The Greatest Gift

by Diana Palmer

  She laughed softly. “I guess I need a vacation.”

  “You’re having one,” he pointed out. “All meals included.”

  “This is much too expensive a vacation,” she argued. “I have minimal insurance coverage and it’s brand-new.”

  “It’s quite enough, as you’ll find out,” he replied. “I checked.”

  “The children…!”

  “I picked them up from school, and John from day care and brought them here with me. They’re with your friend, Tammy. I phoned her and she came straight over to pick them up. I would have been glad to keep them,” he added at once, “but I’m on duty and I can’t get anybody to cover for me. I took my lunch hour early to come and see about you.”

  “Thanks, Matt.”

  “No problem,” he said gently. “I don’t mind looking after people I lo…people I care about,” he corrected abruptly, afraid that he’d gone too far too fast. She was fragile enough already without having to carry the burden of his feelings for her.

  But Mary had caught his slip of the tongue, and even through the fog of the sedatives, she felt exhilarated. “You’re a wonder, Matt. I don’t know how to thank you…”

  “I don’t need thanking,” he replied gently. “I’m glad to do it. Thank your friend, Tammy. She didn’t even have to be coaxed into baby-sitting—if that’s the right word to use.”

  “Are my babies all right?” she whispered.

  They were terrified and half out of their collective minds with worry, he thought, but he wasn’t about to tell her that. He smiled convincingly. “They’re doing great. I’m going to bring them to see you when I get off duty tonight.”

  “I’ll try to look better so that I don’t scare them.”

  He reached out and took her hand gently in his. Her fingers were like ice. “Listen, you’re going to have to make some hard decisions, and soon. The doctor said you’ll make a speedy recovery—provided that you slow down. If not for your own sake, then for the children’s. What are they going to do without you, Mary?”

  She winced. “I’ve tried so hard to give them everything I could. Life is so hard sometimes, Matt.”

  “I may not look as if I know that, but I do,” he said, curling her small hand into his big one. “Nevertheless, you’re going to have to slow down.”

  “Where do I start?” she worried. “I can’t give up my cleaning jobs, they’re all I have to support me.”

  “You have a part-time job at the food bank that will help a lot. That should allow you the luxury of cutting down on your cleaning jobs, at least. And you’ll have more volunteers to help with the pickups and deliveries of your program. Who knows, Mary, it might someday work into a full-time job. All you have to do is hang in there for the time being. But the pace is going to kill you if you don’t put on the brakes.” His eyes lowered to her hand. He brought it gently to his lips and kissed the palm hungrily. “I’ve suddenly got a family of my own,” he added huskily, and without looking at her. “I don’t want to be left alone.”

  Her heart skipped wildly. “Matt!” she whispered huskily.

  His dark eyes lifted to hers. He searched them slowly, and her face began to grow radiant with faint color.

  “I know,” he murmured. “It’s too soon after your divorce for this. You don’t really know me yet, or trust me. But I’m going to be around for a long time, and I can wait until you’re comfortable with me.”

  She laughed a little shyly. “I don’t think I’ll ever be that, exactly. You’re…sort of an electrifying personality. You make me feel as if I could do anything.”

  “Same here,” he replied, his lips tugging into a tender smile. “So don’t skip out on me, okay? You have to get better. A lot of us can’t go on without you.”

  She smiled up at him with her heart in her eyes. She drew the back of his big hand to her cheek and held it there. “I’m not going anywhere. Honest.”

  He stood up, bending over her with his heart in his eyes. “I’ll hold you to that,” he whispered, and, bending, he touched his lips tenderly to her forehead.

  She sighed with pure bliss.

  He lifted his head, dropped his eyes to her mouth, and bent down to give her a real kiss that took her breath away. When the door opened and a young nurse came into the room, she noted how quickly the policeman stood up, and how flushed he and the patient looked.

  “Uh-huh,” she murmured dryly. “I can see that I’ll have to keep a closer eye on you two!” she teased.

  The tension broke and they both started laughing.

  “He’s the one you have to watch,” Mary said with a possessive smile in Matt’s direction. “But not too closely, if you don’t mind,” she added with a wink at the pretty nurse. “I can’t stand the competition.”

  “That’s what you think,” Matt drawled.

  Mary sat up in bed. “Oh, my goodness,” she exclaimed. “Who’ll do my pickups and deliveries tonight? You can’t do it all, not even with the children helping.”

  He held up a hand. “Already taken care of,” he said easily. “I phoned Bev and she phoned a few people. Tonight, even if you could get out of that bed, you’d be superfluous. So you just concentrate on getting your strength back. Okay?”

  Mary felt as if she had a new lease on life, as if tomorrow and all the tomorrows to come would be worth waking up for. The look in Matt’s eyes made her tingle like an adolescent with her first crush.

  He seemed to understand how she felt, because his eyes darkened and a faint ruddy flush darkened the skin on his high cheekbones.

  “I really have to go,” he bit off.

  Mary was watching him hungrily while the nurse checked her blood pressure, and then her temperature, with her high-tech arsenal of diagnostic tools.

  “You’ll be back tonight, with the kids?” Mary added.

  He nodded, and smiled. “Around seven.”

  “I’ll expect you,” Mary said huskily. “I’m going to phone Tammy and thank her.”

  “Good idea.” He winked again. “Stay out of trouble.”

  “Look who’s talking!” Mary exclaimed, and smiled back at him.

  “See you.” He went out with a quick wave of his hand. Mary stared after him until the door closed.

  “Handsome guy,” the nurse murmured dryly. “I gather he’s spoken for?” she asked.

  “Oh, yes, indeed, he is,” Mary replied with a becoming blush.

  “No wonder you’re improving so much,” the nurse laughed. “If you need me, just buzz. You’re doing great.”

  “Thanks,” she said.

  The nurse smiled and went to her next patient down the hall.

  Her family doctor, Mack Barker, stopped by just at suppertime to check her over. He dropped into a chair by her bedside after he’d checked her chart and taken her vitals himself.

  “I suppose you know now that you can’t go on burning the candle at both ends,” he told her. “You were pushing yourself too hard. Something had to give.”

  “I suppose I just went on from day to day without thinking about how much stress I was under,” she had to admit.

  “You’re going to have to learn how to delegate more,” he warned her. “Or this may not be the last trip you make to the hospital.”

  She drew in a lazy breath. “It’s just that I’ve got three kids to look after, and now I’m doing this food rescue program…”

  “Which is a very worthwhile thing,” the doctor admitted. “But if you don’t slow down, somebody else is going to be doing it instead of you. Or maybe nobody else will be able to do it at all, and it will fold. Either way, you’re going to destroy your health if you don’t find a way to curtail your work. I’m sorry. I know how much it means to you. But you can’t possibly keep it up any longer.”

  “I can’t give up what I do at the food bank,” she said miserably. “You can’t imagine how many people depend on those food deliveries—”

  “Yes, I can imagine,” he interrupted. “It’s a tremendously worthwhile and unse
lfish thing you’ve been doing.” He smiled quietly. “It’s just that I’d like you to be able to continue it. This is going to require some compromise. But you can salvage some of your charity work and keep your job at the food bank as well. You only need to cut your housekeeping duties in half. Believe me, your clients will understand.”

  “It’s the money,” Mary argued. “I have to be able to keep the kids in clothes and food and pay my bills. We’re living in a motel room, we can’t even afford to rent a house!”

  “Do you believe in miracles?”

  Mary looked up as Bev stepped into the room with a big smile on her face.

  She blinked. “Well, yes. Of course.”

  “Your hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed. I know someone who has a house for rent, at a price you can afford.”

  “You’re kidding!” she exclaimed.

  “I’m not. And my friend knows where you can get some good used furniture and appliances to go in it.”

  “I can’t believe it,” she exclaimed.

  When the doctor left the room a few minutes later, Bev filled her in on the details. “It gets better. The house is half a block from the shelter, so that you could walk to work.”

  She just stared at Bev, dumbfounded.

  “I know you can afford the utilities on your salary. You could probably even afford to make payments on a good used car, since you won’t have rent to worry about.”

  Tears stung her eyes and rolled down her pale cheeks. “I just can’t believe it!”

  * * *

  When Matt returned that evening with the kids, she filled him in on her wonderful news.

  He smiled. “It’s amazing how kind people can be,” he remarked. “I see a lot of cruelty in my line of work. Sometimes it really gets me down, seeing the dark side of human nature. But then, somebody like you comes along and renews my faith in mankind. Womankind, too. People who give always get repaid for it, Mary.”

  She wiped away the tears. “Bev went out of her way looking for that house, didn’t she?”

  He nodded.

  “What a kind thing for her to do.”

  “I’ll tell her,” he said with a laugh. “For now, you just concentrate on getting better, and out of here.”

  She let out a long breath, thinking what an odyssey her life had become. It was a journey, an adventure, an obstacle course. But she’d become strong and self-sufficient and independent because of the hardships and challenges.

  “Deep thoughts?” Matt probed.

  She looked at him. “I was thinking that it’s not the destination, it’s the journey. I’ve heard that all my life. I never really understood it until I ended up in a shelter with my kids.”

  He nodded. “The journey is the thing. Not to mention the exciting and interesting people you meet along the way.” He gave her a devilish wink and brought her hand to his lips.

  Warmth flooded through her. “I never expected that people would be so kind to me, when I was about as low on the social ladder as a person could get. Even the people I work for have been supportive and generous. And you were the best surprise of all,” she said softly.

  “Right back at you,” he said gruffly.

  She laid back on the pillows. “Thank you, Matt, for everything. And you’ll be happy to know I’m listening to the doctor. I’ll speak with my employers when I get out of here. And I will slow down.”

  “That’s a really good idea,” he mused. “I’ll be back with the kids first thing tomorrow.”

  After Mary kissed the kids good-night and exchanged a highly charged look with Matt that was ripe with possibilities of what the future could hold, she was left alone to rest. Closing her eyes, she thought about the changes she was going to have to make. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad after all, slowing down. Well, slowing down just a little, she amended.

  CHAPTER SIX

  MARY HAD A LONG TALK with three of her employers about giving up her work. They were nice, but she knew they didn’t really understand why Mary had to quit working for them.

  One asked if the money wasn’t enough, and offered a substantial raise if Mary would stay on.

  That was just too hard to turn down. Mary agreed to stay, but she was adamant about the other two jobs. She explained that if she had another stress attack, it could be much worse, and she had her kids to think about. She had to stay healthy so that she could get them all through school. Her doctor had insisted that she had to give up some work. In the end, they accepted her decision and even gave her severance pay.

  Matt was delighted that she was following doctor’s orders. “We get to keep you around for a while, right, kids?” he asked them when they were all enjoying hamburgers after a particularly great fantasy movie on their Saturday out.

  “Right!” they chorused.

  “It’s been a super evening, Matt. Thanks again.”

  He smiled warmly at her. “It’s only the second of many,” he said easily, finishing his hamburger. “I see a pleasant future for us.”

  “Us?” she teased lightly.

  “Us,” he agreed. “We’ll be best friends for a couple of years and then I’ll follow you around Phoenix on one knee with a ring in my hand until you say yes.”

  She laughed delightedly. “I just might hold you to that,” she murmured.

  “We can carry your bouquet,” Ann enthused.

  “And tie tin cans to the bumper of the car we haven’t got yet,” Bob added, tongue-in-cheek.

  “We can take care of him when he’s sick,” Ann added in her sensible way.

  Matt gave Ann a beaming smile. “And I can take care of all of you, when you need it.”

  “I might be a policeman one day myself,” Bob mused.

  It was nice to see that the children liked Matt as much as she did. It wasn’t wise to look too far down unknown roads. But she felt comfortable and secure with Matt. So did the children. He was truly one of a kind. She had a feeling that it would all work out just perfectly one day.

  “Deep thoughts?” Matt mused.

  “Very nice ones, too,” she replied, and she smiled at him.

  Her new job was more fulfilling than anything she’d done in her life. She felt a sense of accomplishment when she and her volunteers—many of them, now—carried food to the legions of hungry people around town.

  More newspaper interviews had followed, including stories about her co-workers, which made her feel like part of a large, generous family. Which, in effect, the food bank was.

  “You know,” she told Tom one afternoon, “I never dreamed that I’d be doing this sort of job. It’s like a dream come true.”

  “I understand how you feel,” he replied, smiling. “All of us who became involved in this work are better people for having been able to do it. The more we give, the more we receive. And not just in material ways.”

  “Yes,” she said. “There’s no greater gift than that of giving to other people.”

  He nodded.

  She glanced at her watch and gasped. “Goodness, I have to get on the road! Mr. Harvey, did I ever tell you how grateful I am to have this job?”

  “Only about six times a day,” he murmured dryly. “We’re happy to have you working for us, Mary.”

  “I’ll get on my rounds. Good night, Mr. Harvey.”

  He smiled. “Good night, Mary.”

  She went out the door with a list of her pickups and deliveries in one hand, her mind already on the evening’s work. Matt was on duty tonight, Bob and Ann were at sports competitions, John was with Tammy, who’d agreed to pick up Bob and Ann at the games—her kids were playing, as well. Mary could pick them up on the way home.

  Home. She thought of the neat little house she was now living in with her kids, rent free, and of the nice used compact car she’d been able to afford. It didn’t seem very far away that she and the children had been living on the streets, with no money, no home, no car and no prospects. Life had looked very sad back then.

  But now she was rich, in so many ways that had
little to do with money. She waved to the volunteer staff standing by their own vehicles, waiting for her to lead the way. How far she’d come, from taking a little leftover food from a restaurant and delivering it to one or two clients.

  Her heart raced as she climbed in behind the wheel. She started the car and drove off, leading the others out to the highway. There would be a lot of deliveries tonight, a lot of people to help. She felt as if she could float on air. She’d not only survived life at the bottom, she’d bounced back like a happy rubber ball to an even better place.

  The future looked very bright. Life was good.

  All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.

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