Rebecca Winters - The Count's Christmas Baby

“I thought it had to be short for Samantha, but your passport says otherwise.”

“That’s what everyone assumes who doesn’t know me. To think you searched all that time for the wrong name. I can’t bear it.”

He couldn’t either, considering the promise he’d made to his father when they’d gone to Austria for an important family wedding. Ric had done everything humanly possible to find her. When he’d exhausted every avenue to no avail, he’d got on with his life and eventually fulfilled that promise.

“It’s true I was born and raised in Oakland,” she went on to explain, “but after I went back to college, I started to feel ill and went to a doctor. When he told me I was pregnant, I couldn’t believe it. My sister, Pat, insisted I move to Reno, Nevada, to be with her and her husband. Their travel agency is growing all the time. They’re the ones who gave me a working vacation during my break from college.”

Nevada … The avalanche had changed both their lives in ways Ric was only beginning to understand. “Were you ill the whole pregnancy?”

“No. After the morning sickness passed, I didn’t have other problems. Since Pat’s my only family and I wanted to be close to her and their children, I moved to Reno and started classes there. Without my legal name, no wonder you couldn’t trace me.”

He rubbed his chest absently while he was digesting everything.

Her anxious gaze fastened on him. ‘Do you have any ill effects from your head wound?”

“Only the occasional headache,” he answered, touched by her concern.

“I’m so glad it isn’t worse. That was the most terrifying moment.” Her voice shook.

“Thankfully, I don’t remember.”

“I don’t like to think about it. Throughout my pregnancy I decided that after Ric was born and I’d had my six-weeks checkup, I’d take him to Genoa and look up his grandfather. My own parents had already died, and I thought it would be wonderful if Ric grew up knowing he had at least one grandparent who was still alive.” She hugged her arms to her waist. “How tragic you lost your father.”

“Yes,” he whispered, but right now everything else seemed very far removed.

“I thought about him all the time,” she said. “Naturally I feared how he would take the news. It might have been the worst thing he could hear, but I hoped it might comfort him a little to know you weren’t alone when you died.”

Ric’s breath caught. “Ringrazio il cielo you looked for him! Otherwise I would know nothing! Be assured my father would have wanted to be a grandfather to our son.” Once he’d gotten over the shock of learning the circumstances of his grandson’s conception . Ric was still having trouble taking it all in.

She bit her lip. “I didn’t know the right thing to do. That’s the reason why I was so secretive with the police chief.” Ric warmed to her for her desire to be discreet. “I didn’t want to embarrass your father or cause him pain in front of anyone else. I really thought if I could find him, he’d refuse to believe me and that would be the end of it. But for the baby’s sake, I felt I had to try.

“When the police chief suggested maybe I had the wrong city, I didn’t know what to believe. I thought you’d told me you were from Genoa. The thought of flying to Geneva and starting another search sounded overwhelming, but I was prepared to do it for your son’s sake. Oh, Ric—”

The woman he’d been trapped with had to be one in a billion.

His eyes strayed to the crib. The baby sleeping so peacefully was his son. It was unbelievable! Throwing off his own shock, he walked over to the crib and looked down at the baby— his baby —lying on his back with his arms outstretched, his hands formed into fists.

“In spite of all that death and destruction coming for us, we managed to produce a son!”

“Yes.” She’d joined him. “Incredibly, he’s perfect.”

Ric had thought the same thing the second he’d laid eyes on him. In that moment he’d suffered pain thinking his parent had fathered such a beautiful child with her . Ric had been so convinced of it that he was still having trouble getting a handle on his emotions.

But it wasn’t his father’s— It was his own!

His elation was so overpowering, he reached for the baby and held him against his shoulder, uncaring that he’d wake him up again. Ric wanted him to wake up so he could get a good look at him. Warmth from the little bundle seeped into his body’s core, bonding them as father and son.

The baby must have sensed someone different was holding him. He started wiggling and moved his dark silky head from side to side. He smelled sweet like his mother. He was such a strong little thing that Ric was forced to support his head and neck with more strength. He lowered him in the crook of his arm so he could pick out the unique features that proclaimed him a Degenoli and an Argyle. Both sets of genes were unmistakable.

“Ciao, bambino mio . Welcome to my world.” He kissed his cheeks and forehead. His olive-skinned baby grew more animated. Ric laughed when those arms and legs moved and kicked with excitement. The first Degenoli in this generation to live.

His sister, Claudia, had barely learned she was pregnant before she’d suffered a miscarriage. It had happened soon after she’d heard their father had been killed in the avalanche. His sorrow for her and her husband, Marco’s, loss would always hurt, but as he looked down at his son, there wasn’t room in his soul for anything but joy.

When Ric looked up, he caught Sami’s tear-filled eyes fastened on the two of them. After wondering what she’d looked like, he couldn’t get his fill of staring at her.

“I can’t fathom it that you’re alive, that you’re holding him,” she cried. “When I left the police station, I was heartbroken. If I didn’t find Alberto in Geneva, it meant going home knowing my baby would never know the Italian side of his family. What if you hadn’t followed me here?” she cried.

“Nothing could have stopped me. I had to find out who you really were because I couldn’t believe there was another woman alive who sounded like you.”

“I know what you mean. The second you spoke to me, I should have stopped trying to be cautious and just called you Ric to see what you’d do. It would have saved us both so much trouble.”

Ric would have responded, but his cell phone rang. It jerked him back to reality. He had a strong idea who it was.

“I’ll take the baby while you answer it.” Sami plucked the baby out of his arms and walked the floor with him.

He watched his little boy burrow his head in her neck. The action brought a lump to his throat before he wheeled away from her and checked the caller ID. Though he’d finally come to the end of his search for the woman named Sami, time had passed during that search and other dynamics had been set in motion.

Ric groaned when he thought of how this news was going to affect negotiations with Eliana’s father, let alone with Eliana herself. Theirs was no love match, but news of an unknown baby would be difficult for any bride-to-be to handle. He’d need to deal with her carefully. As for his own family, they would be in shock.

“Eliana?” he said after clicking on.

“I thought you would call me before you left the office, but your secretary said you weren’t there.”

He rubbed the back of his neck absently. “I’m on my way to the airport and planned to phone you before my jet took off.” It would have been the truth if something else hadn’t come up. Something that had changed the very fabric of his life. The Sami he’d been entombed with was alive and had just presented him with his son!