason said as he followed Parker to a nearby counter. “The pencils are overkill,” he snapped as soon as they were out of earshot of Amy.

  “Yes sir,” she said as she removed them from her hair.

  “And what are those two doing here?”

  “You had to buy the store in order to pull this off. I didn’t feel that I had the authority to negotiate with that much money.”

  “How much could a tiny shop like this cost?”

  “The man said to tell you that his name is Harry Greene and that you’d understand.”

  Jason’s eyes rolled upward for a moment. In high school he had stolen Harry’s girlfriend the day before the prom. “Did you manage to buy it for under seven figures?”

  “Just barely. Sir, what do we do about the people waiting outside? The newspaper ad appeared in only your paper, but somehow . . .”

  “They’re friends of Amy’s.” For a moment he looked around Max, who was trying to grab the telephone off the desk, to see Amy running her hand lovingly over the baby furniture. “Give them the same deal. Give everything away at a loss. Make sure everything is given away for what they can afford. Split the rooms up so every woman out there gets something she needs.”

  When he looked back, Parker was staring at him with her mouth open. “And get those two back to New York right after they hang the wallpaper.”

  “Yes, sir,” Parker answered softly, looking at him as though she’d never seen him before.

  Jason removed Max’s hands from around a curtain hanging from the top of a cradle. “And, Parker, add some toys to that lot when you deliver it. No,” he contradicted himself. “Don’t add anything. I’ll buy the toys myself.”

  “Yes, sir,” Parker said quietly.

  “Did Charles get here?”

  “He came with me. He’s at your father’s house, as all of us are.” By her expression she looked to be on the verge of shock.

  “Now close your mouth and go open the door to the other customers,” he said as he peeled Max’s hands off the curtain again and went back to Amy.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  JASON WAS EXPERIENCING AN EMOTION HE HADN’T FELT IN a long time: jealousy.

  “Isn’t it wonderful?” Amy was saying in a breathless way he hadn’t heard from a female since he’d left high school. “Isn’t it the most beautiful room you ever saw? I never thought I could love the IRS, but since it was the cause of Max getting all these beautiful things, I could grow to love them. Don’t you think so, Mr. Wilding? Don’t you think the room is beautiful?”

  “Yes,” Jason said grumpily, while telling himself that it was better to give anonymously than to flaunt your gift. At least that’s what he’d heard. But he rather wished Amy would look at him with her eyes sparkling like that.

  He took a deep breath. “It is nice. The room looks great. Do you think the clothes will fit?”

  “If they don’t now, they will next week,” she said, laughing. “See, I told you that God would provide.”

  Before Jason could give a cynical reply as he thought about how much these few pieces of furniture had actually cost him, since he’d had to buy the store, there was a loud, insistent knock on the door.

  Instantly, Amy’s face went white. “They made a mistake and they want everything back.”

  Jason’s bad mood left him and he couldn’t help putting a reassuring arm around Amy’s thin shoulders. “I can assure you that everything here is yours. Maybe it’s Santa Claus come early.”

  When she still hesitated, Jason picked up Max from the crib, where he was trying to eat the legs off a stuffed frog, then led the way to the front door, where he was greeted by the sight of a huge evergreen tree.

  “Ho ho ho,” came David’s voice as he shoved his way inside the house. “Merry Christmas. Jase, ol’ boy, you want to bring in the boxes from outside?”

  “David!” came Amy’s squeal of delight. “You shouldn’t have.”

  Outside in the cold, Max sitting on his arm, Jason muttered, “Oh, David, you shouldn’t have,” in a falsetto voice. “I paid heaven only knows how much for a bunch of furniture and she thanks the IRS no less. But David shows up with a twenty-dollar tree and it’s, ‘Oh, David.’ Women!”

  Max laughed, raked his nails across Jason’s cheek in an attempt to pat him, then bit his other cheek in a kiss. “Why don’t you do that to the divine Dr. David?” Jason said, smiling at the boy as he hoisted a big red cardboard box under his arm and took it into the house.

  “You can’t do this,” Amy was still saying but looking at David adoringly.

  “Dad and I don’t want a tree. We’re just a couple of old bachelors and we don’t need the needles everywhere, so when a patient gave me this tree, I thought about the attic full of ornaments and thought Max would love the lights. Don’t you think he will?”

  “Oh, yes, I’m sure he will, but I’m not sure—”

  David cut her off by going toward Jason and holding out his arms to Max. “Come here, Max, and give me a hug.”

  To Jason’s great satisfaction, Max let out a howl that made the tree drop quite a few needles. “Doesn’t seem to like