"Yul?"

"She's confused," Jamie said but as difficult of a situation that she was in, she almost couldn't help laugh. The bald Evan could possibly pass for Yul Brenner.

"I have a question." Jamie asked while everyone around her squirmed in their seats.

"Shoot." Evan pointed at her.

"You're saying that some of us are losing our jobs..."

"Not you, Jamie. Wine Country Gold has other plans for you. You will have a list on your desk by tomorrow and you can handle the terminations and present the severance packages."

"That wasn't what I wanted to ask you. What are your plans for the people who keep their jobs? If I'm hearing you correctly, you're closing the magazine."

"Jamie, you are not hearing me. That is not what I said. We will be restructuring and those writers we keep on will be writing articles strictly about Wine Country Gold wines, where they come from, how the company was founded. Things like that."

"Basically you're turning us into a marketing department for the wine tasting business."

"If that's the way you want to put it. Before I made this decision we were outsourcing the marketing, but I feel this is a perfect fit for such a transition."

There were grumbles from the group. These people were writers, not marketing gurus. They researched, loved the stories they wrote, cared about the information they revealed to others. What Evan was suggesting would never work because this wasn't how writers thought. What a condescending jerkoff.

"There's Jayne now. Bye-bye." Dorothy stood and headed to the door.

Jamie spotted Adrienne rushing down the hall.

"I couldn't have said it better myself," Evan said. "Goodbye, everyone. Jamie will be going over the details with everyone here tomorrow morning."

Her employees, many of them friends, stayed frozen in their seats. Jamie tried to go after Dorothy, but Evan stopped her as they reached the door simultaneously. Adrienne approached Dorothy and began talking to her. Thank God.

"You need to do something about your family emergency, Jamie," Evan snarled.

"I'm sorry." Flustered and angry, she tried to keep her cool.

He handed her a large packet. "I'll expect everything to be carried out by tomorrow afternoon before the holiday weekend. All the information you need is here, and you're lucky I don't fire you for this mishap." He waved his hands in the air. "I've already had my secretary schedule a meeting with you for next week so you can apprise me of the decisions made. I would suggest that everyone, even you, look into becoming consultants for Wine Country Gold. It's a great way to earn extra income and, regretfully, I've had to make pay cuts across the board. Including you."

Jamie stood speechless as Evan Dickhead walked out of the offices.

The conference room broke out into cries of outrage. Jamie's head spun. They looked to her for answers and she had none. Not a one. She finally faced the dozen employees. She reached into her wallet, pulled out her company American Express card, and held it up. "I have no answers. I don't know what in the hell just happened here. But I was thinking that we all deserve a day off. Anyone up for lunch at Domaine Chandon?"

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX.

The Fourth Alyssa unloaded her car full of desserts for tomorrow's Fourth of July party. She'd done her best over the past day to do anything and everything to keep her mind off of what she had to do. But after baking three different fruit pies, a batch of brownies, chocolate chip/macadamia nut cookies, and a strawberry cheesecake, her mind went back to the facts she had to face.

Kat was in the kitchen making potato salad when Alyssa walked in, her arms loaded with bags. "Jeez, girlfriend, what do you have there?"

"I know. I got carried away. There's a couple more bags in the car."

"Brian! Come here and help Alyssa." He didn't answer.

Alyssa set the bags down. "I can get them. You don't need to call your son."

"I don't think so. He can help. Bri!" Still no answer. Kat walked back into his room where Brian laid flat on his back in bed, listening to his iPod. Kat pulled the earphones away from his ears and his eyes shot open. "Mom! What up? You scared me."

"Go grab a couple of bags out of Alyssa's car for me." He stared at her blankly for a few seconds. He pushed himself off the bed, shoulders slumped, hair in his eyes, and lurked past her. He grunted what sounded like a possible hello to Alyssa. "Say hello, please," Kat instructed.

"I did," Brian replied.

Kat walked around in front of him, pushed his shoulders back, and brushed the hair out of his eyes. "Try again. This timer louder with a little enthusiasm." Alyssa stifled her laughter. "This is good practice for you. And Alyssa is a friend, so she can take it. We'll call this Etiquette 101. How to say hello to guests. Something you learned at five, but due to the undeveloped frontal lobe, this 'Hello, how are you?' thing, must have gotten lost in the dark abyss between Akon and World of Warcraft."

"I don't listen to Akon, Mom, and WOW is lame."

"What is this? He speaketh in full sentences! How blessed are we? Thank God, because it was taking a lot of effort for me to decipher caveman grunts." Kat put an arm around him.

Brian shook his head. "Hello, Alyssa. How are you?" he said clearly and politely.

"I'm great. Thank you for asking. The bags are in the trunk of my car."

"I've got them. Stay and entertain the peanut gallery," he said.

"He has your sarcastic wit, I see." Alyssa walked over to the kitchen island. "May I?" She held up a spoonful of the salad.

"Of course, and, yes, my son is a regular Adam Sandler. What do you think?"

"About the potato salad or the kid?"

"The salad."

"It's excellent and the kid is pretty great too. He's just a teenager."

"I do know this. If Jeremy hadn't gone through it first, I'd be pulling my hair out. But he seems to have reached the other side. You know, it's true that their frontal lobe isn't fully developed until they're in their twenties. It does explain a lot."

Alyssa laughed. "Where is Jeremy?"

"With Christian. They're in the backyard, digging the hole to bury the pig for tomorrow."

"That's huge, isn't it? That they would do something like that together?"

"Not only that. Yesterday, Christian let the sous chef take over and I managed the restaurant, while the two of them went hunting together for the pig."

"That's great, Kat. They're bonding. That must make you happy."

"It really does. For so long, I've been hoping that somehow, someway, my sons and Christian would bond. I don't know if it'll happen between him and Brian because Bri is so busy worshipping his father. I don't want to be the one to highlight all the shit that he's done or hasn't done. I can't even ask Brian what time his father will be picking him up without getting my head bit off!"

"I think that's one of those situations where you have to stay totally neutral. It's a no-win deal. But who knows? I bet you never thought Jeremy and Christian would develop a close relationship."

"You're right. Part of me believes it has to do with Amber. It might sound strange but I think she has sort of cemented us together. Jeremy is nuts about her, loves tossing her around and teasing her, and Christian appreciates him playing big brother to his daughter."

"Funny how a kid can do that. It's kind of the same with me."

Brian came in and set down the desserts. Kat looked at the three bags and back at Alyssa. "How many people do you think we're having? Looks to me like you have enough here for a regular bake sale."

"I needed a distraction."

"Am I done now?" Brian asked.

"Yes. Why don't you go outside with Grandma and Amber and help with the decorations in the back."

"Do I have to?" He grimaced. "Nanny V goes on and on about some of the weirdest stuff. The other day I had to hear all about how living in the now keeps us centered, and how we should enjoy the now because it's all we have. I don't even know what she meant by the now."

"She means the present, and, yes, you do have to go help."

"Mom..."

"Five bucks. Do it for five bucks."

"Ten," he said.

"Seven," she replied.

"Okay."

Brian went out the French doors. Kat turned to Alyssa, "Chapter thirteen in the parenting handbook states that bribery, although not always the best parenting method, is very effective, especially in a time crunch."

Alyssa laughed.

"I'm guessing you need to talk. What's so heavy on your mind that you had to turn all Betty-Crocker-on-steroids on me?"

Alyssa plunked down at Kat's kitchen table. "It's heavy."

"What isn't heavy?"

"Right. You know how you were saying that Amber is kind of like the glue around here for the family? Well, Ian has become the glue for my heart. And when I found out I wasn't a match for the bone marrow, I knew I had to do something. I had to look into every possibility. I called the father. Actually, Darren, who is Ian's uncle, did it for me."

"What did Darren say?"

"Darren told him that he had a child with a woman eighteen years ago and then explained the medical situation."

"What did the guy do?"

"There's more to it."

"What do you mean?"

Alyssa closed her eyes for a second. "Ian's father date-raped me."

"Alyssa!"

"He did and I told Darren this. He was the first person that I ever told. Darren didn't let on that he knew, though, when he made the call."

"That must have been so difficult for him. And for you."

"It was. But I think that the father handled it the only way he could."

"What happened?"

"It took Darren some convincing on his part, but he got him to agree to be tested. Of course, the father is demanding a paternity test. Darren told him that they'd pay for that and they could go from there after the results came back."

"And did they?"

"It was rushed through and it came back positive. I was a virgin when it happened, so no surprise there."

"I can't even imagine what you've been through and how you've dealt with this all of these years by yourself."

"It hasn't been easy, but it's helped to have friends like you."

"All the same, you should have told me, told us, we could have been there for you."

"I couldn't. I was ashamed, and I thought if I buried it deep enough that I could leave it there and forget about it. I was wrong. The father's blood tests came back and he wasn't a match. But the doctors are saying that Ian's best chance is if he has any siblings, and he does, Kat. James-the father-has six other children."

Kat reached for Alyssa's hand. "What are you going to do?"

She sighed heavily. "I'm going to go to New Orleans and confront him. He has to have his kids tested. He has to see if one of them is a match."

"How do you think he'll respond?"

Alyssa looked down. "I can't even think about that right now. All I can think about is helping Ian get well."

"Ian's family knows everything?"

"Darren obviously knows, and Charlie has been told that we called the father. It was Charlie who phoned me today and said that he wasn't a match. I told him I'd be in contact with the father to ask him to have his other children tested. I'm flying out the day after tomorrow."

Kat squeezed her hand. "I'm going with you."

"No. No. You have your family and your restaurant. You can't go."

"My mother is here. She can help with the kids and I've only been working at the restaurant part time anyway these days. You've done so much alone, Alyssa. Let me be there for you. Please."

Alyssa nodded. "Thank you."

The Fourth of July party was in full swing and Kat was beside herself. She'd had no choice but to invite her father. He'd called and asked what their plans were, and she'd invited him. What else could she have done? She'd warned him about her mom.