Chapter 25
Christmas morning came and Bob slipped downstairs at four a.m. He went to the pantry and took out the presents that he had bought for Ann and Brenda and arranged them under the tree. He filled the stockings with the small, but definitely not cheaper, presents that he had picked up. The past couple of days he and Ann had to slip away to be together whenever Brenda was either riding her horse or was with Todd.
About five thirty he heard movement upstairs. Soon Ann came down the stairs with Bob's robe over top of her pajamas. Ann walked to him and put her arms around his neck and kissed him.
She pulled away a little and looked at Bob, "Merry Christmas."
Bob pulled her to him again and kissed her. Ann made no attempt to move away from him. When they broke their kiss she kept looking into his eyes; drinking in his rugged good looks.
They heard a chair scraping on the floor and looked at Brenda sitting down at the table, "Gosh, don't you two ever stop? Coffee ready?"
Ann's face began to turn beet red, "Gosh Mom, you don't think that I can see what's going on?" Are we going to eat breakfast first or open presents first?"
Bob spoke first, "Let's all get a slice of toast and a cup of coffee and take it in the living room and open presents."
Bob put the bread in the toaster and then poured each of them a cup of coffee. They were waiting for him to lead the way so he passed them and walked into the living room. He put a couple of logs on the fire and shoved a piece of fat wood under the logs to get them started. When they saw all of the presents under the tree, they both gasped.
Bob sat on the couch and put out his hand to Ann, "Since we're already busted, why don't you sit here with me. Brenda can pass out the presents."
Ann sat next to Bob and he put his arm around her and Ann looked quickly at Brenda to see if her daughter approved.
Brenda went to the tree and began to look at the presents, "Mom, these look like their all for us! Wait, look. Didn't you get us anything Bob? All of the presents have from Santa Claus on them."
Bob got a silly grin on his face, "Why should I buy you any presents?"
Ann gave him a stern look and Bob gave her a quick kiss and said, "It's just great having you here. Thanks for sharing your Christmas with me."
"Bob, you shouldn't have..."
Bob cut her off, "Do you know how I've spent Christmas the past few years? I've spent Christmas in the office alone and working. I told myself that I could get a lot more done because there was no one to interrupt me. You don't know how great it is to share Christmas with two people that I care about."
Brenda started handing out the presents. She would hand one to her mother and then open one herself. Brenda picked up one heavy package and opened it. It was a top of the line laptop computer. Ann opened her first present and it was an Omega watch. Brenda decided to open a small present and saw that Bob had given her a pocket computer.
When they had opened all of the presents, except several that the labels said were for Paula and Dave, Bob had given Ann a set of Coach Luggage and a briefcase, jewelry and perfume. In several boxes he had put a gift certificate to some of the better women's shops in Washington, D.C.; he had put the gift certificate in a big box like her parents had done years ago. Bob was beginning to worry that Brenda would have trouble getting all of her things back to college.
Ann went upstairs and came back with two presents, "These are from Brenda and me."
Bob opened his first present and it was a heavy hand knit sweater from the Aran Islands. He knew that it strained her budget because they were very expensive and only a limited number were available each year. He opened his second present and it was a bottle of Lagerfeld aftershave.
"I got you that because that's the men's aftershave that I like," Ann smiled.
Bob saw that the envelope was still under the tree, "Brenda, there's an envelope under the tree that has your name on it."
Brenda opened the envelope and saw that there were ten one hundred dollar bills in it. There was also a Visa card in the envelope.
Brenda looked at Bob quizzically.
"You're going to have to drive back to college by yourself. Your mother and I have to go to South America on January Third. That's money so that you can eat and stay at a motel at night. I don't want you trying to drive straight through. The Visa card is a prepaid card. There's four thousand on the card right now and I'll keep an eye on the balance so that it doesn't run out."
Brenda got up with a big grin on her face, "I'll fix breakfast."
Ann looked up at her daughter, "Oh no. Not unless you learned to cook in the past week. I've tasted some of your cooking, remember?"
Bob stood up, "It's my kitchen and I'm going to fix breakfast. You two go through your gifts and tell each other how mistreated you both are."
Bob went into the kitchen and began to prepare breakfast. He heard Brenda and Ann talking and laughing in the living room.
Bob was fixing breakfast when Ann came in and hugged him from behind. Within minutes he had a second pair of arms around him. Bob turned and had two women in his arms.
Ann looked up at him, "Why did you spend so much on us? You went way overboard."
Bob hugged them closer, "I told you what my Christmas has been like the past few years. I feel so great about having two people that I think are really super spend Christmas with me that I decided to make this a Christmas you'll remember for a long time. Now, if you don't like the presents; I'm sure that I could take them to Goodwill tomorrow."
"I think I'll keep mine," Brenda laughed.
"You'd better let me go before breakfast burns."
Bob rushed around the kitchen, trying to keep things from getting over done, and soon had eggs, bacon and waffles on the table. He poured a glass of orange juice and a coffee for each of them and sat down.
After breakfast Brenda asked her mother if she could go over to Todd's house a little later. She said that Todd said that he had a small present for her. Brenda promised to be home for Christmas dinner. She and Todd had made their plans already. Todd and Brenda would both eat Christmas dinner with their respective families and then they would spend the rest of Christmas day with each other.
Bob spoke up, "If Todd has a present for you; do you have something for him?"
Brenda shook her head. Bob got up from the table and went into his office. H searched for the tem that he had in mind and found it. He went back into the kitchen to where Ann and Brenda sat talking.
"How about this Brenda? I bought this wallet some time ago and I've never got around to using it. It's a really good wallet and we could stick some money in it."
Brenda nodded her head. She had been thinking that she should get a small something for Todd but she was a bit tight on money and she hadn't even known Todd a few days ago.
Bob pulled out his wallet. "What do you think... 20 dollars... fifty... a hundred?"
Brenda grinned. "Fifty."
Brenda took the wallet and the money and went into the other room and wrapped the wallet and money with the wrapping paper that Bob had gotten for her. She asked for the right to be first in the bathroom and her mother agreed. Brenda bounded upstairs.
"Thank you. You always think of everything," Ann said. After a few seconds she added, "It looks like Todd has made an impression on Brenda."
"She could do a lot worse. Todd has always been a good kid. He always wanted to be a lawyer and his every action has been to achieve that goal. I guess we'll have to see how this plays out."
A car pulled in the driveway and Ann looked as Paula and a man, holding himself up on two canes, got out of the car. Paula went to the back of the car and got out a wheelchair. Ann looked at Bob questioningly.
"Paula's husband works for us. He was hurt on one of our projects and he's on the mend. Right now he does a lot of our planning and research from his house."
Brenda bounded into the living room and told her mother that she would be home later. She ran to her car and headed out to the county road.
Bob saw Paula talking to Hans and he continued, "I'm sure that you've observed that Paula does more than a receptionist usually does in a company. People that come into the office think that she's only a dumb telephone answerer and they often say things that they wouldn't want me to hear. Paula has a master's degree in political science. She set up her job. Paula researches every project that comes into the office. She has the authority to refuse any proposal and she decides who I need to talk to. When she drops a proposal on my desk we know as much about the people that we're working for as they do themselves. Paula has saved us many times the money we pay her. She also keeps weapons in her desk and she knows how to use them very well."
Ann watched as Paula began to push her husband to the house, "What did her husband do for the company?"
"He was in the Special Forces. As I told you, we sometimes take over the protection of our clients ourselves. Carl was hurt on one of those missions."
Paula opened the front door and yelled out, "Anybody home?"
Bob greeted Paula and Carl in the living room and sat them down in front of the fireplace. Ann told Bob that she'd make another pot of coffee and started for the kitchen.
"I'll help you," Paula said as she followed Ann into the kitchen.
Ann started to fix the coffee and Paula leaned against the coffee. When Ann had finished adding the coffee and the water to the coffee pot she turned away from the counter.
"I'm glad that you're spending Christmas with Bob," Paula said, "He's been a real terror after the holidays for the past few years. I can see the difference in him already. Anything that I should know?"
Ann stammered, "What do you... I don't... Why would..."
Paula laughed, "Come on Ann. Everybody in the office has commented on how you two look at each other whenever you're near each other. Do you know that we even have a pool in the office about when he asks you to marry him?"
Ann stammered again, "I don't think..."
"Let's get back to the men," Paula said, grabbing Ann's arm, "God only knows what they're planning."
Ann and Paula walked back into the living room. Bob and Carl stopped talking and sat down. Bob began to hand out the presents to Paula and Carl. As with the gifts that he had given Ann and Brenda he didn't go cheap. Everything that he gave Paula and Carl was first class.
After the presents were opened they sat around talking for a while. Paula and Ann talked about the upcoming trip to South America. Paula knew more about the trip than Ann did. They were going to Argentina to set up a personal protection force for the President to ensure against any coup. The President had requested that Paladin suggest the proper armored vehicles for the President and his cabinet. Paula had budgeted four days for the trip.
"I'll be back on duty in a couple of months, "Carl said, "Don't go giving my job away."
Bob was quiet for a few seconds, "Carl, you won't be doing the same thing for Paladin when you come back to work. In a couple of months I'm going to make some big changes at Paladin and I'm going to need you here. I'd rather not go into it right now but I think that you'll like what I am going to propose to you and Paula."
After a couple of hours Paula said that they had to leave to get to her mother's house for Christmas dinner. Bob helped them get their presents out to the car and then hurried back into the house. Ann was just finishing leaning up the kitchen.
Ann put her arm in Bob's, "I think that I'll take a nap. Would anyone care to join me?"
Brenda came home about ten o'clock. She looked in her mother's room
and saw that the room was empty. Bob's bedroom door was closed. Brenda
smiled to herself. She later fell asleep with that smile on her face.