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“Really? Brand’s Italian is even worse.” He eyed the baby grimly. “I see you managed to overcome the language barrier despite that small obstacle. I think introductions are in order. Don’t you?”
“Luc,” Brand spoke up. “This is Carina Donati. Carina, my brother Luciano, and his assistant, Ms. Barnes.”
Carina acknowledged them with an abrupt nod. “Buon giorno.”
“Carina and I . . . Well, we met at UC Berkeley,” Brand confessed. “She’s a foreign exchange student.”
“Not anymore,” she interrupted, hugging the baby to her breast. “Now I am statistic. Unwed mother.”
Brand turned on her. “And whose fault is that?”
“Yours!” She offered him the baby. “You do not believe you are thepapà?”
His hands balled into fists. “I damn well better be!”
“Children,” Luc stated softly.
Grace crossed the room and held out her arms. “Why don’t I take the baby?” she suggested, hoping to remove the poor infant from the field of battle. To her relief, Carina handed over her bundle without a single protest, and Grace retreated to the far side of the room.
Brand addressed Carina, speaking at a more moderate level. “I phoned. You wouldn’t answer any of my calls. I came over to the house. They said you’d moved out and hadn’t left a forwarding address. I went everywhere I could think of to find you. It was like you’d vanished off the face of the earth.”
Carina planted her hands on her generous hips, scorn flashing in her magnificent eyes. “Of course I vanished. You lied to me!”
“The hell I did. What did I lie about? Because I guarantee, I didn’t.”
“What about Giovanna Carducci?”
“You left me because of Giovanna Carducci?”
Tears filled her eyes and she pointed a trembling finger. “See? He admits it.”
“I’m not admitting anything,” he protested hotly.
“That’s enough,” Luc interrupted once again. “Let me see if I have this straight. You and Carina met, fell in love, had a falling out over someone named Giovanna Carducci—”
“No!” Brand denied.
“Sì!”Carina insisted.
“And,” Luc seized control of the conversation once more, “unbeknownst to Brand, Carina conceived...” He gestured toward Grace and the baby.
“Tony,” Carina supplied.
“Tony. Does that about cover it?”
“Sì,”Carina agreed. “In a nut case.”
“Nutshell,” Brand corrected.
She tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Whatever it is, I don’t care. The big man, he is right.”
The “big man” sighed. “I hesitate to ask this, Carina, but what is it you want?”
As though on cue, the tears reappeared. Brand took one look and pulled her into his arms. “Sweetheart, what is it? What’s happened?”
“Mymammain Italy, she is very sick,” Carina confessed, her voice breaking. “I must go to her. But I cannot.”
Brand stared at her in bewilderment. “Why not?”
