“One of those robot dogs.” She laughed. “I’m sure it’s going to make everyone at the school crazy. Apparently it barks when it’s excited and whimpers when it’s lonely. It has to be fed.”
He looked at her. “What do we feed a fake dog?”
“Some kind of fake bone.” She shrugged. “According to the guy at the store, the dog can be programmed to recognize a voice and even do tricks. It will take some work, but when I talked to Andrew, he felt it would be good for Dirk. Not only fun, but it will help him read and follow directions. I also got him a remote control car, some videos and a gift certificate for clothes. The school suggested that so they can take the students shopping and teach them to make good choices on their own.”
Mark stared at her. “I didn’t realize that buying for Dirk was so complicated.” He looked uncomfortable. “I just got him a new basketball.”
Darcy hadn’t realized that one of the presents from Mark had been for Dirk. His thoughtfulness overwhelmed her. Tears sprang to her eyes. She threw her arms around him and held him close.
“Hey,” he said lightly. “It wasn’t all that big a deal.”
“Yes it was.” She sniffed. “I didn’t expect you to get him anything. You took time out of your busy schedule to get something special for my brother. That means a lot to me.”
He hugged her. Darcy savored the feel of his body next to hers. Although they’d been spending a lot of time together, they hadn’t been making love. She didn’t know what that meant and did her best not to think about it. In many ways her relationship with Mark was entirely too complicated, although very wonderful.
She straightened and wiped away any trace of tears. “Okay. Enough foolishness. Show me the loot.”
Mark chuckled. He pulled the large mystery box toward him, then set it in front of her.
“Here’s the thing,” he said. “I really wrestled with this one.”
She eyed the box. “Is it a bear?”
“Not that kind of wrestling. I didn’t know if I should get this or not. It’s one of those practical presents. I know that women have a thing about that. But I did it because I worry about you and I wanted to make your life easier.”
“Is it a muffler for my car?”
“Would you just open it?”
She stared at the Santa paper and the crooked seams of the wrapping. The bow was off center and Mark had used enough tape to hold together a ship. She thought the package looked wonderful.
But what had he gotten her? She ripped paper off one side of the box. It was just a white shipping box and the plain cardboard didn’t give any hints. She quickly tore the rest of it away, then pried open the top.
Inside were packing peanuts and something large and flat. She pulled out an expensive two-layer cookie sheet, then glanced at Mark.
He looked vaguely uncomfortable. “If you’re going to be spending all your time in the kitchen, I thought you might like to be working with something better than those old pans of yours.” He hesitated. “I wasn’t sure because there are all those horror stories about insensitive men buying blenders for gifts. I didn’t mean it like that.”
Darcy stared at the label on the pan. It was high-end stuff. More than she could afford, even on her best day. Judging from the weight of the box, it wasn’t the only one inside.
“You can’t buy these here.”
“I know. I found a place on-line and got it through them.”
She dropped the pan and threw her arms around him. “Thank you. They’re wonderful.”
“You’re not mad?”
“Not even a little. I think they’re fabulous.”
The tingling was back, along with hope for their future. Mark hadn’t gotten her something easy and generic. He’d put a lot of effort into the bakeware. Maybe she did matter to him after all.
He kissed her. “There’s more than just the one cookie sheet. You could look at the rest of them.”
He sounded like a little kid who wanted his school project admired. She returned to the box and drew out three more cookie sheets and two sets of cake pans. There were also four loaf pans and a specially designed multilayer cooling rack. Talk about a fantasy collection.
“I’m impressed,” she said. “Thank you. I mean it.”
“Good.”
