The Sassy One

6

Sam stared at the girl. She stared back. Neither of them blinked.

He hadn’t heard her correctly, he told himself. Or daughter had become one of those words that had multiple meanings. Like bad meaning “good.”

“What?” he demanded.

Kelly pushed past him and entered the house. “Your daughter. You know. Your kid, your offspring.” She dropped her backpack on the floor and glanced around. “Nice place. Didn’t Tanya call you? It’s not like she didn’t know where I was going.”

He closed the door. What the hell was going on?

“Tanya?”

Kelly turned back to him and rolled her eyes. “Tanya Nash. Your ex-wife. My mother. I bugged out this morning. I figured she’d get in touch with you and let you know what was going on.”

“I’ve been out,” he said, speaking slowly because he didn’t know what to say. “She called right before you knocked on the door.”

“Oh. Let me guess. She hung up and said you should call her back. She’s not real big on taking responsibility, you know. I’m starved. Is there anything to eat?”

“Sam?”

He saw Francesca enter the hallway. She smiled. “Are you all right?”

Kelly glanced at her, then back at him. “The new wife?”

He shook his head. This wasn’t happening. Not really. His daughter? With Tanya? He hadn’t seen his ex-wife in years. They’d been divorced. She’d never said anything about being pregnant, and she sure as hell wasn’t the type to raise a kid on her own.

“How old are you?” he asked Kelly.

“Twelve.” She sighed heavily. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Right when you divorced. Can I help it if you couldn’t keep your pants on? Do you think this is what I wanted? But I didn’t have a choice. Tanya’s leaving the country, okay? And she’s not taking me with her.”

Francesca’s eyes widened. “You’re-”

“Sam’s baby girl,” Kelly said brightly. “I know. It’s a special family moment. Look. I haven’t had anything to eat since the plane. The tip for the limo ride up from the L.A. airport took all my cash, so I couldn’t stop or anything. You got food in this place?”

Francesca looked as stunned as he felt. Kelly stared at them both, then shook her head. “Okay. While you two sort this out, I’m gonna go get something to eat. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves while I’m gone.”

With that she sauntered down the hall and turned into the kitchen.

Sam watched her go. No way this was happening. It couldn’t be. A child? A daughter?

Francesca walked toward him. “You look shocked.”

“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.”

She hung up.

Sam slowly pushed the Off button on the phone and set it on the desk. As he did so, he glanced at his watch. It had been less than twenty minutes since Kelly had walked into his house. Twenty minutes during which his entire world had spun out of control.

Now what?

Sam walked into the kitchen to find Kelly finishing off her plate of enchiladas. Francesca stood by the sink, a glass of wine in her hand. He couldn’t blame her for that, although he wanted something stronger than Merlot.

“I talked to your mother,” he said.

Kelly carefully put down her fork, then wiped her mouth on a paper towel before turning toward him. Her wide green eyes didn’t show any emotion.

He studied her face, looking for similarities. He thought he might see traces of Tanya, maybe in her high cheekbones and the shape of her mouth, but he wasn’t sure. Nor did he see any resemblance to himself. Was his ex-wife lying?

He dismissed the question. Tanya might be out for the easy buck, but she wasn’t stupid. Why would she try to pass someone else’s kid off as his? All it would take was a DNA test to determine paternity. If he wasn’t the father, he would hunt Tanya down and return Kelly. If Tanya was really running off with some guy who didn’t know about Kelly, she wouldn’t want to risk Sam showing up with her kid.

“Did she tell you about Raoul?” Kelly asked. “His father is some minor count or something. Euro-trash. But Tanya is totally into the title thing and Raoul’s the heir. His dad is pretty old, but Raoul is only like twenty-five. They’re going to live part-time in Paris and part-time at some big house Raoul has in the south of France.”

“She only mentioned that she would be living abroad.”

“And that you’re stuck with me.”

She spoke the words casually, as if they didn’t matter. Sam tried to see past them. Wouldn’t a twelve-year-old girl care that her mother had abandoned her? But Kelly met his gaze calmly, barely blinking, displaying no emotion.

“She said you’re into ballet,” he told her, avoiding the “stuck with” part of Kelly’s statement.

“Apparently there’s a prestigious teacher here in Santa Barbara,” Francesca said. “Kelly did some research on the Internet.”

Kelly nodded, her curls bouncing with the movement. “You’re going to have to set up an audition. I brought workout clothes with me in my backpack, but that’s all. So I guess I need to go shopping for some stuff. You can drop me off at a mall in the morning. Or can I take a cab? Do you have cabs out here?”

Sam held up his hands. “Hold on. One thing at a time. Your mother said she was sending your things. They’ll be here at the end of the week.”

Kelly rolled her eyes. “And between now and then what am I supposed to do? Tanya never said you were cheap.”

“I’m not-”

He shook his head. He wasn’t going to argue with her about shopping. There were more important issues. School. No. It was June. School was out for the summer. Shit. Which meant she was going to be around all the time. Could he leave a twelve-year-old alone while he went to work?

He thought of her ability to travel from New York to Santa Barbara. Leave her alone? It sounded more like he was going to have to lock her up.

“We have a lot of things to figure out,” he said.

Kelly shrugged. “Whatever. I just want to get back to dance class right away. You’ll call in the morning, right? I have the number in my backpack.”

Dance class would keep her busy-probably a good thing. “Yeah, I’ll call.”

Kelly slid off the stool. “Good. I wrote down the names of my teachers and where I’ve been studying. Be sure to sound forceful when you call. Dance teachers respond to pressure from crabby parents. You might want to mention you’re rich. They like that, too.”

The longer she spoke, the more he could see his ex-wife in her. “Thanks for the advice,” he said dryly.

“No problem.”

She left the kitchen. Francesca crossed to the counter and picked up her dirty plate. “At least she’s not a wallflower,” she murmured as she carried the dish, fork, and glass to the sink.

“You say that like it’s a good thing.” He swore. “I can’t believe Elena left this morning. Talk about timing.”

Francesca’s eyes widened. “I didn’t even think of that. You can’t leave her alone all day.”

Kelly returned before Sam could ask Francesca why not. From what he could see, the kid could sure take care of herself.

He glanced at the backpack. “You don’t have any more luggage than that?”

“Nope. I didn’t want to bring a lot of clothes. I didn’t know what would be in style out here. I mean, is it West Coast chic or just backwoods ugly?”

Sam didn’t know how to answer the question, so he ignored it. Instead he led the way out of the kitchen and upstairs.

On the second floor he walked to the far end of the hall-at the opposite end of the house from his bedroom-and door.

While there were five bedrooms upstairs, only three were furnished. He’d given Kelly the largest guestroom. The big, open space held a queen-size bed, a dresser, a desk, and an armoire with a television. The attached bathroom was as spacious as the bedroom.

Kelly dropped her backpack on the bed and prowled the room. Her stride was long and graceful. She held her head high. Years of dance training, he thought, then wondered if she was going to need some kind of workout room. Didn’t dancers need hardwood floors and a wall of mirrors?

Kelly pushed open the closet and examined the space, then pulled on the armoire’s doors. “Oh, good. A TV. Do you have cable or satellite?”

“Cable.”

She tilted her head. “There isn’t a DVD player. We’ll need to take care of that this week. I’m sure Tanya will be sending my DVDs along with my other stuff. Once I’m settled and stuff, we need to redecorate this room.” She wrinkled her nose. “Blue isn’t my color.”

Sam looked at the light blue walls and the multicolored quilt on the bed. Elena had taken care of fixing up the two guest rooms. His level of involvement had stopped at signing the check.

He was five seconds from overload, he thought and grabbed the door handle.

“Do you need anything else?”

Kelly shook her head. “I’ll just watch TV, then go to bed early. I’m still on East Coast time. Plus I got up early for my flight.”

He hesitated, not sure what to say to her. Then he simply nodded, wished her good night, pulled the door shut, and stepped back into the hall.

He found Francesca still in the kitchen. When he walked into the room, they looked at each other.

“How are you doing?” she asked.

“I have no idea.” He thought about their plans for the evening. No way that was happening now. “I’m sorry about all this messing up our evening,” he told her. “You didn’t sign up for anything like this. If you want to take off, I’ll understand.”

She smiled. “Thanks for giving me an out, but I don’t mind sticking around. I have a feeling you’re going to need someone to talk to.”

Some of his tension eased. “You sure?”

“Absolutely. We’re friends.” She hesitated over the last word, then shook her head. “I’m glad to help. I might not have kids of my own, but I used to be one, just like you. We can brainstorm.”

“Good idea. But first I need a drink.”

She pointed to the bottle of wine. He shook his head.

“I want something a lot stronger than that.”

Kelly listened at the door. When she couldn’t hear anything, she slowly pulled it open. There was only a faint murmur of voices from downstairs.

Good, she told herself as she returned to the bed and opened her backpack. She was tired, just like she said. Being alone was better than hanging out with someone she didn’t even know.

She pulled out her dance clothes and tucked them in a drawer. She’d brought a change of clothes, a bathing suit, a small bag of makeup and skin-care stuff, and a toothbrush. Tucked in an interior zipper compartment was the credit card she always used. If Sam didn’t take her to the mall, she would order what she needed online. It wasn’t as cool as actually trying stuff on, but she’d done it before. She checked that the card was still there.

Some kids had parents who took care of things like buying clothes and CDs and stuff. Tanya had never been into maintenance. Kelly couldn’t remember her mother ever cooking for her, or laying out clothes. Whatever maid was around did that kind of stuff. At least she used to. Kelly had been handling that herself for years.

After she’d washed her face and brushed her teeth, she changed into cotton pjs and carried her backpack to the closet. But before stuffing it on the top shelf, she opened it one last time and pulled out a worn, tattered Pooh bear. The fur was rubbed off one side of the face. One arm hung at an awkward angle, and the cheerful yellow T-shirt the bear had been wearing had faded to a dingy gray.

Kelly studied the stuffed animal, then shoved the backpack in the closet and closed the door.

She would be fine, she told herself. Except she didn’t believe it. After years of threatening, her mother had finally gotten rid of her. What if her dad didn’t want her, either? If he threw her out, where was she going to go?

She didn’t want to think about it, so she climbed into bed and pulled up the covers. After tucking Pooh under one arm, she tightly closed her eyes. But no matter how hard she squeezed her eyelids, she couldn’t stop the tears from escaping and dripping down her cheeks.