“Sixteen,” she said.

“Do you live here or with your dad?”

“That’s complicated,” Ellis cut in.

He nodded. He leaned in as if to say something confidential, though Raven was right there. “Your boy River. That one’s got more than a little of your mother in him, I think.”

How could he say that? How could he not know how much that would hurt her? Was his goodness something she had imagined all those years?

He leaned back in his chair. “Now that I’m here, there’s something I want to tell you. I felt bad about not letting you know before I left.”

Ellis couldn’t believe it. She would finally hear the words she’d craved all those years.

The front door opened. Jasper came in, River behind him.

“I’m sorry about what I did,” River said. He didn’t look sorry, and he glanced at Jasper with a slight smirk. His brother had somehow gotten him to apologize.

Jasper said, “When you leave, we’ll follow you out and buy you a tank of gas at the station down the road.”

More like Jonah would buy it when he paid Jasper’s credit card bill.

“Thank you, but not necessary,” Zane said.

“You’re also welcome to use the guesthouse to rest for a while,” Jasper said.

Zane grinned at Ellis. “Do I look that feeble nowadays?”

“You look good,” she said. “What were you going to say? You said you felt bad about not telling me something.”

“Right. About your father.”

She hadn’t expected anything about her father. When she was a girl, that topic had been so closed, her father may as well have never existed.

“Do you know who he is?” she asked.

His eyes changed. He looked more like the kind man Ellis remembered.

“Yeah, I knew your dad,” he said softly. “Is it okay to talk about this in front of your kids?”

“I’m sure they’d like to know something about their grandfather.”

“Unless he’s a mass murderer,” River said. “That I’d rather not know.”

Zane ignored him. “I knew him for years before your mother did. I cooked with him. To this day, I think of him as my best friend.”

“Your best friend? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Your mother wouldn’t let me. He was a really good guy, Ellis. That’s what I’ve always wanted to tell you.”

“Mom told me she didn’t know who my father was.”

Zane glowered. “She meant that as an insult. Your father was Lucas Rosa. But he usually went by Luke.”

So the father listed on her birth certificate was real. “Why isn’t Rosa my last name?”

“Because your mother preferred it for your middle name—and she usually got her way with Luke. At least at first.”

“Is that an Italian name?”

“Portuguese,” Zane said. “Your dad came from a family of fishermen in Massachusetts.”

“Interesting,” River said. “No wonder Dad couldn’t convince me to study law. My genes were calling me to a fish-slimed boat in the middle of the Atlantic.”

Zane cast a critical look at River. “It’s an honorable profession. And a dangerous one, even for experienced seamen. Luke’s father and brother died at sea in a storm.”

“How old was my father when that happened?” Ellis asked.

“Sixteen, and an orphan because his mom died when he was little. He lived with his grandmother for a couple of years, then went inland to live with a friend. We met at a restaurant in Pittsburgh when we were still prep cooks.”

Zane smiled. “You’d never know Luke came from a hard life. He really knew how to have a good time.” He studied her face. “You know, I think you look even more like him now than you did when you were little.”

That was why Ellis looked so different from her mother. She’d gotten her features from her father. Now she could visualize his face.

“Does the name Ellis have to do with that family?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Your mom was a few months pregnant when Luke took her to see where he grew up. They camped all over the northeast and—”

“What? My mother camping?”

“She did a lot of stuff you never knew. Luke liked camping and turned her on to it. It’s kind of interesting you called one of your kids River—because that’s how you got your name, from a river in the White Mountains where they camped.”

“I’m named for a mountain river?”

He grinned. “I knew you’d like that. It drove me crazy I couldn’t tell you any of this when you were a kid.”

“What happened with my dad? Why was all of this kept secret?”

“To make sure you never asked questions like that, I guess. None of us was allowed to talk about it.”

“Who wasn’t allowed to talk about what?”

“You see? This is what your mother didn’t want to happen.”

“She isn’t here. Tell me what I wasn’t supposed to know.”

“I guess you know her father kicked her out of his house.”

“Yes.”

“When that happened, she went to western Ohio with some guy, but it didn’t work out. She moved in with a friend who got her a waitress job where she worked. In a smaller town like ours, all the restaurant people knew each other. Your mom hit our scene like a storm. She was wild, always had fun, crazy ideas. Every guy who met her fell for her.”