Page 25 of The Billionaire's Christmas Baby Surprise

“I’ll head out too, then.” Stephanie checked her watch. “Are you coming, Max?”

Max looked from Stephanie to the kids to Billie, then shook his head. “No, thanks. I’ll stay a little longer.”

“See you later.” Stephanie and the photographer left.

Billie turned to Max. “You didn’t need to stay.”

“I wanted to. It’s nice to see the kids, and I’m glad that they’re enjoying their presents and the food.”

“Well, the next part might be a little more difficult. It’s time to visit the kids who can’t leave their rooms.”

“I’m ready.”

Together, Max and Billie filled their arms with the remaining gifts and the unopened food and followed the Christmas-scrubs nurse to the first room. Inside, a small child of around six sat cross-legged on the bed. She was bald and there were bandages around her head, but she still looked up and smiled when Billie and Max entered.

“Mommy, the gifts are here!” the little girl said excitedly. Her mother looked up from the chair beside the bed and Billie saw that she wore a weary expression.

“Hi, I’m Billie, and this is my friend Max,” Billie said. “We brought you a special toy, directly from Santa.”

“Really?” The little girl’s eyes glowed with excitement.

“Really.” Max lifted a small bag from the pile of gifts and handed it to the child. She unwrapped it excitedly and pulled out a small stuffed rabbit, which she immediately hugged to her chest and covered in kisses.

“Oh, hold on a minute.” Max tilted his head. “I don’t think your rabbit is feeling well.”

“She isn’t?” The girl looked worried and snuggled the rabbit closer. Billie gave Max a warning look — suggesting to a sickchild that her toy wasn’t feeling well was almost definitely a bad idea. But he either didn’t see her or chose to ignore her.

“No, but don’t worry, we can make her better.” Max held out his hands and the girl handed the rabbit back. Max carefully wrapped a length of bandage from a spool on the girl’s bookshelf around the rabbit’s head. He tied it neatly behind the rabbit’s ears until the toy was wearing a smaller version of the bandages on the girl’s head.

“There we go.” He handed the rabbit back to the child. “She’s feeling better now. She just needs a lot of hugs and kisses.”

The little girl gave the rabbit a hug and a kiss, then held it back to admire it. “She looks just like me! Is she also getting better?”

“Definitely.” Max nodded. In the corner of the room, the girl’s mother looked slightly teary, and Billie went to give her a box of food and an encouraging squeeze on the shoulder.

“This is so sweet of you,” she told Billie. “And my Mandy really is getting better. We got the news this morning that she should be discharged early in the new year.”

“That’s wonderful.” Billie and the mother looked at little Mandy, who was hugging her rabbit and telling Max all about her favorite TV show,Paw Patrol, and about how the food in the hospital was “blecky.”

“I think we can fix that,” Max said. Mandy’s mom brought the box of food to her daughter, who danced with delight at the sight of a box full of French fries and grilled cheese sandwiches.

“What do we say?” her mother prompted.

“Thank you!” Mandy told Max and Billie with a grin.

“No problem. We’ll leave you to your lunch.” Billie grinned back. “Happy holidays.”

“Happy holidays!” She snuggled her rabbit closer and waved as Max and Billie stepped out into the hallway.

“That was so sweet, what you did with her rabbit,” Billie said as they walked to the next room.

“I thought it might be nice for her to have a toy that looked like her.”

Billie’s heart warmed. “Clearly, you were right. She was so excited, and I’m impressed.”

Max shrugged. “She’sthe one who’s really impressive. She’s six years old, in the hospital for Christmas, and clearly not feeling well, but she still smiled and was excited to see us.”

“You’ll see a lot of that today. Kids are amazing.”

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