“Don’t we all?” Quinn said.

Any ideas?” she asked.

My eyes slid to Quinn. “Not me,” he said.

I shook my head. “I don’t even want to think about it.”

“It wasn’t someone in the family,” Frankie said in a firm voice that convinced nobody. “I’ll bet you anything it was a Tribbie.”

Nine

The lights were on in the carriage house where my brother Eli had his architectural studio when Quinn and I pulled into the driveway after we finished helping Frankie carry the boxes of Christmas decorations into the tasting room.

“I swear they’re like mushrooms,” Quinn told me on the ride home. I was relieved we weren’t talking about Bobby, Prescott, or a murder. “They multiply in the dark in that storeroom. I’m sure there were more this year than last year.”

“Oh, come on,” I said, laughing. “Don’t be a Grinch. Frankie loves Christmas as much as I do. Maybe we get a bit carried away, but the house and the Villa look so beautiful and festive when they’re decorated, don’t you think? Especially if it’s a white Christmas.”

He grinned. “You’re talking to a California boy. I used to go surfing on Christmas Day. And Californians are mostly into lights. On everything. Buildings, palm trees, you name it, we light it up. It’s like fairyland. Or Disneyland.”

“Speaking of lights, Eli’s working. I thought I might drop by and have a quick chat with him,” I said as we climbed out of the Jeep.

“Does this have to do with what Prescott told you yesterday?” Quinn asked. “You want to ask him if he knows about the missing cases of Madeira?”

“Yes.”

He gave me a reflective look. “That was a yes, but. Yes, but what?”

Somehow he always knew when I was holding back. “I want to know if he knew about the second safe-deposit box Prescott said Leland had rented. The one where he kept his secrets from my mother.”

Quinn placed his hands on my shoulders and looked down into my eyes as if he could see clear through into my soul. “I’ll go see about dinner. Take all the time you need, sweetheart.”

There are days when I’m on my knees in gratitude for this man who understands me so well. I know with every fiber of my being that he will always be there when I need him. Even if I don’t ask. Like right now.

“Why don’t you come with me?” I reached for his hands and twined my fingers through his. “I don’t want us to have any secrets from each other. Whatever Leland did, whatever secrets he kept, I want you to know about it, too.”

“You’re sure?”

“I am.”

“Then let’s go talk to Eli.”

Eli yelled, “It’s open,” when I knocked on his studio door a moment later.