“And let us know how we can help,” Linda said.

“We will.”

Footsteps on the stairs preceded their father into the kitchen. “Good,” Big Mac said. “You’re all here.”

“Now maybe you can tell us what this is about,” Adam said. “You said it was nothing to worry about, but I worried anyway.”

“Me, too,” Mac said.

“You worry about everything,” Evan said teasingly.

“The burden of being the oldest is a heavy one,” Mac said in an intentionally grave tone. “You wouldn’t get it.”

“Oh shut up,” Grant said with a groan. “Do you ever get tired of listening to yourself?”

“No,” Mac said. “Not really.”

“So listen up,” Big Mac said. His serious tone put Mac immediately on edge. “I have something I want to tell you, and I want you to listen to the whole thing before you say anything.”

“You’re not sick, are you, Dad?” Janey asked in a small voice, airing Mac’s greatest fear.

“No, sweetheart, nothing like that. I promise. Mac and Grant, you were at the marina yesterday when a woman came to see me.”

“What woman came to see you?” Adam asked.

Big Mac looked at Linda, who seemed to nod in encouragement. “It turns out the woman who came to see me is my daughter, Mallory.”

His words were met by stunned silence as a thousand thoughts cycled through Mac’s mind in the span of a few seconds.

“Your daughter?” Evan asked. “You have another daughter? Where’s she been all this time?”

“In Providence with her mother, who recently passed away and finally told her who her father is. Mallory came here to meet me with no intention of disrupting my life. If you know me at all, and the five of you know me as well as anyone does, you’ll understand there was no way I was going to let her walk away like I’d never met her.”

Grant held up a hand to stop his father. “Start at the beginning. Who’s her mother? And I assume you knew her before you met Mom?”

Big Mac’s brows narrowed at the implication he might’ve been unfaithful to their mother. “Yes, son. I dated her before l met Mom.”

“Sorry,” Grant muttered.

“I dated her mother for a few months the winter before I met Mom. Her name was Diana Vaughn. She died recently and left a letter for Mallory, giving her my name and where she could find me.”

“So up until then, she had no idea who her father was?” Adam asked.

“No. Neither of us knew.”

“Wow,” Grant said. “That must’ve been shocking.”

“To say the least,” Big Mac said. “And I’m fully aware that it’s shocking for all of you to hear you have a half sister you never knew about, but I’m asking you to meet her, to give her a chance—”

“Meet her?” Janey asked, seeming panicked by the thought. “When?”