“Family?” I asked. “He’s as good as a stranger to me. And, Mom, Nova. I need you to call me Nova when I’m getting ready for an event.” If I didn’t get into character, so to speak, I’d forget to respond to the stage name and look clueless. It’d happened before.

“Keep still, girl,” Sasha instructed.

“Sorry,” I murmured.

“I know he didn’t keep in touch,” my mom went on as though she hadn’t heard what I said about my name, “but you know what a rough time he had after his mom died.”

“Open,” Sasha said, tipping my chin. I opened my eyes, and he moved his gaze from one to the other, measuring. “Good. Louisa, she’s ready for you,” he called to my hairdresser in the living room, turning and beginning to gather his kit.

“Hold on, Mom.” I leaned toward the now-unobstructed mirror, turning my face in each direction. “Thanks, Sash. You’re an artiste,” I said, making the gesture for a chef’s kiss. He’d done a heavy nighttime look on me, and though it was dramatic, he’d kept it tasteful. He was truly talented, and I was lucky to have him as part of my team.

“Kisses,” he called, sweeping out of the room. I lifted the phone toward my mouth again, moving my mind back to the conversation. My mom had been making excuses for Tuck Mattice.

“We all had a rough time after Mariana died, Mom. We all loved her.” I took a deep breath, mentally shaking off the feeling of that time. Of learning of Mariana’s—the woman who’d been like an aunt to me—diagnosis: brain cancer. We’d all been shocked and scared. Her immediate prognosis hadn’t been good, and the next nine months had gone by in a devastating blur of treatments, prayer vigils, and finally hospice care. Our orchard and the Mattices’, once brimming with gatherings and laughter and shared community, suddenly went quiet. When I remembered that time, my memories contained no sunshine, as if the hours between Mariana’s collapse and her coffin being lowered into the ground had gone by in perpetual night. Along with Mariana and her guitar strumming, music had died on Citrus Row as well. It was too painful, I guess. But music had always been my solace, and so I sought it out wherever I could, and it eventually took me away from home for good.