Page 334 of Under Her Skin
“About that, Mr. Vanderbilt. We don’t need an entire week off. We’ll take the typical Christmas day off and one more day, but we can come back. This place is huge and hard to care for alone,” she says as she gestures to the hugeplace.
“Nonsense,” I tell her. “We’ll have family to help on Christmas day, and she and I can fend for ourselves after that so you all can enjoy some much-deserved timeoff.”
“Promise to call me if you need anything. I can get a skeleton staff together on short notice.” She looks at me with her no-nonsenselook.
With a nod, I say, “If we get into a jam, I will call you. Now, go enjoy the Christmas bonuses that should’ve arrived in your bank accounts. You might find you want the week free with what you’ll have tospend.”
Her eyes go wide. “Sir, you’ve already given us our bonuses two weeks ago. Don’t you remember doingthat?”
“This is a special bonus. For years of hard work. So go home and see what Santa brought you,Roxy.”
With a smile, she turns, and as soon as she gets out of the den, I can hear her shoes moving much faster with mynews.
I never knew it felt this damn good togive!
Chapter5
DELANEY
With the present I got for Blaine wrapped up in a way that will never let him know what’s really inside of it, I walk back out to the car with the box. The lady who runs the shop did a fantastic job on it, and I’m looking forward to seeing if Blaine is impressed byit.
Getting a gift for a man who has everything is damnhard!
I place it in the back seat of my Mercedes he’s driving me around in as he cranes his neck to get a look at it. “That’s pretty big andboxy.”
“It is,” I say and slide into the passenger side. “What’s the size ofmine?”
“A secret,” he says, then smiles at me. “A great, bigsecret.”
“Great and big?” I ask as I think about what he might have bought me. He’s already given me a car, but he has tons of them so it could be another one. Or a house in some remote area. He could’ve done that too. With a man of his wealth, one never knows what she might get when gift-giving time comesaround.
“How’s Meagan?” he asks, and my smiledisappears.
“Not good. The pastor has been with her and her family all day. They’ve called in the rest of the familytoo.”
“Is that how they do things when there’s nothing else they can do?” he asks, and I see him swallow what looks like a lump in histhroat.
“Yes,” I say, then take his hand. “But these things happen. At least you got the gift she gave you. Yourfaith.”
He nods, then glances at me. “I saw Santatoday.”
“Oh, Blaine!” I say with a laugh. “Now that’s a little too muchfaith.”
“No, really! Stop laughing at me!” He looks a little irritated, so I stoplaughing.
“Sorry. So, tell me about your sighting. Was it in the sky, driving his eight, tiny reindeer? Or somewhere more personal thanthat?”
“It was more personal than that. He talked to me. He asked me what I wanted for Christmas.” He glances sideways atme.
“And what did you tell him you wanted, Blaine,” I ask, trying very hard not to smile and attempting to take himseriously.
“I told him I wanted Meagan to get better. I’m not saying I’ll lose what I’ve found if she doesn’t, but man, how great would it be if she did get better?” His smile tells me he’s taking this way too seriously and is doomed to go very low if the poor girl doesn’t makeit.
“Blaine, you need to understand things better. That little girl’s body is shutting down. It would take a miracle to save her now. Please don’t get your hopes up. I’d hate to see you dive down into the depths of despair because Santa couldn’t saveher.”
“I won’t,” he says with an annoyed tone. “I’m not an idiot. I know Santa isn’treal.”
And now I feel like anass!
