Meredith Fletcher - Storm Force

Steven frowned but didn’t say anything.

Kate switched on the radio and concentrated on driving. Traffic was thicker than normal, what with everyone preparing to hunker down and wait out the storm or evacuate. There were only two kinds of people along the Florida coastline when it was storm season: those who stayed and those who left.

“The weatherman said a storm was coming,” Steven said.

“Her’cane Genevieve,” Hannah added.

“There is,” Kate said.

“I’ve never been here during a storm.”

Kate suddenly realized that was true. With them only coming down during the early summer, Steven and Hannah had never weathered a tropical storm. Maybe that’s what’s got Steven so irritable, she thought. He’s scared. She felt badly then about her own feelings.

“Don’t worry about it,” Kate told her son. “You’re going to be with me. Everything’s going to be all right. This’ll be cake.”

“What if we lose power?” Steven asked.

“I’ve got a generator,” Kate said. “We won’t lose power long.”

Kate’s house was a two-story farmhouse with a screened veranda on two sides. When she’d been small, she’d lived there with her dad and brother and sisters. After she’d returned to Everglades City—actually, outside Everglades City—she’d lived with her dad in his other house, one that was a little larger than this one with its small three bedrooms.

He’d kept the old house, though, as a rental property. After Kate started working for Epperson’s Contracting and Building, her dad had quietly closed out the rental agreement and given her the house. She’d tried to pay him for it, but he’d just pointed out all the work they’d done on it when they’d lived there while she was growing up. It wasn’t much of an investment, but it held so many memories.

The house sat back in clumps of cypress trees in a yard that flooded during the wet season and got overgrown in the dry season if she didn’t stay on top of the mowing. It had been painted white for years and needed a new coat now. But the roof kept the rain out and the screen doors and windows kept out the mosquitoes.

She pulled off Plantation Parkway and on to the shell-covered driveway that led to the house. The shells crunched under the tires. She parked under a copse of cypress and magnolia trees where the rope swing that Hannah loved hung. Steven’s tree house still occupied the lower branches, but he’d largely outgrown that these days.

While Hannah occupied herself with a favorite DVD and Steven took over the PlayStation 3 in one of the other rooms, Kate went around the house and made sure all the shutters were locked up tight. The storm warnings said there was going to be a lot of wind. Flying debris was always a problem.

As she walked around, a sleek black car drove by the front of the house. She was just coming up from the backyard when she saw the vehicle. It stood out at once in the neighborhood.

An unexplained fear ripped through Kate. The black car slowed just for a moment, the ruby taillights gleaming in the gathering darkness of the storm. Then it sped up again and disappeared around a corner.

For one insane moment, Kate felt certain whoever was driving the car was watching her. But that didn’t make any sense.

Unless it’s Bryce, she told herself. Her ex-husband was totally into playing sadistic little mind games with her. He’d proven that over the last few years.

Maybe the whole unexplained visit from the kids was some kind of test, designed solely so that she would fail somewhere along the way. Maybe he was even now plotting some way to take away the meager summer visitation she had with Steven and Hannah.

Panic tore through her and she leaned weakly against the side of the house. She hated feeling helpless, and that was all she was whenever Bryce started playing his games.

After a few minutes, she managed to force the crippling paranoia away and regulate her breathing, then she finished her inspection of the house. She was satisfied she was as prepared as she could be, but the best thing would be if the storm changed course and never came to Everglades City. Looking at the dark skies, she doubted that was an option. They’d just have to survive whatever it handed out.

Kate prepared spaghetti and garlic bread in the same tiny kitchen where her mother had prepared so many meals. They also had salad, which she pointed out to Steven, was a definite healthy choice.

Hannah had two servings of spaghetti.

“I guess you didn’t hurt your appetite today with the McFlurry, did you?” Kate asked.

“Nope,” Hannah agreed. “But you always make the best spaghetti. Not even Consuelo knows how to make spaghetti as good as you.”

Consuelo was the live-in cook.

“Well,” Kate said, “I take that as high praise indeed.” She took up her daughter’s plate as well as her own and put them in the two-compartment sink where she’d already washed, dried and put away the preparation dishes.

Steven added his own, then helped her quickly clear the table without being asked.

“Thank you,” Kate said.

“Sure,” Steven replied. “I knew I couldn’t play video games unless I helped.”

All right, Kate thought, go with it. At least that’s a step in the right direction. “Thank you anyway. It’s nice to have help cleaning up.”

“You should get a maid,” Steven said. “Like we have. Then there’s a lot of things you don’t have to do any more.”

Kate had to agree with that. When she’d been married to Bryce, she’d never had to lift a finger to do a household chore. Some days she missed that. “That may be true, but there’s a lot of things you need to learn to do for yourself.”

“Like clearing the table and washing the dishes?”

“Yeah.”

“Grandpa already knows how to do that. Why do you have him help you with the dishes when he eats with us?”

“Grandpa helps because he wants to help.” That was just one of the things Kate cherished about her dad.

“Why does he help? He already knows how to do all that.”

“Because there are some things you should never forget. Knowing how to take care of yourself is one of them.”

Steven shrugged. “I’d rather have a maid. Clearing the table and washing dishes is boring. Can I be excused?”

“Sure,” Kate said, and wondered again how wide the gulf was going to be between herself and her children as they grew.

Steven turned to go.

“Hey,” Kate said, “wait up.”

At the doorway, obviously in a hurry to get back to whatever game he was playing, Steven looked at her.

Kate turned the water on and let it fill the sink. Steam rose from the hot water. “I’ve got to go out later.”

“Why?”

“I have to make sure the camp sites are taken care of. With this storm coming, the people there are going to need plenty of water and food in case they get stuck out there for a few days. I’ve got Megan coming over.”

“Okay.”

With the storm coming on, Kate would have preferred to have her dad there, but he either wasn’t answering his phone or didn’t currently have service wherever he was. Megan was a seventeen-year-old who worked at one of the bait shops in town. During the summers when school was out, Kate hired her to help run supplies out to clients during heavy bookings.

“At least I can beat Megan,” Steven added, then drifted off back to the bedroom where he was playing.

Kate turned her attention to the dishes, shutting off the water and quickly washing them, putting them in the drainer to dry. Even though Steven looked down at the work, she took a certain sense of pride in it. Washing dishes was necessary and there was a lot of satisfaction in doing it right. With the storm closing in, simple tasks offered a safe emotional harbor.