Page 2 of Shelter from the Storm

While it was backbreaking work, he enjoyed harvest time because sometimes it was good to get back out into nature after spending too many hours riding a desk.

By now, he should be seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, as most of the grapes were picked—but he and his family had decided the time was right to expand by opening an event barn on the property and hiring a coordinator to run it.

It meant more work for him, as he and his cousin Nora had taken lead, working with the contractor as they designed and built the barn the past six months. Not that he minded. The truth was, Theo loved his job, loved working on the same farm where he’d grown up with his brothers and cousins. There wasn’t a day that passed that he didn’t feel truly blessed.

“And Jace is still pretty new at the brewing.” Sam and his anxiety had made quite the list.

“Jace might be new in the big chair, but he’s been working in this brewery since high school, helping you and Lucy every chance he got. He knows the job, and, while he probably wouldn’t admit it to you, I think he’s looking forward to the opportunity to put his own spin on things for a bit. You cast a big damn shadow around here.”

Sam was one of the few Storm brothers to leave the mountain for four years to attend college. He’d graduated with a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from Virginia Tech, then went on to earn his brewing certification.

“Not that big.” Sam rubbed the back of his neck. His brother was shit when it came to accepting compliments, one of the humblest men Theo had ever known.

“Besides,” Theo continued, “you can’t drop out of the race or we’ll have to endure four more years of Scottie Grover as mayor. I swear to God, I can’t deal with that douchebag strutting around Gracemont like he’s all that and a bag of chips for five more minutes.”

Gracemont’s current mayor, Scottie Grover, had been running unopposed—for a second time—before Sam entered the race. Theo felt confident his brother was a shoo-in, but Sam, crazy guy, genuinely thought he had a serious race on his hands. Simply because Scottie had experience. It wasn’t in Sam’s genetic makeup to phone anything in, always going the extra mile on basically everything. So it made sense he would feel strongly about taking the campaign seriously.

Sam frowned. “After all the shit Scottie pulled with Lucy and Kasi, I’d like to see him knocked down a peg or twenty.”

A year earlier, Scottie had come on way too strong with Lucy, pissed off when she’d started dating Joey and Miles. Levi had been forced to intervene when the mayor got physical with her.

Once Lucy left town, Scottie turned his attention to Kasi, using threats and intimidation to try to get Kasi to marry him. Again, Levi had stepped in. It was those actions that had encouraged Sam to pursue the office now rather than wait. His brother had always planned to run for office—either mayor or town council—but he’d pushed it off, claiming it would take him away from the brewhouse too much. Scottie’s poor behavior and overweening sense of self had forced Sam’s hand.

Theo leaned forward. “Exactly. So you’re not dropping out of the race. Send me a list of the dates you know you’ll be out shaking hands and kissing babies, so I can get some extra help in here for Jace.”

Sam nodded. “Will do. I appreciate your support, bro. Gonna owe you big-time after all this.”

Theo shook his head. “You don’t owe me a damn thing. This is what family is for.”

His brother gave him an appreciative grin. “So what are you working on?”

Theo gestured toward the open document on his computer. “Compiling a list of job duties for Gretchen Banks, the new event coordinator.”

“She starts Monday, right?”

“She does. I created a general list when we first posted the job online, searching for applicants,” Theo said. “But it was nowhere near complete. Now that we’ve hired her and she’s arriving in a few days, I figured it was time to get serious about deciding exactly what we need her to do.”

Sam glanced at his computer, his eyes widening. “That’s a hell of a list.”

Theo smirked. “I might have gotten a little carried away, because the truth is, I’m trying to off-load some of my more tedious tasks.”

Sam laughed. “Clever man. If that’s how we’re playing this game, can you add cleaning and sanitizing the barrels? I fucking hate cleaning.”

Theo shook his head and gave him a shit-eating grin. “I’m afraid she’s not going to have time to do your crap jobs because she’ll be too busy doing mine.”

He glanced at his list. Sam was right. It was bordering on too long, but Theo couldn’t help himself because, while he was constantly hiring extra help for Sam and Jace, he’d refused to do the same for himself in the past, always determined to do it all.

Sam walked around his desk, skimming the list. “I think it’s smart to reassign some tasks. God knows you’ve got too much on your plate.”

He appreciated Sam’s support. “When I started my job as brewhouse manager, I didn’t anticipate how many tasks would fall to me.”

“That’s because it was just the brewhouse back then. We hadn’t opened the brewery, hadn’t invited the public in,” Sam added.

“True. It was a hell of a lot easier running just the brewhouse, ordering supplies, paying bills, organizing work schedules, and hiring extra help for you guys during busy season.”

When the family decided to add a brewery, Theo’s job duties expanded to include basically running a restaurant, hiring and training people to work the tasting room and serve food, buying swag with their Rain or Shine Brewery logo, and coordinating special events with Nora.

“You alleviating some of Nora’s duties too?” Sam asked. “Because she’s spread as thin as you these days.”

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