The Sassy One

Grandpa Lorenzo opened his mouth to say something, but his son cut him off.



“I’m telling this story,” Marco said curtly.



Grandpa Lorenzo hesitated, then nodded.



Brenna shifted closer and took Francesca’s hand in her own. Francesca tried to give her sister a reassuring smile, but had a feeling it didn’t come out very well.



“Your mother was only sixteen when we found out she was pregnant.”



“He proposed right away,” her mother said, picking up the story. “We’d planned to get married anyway, but this moved up our timetable. Unfortunately the news didn’t please either of our parents.”



Francesca couldn’t begin to imagine what that must have been like. Two teenagers surrounded by disapproval. They must have been terrified.



“We sent her away,” Grammy M said softly, tears filling her blue eyes. “Lord forgive us.”



Grandma Tessa nodded, withdrew her ever-present rosary from her pocket, and kissed it lightly.



Colleen sighed. “I was sent to a school for unwed mothers before I could run away with your father. No one knew where I was. They thought—” She cleared her throat. “We all thought…”



Grammy M stared at her daughter. “You’ll not be takin’ the blame for what others made you do.” She turned to her granddaughters. “My Connor, God rest his soul, Tessa, Lorenzo, and myself decided it would be best if they were givin’ up the wee one for adoption. Colleen and Marco were just babies themselves. But they were stubborn and they fought us. In the end we won, though.”



She didn’t sound especially happy about that.



Francesca looked at her mother. “You had a boy?” she asked.



“Yes. I never saw him. They said it would be easier if I didn’t.” Her mother swallowed as tears returned to her eyes. “I’m not sure anything could have been harder. They took him away and I came home.” She turned her attention to her husband. “Marco was waiting for me. Our parents insisted we stop seeing each other, but we didn’t listen. When I turned eighteen, we married.”



Marco crossed to his wife and took her hand. “That’s all,” he said quietly. “Now you girls know what happened.”



Francesca wondered who was going to tell Mia, but decided that could be determined later. Next to her, Brenna caught her breath.



“So he’s out there somewhere, with no idea who is he or what’s waiting for him here?”



Francesca swung to face her sister. Brenna’s expression was stark and empty. Her twin’s pain slammed into her as if it were her own. Francesca wanted to point out that a male heir couldn’t possibly matter at this late date, that Grandpa Lorenzo would never give the winery to a virtual stranger, regardless of his connection by blood, but she knew she was wrong. It was more than possible.



“God punished us,” Grandma Tessa said. “We shouldn’t have insisted she give up the baby.”



“Don’t be ridiculous,” Grandpa Lorenzo snapped. “We’re not being punished.” But he didn’t sound as sure as he could be.



Francesca couldn’t absorb all she’d been told. How could events from thirty years before have such an impact on their lives? And yet in a matter of minutes—with only a few words of information—everything was different.



“Has anyone contacted him?” she asked.



“We never thought there was a need,” Grandpa Lorenzo said.



Francesca stared at him. “This isn’t about need, it’s about family. You have a grandson out there. We have a brother. My parents have a son. Does that matter to you?”



“We weren’t sure,” Colleen said quietly. “We didn’t want to interfere with his life. We didn’t know if he would be interested in hearing from us.”



We didn’t know if he would forgive us.



Her mother didn’t speak the words, but then she didn’t have to. Everyone heard them.



Katie clutched Zach’s hand. “Why didn’t you tell us before?” she asked.



Their father shrugged. “There was never a good time.”



Katie started to protest, then stopped. Francesca wondered if she was thinking about the secrets each of them kept from the family. Katie had had secrets about her broken engagement all those years ago. Francesca had never confessed the truth about the state of her marriage to Todd, and Brenna… Francesca studied her twin. What secrets did Brenna keep?



“We need some time to absorb all this,” Francesca said. “I think we should let the subject drop for a couple of days and talk about it again at Sunday brunch.”



Katie nodded. “I agree. This is no longer just your issue. We all have a stake in what happens now.”



Grandpa Lorenzo glared at her. “Be quiet,” he ordered. “You are not the head of this family.”



“You’re right, Grandpa,” Brenna said. “You’re the head of the family, and in this matter you’ve done a real lousy job.”



Grandpa Lorenzo sputtered, but before he could say anything, Brenna stood. Francesca rose as well, followed by Katie. The three sisters moved to stand next to each other.



“We decide together,” Francesca said, facing her parents. “Agreed?”



“Yes,” her father said. “We’ll talk on Sunday. We’ll decide as a family.”



Katie led them out of the living room. By silent agreement they didn’t talk until they were upstairs in the old bedroom Francesca and Brenna had shared. The room Brenna had returned to when her marriage had ended. They sat on the two beds and stared at one another.



“Happy Fourth of July,” Brenna said grimly.



Francesca touched her arm. “Are you okay?”



“Not even close. You?”



“In shock.”



“Me, too,” Katie said. She flopped back on the bed. “Why on earth didn’t they say something ages ago?”



“That’s what I want to know,” Brenna said.



“You’re upset,” Francesca said, eyeing her twin.



Brenna shook her head. “What I am is screwed. It was bad enough to find out that Grandpa Lorenzo was thinking of selling the winery. I figured I might still have a shot because he wouldn’t want strangers on the land. But if there’s an heir floating around out there somewhere, I don’t have a prayer.”



Francesca wanted to offer some words of comfort, but she didn’t know what to say. Everything had changed, and she had a bad feeling their lives would never return to normal again.



It was a perfect summer’s day, but Francesca couldn’t summon the enthusiasm even to open the drapes. Instead she curled up on the sofa, her legs pulled to her chest, her forehead resting on her knees.



How had everything changed so completely in such a short period of time? One minute she’d been well on her way to achieving her goals while dating a terrific guy who not only made her see stars in bed, but who wasn’t interested in marriage or forever. The next she was pregnant, unsure how to tell Sam, and suddenly had a long-lost brother who could inherit the winery and break her sister’s heart.



There were also all the subtleties that went along with the new circumstances. Things like the logistics of being pregnant and having a child, how to tell her family, how to tell Sam. What to tell Sam. That her parents had lied to her and her sisters for years, that Mia had to be told, and that while she didn’t want anything like a commitment or a permanent relationship with Sam, she couldn’t help wishing he were with her right now. She could use a good hug.



She sighed softly and shook her head. No point in wishing for the moon, she told herself. It was a perfectly good Saturday afternoon. He was probably taking Kelly sailing or to the beach or for a drive along the coast. Or pulling his hair out because Kelly was driving him crazy. Whatever the circumstances, he wouldn’t be thinking about his sometime bed partner, except in the context of being grateful that he hadn’t committed to her or her insane family.



This line of thought wasn’t making her feel any better. “So think about something else,” she told herself.



Like what? That she hadn’t had any symptoms of her pregnancy, but that didn’t make it any less real? That she had to get to a doctor and start taking vitamins or something? And didn’t she need to be drinking lots of milk to get her calcium?



A knock on the door interrupted her musings. She straightened and rose. It was Brenna, she told herself as she walked to the door. No doubt her sister wanted to talk about what had happened with—



It was Sam.



Francesca stared at him. He smiled.



“I thought you might need a friend,” he said.



He looked good. Too good. Shorts, a T-shirt, and slightly mussed hair. Staring at him made her throat get all sore and her eyes burn. She had a bad feeling she was thirty seconds from bursting into tears.



She stepped back to let him in.



“You okay?” he asked.



She nodded and swallowed. “Thanks for coming by. That was really nice.”



“I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened last night at the party. I wanted to make sure you’d survived the bombshell.”



She motioned to the sofa, then crossed to the window, where she opened the blinds and let the morning sun spill into the small room.



“I’m still processing information,” she admitted as she sat next to Sam and angled toward him. “I can’t believe I have a brother, that he’s been alive for all these years and my parents never mentioned it.”



His mouth twisted. “I know all about parental secrets,” he muttered.



She wanted to protest that her parents hadn’t acted at all like his mother, but she supposed there were some similarities.



She told him what her parents had shared with her. “I guess that once they gave him up for adoption, they tried to move on.” She shrugged. “But honestly, I can’t decide if not telling us about him was for our good or theirs.”



“I hate the lies,” Sam said.



Francesca shivered. She was currently sitting on a really big secret of her own. She would tell Sam—she not only had to, she wanted to. It was a matter of timing. She wanted things to be more stable with Kelly, and honestly, she wanted a little more time with Sam. She knew that as soon as she came clean, nothing was ever going to be the same.



Was it so wrong to want a few more days of him liking her?



Before she could answer, he slid toward her and pulled her close. She snuggled against his warm body and let herself relax.



“I didn’t mean to run out on you last night,” he said. “I figured you needed family time, not guests.”



“It was fine. We sort of all abandoned the party to have it out with our parents. Thank goodness my mom always has a staff in charge of events like that. We know our guests got fed and that someone started the fireworks.” She glanced at him. “The ones in the sky, not the verbal ones.”



“Kelly and I went down to the pier to watch the fireworks,” he said. “She stayed pretty normal the whole time, which was nice. I think hearing your family argue shocked her.”



“If she brings it up, you might want to tell her that we’re just like everyone else. We get mad and we get over it. My grandfather likes to throw people out of the family for weeks at a time. Eventually all is forgiven and life returns to normal. At least as normal as we get.”



Sam kissed the top of her head. “I wish there was something I could do.”



“I appreciate that. But to quote someone we both know, you didn’t sign up for this kind of trouble.”



He looked at her. “Francesca, you’ve been the only life raft I’ve had to cling to these days. If you hadn’t been around when Kelly showed up, I don’t know what would have happened.”



His words made her smile. “Thanks.”

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