Caught in a Storm (Perfect Storm #3)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Mila stepped out onto the front porch and pulled her coat around her more firmly.

While it wasn’t bitter cold, there was still enough nip in the air to keep most people inside.

She would have been one of those people if not for the strong wind last night that had blown half the holiday lights down on the B&B Aunt Claire and Uncle Rex ran on Stormy Weather Farm.

Despite the chill, Mila took a moment, just as she always did, to enjoy the view.

As far as she was concerned—winter, spring, summer, or fall—the view down into the valley from her lofty perch right here on the side of the mountain was never bad.

While the valley was awash in every hue of green during the spring and summer months, and a colorful palette of oranges, purples, and reds in the fall, the winter provided its own beauty.

Right now, the world below her was painted in a white so bright, she should have put on sunglasses.

Most of the year, the scene before her was all watercolors and pastels. In winter, it was more like a pen-and-ink drawing. Less vibrant, harsher, but just as beautiful.

She’d stopped by the B&B to see if Aunt Claire needed any help getting ready for the guests who were set to arrive this afternoon.

Uncle Rex had taken a tumble a couple of days earlier and sprained his ankle.

He’d been good-naturedly grumbling from the couch about not being an invalid, but that wasn’t stopping Aunt Claire from fussy over him like a protective mother hen.

The fact her strong-as-a-bull, never-sit-still uncle was reclined under a blanket with his foot propped up on a pillow spoke to just how bad the injury was. Because Mila had watched him work with bad head colds, nasty coughs, and even a twisted back once.

Aunt Claire assured her she had everything in hand, with the exception of the holiday lights.

Her aunt had intended to ask one of her sons—Mila’s countless male cousins—to stop by to fix them, but Mila offered to take on the task.

After all, she and Uncle Rex had been the ones to hang them, so it wasn’t like she wasn’t familiar with the process.

Part of her countless duties on the family farm—in addition to maintaining the rental cabins, pitching in at the B&B, maintaining the flower and herb garden with her aunt, and managing the kitchens at the brewery and winery, both located on the property—was that of chief decorator.

She had her very own dedicated shed where she stored decorations for every holiday on the calendar and some fun ones that weren’t, like May the Fourth’s Star Wars Day and October Third’s Mean Girls celebration.

Stepping around the house, she found the ladder Uncle Rex had stashed there. No doubt he promised Aunt Claire he would put it away multiple times, while never managing to actually do the task.

Pulling it to the front porch, she set it up, then sighed.

While she always found special occasions to celebrate, she loved the Christmas holidays more than any other time of the year, which made January particularly depressing.

Taking down all the Santas and Grinches and Snoopies and angels and snowmen and…

well, if it dealt with Christmas, she had it…

and packing them away for another whole year always made her melancholy.

It had been a particularly nice holiday season this year, as they’d added new “family” to her already overloaded list of relatives.

In addition to her seven male cousins and her two sisters—her oldest sister, Lucy, had celebrated Christmas with her boyfriends in Philadelphia—they’d added a couple of girlfriends.

Her cousin Levi had fallen madly in love with Kasi Mills, so she, her father, Tim, and brother, Keith, had joined them for the opening of gifts on Christmas Eve and the big meal on Christmas Day.

And her cousin Theo had also been struck by Cupid’s arrow, so he’d invited his girlfriend, Gretchen.

Adding new ladies to the mix was exciting to Mila, as she and her sisters, Nora and Remi, were painfully outnumbered on the farm. It had been nice with the extra females around. With the addition of Kasi and Gretchen, it felt like they were starting to even the numbers.

Ordinarily, she left the holiday lights up longer, as it was only a couple of days past New Year’s, but thanks to that damn wind blowing a large section in the center down completely, she’d decided to follow Mother Nature’s lead, taking the rest down now.

Better that than rehanging them, only to have to ascend the ladder again in a couple weeks.

Beginning at the edge of the porch eave, she started the slow, arduous process of unhooking the lights, then descending and moving the ladder a few feet to the right before ascending again.

After the fifth trip down, she wound the first strand of lights carefully.

There was nothing more annoying than getting all excited about decorating for the holidays, then being slowed down by tangled lights.

She was a professional when it came to storing Christmas lights.

The trick was notched cardboard. Her cardboard pieces were even labeled, so she knew where each strand of lights was hung.

An important addition, considering she draped twinkle lights from the front of all three of the farm’s houses, as well as in and around the brewery, winery, event barn, and any cabins that were rented in December.

Not to mention the lights for the countless Christmas trees they decorated in various places. Her lighting game was legit, and one she started in mid-November, as it usually took her a couple of weeks to hang them all.

Once the first strand was wrapped on the cardboard, she started to climb again, only to stop when Nora approached from the path that connected the farmhouse she shared with her sisters to the B&B.

“Why are you taking them down?” Nora asked. “Thought you usually left them up well into January.”

Mila leaned on the ladder. “Mother Nature and that storm last night had different plans.”

“Ah.” Nora glanced at the cardboard pieces she’d arranged on the porch and grinned. It was Nora who, after too many years of listening to Mila bitch about using the wrong light strands in the wrong places, had suggested she label the cardboard.

Not that that was surprising. Nora took organization schematics to new levels because her OCD wouldn’t let her rest if something wasn’t exactly so.

No one minded Nora’s quirkiness because, in truth, she had a goddamn gift when it came to arranging and categorizing, and Mila always figured that if they hadn’t been born on the farm, Nora would have been one of those professional organizers.

“What are you doing here?” Mila asked. Nora ran Lightning in a Bottle Winery and spent the majority of her days there—either in her office or in the tasting room, working with employees or chatting with patrons.

Nora held up a wine bag Mila hadn’t noticed. “Aunt Claire asked if I’d drop off a few bottles of wine for Sunday dinner tonight. Apparently, we depleted the supply she had on hand on New Year’s Eve.”

Mila rubbed her temple, grinning. “Don’t remind me. I swear I can still feel twinges of that hangover.”

“Yeah. It was a hell of a party,” Nora said. “One Uncle Rex is still suffering for.”

Mila laughed. “Poor guy. He was the soberest of us all.”

“Leading a conga line is no joke.”

Uncle Rex’s sprained ankle had been the result him catching his foot on the edge of the dining room table while leading them all through the house, conga-style, to Harry Belafonte’s “Jump in the Line.” He’d been shaking maracas with his pointed Happy New Year paper hat hanging off the side of his head, making him look like a lopsided rhinoceros.

If there was one thing the Storm family loved, it was a conga line.

“Aunt Claire is taking good care of him. He’s currently under one of Grandma’s handmade quilts, drinking hot tea.”

Nora snorted. “Twenty bucks says he added a shot of rum when Aunt Claire wasn’t looking.”

“Not taking bets I won’t win,” Mila joked.

“You were up and out early this morning,” Nora said. “I didn’t get to ask you how your date with Pastor Joshua went last night.”

Mila gave her sister a casual shrug. “It was okay.”

“Just okay?”

“It was nice,” she amended. “He’s a nice guy. You know he is.”

“I know nice is really just code for boring,” Nora pressed.

Mila sighed. “Not really. I mean, we’re never hurting for conversation and he’s super polite and friendly and…” She was aware that her tone wasn’t exactly proving her sister wrong. Because despite everything she just said, there were absolutely zero sparks between her and Joshua, a local minister.

“Why do you keep going out with the guy if he bores you?”

“We’ve only been out a few times, and it’s not as if we’re a couple or anything. We haven’t even done anything more than kiss.”

Three times. And they were three of the most lukewarm kisses in the history of kissing.

For pity’s sake, they’d all been close-mouthed. Not even a hint of tongue.

“He’s a pastor. He probably can’t do anything more than kiss you outside the confines of marriage or he’ll go to hell.”

Mila closed her eyes. “You’re ridiculous.”

Nora smirked. “Just think about it. You could be leading a man of the cloth down the path to sin. Which is hot in romance novels, but I’m pretty sure Pastor Joshua isn’t sporting a six-pack under that clergy robe.”

This time, Mila couldn’t help but laugh. “Shut up, you idiot. I’m not leading him to sin.”

Nora relented on teasing her. “You’re obviously not into the guy, so why keep saying yes when he asks you out?”

Mila grimaced. “Because I can’t think of a reason to say no. I mean, he really is a nice guy and it’s not like he’s done anything wrong on our dates.”

Nora rolled her eyes, clearly unimpressed by that answer. “He hasn’t done anything fun, either. The guy is too serious about being holy. It’s honestly kind of annoying.”