How to: Hide a Baby by Day Leclaire

Grace Barnes is pretending to be ugly so her gorgeous boss, Luc Salvatore, won’t fall in love with her—or she with him. She’s even pretending to be engaged to the nonexistent Will-William. It’s worked for almost a year, which is how long she needs to work in order to fund her own business. Maybe Grace would have succeeded if unwed mother Carina Donati hadn’t dumped her son on Luc and taken off for Italy. Not that Tony is Luc’s. No, Tony belongs to Luc’s youngest brother (of five), Brand, who takes off after Carina.

When the police arrive, Luc tells them he and Grace are engaged and babysitting his nephew for a few hours. A bit of a fib since Tony’s parents aren’t married and, oops, the baby is really a girl . . . Toni, short for Antonia. Who knew, considering the Salvatores haven’t fathered a daughter in more generations than Toni has toes. That would have been fine if the police hadn’t returned and discovered Tony is really Toni, and that it isn’t a few hours they’ll be babysitting, but a few days, and that Brand and Carina aren’t really married. They take Toni and turn her over to CPS. When CPS shows up, Luc charms the woman, telling her that he and Grace are married.

Got all that? They’re boss and assistant at work, engaged for the police, married for CPS, and just good friends in front of Luc’s irrepressible family.

Then Luc’s father, Dom, returns from a nine-month sojourn in Italy. He knows they’re not married and assumes Toni is Grace and Luc’s. Maybe they’d have skated by that if they hadn’t allowed nature to take its course. Or if Grace’s father hadn’t interrupted them. Did I mention that Grace’s father is a minister? No? Well, as you can imagine that didn’t go down well. So now Luc insists they marry for real. And Grace would . . . if only Luc loved her. There’s only way to convince her and that is to say the three little words he’s never said to any other woman: I love you.