A Child''s Christmas (Mills & Boon Heartwarming)

  *

  PAIGE STARED AT Daniel in disbelief. She knew she loved Daniel—more than she would ever have imagined—but how could she consider marriage now? “But Jason...”

  He placed a fingertip on her lips to silence her protest. “Paige, I love you. I love you beyond reason. I want to marry you, and I want us to spend our lives together. But I also want Jason to be part of my life and I want to be part of his. I’d like to be there for Jason—to be his father in every way I can. Now that you’ve made your decision and we’re doing this, I want to be his father before we go to the Karlsen Center.”

  If she thought she couldn’t have loved Daniel more, at that moment her love for him nearly overwhelmed her. He wanted her and he wanted Jason. As his son.

  “Don’t answer me right now,” he said. “As much as I want to hear it, I want Jason to be part of this, too. It’s hard for me to wait, but please think about it. Don’t say anything just yet.”

  They spent long hours that night talking about the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead of them. It was well after midnight when Daniel left, but they’d agreed that he’d come back Saturday morning so they could talk to Jason about getting married. Paige had made it clear that as much as they loved each other, if Jason wasn’t entirely comfortable with it, she couldn’t marry Daniel. It was equally important to Daniel that Jason approve.

  *

  SATURDAY MORNING WAS nearly over, and there was still no sign of Daniel. Although he’d called to tell Paige he’d be later than planned, Paige couldn’t help being afraid that he’d had a change of heart. Her insecurities were taking hold. She knew it was illogical. Daniel had never let her down. He was a man of his word, and yet...

  When he finally showed up, she searched his face for any indication that he’d changed his mind. She was quickly reassured.

  He enveloped her in a big hug, his eyes glowing, his face ecstatic. He greeted Jason just as warmly.

  He winked at Paige and then turned to Jason. “I’d like to have a little man-to-man discussion with you, if that’s okay.”

  Jason stuck out his chest, as Daniel had seen him do before. “Sure.”

  “Can we use your room?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  In his room, Jason sat on the edge of his bed and looked at Daniel expectantly.

  Daniel pulled the desk chair over. He rested his forearms on his knees, bringing his eyes level with Jason’s. “You know I love your mother, right?”

  Jason blushed a little. “I guess.”

  “And I’m a very lucky guy because she loves me, too. Are you okay with that?”

  Jason’s color rose. “Yeah. You make her happy, and I like that.”

  “Good. So do I. Now, I’d like to marry your mom, and I believe I can make her happy. I want to know how you feel about that, but before you tell me, I’d like to say a couple more things.”

  Jason looked uncertain. “’Kay.”

  Daniel rested his hand on Jason’s shoulder. “It’s not just about your mom, Jason. It’s about you, too. I hope you’re good with this. With all of it...” Daniel paused. There was a huge lump in his throat, and he was having difficulty getting words past it. He hadn’t realized it would be as emotional for him to ask Jason as it had been asking Paige. He turned his head and coughed. When he looked back at Jason, the boy’s face shone, his freckles more pronounced, and his lips slightly parted. “Jason, what I’m trying to say is that I love you, too. I’d like to be your father. What do you think about that?”

  The words weren’t fully out of Daniel’s mouth when Jason launched himself into his arms. Daniel gathered him close and held tight. He rested his chin on Jason’s mop of blond hair and closed his eyes. He really loved this little kid who’d entrenched himself so firmly in his heart. Jason’s acceptance meant the world to him. “So, is that a yes?”

  Jason just nodded his head exuberantly.

  When Daniel let him go, Jason swiped the back of his hand across his eyes, and they grinned foolishly at each other. Finally, Jason asked shyly, “Will I be able to call you Dad?”

  Daniel nearly choked up again but nodded with a smile. “I was hoping you would.”

  “That is so great! You’re gonna ask Mom now, right?”

  “That’s the plan.”

  “Okay. I’ll wait here.”

  Daniel shook his head. “No. If you don’t mind, I’d like you to be with me.”

  Daniel had always thought the saying “grinning from ear to ear” was an odd one, but the kid’s smile practically did extend from one ear to the other. “Okay, then. Ready?”

  Jason hopped off the bed and reached for Daniel’s hand. “Yup!”

  “Now, this is serious stuff. Can you look serious when we walk out of here? Like this?” Daniel made a face.

  Jason nodded and mimicked Daniel.

  Daniel burst out laughing. “That’ll do it.”

  *

  PAIGE DIDN’T KNOW what to think when she saw the matching looks on Daniel’s and Jason’s faces as they emerged from the bedroom. She played along when Daniel asked her to sit on the sofa with Jason.

  When they were settled, Daniel lowered himself to one knee in front of Paige. Jason tried to suppress a giggle by covering his mouth with both hands, but he failed miserably. Daniel gave him his mock-stern look, which only made Jason giggle harder. Paige didn’t hear that sound from her little boy often enough. If her heart wasn’t already overflowing, that would have done it.

  “So.” Daniel turned his attention back to Paige and ceremoniously took her left hand in his. “Paige Summerville, would you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?” He glanced over at Jason. “And granting me the equally great honor of being Jason’s father? Before you answer...” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box covered in gold velvet. He flipped the lid open to reveal a spectacular antique ring. It had a large central diamond with a couple of smaller diamond baguettes on either side, all set in white gold.

  Paige’s mouth dropped open as she stared at the ring. Daniel tilted the box slightly so Jason could see it, too.

  “It was my grandmother’s. She gave it to me shortly before she passed away, saying she hoped I’d use it when I got married. She said she also hoped it would bring me and the lady who’d wear it as much love and joy as it had brought her and my grandfather.”

  Speechless, Paige nodded, still gazing down at the ring.

  “Unlike my parents’, theirs was a marriage of unquestionable love. I’d forgotten that over the years. I became focused on the negatives. In retrospect, that was wrong. I also had positive role models in my life for a happy and fulfilling marriage. My grandparents had been married for nearly fifty-five years when my grandfather passed away.

  “I’d nearly forgotten about this ring, too. I’d just put it, along with any idea of marriage, out of my mind. But when I decided I wanted us to be married, I thought of my grandparents, and I couldn’t think of a more appropriate symbol of my love and commitment to you.

  “The reason I was late is because I had to wait for the bank to open to get the ring from my safety deposit box.” He paused. “If you don’t like it, I can get you another one.”

  He looked from Paige to Jason and back again. “So, what do you say? Will you both make me the happiest man on the planet?”

  Paige had a huge grin on her face but her lips were trembling. She turned to Jason, who was grinning broadly, too. He nodded before she could ask the question. She definitely had Jason’s support. “Yes. Oh, yes.” She threw one arm around Daniel’s neck and the other around her son.

  *

  DANIEL STILL COULDN’T believe he was engaged, but he knew down to his bones that it was the absolute right thing. To be a family with Paige and Jason. He had to admit the thought of having more kids with Paige made him feel warm inside. He’d shared the news with his parents and was pleasantly surprised by how happy they seemed. Maybe he’d judged them too harshly. They were anxious to meet their future daughter-in
-law. His mother was downright joyous. Go figure.

  After some debate, he and Paige set their wedding date for the Saturday before Jason’s surgery. That might have been cutting it close, but despite the fact that their wedding would be small and intimate, there were still arrangements to be made, and they needed to get a marriage license. They also agreed to file papers for Daniel to legally adopt Jason. His firm pulled out all the stops and called in favors to make it possible by the wedding.

  He and Paige had discussed where they’d like to live. They considered Hartford, Camden Falls, Great Barrington and a number of other locations within a reasonable driving distance.

  They finally decided on Camden Falls. First, because Jason’s needs took priority. His school and his friends were there, and many of his doctors were local, too. Jason, being the remarkable kid he was, had offered no resistance to relocation, but they thought he had enough upheaval and uncertainty in his life. On top of that, Paige had all her friends—a solid support system for her and Jason—right there. Daniel and Paige didn’t want her to lose contact with her friends again, as she had when she’d moved to Camden Falls. These people—Chelsea, the Bennetts, Mr. Weatherly—were too important to all three of them.

  Finally, for Jason and for any other kids they’d be fortunate enough to have, Camden Falls was a wonderful place to grow up. It was a reasonable commute to Paige’s parents and to Daniel’s Lindstrom, Kinsley and McGuire offices.

  For all these reasons, they decided to make their home in Camden Falls.

  Home.

  What a concept. Not just a house but a home. Daniel had a house, but had he ever called it a home? He thought again of the billboard he’d seen outside his office at Christmas—the idyllic family scene—and now he was setting up a home with Paige and Jason.

  He could hardly wait until they were officially a family.

  They decided to delay the honeymoon until after Jason’s surgery, whenever he was feeling well enough to join them. Daniel marveled at how easily he and Paige made decisions together. These days, they were almost always like-minded. Including the decision about wanting Jason along on their honeymoon.

  Sooner or later, they’d take a romantic trip, just the two of them, maybe to Bali or Phuket in Thailand. But for now, they wanted to build their little family. Daniel had retained a real estate agent to find them a house. Either the agent was unusually good or they were exceptionally lucky. They found a house all three of them loved in no time at all.

  It had a large yard backing onto a forested ravine, with a swimming pool and a kids’ wooden jungle gym, perfect for Jason. Daniel laughed when they first pulled up outside the house, since it had an actual white picket fence.

  Paige loved the kitchen. For Daniel, it had a three-car garage, a small workshop, and an office big enough to accommodate the needs of his new business, at least for the short term. The office had an exterior door, too, so he could see clients at home, if he chose to, without having them traipsing through the rest of the house. There was a small fourth bedroom on the main floor that they decided would make an excellent office for Paige.

  With this completely unplanned turn of events, Daniel was glad he hadn’t moved too quickly to set up a physical office for Heartfelt Legal Services. He loved the thought that both he and Paige could work from home. That way, they didn’t have to spend eight to ten hours a day apart from each other and from Jason.

  By next Christmas, they’d be like that family on the billboard outside his office—only better. Real. They’d be just as Jason had depicted them in his painting, the portrait of them at Christmas, because their feelings for each other were genuine.

  As they walked through one last time, the real estate agent overheard them talking about converting the fourth bedroom into an office for Paige’s business. Coincidentally, she needed someone to help her refresh her website. Before they’d closed the transaction on the house, Paige had another client.

  As the house was already vacant, they were able to negotiate a closing date that would allow them to take possession, if not fully move in, prior to Jason’s surgery.

  Jason was very excited about the prospect of living in a house. He’d been too young when his parents split to remember much about the house they’d lived in.

  In a moment of weakness, Jason got them to agree that once he’d recovered from the surgery, he could get a puppy.

  A wife, a child, a home, a dog and a new job—all in the span of a few months—should have rattled Daniel. It didn’t. It felt good. Daniel had never been more enthusiastic about the future.

  They just had to get through Jason’s surgery first.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  NOW THAT THE surgery was scheduled, Paige knew she had to inform Jason’s father, irrespective of not having a relationship with him. She and Daniel had discussed it, and they agreed she owed it to him. Paige believed he had a right to know what his son was facing and the possible consequences. Although Mark had surrendered all parental rights, she also needed to tell him about Daniel’s plan to adopt Jason.

  Daniel offered to have someone in his office locate Mark, but Paige declined. She felt it was her responsibility. Doing a basic web search, she found him without too much trouble, and obtained his home phone number.

  Mark Summerville was living in Vermont. From what she could glean from the internet, Mark was running a mobile devices business. He had a new family, a wife and two young daughters.

  Paige wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She didn’t care for herself. She had no residual feelings for Mark. All the love she’d once felt for him had withered away long ago. She had Daniel now. But her heart ached for Jason. How would he feel, knowing his biological father wouldn’t have anything to do with him, and yet he had two other children not that much younger than he was?

  Then again, maybe it was a good thing. If Mark had other children he was raising, he might be more sympathetic to Jason’s medical plight.

  Daniel encouraged her to get it over with and call Mark right after Jason went to bed. For privacy, she went into her bedroom and, using her long-distance calling card, placed the call.

  “Hello?” A female voice answered the phone.

  “Could I speak to Mark Summerville, please.”

  “May I ask who’s calling?” The voice cooled by several degrees.

  “It’s Paige...Summerville.”

  “Oh. I see.” Now there was frost in the voice. “Hold on a minute and I’ll see if he’s available.”

  Paige tapped the top of her night table.

  “Paige?”

  “Hello, Mark.” She couldn’t force herself to engage in the niceties of asking how he was or how he’d been.

  “What do you want?”

  Clearly he wasn’t interested in niceties, either. “To talk to you about Jason.”

  “Jason?”

  Her nerves were taut, stretched to the limit and ready to snap. “Yes. Jason, your son.”

  “What about him?” He sounded defensive. “If this is about money...”

  “No,” she retorted. “Money is the least of it, Mark.” Her voice became subdued. “Jason’s cancer is back.”

  She heard him inhale swiftly and heave the breath out, then nothing. She wasn’t sure he was still on the line. “Mark?”

  Another deep, heavy breath. “Yeah. I’m here.”

  “I’m not asking for anything, Mark. I just thought you should know.”

  “Okay. How...how is he?”

  There seemed to be genuine concern in his tone. Was it possible that after all these years of having no contact with his son, Mark still had feelings for him? Paige sighed. “He’s a wonderful boy, Mark. He’s trying so hard and keeping such a positive attitude.” She wanted to say that he should be proud of his son but held her tongue. “It’s bad this time.”

  “You mean to suggest it wasn’t before?”

  “No. But it’s worse.”

  “What do you want from me?”

  Disappointm
ent cut her like the sharp edge of a blade. He hadn’t even asked about Jason’s condition. The glimmer of hope that had sparked to life—the hope that he still felt something for his son—was extinguished. “I told you I don’t want anything. I thought you might want to...to maybe see him.”

  She heard some muffled sounds, as if he was moving around or covering the mouthpiece. “Paige, I have a family now.”

  And what had she and Jason been? she wondered sadly.

  “Two little girls,” he added.

  “I don’t understand why that should stop you. He’s your child, too. But it’s up to you.” She just wanted to end the call. She felt soiled, unclean somehow, talking to Mark. “If you change your mind, call me.” She gave him her phone number at the call center. She didn’t want to take the risk that Jason might answer the phone at home if Mark did call. It would be too painful and confusing for him. Only after she hung up did she realize that she hadn’t mentioned that Daniel was adopting Jason.

  Paige was thankful that Daniel was in the other room. The brief call had brought back too many difficult memories, and she was relieved that she wouldn’t have the opportunity to wallow in them on her own.

  Daniel didn’t ask how it had gone when she came out of her bedroom. He simply rose, walked over to her and encircled her in his arms.

  *

  THERE WAS A message from Mark waiting for Paige when she arrived at work the next day. She stared at the notice on her computer screen, not quite believing it, expecting the type to waver in front of her eyes and disappear. But it didn’t. Her shift was due to start in a few minutes, and she didn’t want to rush the call, so she decided to return it during her first break.

  When the time came, she left her workstation and went to one of the break rooms to ensure privacy. She closed the door behind her, then dropped down in a chair at the table. She pulled the telephone that sat in the middle toward her and dialed the number she’d jotted down on a slip of paper.

  “Mark, it’s Paige,” she announced when the phone was answered.

  “I’ll keep this short,” he said. “Jason is my son and I...I care about him. I don’t know if I want to see him, though. I don’t know if I can.” She detected a trace of the old terror that used to claim him back when they were married and discussing Jason’s care.