Page 103 of Kiss and Tell

“I’m fine,” Lucy said. “My headache is all better.”

Nora pursed her lips. “You still have dark circles under your eyes.”

Mila, ever the caregiver, reached out to place the back of her hand on Lucy’s forehead. “You sure you aren’t coming down with the flu?”

“I’m not,” Lucy was quick to reassure her.

Mila picked up the silly little stuffed cat that Lucy always kept on her bed. It was the last gift her dad had ever given her, and she couldn’t seem to make herself put it away, even though at twenty-eight, she was too old for stuffed animals.

“Well, that’s good. Because I wouldn’t wish that plague on my worst enemy.” Mila, along with Aunt Claire and Uncle Rex, had suffered the worst case of the flu, all three of them down for the count for several days, while the rest of the family rebounded quickly, most only laid up for a day.

“So, let’s have it,” Remi said. Her youngest sister was no fan of small talk. If her sisters came here with an agenda—and it appeared they had—Remi would be impatient to get down to business.

“Let’s have what?” Lucy asked.

“What happened when you were away, Lu?” Remi asked. “Every time one of us talked to you on the phone, you sounded blissfully happy, like you were having the greatest time of your life. Were you just pretending?”

Lucy shook her head. “No. It really was an amazing trip. I loved every second of it.”

Remi nodded, as if she’d been expecting that answer. “Good. So I guess that leaves one of two other possibilities. One, you’re sad to be back, or two, you fell for one of the guys and now you’re nursing a broken heart.”

Lucy mentally checked the box that said, “All of the above,” but didn’t say it aloud because damn.

She needed to find a way to ease them into the fact that she had indulged in an honest-to-God menage.

“I’m happy to be back,” she lied. It spoke to how close she and her sisters were that not one of them bought it.

“Lu…you know you don’t have to stay here if you don’t want to,” Mila said softly. While Lucy was most like their mother, Remi and Nora more like their dad, Mila took after Aunt Claire, a gentle soul with a kind heart and a born nurturer. Lucy wouldn’t be surprised if, like Aunt Claire, Mila had a big brood of kids that she raised right here on the farm.

“Millie,” Lucy said, using the nickname her dad had given Mila when she was little. Lucy, Remi, and Nora were the only ones who still used it on occasion. “I have responsibilities here.”

Remi and Nora rolled their eyes in perfect unison.

“Jesus Christ,” Remi muttered.

“What?” Lucy asked. “I do.”

Remi pierced her with a hard look. “You don’t meanus, do you?”

Lucy wasn’t sure how to reply to that because she didn’t want her sisters to think they were the reason she wasn’t leaving. Even if it was partly true. “I mean the brewery.”

Nora snorted. “You are hands down the worst liar on the planet. You always have been. Theo and Sam are perfectly capable of running the brewery on their own.”

Lucy threw her hands up in frustration. “I left you short-handed when you needed me. You were all sick and I should have been here to help.”

“It wasn’t all of us and it was the flu, for God’s sake. No one was dying,” Nora pointed out. “Prior to that, we were doing just fine—withoutyou.”

Remi picked up the argument. “There are a million Storms, plus no less than two dozen employees on the property. We weren’t short-handed, and you know it. You just won’t admit it because you’re operating under some misguided notion that you still have to take care of us.” Remi gestured at her, Nora, and Mila.

Mila reached out and took Lucy’s hands. They were the closest in age, Mila only a year younger than Lucy. “You’re not Mom, Lu.”

Lucy froze. “What do you mean?”

“You’re not abandoning us.”

Like Mom did.

None of them said those words aloud, but it was clear they were all thinking it.

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