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Everyone else clapped; too much noise for the people who’d been at dinner. She spun and her eyes widened. Guests stood in the hallway. Applauding.
“You’re going to bring so many people into the restaurant!” Abby ran over and hugged her.
“Thank you?” Carolina didn’t react fast enough to hug Abby back.
“Now I want to have entertainment in the B and B.” Abby paced to the bookshelves. “What do you think about the piano?”
“It needs to be tuned.” Carolina looked at the door and thought about the stairs. “Do you really want to take it apart and move it down a flight of stairs? I know there are specialized movers, but it’s…traumatic on a piano. And the piano would have to acclimate at the restaurant before you could tune it.”
Abby looked at Gray and the Forester brothers. “What do you think?”
“I think she’s right.” Gray nodded. “Maybe buy a piano for the restaurant.”
“And it can be an upright.” Carolina moved to the coffee, just to have something to wrap her hands around. “You don’t need a baby grand.”
“Will you come piano shopping with me tomorrow?” Abby asked.
“If you wait one more day, Ella, my accompanist, will be here. She’ll know what will work.”
“Perfect.” Abby did a happy dance. “This is going to be great.”
“You have an amazing voice,” Bess said, giving her a hug. “I can’t wait to hear you with a tuned piano.”
“And I’ll be taking pictures of your debut. No complaining.” Dolley grinned. “Liam, love of my life, will you take video to put up on the website?”
Liam set his hands on Dolley’s shoulders. “What are you offering in exchange for my services?”
Carolina didn’t hear what Dolley whispered in his ear, but Liam’s grin lit the room.
“Can we get an encore?” Gray asked Carolina.
Everyone smiled. At her.
All her life she’d wanted this sense of…family. Of community. And she’d found it. In Fitzgerald House.
In the enemy’s territory. The reality dampened her joy.
“Sure.” She headed back to the piano and sorted through the music. “What about Gershwin?”
“We’d better buy some Johnny Mercer or we’ll be drummed out of Savannah,” Dolley murmured.
Carolina played the opening, one she knew and had practiced. This time she didn’t try to be the center of attention. She sang quietly, loving the way the family talked in the background.
Sage’s shoulder rubbed against hers. “You’re incredible.”
She turned for a brief second and smiled at him.
Above Sage’s head on a bookshelf sat a globe. Lord. Was it the one that her mother had given her father? Was this Poppy’s globe?
“Stop distracting the talent, Sage,” Kaden called.
Her breath puffed out. She’d stopped playing and singing.
Sage brushed a kiss on her nose. “I can’t help it.”
He turned her face back to the music. Where had she been?
She picked a measure and started, stumbling with the keys because her hands shook. She covered up the flaws by singing louder and her voice cracked.
“Relax.” Sage stood behind the bench and rubbed her shoulders.
She got through the song, concentrating harder than when she’d cut her first demo. The Fitzgeralds didn’t notice she’d flubbed the words or skipped two verses. They clapped like she’d given them a standing-ovation-worthy performance.
After the applause died, she closed the keyboard cover and twisted around on the bench. Out of the corner of her eye, the globe caught the light. She swore it sparkled.
How would she answer her mother’s questions now that she’d found the globe that had been in their family for generations? Even she remembered Poppy holding it.
“Are you all right?” Sage asked. “You’re pale.”
“I’m…fine.” But she wasn’t.
Sage put an arm around her shoulder and she tucked her head into his body. The Fitzgeralds’ conversation swirled around, never really including her.
Only minutes ago she’d felt a part of this group. She was a fool. An outsider. The illegitimate daughter of this family’s father.
* * *
WHAT THE HELL had happened during that second song?
Sage swore the life had drained out of Carolina along with all the color in her face. She tripped climbing the carriage house stairs and he caught her.
Usually she caught him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
She opened the door. “Wrong?”
“You’ve been upset all night. And something happened in the music room.”
“I… I looked at you and lost my place.” She dropped her keys in the bowl on the small entry table.
