Her Perfect Gift by Theodora Taylor Read Free Book Online Page A

buying the strip club where she worked and lived above, Suro had expected to have the upper hand when he next met the woman who had dared to not only lie to him, but also stand him up in Montana. But when he walked into the club with Dexter on hulking-black-guy duty beside him, he found a row of scantily clad and heavily busted women, none of which were Lacey.
    “Where’s the manager?” Dexter asked Tony, the old goodfella they’d bought the place from. “I thought she was supposed to be giving us the tour.”
    Tony pulled out his phone. “She had a last-minute emergency, but she should be back soon. Lemme text her.”
    At that moment Suro’s own phone vibrated in his suit pocket. He pulled it out and checked the number. It was his son’s school.
    Still not having said a word to the old owner or any of the strippers, he stepped into a nearby hallway to take the call. “Nakamura.”
    “Hello, Mr. Nakamura. This is Kate Lowell, the bursar at Rise Academy. I’m sorry to call you out of the blue like this, but I just got off the phone with Sparkle Winters’s mother. While I’m sure she’s very grateful for your support, she was also very alarmed we couldn’t tell her the name of her anonymous donor. So I’m calling you to make sure you don’t want to reconsider letting her know who you are to help put her mind at rest.”
    “No,” Suro answered.
    “Oh, okay then,” Kate said, sounding a little taken aback by his short answer. “I’ll let her know I relayed her concerns but that you wish to remain anonymous. Are sure you won’t reconsider?”
    Suro told her the truth. “I’m sure she’ll figure it out soon enough.”
    “Oh, are you two acquainted?” Ms. Lowell asked.
    “Ow, Spidey! You need to stop!” Lacey’s voice came down the hallway, still soft and unmistakable, despite the stern warning she was issuing.
    “I’m hanging up now,” he said, and ended the call with the bursar without further explanation.
    But when he turned to face Lacey, he found the unexpected sight of her with a baby in each arm, looking like an overwhelmed mother in a high-collar button up shirt, a sweater vest, and black slacks. This impression wasn’t helped by the fact that her sweater vest had a large, noticeable hole in it and one of the babies had a hand wrapped around a chunk of her hair and was practically hanging off of it like Tarzan, Lord of the Babies.
    “What are you doing here?” she asked Suro, sounding less surprised than exasperated.
    But before he could answer, she deposited the little light brown baby into his arms. “Here, can you just take Ben while I…”
    She used her now free hand to pry little Tarzan’s hands out of her locks. “No, Spidey. I said no!”
    Spidey immediately burst into angry tears.
    “Oh, my goodness.” She checked her watch and yelled through the slatted wall that stood between the hallway and the main club floor, “Girls, get on stage, please. The club should have opened fifteen minutes ago. And Candy, please stop flirting and meet me in my office to pick up your child.”
    Candy, who had indeed been flirting with Dexter, one hand fully plastered on his large chest, turned to glare at Lacey, angry embarrassment written across her face. Obviously she wasn’t keen on her potential prey knowing she had a baby.
    Lacey didn’t bother to wait for her response before letting herself into her office, which, to Suro, looked like it belonged to an accountant on one side, with several files and paperwork strewn everywhere, and a daycare teacher on the other, with a play pen, colorful foam mats on the floor, and baskets of toys. She set the baby she called Spidey near one basket, then took Ben from Suro’s arms and set him down on the floor.
    “Go for it,” she said to both of them.
    Then she stood just in time to confront a furious Candy. “I can’t believe you blew up my spot like that!” the heavily weaved dancer screeched at her, but as quietly as possible so Dex