by Nan Dixon
“Thanks, Abby. I will.”
“Any chance you want to entertain the guests tonight? I don’t expect the power back on until the storm passes, so it would be a help.”
“Sure.” It would give her something to do. “I warn you, I’m not a great pianist.”
“I’ll keep the wine flowing so they don’t notice.”
Carolina actually laughed as she shut off her phone. A sound she hadn’t made in a while.
“What’s up?” Sage toweled his hair as he walked down the hall. His shorts hung low on his hips. He didn’t wear a shirt.
She laced her fingers behind her back so she wouldn’t reach out and stroke his bare skin.
If this had been before his accusations, she would have pushed him right back down to the bedroom and stripped off those shorts.
But it wasn’t. She turned back to the window. In a low voice she said, “Abby said if we want to eat over there, we can. And she’d like me to entertain the guests since there isn’t any power.”
He moved behind her, his heat tugging at her. She had to stiffen her spine so she didn’t relax into the comfort of his body.
“That’s a good idea.” Sage’s whisper and the dark room made the moment too intimate. He set his hand on her shoulder. “I guess we had power longer than I expected.”
She slipped away from him. “I’ll put together sandwiches for lunch.” Anything to escape his magnetic pull.
She could do this. She could stay strong.
* * *
“THE WINDS ARE DYING.” Sage stopped by the window as he paced the room. “A little at least.”
The worst of the storm had passed a couple of hours ago. Without the TV giving a play-by-play, they were guessing based on the intensity of the rain and wind.
“Do you want to head over to Fitzgerald House?” she asked.
“Yes.” Sage needed to get out of there and do something.
He’d tried to read, but it made his head pound. He and Carolina had found games in one of the cupboards, but the idea of playing Monopoly in the dark didn’t appeal.
So he’d paced.
“Mamá, do you want to go to Fitzgerald House?” Carolina asked.
“They have light. And wine.” Her mother smiled. “Yes.”
“Okay.” Carolina slapped her hands on her thighs. “Let’s go.”
Rosa cupped Carolina’s face. “You are the best thing that ever happened in my life. You know that, don’t you?”
“I love you.” Carolina’s voice was a whisper in the dusky room.
His chest ached as Rosa dropped her forehead to Carolina’s. The two women hugged. He could almost feel the love and pain pulsing through their veins. He had to swallow back tears. His brothers would tease him mercilessly if they knew.
How could he have ever thought she didn’t live with honor? He was so wrong. And he was paying for his arrogance by Carolina booting him from her life.
At least he could help her right now. She wasn’t cruel enough to tell him to stay somewhere else until the storm passed. She was too honorable.
“Rosa, let me help you down the stairs.” His voice sounded like it was filled with gravel. “We’ll help each other. Together.”
Carolina looked up, like she’d forgotten he was there.
He tried to lighten the dark mood blanketing the room. “I don’t want either of you lovely ladies being blown away.”
They donned their coats, pulled up their hoods.
“Everyone ready?” he asked.
The Castillo women nodded.
“I’ll walk down the left side. Rosa, hang on to my waist. Carolina, hang on to your mother.”
They nodded, not even complaining that he’d taken charge.
On the landing, he clasped Rosa’s hand on his waist. “Let’s go,” he yelled. A wind gust carried his voice away.
They worked their way down the stairs, one step at a time. Each gust tried to pull them apart, but Rosa dug in and Carolina stayed right with her mother.
At the foot of the stairs, he wrapped an arm around Rosa’s waist and Carolina did the same. “All together.” And imitating a six-legged caterpillar, they fought their way through the wind and rain.
By the time they reached the kitchen door, Rosa’s face was white.
“Get your mother inside,” he yelled.
Carolina nodded and as soon as Sage opened the door, she helped her mother over the threshold. They shook off their wet coats. There was a stack of towels and Carolina handed them out and tried to dry off her mother.
Even though it was hot and humid, a fire burned in the fireplace. A weather radio played in the background.
“Mamá, come get dry.” Carolina led her mother to a chair near the hearth. Then she laid out a towel so her mother didn’t get the chair wet.
The swinging door opened and Abby waved. “Glad you braved the rain.”
“We were going stir-crazy, so we took you up on your offer,” Carolina said.
Abby came into the sitting area and took one glance at Rosa and said, “Can I get you something? A cup of tea or coffee? Water?”
“I need to catch my breath.” Mamá’s head dropped to the back of the chair.
Is she all right? Abby mouthed.
Carolina knelt at her mother’s feet, taking her hands. “Do you want to lie down again?”
“No. I just...need...time. That wind was fearsome.”
Fearsome. Not a word you heard every day.
Carolina covered her mother with a throw and then moved into the main section of the kitchen. “I’ll take something to drink.”
Sage followed her and Abby.
“I’ve got a pot of tea brewed.” Abby pointed at a pot covered with something that looked like hot pads. Then she pointed at the carafes sitting on the counter. “Or there’s coffee.”
They all doctored their preferred beverages.
“That might be the last pot of coffee for a while,” Abby said as they sat at the table and kept their voices low so they didn’t disturb Rosa. “I don’t have many plugs available when we’re using the generator.”
“Then I’ll enjoy it,” Sage said.
“How many people arrived last night?” Carolina asked.
“We’re full in Fitzgerald House.” Abby shook her head. “We don’t have a generator at Carleton House, so it’s empty. Only one couple from out of town decided to wait out the storm. Everyone else is from the evacuated areas.”
“You could really jack the prices up, if you wanted,” he mused.
“Sage!” Carolina looked like she could spit nails. At him. “My sister would never do that.”
Abby’s eyebrows arched over her green eyes. Was it because Carolina was defending her or the fact that Carolina had called her a sister. “Carolina’s right. How could I do that?”
They sat side by side. Abby put a hand over Carolina’s. With their flashing eyes and similar noses, Sage spotted the resemblance. He had to ignore the hair, skin color and freckles, but they were family.
Abby finished her tea and then pushed away from the table. “I need to figure out what to feed people for dinner.”
“I’ll help.” Carolina stood, too.
“Anything I can do?” Sage asked.
“Gray, Kaden and Courtney are entertaining the kids in the solarium. They’d love some help.”
“I’m on it.”
“You can take the cookies down to them. Be the muffin man for me.” Abby handed Sage a platter of cookies. And the tune “Do You Know the Muffin Man?” filled his head. Great. Now he had an earworm.
He backed through the swinging doors and the last sight he saw as he left the room was Carolina and Abby with their heads together.
Abby had fired her, so how was this happening?
Hurricanes made strange bedfellows, but maybe
they also made friends out of half sisters. For Carolina, he hoped it was true. She needed people. She needed family.
If he’d screwed things up so much that he couldn’t be her family, he wanted the Fitzgeralds for Carolina.
* * *
“MAMÁ, WILL YOU be okay here this morning?” Carolina asked.
“Oh, yes. Look! The sun is shining.” Mamá settled into a chair in the Fitzgerald House library. “Go. Do what you need to do.”
The storm had passed over in the night. A guest said it had been downgraded to a tropical storm after landfall. And luckily, landfall had been somewhere in South Carolina. Power was still out. And Tybee was closed to traffic.
Carolina had endured one more night with Sage sleeping just down the hall. He’d been gone before she’d left the bedroom this morning.
She stepped onto the Fitzgerald House front porch. It was time to help cleanup.
Her heart broke at the sight of the uprooted massive old oaks. A giant oak that had stood in the square blocked the street and rested on the Carleton House fence.
Chain saws buzzed along the block and in the square. She pulled on gloves and moved to where Bess knelt next to an uprooted magnolia tree. Sage came around the corner and her foolish heart picked up a couple of extra beats.
“I can save this,” Bess muttered.
She pointed at Carolina, Sage and her husband, Daniel. “I’ll need you three to lift and pull while I straighten out the roots.”
Bess pulled tools and rope out of a wheelbarrow. She wrapped rubberlike sleeves around the tree. “Daniel, you and I will pull on this one. Sage and Carolina you pull this one.”
Water seeped into Carolina’s sneakers as they took their places.
“Pull,” Bess called. “Gently.”
Carolina pulled, her feet slipping in the mud-like grass. She went down on her butt, but scrambled right back up.
Bess called again. “Harder.”
There was a sucking sound as the ground around the root ball tried to keep the tree from moving. But it started to rise. Bess ran and pushed the trunk with her hands. “Help me, Carolina.”
Carolina slid over to Bess and pushed, jamming her shoulder into the trunk. Her feet slipped as she helped push the twenty-foot tree upright.
“It’s working,” Bess gasped.
Sage and Daniel moved closer together, still pulling on the ropes. And the tree was upright.
“There you go, baby.” Bess tucked in stray roots. “You’ll be as good as new.”
While Daniel and Sage held the tree, she and Bess pounded stakes into the wet ground.
Bess tied the ropes to the stakes. Stepping back, she shook her head. “It’s so wet, the stakes will just pull out.”
Daniel checked the tension. “They might.”
Carolina and Sage waited next to each other as the couple discussed options.
“How are you?” he asked.
“Fine.” Heartbroken. “You were up early.”
“Couldn’t sleep.”
“I know what you mean.” And it hadn’t been the wind.
He turned and brushed his finger under her eyes. “I’m sorry if you couldn’t sleep because of me.”
Don’t flatter yourself was on the tip of her tongue. But Sage was right. She hadn’t slept because of him.
Bess and Daniel tied the ropes off on the porch pillars.
“Not pretty, but it will give the tree a chance to re-root.” Bess slapped her work gloves on her thighs.
“I hope that won’t tear the porch down,” Carolina whispered to Sage.
Bess pushed the wheelbarrow to the street. “Everything else in the courtyard is just sweeping and picking up. Abby, Gray and Nigel are working in back. Let’s get the tree off the fence and clear the street.”
“The oak can’t be saved?” Carolina asked.
“No.” Sorrow darkened Bess’s face. “It’s over a hundred years old. I hope Savannah didn’t lose too many.”
Daniel pulled out a chain saw. Kaden came around from the courtyard with another one. Daniel, Kaden and Sage huddled together.
“Let’s do this.” Daniel yanked the chain saw cord.
Kaden did the same. The saws coughed and caught. Tipping down safety glasses, the two men carved branches off the fallen tree.
Sage rejoined her. “They’ll cut off branches and we’ll pile them there.” He pointed to the sidewalk.
“Got it.”
Carolina tugged away smaller branches and added them to the growing pile. Neighbors joined them, talking about water leaking through windows and roofs. Another chain saw fired up.
If the damage was this bad here, what had happened on Tybee? Carolina chewed her lip, worried her mother had lost everything.
“What’s wrong?” Sage asked as they waited for Kaden to cut a waist-thick branch into manageable pieces.
“I hate not knowing what happened to Mamá’s house.”
“As soon as the roads are open, we’ll head down.”
“But you have to work, don’t you?”
“Office is closed.” He shook off his work gloves and cupped her face. “But even if it wasn’t, this is more important. You’re more important.”
Her heart pounded. She wanted to believe him. But what if he just couldn’t let go of what he deemed to be her mistakes? “Sage, we’ve had this conversation.”
“I was wrong.” He stepped so close she could feel the heat of his thighs. “I screwed up. You’re so honorable, more honorable than me on my high horse.”
“What are you saying?” She covered her trembling lips with her hand.
“You’re showing me what true honor is.” He waved around the street. “Here you are helping people when you could be inside with your mother.”
“That wouldn’t be right. Abby’s letting me stay for free. She’s done so much for me already.”
“She fired you. And you’re helping her. You’re helping all the Fitzgeralds.” He pulled her into a hug and whispered, “I can’t imagine my life without you. I can’t imagine not seeing your smile each day. I can’t let you go. So I’m going to fight for you. I love you.”
What? “I—”
“Hey, lovebirds,” Kaden called above the buzzing chain saws. “Got branches that need moving.”
* * *
CAROLINA BROKE FREE of Sage’s embrace and away from his gaze. She hurried around the massive branch and snatched up logs. Did he mean it? Did Sage really think she was living an honorable life?
Her goal was to survive. She never thought of honor. She thought of helping others, and right now that meant her sisters.
Thank goodness she couldn’t dwell on Sage’s words as they hauled, pulled and cleared half the street within an hour.
They took a break, sitting on the porch. Abby brought out water and lemonade. “How’s it going?”
“It’s so sad,” Carolina said. “All these beautiful trees.”
“It could have been worse.” Abby sighed. “Landfall was north of us. The rain wasn’t too heavy and it was only a tropical storm when it passed over.”
“Have they said anything about Tybee?” she asked.
“I haven’t heard.” Abby shook her head. “I checked on your mother. She’s doing fine.”
“Thanks.” She was amazed a Fitzgerald could treat her mother so kindly.
Bess sat next to Abby on the step. “How’s the courtyard cleanup going?”
“Nigel, Gray and I swept the paths,” Abby said. “We dumped everything next to your compost pile, but it’s a huge mound.”
Bess nodded. “I’ll deal with it.”
Sage sat next to Carolina, their legs touching.
Her body leaned into his. She wanted to believe what he’d said. Wanted to trust that he wouldn’t slash at her the way he’d done before
and accuse her of having no honor.
But she couldn’t live waiting for the next shoe to drop. She had too many other worries.
“How often do you go through this?” Sage rested his arm behind Carolina.
She wasn’t strong enough to pull away from his comforting cocoon.
“We’ve been lucky,” Abby said. “Hurricanes don’t hit often.”
Kaden slammed back a glass of lemonade. “Back to work.”
“Thanks, Abby,” Carolina said.
“You’re welcome.” She called out, “Lunch in an hour.”
Sage pulled Carolina off the steps. “Let’s get this done.”
He set his hand on her back, guiding her into the street.
Carolina wanted to trust him. She really did. But he’d broken her heart once. She’d rather live alone than let him break it again.
* * *
CAROLINA’S STOMACH LET out a grumble.
“Let’s feed that beast,” Sage said, rubbing her shoulders.
The work crew headed through the courtyard to the kitchen, kicking off their muddy shoes and boots. Everyone was talking, even laughing, and they were including her. Sage barely left her side.
Sage had whispered one more time that he’d changed. Could she let her guard down and let happiness in?
Sandwich makings filled one of the kitchen counters. Everyone filed in, stripping off gloves and safety glasses and headed to wash their hands.
“You all smell like freshly cut wood,” Abby said.
“Isn’t that a pity?” Dolley washed her hands.
“I should check on my mother.” Carolina headed around the counter.
“She’s having lunch in the library.” Abby pointed to the food. “Why don’t you eat first?”
“You’re sure she’s all right?” Carolina wrung her hands and looked at the swinging door.
Abby dragged her to the food counter. “Yes. Eat.”
Everyone created their own salads and sandwiches.
As people finished, they put their dishes in the sink. “Do you want me to scrub these up?” Carolina asked Abby.
“I’ve got it. And Amy’s here,” Abby said. “She’s helping in the dining room.”
Sage touched Carolina’s hand. “I’ll head out with the guys.”
“I’ll be back out after I check on Mamá.” Carolina pushed through the swinging door.