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
happy. Jason Wilding only does things because they earn him more money. He’s the only man on this planet who actually does have a heart of gold.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Amy said, confused. “Jason, Mr. Wilding, is staying with us, my son and me, that is, because he has nowhere else to stay and no one to spend Christmas with.”
At that the woman laughed. “My sister used to be just where you are now. She too felt sorry for Jason Wilding and she took him in, and he repaid her by—Oh. I can see you’re not going to believe anything I say, so maybe I’ll just send you something.”
“No, thank you,” Amy said as she put her nose in the air. But the woman wasn’t listening as she withdrew a tiny cell phone from her evening bag and began to dial.
Amy didn’t wait to hear half of the conversation but rushed back to the table with the intention of telling either Jason or David about the woman, but when she got there, the table was empty.
“What did I expect?” she said aloud. “That they’d all be worried about why I’d taken so long?”
“I was worried and I don’t even know you,” said a handsome man standing about six inches away from her. “What a beautiful . . . necklace,” he said, but he wasn’t looking at Amy’s pearl necklace; he was looking down her cleavage. “Are they real?”
“As real as mother’s milk,” she said, smiling up at him, and he laughed.
“Would you like to dance? Or would your escort die from the absence of your company?”
“Yes, her escort would die,” came Jason’s voice over the top of her head, and to Amy’s delight she looked from one handsome, scowling face to another.
“On the count of three, draw your cell phones and dial!” she said.
The man looked at her in puzzlement, but Jason clamped down on her upper arm and pulled her to the dance floor.
“Where in the world were you? Is Max all right?”
“Shouldn’t I ask you that, since I left him with you?”
“Mildred has him,” Jason said tightly. “Who was that man and what was he saying to you?”
“That I have a nice set of pearls,” she said, glancing down at her cleavage.
“Have you been drinking?”
“No, I’ve had two encounters with female piranhas though, so maybe I should have a drink. But then, I survived both attacks and I still have my skin.”
“Amy . . .” Jason said in a warning voice. “What is going on?”
“Other than the fact that my date seems to have dumped me? And my gay nanny has turned my child over to someone else so he can attend a ball with a woman so gorgeous she puts tulips to shame? And a woman in the rest room—”
“Tulips? Why tulips?”
“I like them,” Amy said, sighing. Why couldn’t he stay to the point? “Why are you here?”
“Just looking out for things.” He was holding her in his arms, and she had to admit that it felt wonderful.
“How did you get tickets to this event?” she murmured as her head touched his shoulder and stayed there.
“Long story,” he murmured back, his cheek against the top of her head, but he didn’t elaborate.
After that they danced together to one old song after another. No rock and roll that would separate partners was played at the Bellringers’ Ball. When they at last returned to the table, they found a note from David saying he’d taken Miss Parker home and would Jason please escort Amy? It was a tense note and Amy felt guilty at ignoring her date, but then Jason’s big hand closed around hers and he said, “Let’s go home, shall we?” and the way he said “home” almost made Amy cry.
So now she was sitting on the sofa, staring at the Christmas tree lights, and wondering whether it was Jason or David who’d played Santa and put all the white wrapped gifts under the tree.
It was cool in the room, so she snuggled her feet under her, her hands wrapped around the still-warm mug. Her tenant wasn’t gay, and they’d made love, and this morning was her son’s first Christmas. Standing, she took a deep breath, stretched, and thought she might just go back to bed and wake Jason up and . . . Well . . .
Smiling, she started back to the bedroom, but paused because she saw a fat brown envelope on the floor by the front door. The heavy oak door had an old-fashioned brass mail slot in it, and someone had pushed the thick envelope halfway through it. Must be the thump I heard, Amy thought, then wondered who would drop a package through a door slot at two o’clock in the morning on Christmas Day.
Idly, she picked up the envelope, yawned, started to put it on the table with the broken leg that stood by the door, but curiosity got the better of her. “Probably just a particularly aggressive advertiser,” she murmured as she opened the top of the envelope.
When she first pulled the papers from the envelope, she didn’t know what she was seeing. They seemed to be photocopies of newspaper articles. “Entrepreneur Closes New Deal,” “Wilding Buys Everything!” were some of the headlines.
“Wilding?” she said aloud, then thought of David. But what had David done to engender articles written about him? Had he saved so very many lives? By the fourth page she’d flipped, the name “Jason” began to jump out at her.
Taking the package to the kitchen, she put the kettle back on to make herself another cup of tea to sip while she read. But the kettle boiled dry, and Amy turned off the stove while she continued reading.
It was four A.M. when she finished, and she wasn’t surprised when she looked up to see Jason standing in the doorway wearing only the trousers to his tux.
“Come back to bed,” he said seductively, but Amy didn’t move. “What’s wrong?” he asked, but he didn’t seem too concerned.
“You’re very rich, aren’t you?” she asked softly.
Jason had been heading toward the teakettle, but he paused to look at the articles spread out on the table. They were all faxes, so someone had called and had this information faxed to Abernathy.
“Yes,” he said as he picked up the kettle, then filled it and put it back on the stove. When he turned back to Amy, she was wearing an expression he’d never seen before.
“Look Amy, about last night—”
She interrupted him. “Last night wasn’t important. Sex isn’t important, but the lies that led up to the sex are very important.”
“I never meant to lie,” he said softly. “It started out quite innocent but . . .”
“Go on,” she said. “I’d like to hear this. I was told you were gay and that turned out to be a lie, but I forgave that. Of course, I admit that it was in my own selfish interests to forgive that. I was also told that you desperately needed a home over Christmas, and that seems to have been a lie too. According to what I’ve just read, that last one was a very big lie. And you certainly do date some smashing-looking women.”
“Amy—” He reached out to touch her, but she lifted her palms to let him know he was to stay away.
Jason turned off the kettle, then sat down across from her. “Okay, so I lied. But when I told you I loved you, that wasn’t a lie.” He took a deep breath.
“Now I guess I’m to fall into your arms and we live happily ever after.”
“That would be the ending I have in mind,” he said with a one-sided smile.
Amy, however, didn’t smile. “Who is Miss Parker?”
“My secretary.”
“Oh, I see. And I guess she arranged the two-hundred-and-fifty-dollar nursery set.”
“Yes,” Jason said, his eyes burning into her.
But Amy kept looking at the articles. “And the contest for the dress? Was it arranged by her for you?”
“Yes.”
“My, my, but you’ve been busy. Santa Claus should work as hard as you.”
“Look, Amy, it started as something I was doing to help my brother, and—”
Her head came up. “Brother? David? Ah, yes, of course. How stupid of me. Did you two have a couple of great laughs at the impoverished widow and her half-orphaned child?”
“No. Amy, believe me, it hasn’t been like that. I think you should listen to my explanation.”
She leaned back in the chair, her arms folded across her chest. “Okay, so tell me.”
Jason had earned a lot of money in his life because he just didn’t care about the outcome of the deal. If he won, good, if he lost that was okay too. It was the game that he enjoyed. But now he very much cared about the outcome of this “meeting.”
“My brother, David, believed he was in love with you. I say believed because last night I set him straight on that one. Anyway, he said Max was such a tyrant that—”
“Max? A tyrant?”
“Well, I mean, I didn’t know how old Max was until after I accepted David’s bet so—”
“Bet? You made a wager over me?” Her voice was rising. “You mean like a man betting the plantation on the turn of a card?”
“No, not at all,” he said, but his eyes didn’t meet hers. “Please, Amy, let me explain.”
She waved her hand then leaned back against the chair.
“David wanted me to be Max’s nanny, so to speak, so he could have some time alone with you. He bet me that I couldn’t handle the job. That’s all it was. And he told you I was gay so you’d let me stay here. It was that simple.”
“I see. And where does the nursery furniture and the dress come into this farce?”
“You needed the things, so I, uh, I arranged for them. . . .” He trailed off at the look in her eyes.
“I see,” she said again, but her facial muscles were rigid and her eyes cold.
“No, Amy, I don’t think you do see. I have fallen in love with you.”
“Sure you have. It says in here that you give quite a bit to charity. How gratifying it must have been to make a donation directly to the poor.”
“That isn’t the way it was. Well, maybe it was that way in the beginning, but it changed. I’ve come to love both you and Max.”