Page 53 of Taken By Storm

Levi realized he owed them an explanation because he was hoping to convince Kasi, Keith, and her father to join them for dinner tomorrow. “He’s had a hard time bouncing back since the death of his wife. Arealhard time.”

Grayson nodded, his brows furrowed with concern. “Can’t have been easy on Keith or Kasi, either. I mean…I can’t imaginelosing Mom or Dad.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Fuck. It would kill me.”

Every head in the room nodded in agreement. Levi knew it was probably odd for all seven of his brothers to still live on the farm where they were born, but family was the most important thing in his life. It was extremely rare that a day passed where he didn’t see and speak to both of his parents. He sought them out when he needed advice or whenever he was feeling stressed or depressed. They’d been his rocks, the foundation on which he’d built himself into the man he was today, and he was grateful for their love and guidance. The same held true for his brothers as well.

“Kasi has spent the last eight months since her mother’s death taking on almost all of the chores around the farm. Working herself to the point of exhaustion,” Levi explained.

Sam scowled. “What about her brother?”

Levi sighed. “Keith seems to have gotten stuck on the ‘anger’ level when it comes to the five stages of grief. He’s spent most of the time since his mother’s death running away from the farm, getting into some trouble around town.”

“So Kasi’s been running the whole farm?” Everett asked. Levi glanced around the room, his heart swelling at the expressions on his brothers’ faces, all of them as concerned about Kasi as he was.

“Yeah. She’s passed out twice in the last week. She’s been getting four hours of sleep a night, on average, and never takes a day off. I’m not certain, but I’m pretty sure there are money concerns, so that’s adding to her anxiety.” Levi rubbed his chin, toying with his beard. He was long overdue for a trim—hair and beard. “I’ve been trying to help as much as I can because too many things have fallen to the wayside. It’s why I’ve been spending so much time there.” He paused. “Thanks again for picking up the slack for me here.”

Theo, who was sitting next to him, leaned over, bumping his shoulder against Levi’s. “We’re always going to have your back…and Kasi’s.”

Levi knew that but it was nice to hear. “Problem is, the heart of harvest time is upon us, so I’m going to have to curtail my trips to Lucky Penny Farm to help her. I’m worried she’ll revert to bad habits, not sleeping enough, forgetting to eat.”

“Then we’ll take it in turns,” Everett said. “We can all find time during the next few weeks to check on her, to stop by and lend a hand.”

Levi smiled widely. “You’d do that?”

Theo grinned. “Of course, we would. We’re family, and we look out for our own. Sounds like little Kasi Mills is about to become our first sister.”

Levi punched Theo on the arm good-naturedly as payback for the “little” joke, but inside, he felt a huge weight lifted from his chest. He’d been worried about leaving Kasi on her own for too long, but with his brothers’ help, he had a feeling things were going to be okay.

Sam lifted his bottle of beer. “To little sisters.”

Everyone followed suit, toasting before taking a sip.

Levi took a drink as well, grinning.

Best family ever.

Chapter Nine

Kasi sat at the kitchen table, staring at the figures in her hands, trying to ignore the way her fingers trembled slightly. She’d spent the past few days reading everything she could about fall crops, trying to determine which produce would be the best to plant now in hopes of recouping some of the money lost after missing the spring planting. In addition to choosing a crop, she needed to find a buyer for it, needed to decide how many acres to plant, and then she needed to find the money to buy the seed.

She groaned and put her head down on her arms, her mind swimming with too many numbers and too many “what-ifs.” What if she picked the wrong crop? What if she couldn’t sell it? What if this was the wrong thing to invest her family’s money in? What if she hit the point where she couldn’t afford to pay the Riley brothers?

She wished—for the millionth time—she’d taken more of an interest in the farm back when her mother was still alive. She wished she’d engaged Mama in conversations about the running of the farm because now she was left with precious little information to guide her decisions. Her mother was truly one of the most intelligent people Kasi had ever known. So smart in factthat she rarely wrote things down. Mama hadn’t left behind a bunch of notes about the farm’s processes or plans because they were all in her head, and that was enough.

It was why Kasi had spent a large part of the spring trying to piece together which distributors supplied them with seeds and fertilizer, as well as which vendors they sold their produce to. Kasi had a working knowledge of the local vendors because part of her chores included deliveries, but she hadn’t been fully clued in on their larger purchasers.

She was tempted to call Levi to ask his opinion, but she knew he was busy. He was knee-deep in the grape harvest, and she hated to keep dumping her problems in his lap. In two short weeks with him, she’d let herself get far too used to letting him handle things around the farm, and she refused to keep doing that.

She’d started the conversation with her father about crops this morning over breakfast, but the topic had sent him to a dark place, as he said those decisions had been Mama’s. Then he’d risen from the table, his food untouched and tears in his eyes.

Losing Mama hadn’t just broken her father’s heart; it had stolen every ounce of his desire to live. He was floundering without her, unable to put himself back together. Kasi wished she could find a way to help him, but she was struggling with their new existence as well.

She glanced at the clock, aware her depression wasn’t simply driven by Daddy’s relapse or her stress over the farm. It was because she hadn’t seen Levi today. He’d called earlier to tell her they’d had a problem with the destemmer, and it would set them back if it wasn’t repaired quickly. He and Jace planned to work on it once it was too dark to pick grapes.

She smiled when she thought of Jace. The sweet guy had stopped by yesterday afternoon when she was working at thefruit stand to bring her a sandwich. Said he’d needed to run some errands in town and thought she might be hungry.

Two days before that, Theo had dropped off some of Rain or Shine’s new pumpkin ale for her dad to try, along with her favorite salted caramel cookies, claiming he’d swiped them from his mom’s kitchen while they were still warm.

This morning, Everett had shown up to look at her computer, simply because she’d mentioned to Levi that it had been glitching and she was afraid she’d downloaded a virus. Everett had done a scan, removed the malware, then uploaded virus protection software for her. She’d been incredibly touched by their kind gestures and help.

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