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Not that she lacked family right here in her own home, but this sudden crossroad had opened up, and it had to be a thrilling sensation to think she had unknown family out there.
Carly intended to find them no matter what. She wouldn’t give up no matter how long it took.
The screen door opened, and the rest of the family spilled into the foyer. Isabelle’s cheeks were flushed, and her blue eyes were bright. Getting out into the sunshine had been good for her. Even Emily and Amelia were smiling. At least until they entered the living room and saw the papers spread on Gram’s lap.
“What’s going on?” Amelia asked.
Carly flinched at her sister’s strident voice. Why did it always have to be this way? “I found something interesting in the attic.”
“Not just interesting. Earth-shattering,” Gram said. “Look here, girls. It appears that I was adopted, and I have a twin sister out there somewhere. Carly is going to find her for me.”
“Carly the paragon. Carly the superhero.” Amelia’s tone grew shrill. “Why can’t you see through her, Gram? She wants you to leave everything to her. She probably planted those documents.”
The blood rushed away from Carly’s head, and she felt faint. Could her sisters reallyhateher? She staggered to her feet and rushed up the steps to her room before she let the tears fall.
Fourteen
Carly looked beautiful in her red sundress, but her brown eyes were shadowed today. What had happened after Lucas left the house yesterday? She hadn’t had much to say when they boarded the boat, and he bit back the questions hovering on his tongue. If she wanted to talk about it, she would do so without his prying.
The wind teased strands of dark hair loose from her ponytail, and the warm breeze pinked her cheeks. Somehow he managed not to stare as he navigated the boat out of the harbor and south to Tybee Island. They motored past grand old homes sheltered by live oak trees laced with moss. Raucous music blared from a boat of teenagers they passed, and he caught a whiff of a shrimp boil somewhere along the shore.
Once they were out on open water, the sounds fell away and the silence felt more intimate and friendly. Just as Carly predicted, the baby fell asleep in her arms, and she shuffled him to a more comfortable place on her lap. The fluorescent green vest with its head rest surrounded his little face and tufts of light hair, but he didn’t seem to mind it and snoozed through the movement.
“How’d it go with telling your grandmother yesterday?”
“It took her a minute to believe it. Once she did, she wanted me to find her birth family as quickly as possible. If she had her way, we’d come back home with her family aboard. She immediately started wondering if her birth mother could be alive.” Carly turned serious brown eyes his way. “Do you think it’s possible?”
“Depends on her mother’s age when the twins were born. It wouldn’t be surprising if she was a young mother. If that’s the case, she might be as young as maybe eighty-five or eighty-six.”
“Or already in the grave. I tried not to get Gram’s hopes up. Or my own for that matter.”
He itched to ask her why her ready smile was missing, but he turned his head and looked out over the blue water. The sea spray left the taste of salt on his lips and in the air. Why had he let so much time go by without getting out here on the water? Busyness was no excuse for not taking some downtime for something he loved.
Gulls soared overhead, and a dolphin splashed off the starboard side. Unease crept into his sense of peace, and he glanced at Carly, who sat crying silently.
It shocked him into asking the question he’d been holding back since he saw her. “What’s wrong? I could tell something had upset you the minute you boarded the boat.”
She swiped at her cheeks with the back of her hand. “The usual.”
At least she didn’t tell him it was “nothing” like many women might have. “Your sisters.”
“Until last night I didn’t realize they actively hated me. They think I planted the documents so I’d look like a hero when I found Gram’s birth family.”
Her family’s audacity left him breathless, and he couldn’tfind adequate words to express his disgust. “That’s cold, even for them,” he said finally.
She nodded and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “I didn’t sleep much. I don’t know how to fix it, Lucas.”
Hearing his name on her lips gave him a strange thrill, which was weird. It wasn’t like he’d never heard her speak his name. He shook off the sudden sensation. “Did you try to talk to them about it?”
“No, I went to my room. I was too hurt to discuss it. No one but Isabelle was up before I left. She told me she was sorry I was upset. I nearly invited her along today, but Ryan came over to talk to Gram about starting the remodel tomorrow. One look and she was smitten.” Carly gave a slight smile. “I didn’t want to disrupt her hero worship.”
“Ryan tends to have that effect on females. He did the same with you once upon a time.”
A smile, this time a genuine one, tipped her lips up. “A long time ago in a land far away. I was young and dumb. It never would have worked.”
“Why not?” Lucas tensed as he waited for her answer. Crazy that it mattered after all this time.
“He’s still unmarried. He wasn’t the settling down kind. After we broke up, I found out he’d been meeting my best friend for coffee. He’d asked her out, but she said no. That shook me up, though.”
