The Sassy One

“So do you.” He ran his hand through his hair. “A kid. She can’t be mine. Tanya and I…” He looked at Francesca. “She wouldn’t have agreed to the divorce if she’d known she was pregnant. She would have said something. Hell, she was always looking for an angle. All these years. Why wouldn’t she have come after me for child support?”



“I have no idea.”



“Of course you don’t. Sorry.” He swore under his breath. “This is crazy. I need to call Tanya back.”



“I can’t wait to hear the story.”



He smiled grimly. “Seems like I’m going to have one to top the winery feud you told me about the other night.”



He headed for the kitchen. Francesca stopped him.



“Don’t call from there.”



“Why not?”



“You’re probably going to fight, and Kelly shouldn’t hear that.”



Sam stared at her. “What?”



She shrugged. “I’m twenty-seven and I still hate to hear my parents fight. Dorky, but true.”



“Parents? I don’t know that she’s mine.”



“She could be,” Francesca told him.



“I need a drink,” he muttered as he led the way into the kitchen.



He found Kelly spooning leftover enchiladas onto a plate. She glanced at him.



“These look good. Take-out?”



“My housekeeper made them.”



Kelly nodded. “Live-in? Mom said you were loaded. I guess she was right, huh?”



He ignored her and crossed to the answering machine, where he played back the partial message from Tanya. He jotted down her number, then stalked out of the room. Francesca was right. He would take the call in his study, where he could vent his rapidly growing frustration.



Francesca walked into the kitchen as Kelly put the plate into the microwave. The girl studied the control panel, then punched several minutes. The state-of-the-art machine barely hummed as it began to cook the food.



“So if you’re not the wife, are you the girlfriend?” Kelly asked as she settled on a stool.



“Sam and I are friends.”



“Oh. Friends. So you’re having sex, but it’s not serious, right?”



Francesca did her best not to react. Precocious didn’t begin to describe Sam’s daughter. Still, there was something about the air of bravado that was painfully familiar. Francesca remembered being out of step with the world, yet desperate to convince everyone she was fine. Maybe it was just a part of growing up, but that didn’t make it any less painful.



Kelly leaned back and rested her elbows on the counter behind her. She was pretty. Slender with big eyes and a head full of beautiful red curls. Freckles dotted her nose and cheeks. She wore a cropped peach T-shirt and low-rise jeans. Both looked expensive.



“Friends are different from ‘special friends,’ ” Kelly said. “Special friends means the woman wants to get married and the guy doesn’t. He uses the word special to fake her out. Special for her, but not for him. Basically he’s looking around for something better, but doesn’t have the balls to leave without someone else to sleep with. Tanya says that most problems between men and women happen because the woman gives in too soon. Sexually, I mean.”



“I see.” Francesca leaned against the counter, mostly because her head was spinning and she didn’t want to lose her balance. Sam was right. Kelly was forty on the inside.



She mentally replayed Kelly’s comments. No doubt they’d been deliberately chosen to get a reaction. She settled on responding with something less controversial.



“You call your mother Tanya?”



“Oh, sure.” Kelly brushed a loose curl off her forehead. “See, she lies about her age all the time. Half the guys she goes out with don’t even know she has a kid. Just in case we’re ever spotted together shopping or something, she wants me to call her Tanya. That way I can be her much older sister’s kid. Guys think that’s really sweet. Like she’s all maternal or something.” Kelly rolled her eyes. “Most guys are so stupid.”



Okay. So this line of conversation wasn’t any safer. “Where do you live?” she asked.



Kelly nodded. “New York. The Upper West Side. New York is pretty cool. I didn’t want to leave, but Tanya wouldn’t let me stay in the apartment on my own after she moved to Europe. I don’t think Raoul even knows about me. So typical. I mean I have all my classes there. I can’t believe how much I’m going to miss while I’m out here. Santa Barbara isn’t exactly a big city.”



Francesca was losing ground. “You go to school in the summer?”



The microwave beeped. Kelly slid off the stool and walked to the machine. “Ballet,” she said impatiently. “I dance.”



“Oh. That’s nice.”



Kelly pulled out her steaming plate and carried it back to the counter. “It’s more than nice. I work hard. I plan to be a professional dancer. I did find this one school here on the Internet. The teacher used to be a principle dancer with several big companies. So that’s okay. Sam will have to call her in the morning and get me an audition right away. I would have done it myself, but I only decided I was leaving yesterday.”



Francesca wished this was a movie so she could push the Pause button. She needed a few minutes to catch up.



“Decided? Why?”



Kelly began opening drawers. She found the one with the flatware and pulled out a fork. “I finally found out my dad’s name. Until a few months ago I thought he was dead. Tanya had always told me he was. Then I overheard her talking about me with one of her friends.” Kelly looked at her. “A girlfriend. Anyway, she mentioned Sam, so I knew he was alive. I started bugging her to tell me who he was. Yesterday we had a really big fight and she blurted it out. Once I had his name, I waited until Tanya went out with Raoul, then I went through her stuff. I finally found his address in some old files.”



This was the second time Kelly had mentioned Raoul, and as much as Francesca wanted to know who he was, she had a more pressing question.



“How did you manage to get here on your own?”



Kelly took a bite of the enchiladas and chewed. When she’d swallowed, she said, “Easy. I bought the ticket over the Internet. I have this credit card I can use to buy pretty much what I want. My grandmother’s estate pays for all my expenses, so Tanya doesn’t care. Anyway, I bought the ticket, arranged for the limo, and prepaid that. I forgot about the tip, though, which is a bummer. I guess Sam will give me more cash.”



She considered the problem for a second, then continued. “Tanya spent the night with Raoul, so she wasn’t home. I got a cab, went to the airport, and got on the plane.”



“It couldn’t have been that easy,” Francesca said.



“Sure it was. I’m old enough to fly on my own. I just waited until the flight was boarding, then I went up to the gate person and announced myself. She started to freak, asking about my parents. I said my mom was parking the car. Have you been to JFK airport? Do you have any idea what a pain that is? She knew if she waited for someone to show up, they’d never get the plane out on time. Oh, and I lied about my age. I said I was fifteen. She believed me. So I got on board and here I am.”



Kelly sounded calm and competent, but Francesca couldn’t help thinking no twelve-year-old should have to fly across the country on her own to find a father she’d never met because her mother was moving to Europe.



“Is there anything to drink?” Kelly asked, eyeing the open bottle of Merlot.



Francesca crossed to the refrigerator. “How about some milk?”



Kelly rolled her eyes. “Fine. I need the calcium.”



“What the hell are you talking about?” Sam demanded. He held the cordless phone to his ear and paced the length of his office.



“I don’t know how your mother found out I was pregnant,” Tanya said. “For all I know she paid off my doctor. That’s not the point. What I’m saying is that two weeks after you and I agreed to get a divorce and I moved out, I found out I was expecting. I didn’t know what to do.”



Sam snorted. No way that was true. Tanya would have been calculating how much having his baby would earn her.



“Two days later your mother showed up on my doorstep. She knew about the divorce and the pregnancy. She didn’t want me going back to you or even telling you about the baby.”



He leaned against his desk and rubbed his eyes with his free hand. “She knew I wouldn’t have divorced you if I’d known you were pregnant.”



“Right. At that point she was willing to do anything to get me out of your life. Even give up her own grandchild.”



Sam didn’t want to believe it, but he understood his mother. She’d spent her entire life manipulating people and events to suit her purpose, including him.



He knew his mother and he knew Tanya, which made the next question easy. “How much?”



“Does it matter?”



“Yeah, it does.”



“Fine. Two hundred and fifty thousand up front, five thousand a month until she was eighteen or went to live with you, and payment of all her expenses. In return I was to move to New York and make sure you never found out about Kelly.”



He was numb. “Why now?”



“Because I’ve worked my ass off for the past twelve years, Sam. I’ve married twice to men with money, and by God I earned every penny of my settlements. I’m finally financially secure, and I’m ready to live my life.”



“And Kelly would get in the way?”



“I’m thirty-four. That’s practically middle-aged. I can’t have a twelve-year-old daughter.” She hesitated. “I’m getting married and moving to Europe. Kelly can’t come with me. I was going to put her into a boarding school, but when I told her, she freaked out. She wanted me to let her stay in the apartment. She’s involved in ballet and that’s all that matters to her. I suppose with the right staff… but I couldn’t risk it. All it would take is one emergency, and Raoul would find out about her.”



Sam swore. “You’re marrying a man who doesn’t even know you have a daughter?”



“I never told him about her. I’ve been careful to keep them apart.”



All he could do was wonder what he’d ever seen in Tanya. Then he remembered. He’d been twenty-two, fresh out of college, and abroad on his own. Tanya had been beautiful, charming, and the living, breathing embodiment of every fantasy he’d ever had.



“I’ve left a message with your mother’s law firm telling them you now have custody of Kelly,” Tanya said. “They’ll take care of the paperwork. I’ve dealt with her for the past twelve years, Sam. Now it’s your turn.”



“This means you’ll be giving up the money,” he said cynically.



“I know. I can afford to. She’s actually not that much trouble. Get her into a dance class and a private school, and you’ll barely notice she’s around.”



Her callousness stunned him. “She’s your daughter.”



“Don’t make me out to be such a bitch,” Tanya said. “Kelly’s done fine. She doesn’t want for anything.”



“How about parents?”



Tanya laughed. “Right. Because if I’d come back twelve years ago, you would have been so happy to find out we were having a child together. You hated me, Sam. You wanted me gone and you were willing to pay any price to get that. So here’s the rest of the bill. I’m having her things packed up. They’ll be there by the end of the week.”



“That’s it?” he asked.



“What else is there?”



“Don’t you want to talk to Kelly?”



“No, and I doubt she wants to talk to me.”