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She turned to look up at him. She slowly raised her hand to lightly stroke his cheek. She said with all a child’s appalling candor, “My daddy just died, Ramsey. He wasn’t with us much, but he was my daddy.”

“Yes, he was. He’ll always be your daddy.”

“I don’t think so,” Emma said then. She leaned against his chest, her cheek against his shoulder. “I can’t take the chance, Ramsey, I just can’t.”

“What chance, sweetheart?”

“If you married Mama, someone might blow you up too.”

“Oh, Emma,” he said, and hugged her tightly against him. “No one’s going to hurt me, no one.”

“They already did. You got shot in the leg at the cabin and when my daddy blew up your back got hurt, too.”

“Just minor stuff. A big guy like me can take lots of minor stuff. Don’t worry, Em. Please.”

She leaned down to pick up her piano.

Her security blanket, he thought, wondering what the hell to do. “You know something, Emma?”

She lightly stroked her finger on middle C, not looking at him. Afraid to look at him, he thought.

“I think when we’re all a family and everything’s okay again, we’re going back to Ireland. Shall we all spend our honeymoon at Bunratty Castle?”

She gave him a small smile. She turned away from her piano and pressed herself against his chest. “I don’t know, Ramsey. Will Mama be happy?”

“I can make her delirious, just ask her.”

Emma raised her head and stared at her mother. “Mama, do you think we can keep Ramsey safe?”

This was a wallop in the gut, Molly thought, smiling at her daughter, whose piano was slipping off Ramsey’s lap. She nodded. “Yes, I think we can keep him safe. You see, Em, he’s right. He’s big and strong. We’re not as strong as he is, so we’ll be thinking more. We’ll be the brains of the operation. Yes, we’ll keep him safe.”

Emma nodded slowly. “Who shot Grandfather?”

“We don’t know yet,” Molly said. “But he’s alive, Em, and they’re taking care of him at the hospital.”

“Look at the time,” Ramsey said. “We’ve got to get going or we’ll miss your appointment with Dr. Loo.”

“I hope we can avoid the media,” Molly said, worry lacing her voice as she looked down at Emma.

They did manage to lose the press, and in Dr. Eleanor Loo’s office thirty minutes later, Emma said, “Dr. Loo, Ramsey and my mom are going to get married. What do you think?”

“I think,” Eleanor Loo said, fascinated, “that I need to have my secretary go buy us a bottle of champagne. You, Emma, can have a Sprite, is that all right?”

“I’d rather have a Dr. Pepper, Dr. Loo.”

“That’s great.” Dr. Loo got on her phone for a moment, then turned back. “In half an hour, we’ll have a toast. Congratulations to both of you. Now, Emma, tell me why you’re worried.”

“Because Ramsey could get killed like my daddy.”

“That’s true,” Dr. Loo said slowly. “But you see, Emma, anything can happen to anybody in the world at any time. I’ll never forget when Princess Diana died so tragically. I’ll never forget the shock of it, the realization that none of us has any guarantees on anything. Life is one day at a time and trying to enjoy each day we’re given. You’ve got to discover the knack for doing that. Do you understand?”

“That was different,” Emma said. “Bad people are after us. It isn’t just bad luck.”

“You understand all too well,” Dr. Loo said. “Okay, let’s look at it this way. Ramsey and your mom want to give you a home. They want the three of you to be a family. They love you and want you to know that they’ll always be there for you.”

Emma sighed. She looked for a very long time at Ramsey, saying nothing, just studying him. Then she looked at her mother. Then, she turned back to Dr. Loo, and smiled. “I think Ramsey will make me a good papa. He already loves me bunches.”

“He does, does he?”

“Yes. He went crazy in San Francisco when that bad man grabbed me again.”

Molly had told Dr. Loo on the phone what had happened on the beach.

“Were you scared?”

“Yes, but it was over so fast. Ramsey said I saved myself again.”

“What did you do?”

“The man hit me real hard, but I stayed awake. I bit him