Panic flared, and with it a sense of her life spinning out of control. Just when she’d decided it couldn’t get any worse, she was fighting with her sister and had just spilled her secret to the person least likely to keep it quiet.

“Don’t say a word,” she told her grandfather. “You didn’t hear that.”

The old man wasn’t the least bit impressed with her instructions.

“Is it Sam? That young man who was over at the party?”

She couldn’t lie and she didn’t want to tell the truth. “Grandpa, this is my problem and I’ll deal with it.”

His gaze narrowed. “Men who get women pregnant have a responsibility.”

“No. You’re not talking to Sam. I mean it. You’re not to say anything. I’ll handle this.”

“He should marry you.”

“No, he shouldn’t. And he doesn’t know about the baby yet, so don’t you even think about telling him. Grandpa, you can’t!”

It was like bargaining with the weather. No matter how much energy she put into the process, she had absolutely no control over the outcome.

He didn’t say anything. Instead he looked from her to Brenna, then turned and started for the winery.

Francesca folded her arms over her midsection. “This is bad. This is really, really bad.”

“It’s worse,” Brenna said. “Sam and Kelly have been invited to dinner tomorrow night.”

“I thought we’d head out to the mission,” Gabriel said as he settled on a kitchen chair.

Kelly put down her spoon and pushed her cereal bowl away. “You don’t have to worry about me,” she said. “I’ll be fine on my own.”

“Nonsense. You and I can take the day to get to know each other better.”

Kelly wasn’t sure about that. She thought her great-grandfather might like her more if they didn’t get to know each other. “The new nanny starts the day after tomorrow. With my dance class canceled for the day, I can just hang out. You don’t have to bother.”

“It’s no bother.” Gabriel leaned his cane against the table. “I’ve made reservations for a boat cruise this afternoon. It goes over to the Channel Islands. They’re just south of here.”

She eyed the tall, white-haired man sitting across from her. She could kind of see bits of her dad in him. Gabriel wasn’t exactly friendly, but he wasn’t too scary. The odd-smelling Doreen’s last day had been the previous Friday. Sam had stayed home yesterday, and Gabriel was with her today, while Francesca was taking the Wednesday shift. Kelly had lobbied for Francesca to take care of her the whole week, but Sam had said they’d bothered her enough already.

Kelly didn’t like the sound of that. She’d thought Sam was interested in Francesca and that they might want to get married or something. Kelly wouldn’t mind having Francesca around more. Sometimes her dad was okay, but sometimes he made her crazy.

Now she had a grandfather to deal with.

“Are you going to be all right on a boat?” she asked. “Is it safe?”

Gabriel drew his bushy, white eyebrows together. “Are you saying I’m too old to go on a boat?”

“I don’t know. Are you?”

“I’ll have you know, young lady, I’ve forgotten more about boats than you’ll ever learn.”

“If you’ve forgotten it, then you’re not going to be much help, are you?”

The words were out before Kelly could stop them. She flinched slightly, waiting for Gabriel to get mad. Sam would never believe it, but she’d really been working hard to think before she spoke. With Tanya nothing had ever mattered because her mother was too busy with her own life to care. But here things seemed to be different. Fortunately Gabriel only chuckled.

“Good point,” he said with a grin. “Good news that I’m not the captain, eh?”

She nodded.

“You been on a boat before?” he asked.

“One of the maids took me on that tour around Manhattan once. It was pretty cool to see the whole city that way.”

“Where was your mother while this was going on?”

“I don’t know. Out, I guess.”

He frowned. “You miss her?”

Kelly considered the question. “It’s weird to be here instead of there, you know? But miss her?” She shrugged.

Not really. She’d never spent any time with Tanya. The staff were always taking her places, not her mother.

Here it was different. Sam was in her face all the time, but he wasn’t so bad. Maybe he didn’t spoil her, and she really hated not having a DVD player, but they had some good times. They’d started going out to dinner a few nights a week. Different places with different kinds of food. And they’d gone to the movies. He’d refused to take her shopping, but he’d promised the next nanny would. And honestly, thinking of Sam in the teen department of a mall store was kind of funny.

“Your father’s a good man,” Gabriel said.

“You’re his grandfather. You have to like him.”

“You’re his daughter.”

“I guess.” She turned her spoon over in the bowl. “I don’t really know him.”

“You’ll get there. And he’ll get to know you.”

His words were meant to reassure, but they made Kelly feel all cold inside. Staring at a few floating bits of cereal, she cleared her throat. “What about after?” she asked, her voice quiet. “When he sends me away. Do you think it will be to a boarding school or something?”

It was the thought of the “something” that terrified her the most.

“What the hell are you talking about? Sam’s not sending you anywhere.”

Kelly looked at her great-grandfather. “My mom said he’d probably keep me around for a couple of years and then he’d send me away when I got to be too much trouble. Maybe one of those boarding school places or even to a dance school. I guess that would be okay.”

The last bit was more to convince herself than because she believed it. She didn’t want to go anywhere. She wanted to be a part of a family. She wanted to feel safe.

“Do you want to go away?” Gabriel asked.

Kelly opened her mouth, then stunned both of them by bursting into tears.

“Silly girl,” he muttered as he shifted his chair close to hers and drew her against him. “This is where you live now. I know it’s hard to adjust, especially with your mother dumping you like this. But we’re your family now. You’re stuck with us.”

Kelly wanted to believe him. Really. “Sam gets mad at me.”

“Of course he does. I used to get so angry with him that I wanted to lock him in his room forever. But I got over it. Then he screwed up again. It’s what kids do. Think of it as your job.”

He smelled of peppermint and sports cream. His arms were thinner than Sam’s, but being in them made her feel just as safe. She raised her head and looked at him. “Yeah?”

“Absolutely.” He brushed her hair off her forehead. “My late wife was one of the most beautiful women I ever had the pleasure of knowing. Whenever we’d walk down the street, the other men would watch her and wonder how somebody like me got so lucky. Want to know a secret?”

Kelly swiped away her tears. “What?”

“You look just like her. She had red curls and green eyes, too.”

Wonder filled her. Wonder and something light and warm that made it feel as if her heart was floating. “Even freckles?”

“Especially freckles. Freckles just like yours.”

Francesca parked in front of the hacienda. Kelly raced toward the backdoor and burst inside, but Francesca was slower to follow. If she hadn’t had Kelly for the day, she might not have had the courage to show up at all. Except with Sam due for dinner, she hadn’t had a choice. There was no way she could let him face her family without her first knowing what they knew and what they planned to say.

Oh, but she didn’t want to go inside. Not now. If Grandpa Lorenzo had told anyone… She leaned her forehead against the steering wheel. If? Was there any alternative universe in which he wouldn’t spread the news? She wouldn’t be surprised to find her father standing just inside the door, a shotgun in one hand and a list of available priests in the other.

The only bright spot was that she knew no one would say anything to Kelly. Her family would never hurt or upset the girl. If only they felt that way about their adult daughters, she thought wryly.

Unable to avoid the inevitable, she climbed out of the truck and made her way to the house.

The kitchen was the usual chaos. Even though it was only early afternoon, the Grands were in the midst of preparing dinner. Pots bubbled, vegetables lay on the countertops, and something delicious baked in the oven. Her mother stood with Kelly, next to Katie, who was sitting at the table and working on a list. As she entered, they all turned to look at her. There was a second of silence, and in that second she knew that they knew. Francesca braced herself against the need to bolt.

“Hi,” Francesca said weakly.

Her grandmothers rushed forward to embrace her. When she’d been squeezed, hugged, and cheek-pinched, Grammy M offered tea and Grandma Tessa told her to sit “and take a load off your feet.”

As the baby wasn’t even as big as a pencil eraser, worrying about her carrying around extra weight seemed excessive, but Francesca knew they all meant well. She tried to look on the bright side, but all she could think about was what was going to happen when Sam arrived.

Katie gave her a sympathetic look, then rose. “Kelly, I’m going to start beading the train. Want to help?”

Kelly grinned. “Sure. You mean you’d really let me sew on your dress?”

“Absolutely. There’s a special pattern for around the hem. I thought you’d like to work on that.”

“Wow. Okay. Great!”

Katie led the girl from the kitchen. Francesca watched her go with a sense of impending doom. Her mother crossed the kitchen, stopped in front of her, and reached for her hands.

“How far along are you?”

She’d been a fool ever to hope Grandpa Lorenzo had kept her secret for a second. “Did he run right back to the house to tell you or did he announce it at dinner?” she asked.