Sonny snorted. “Now you think I resent you, that I think of you as a burden?”
Around them, Brock noticed the air growing taut. April had stopped working. Another woman, maybe between April’s and Brianna’s age and with a strong family resemblance, joined her.That must be HannahBrock thought. With amused expressions on their faces, they stood watching the showdown, and Brock was tempted to offer them popcorn.
Brianna put her hands on her hips. “Uncle Sonny, please don’t turn this around. You know I love you and Aunt Claire and that you’ve never treated me as a burden. You took me in without so much as a word of protest and made me feel like I was one of your own.” She grabbed one of his big bear paws in both of hers. “You sheltered and protected me when I needed it, when my parents…when they couldn’t.” Her eyes filled with tears. “But sometimes your protection feels suffocating. I appreciate the work you’ve given me here, I do. But I want to domorewith my life.”
“Don’t you think I want that for you too, Little B?” Sonny growled. “I know you don’t wanna be behind a counter your whole life pouring coffee, though you know I’d make you an equal partner just like I have for your cousins if you’d just say the word. But music? Of all things? Music ain’t a life, not for most. Hell, hardly for anybody outside of teaching it maybe. Doing a gig in a bar on an odd Saturday night, or asking a coffee shop if you can play for tips, what kinda life is that? And the lifestyle.” Sonny shook his head. “That’s the sorta stuff I got away from as soon as I could growing up. The military was the best thing ever for me.”
He stooped and cupped Brianna’s cheeks. “Your ma thought she was gonna be a musician too, but that just got her in trouble a few times. I don’t wanna see you end up like my sister, God love her.”
“She won’t,” Brock said. All eyes turned on him. Sonny straightened up and folded his arms.
“Brianna’s got a once-in-a-lifetime chance here with the workshop and the contest. She’s amazing. Everyone who’s heard her stops in their tracks and listens. Not just lunkheads like me off the street, but real professionals who know what to listen for. She’s gotit, you know? She—”
“That’s just the thing, wedon’tknow,” Sonny said. “She’s never played for us. And we didn’t know about you. Did you put her up to it?” He pointed to the fiddle case sitting on the counter. “I didn’t even know she’d snuck that outta my attic. That’s not good behavior.”
Brianna rolled her eyes and threw her hands in the air. “Oh my God, I was a kid when I found it and used to take it out to the woods to play. I took it with me when I got my own apartment eight freekin years ago. You didn’t even miss it until this week and now I’m a criminal?”
Snorts of laughter came from the peanut gallery. April covered her mouth and pretended to cough.
Sonny made dagger eyes at them. “You two stay outta this.”
“Uncle Sonny.” Brianna’s voice had gone soft again as she grabbed his hand. “This is the most important thing in my life. You know how hard I work in the coffee shop, right?”
Sonny jutted his chin at his daughters. “Harder than my two busybody daughters.”
“Pffft.” April waved a towel at him and Hannah threw her head back in mock-disgust.
“If I work that hard at something I don’t even want, can you imagine how hard I work at this one thing I love and how much more I’m going to keep putting into it? I’m going to make it, Uncle Sonny, just through sheer force of will.”
She broke her gaze with her uncle and let go of his hand so she could turn and point at Brock. “As for Brock ‘putting me up to it,’ he’s helped me with something I already wanted. Without him, I’d probably have chickened out on Sunday and never gone to the workshop. But when I saw him carrying my fiddle away it felt like the world had ended. Like I had missed my chance before I even tried. And I would have done anything—anything—to get it back. Since then, he’s done nothing but encourage me. He’s kept me safe in so many different ways.” She turned back to her uncle. “Ways that you can’t, Uncle Sonny, and that’s okay. You’vegotto let me do this without feeling resentful toward me. Because you can’t stop me. Please. I’m safe, and I’ve got this.”
She stopped. “I’ve really got this,” she whispered to herself. And her voice sounded to Brock’s ears more confident than any shout.
Sonny still looked unconvinced and more than a little heartbroken. It actually hurt Brock to look at the man. Then he had an idea.
Brock picked up Brianna’s fiddle off the counter and handed it to her. He motioned with his chin toward the little stage in the corner. He looked at April, who got the message and dashed behind the counter to turn off the jazz playing overhead.
Brianna looked at the case in her hands then at Brock. He nodded. She walked to the stage and set the case down on a stool beside a microphone. She took out her fiddle and tucked it under her chin. Brianna drew the bow across the strings and it made a sour sound. She grimaced and made a couple of adjustments then started again.
Brock expected a bluegrass tune or maybe country, but what came out was pure jazz.Genius. To his untrained ear, it sounded like the old-time stuff, maybe from the twenties or thirties. He looked at Sonny, whose expression had become unreadable as he watched his niece play. As for April and Hannah, they stared and smiled and elbowed each other. Even the two previously oblivious customers were enjoying the show.
Brianna ended the song and looked at her uncle. They stared at each other for a few moments before Sonny said, “Stéphane Grappelli couldn’t have done any better.” He broke their stare, shaking his head as he went back behind the counter. Brianna watched him, motionless, tears forming in her eyes.
When Sonny faced her again, he shrugged his burly shoulders and said, “You’re right. You’ve got this.”
Brock was already halfway across the room when Brianna dropped her chin and her shoulders heaved once. She was in his arms when she looked up, eyes shining, and whispered, “Thank you.”
Behind him, April, Hannah, and the two customers applauded wildly.
A bell rang when the front door opened, and the clapping tapered off as April said, “Uh-oh.” Brianna looked past Brock and her expression turned surprised, then horrified as she stiffened in his arms.
Brock turned to see a young man dashing in and slowing as he got to the middle of the shop, his eyes fixed on Brianna. Their resemblance was uncanny.
“I came as soon as I heard,” the man said. “Are…are you okay?”
“Brian,” Brianna said. She looked from her twin to Brock, guilt in her eyes. “Brock, this is, um, my brother. We’re twins.”
Chapter 11
