She laughs softly. “Does that mean your place is without power too?”
“Yep. No generator either.”
She scrunches her nose. “I don’t think I’m going to like this.”
I grin. “Ah, Sunshine. Where’s your sense of adventure?”
“Somewhere warm and toasty with working lights. We should go there.”
I chuckle. “Nah, this is part of your Michigan initiation. You’re not a real Michigander until you’ve lost power mid-storm.”
She gives me a flat look. “Who said I wanted to be a Michigander?”
“Too late.” I steer her toward the door. “You’re already one of us.”
The snow howls outside as I push the door open, the wind biting and electric. She presses closer, and I grin. “Let’s go, Sunshine. This is going to be fun.”
CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN
MIRANDA
By the time we pull into the driveway, the world is a whiteout, and the house is a shadow. The streetlights are dead. The neighboring roofs are soft mounds, the trees bowed with heavy snow like they’re trying to sleep through the storm. Miles kills the engine, and the sudden silence roars—no heater, no music, just the wind hurling itself at Michigan.
“It’s going to be a fun adventure,” he says, breath puffing in the cold air between us.
“I’m not convinced.”
We sprint for the porch, heads ducked against the sting. The lock sticks, so he shoulders the door like a gentle battering ram, and we tumble inside, stamping snow onto the mat. The house is darker than I’ve ever seen it. Even the usual city glow is gone, and the windows are black mirrors.
“Okay,” he says, clapping once like he’s about to coach a drill. “Rule one: conserve phone battery. Flashlights on low. Rule two: layers.”
“How can you not have a generator?” I question, teeth chattering as I unzip my coat. “It’s not like you can’t afford one.”
He grins in the beam of his phone. “I never needed one.”
“But you’ve lost power before?”
“Of course. On average, we lose it a couple of times a year. It’s part of life with all the ice and snowstorms we get. But it’s never really affected me. I mean, most of the time I’m traveling anyway. Or it only lasts a couple of hours before the power crews fix the lines and get it back up and running. A lot of people have generators to keep their refrigerator running so they don’t lose all their food, but you saw the contents of my fridge when you moved in. I wasn’t too worried about that. Plus, if the outage lasted long, I could just stay in a hotel. So I suppose I never felt the urgency to get a generator installed.”
“So we should only be out of power for a couple of hours then, before they fix the lines?” Hope swells in my chest.
Miles tilts his head to the side. “I don’t know. This time might be different. The alert said major damage to a power center. I’m not sure how long that will take to fix. I don’t think it’s as simple as repairing a power line.”
“So we should go to a hotel then?”
He laughs. “Let’s give it a few. We’re fine. Safe. We have blankets. There’s no need to worry.”
I cross my arms. “Yeah, I don’t know about that.”
Miles pulls me into a hug and rubs my back. I lean into his warmth.
“Trust me. We’ll be fine.”
My worry evaporates because I do trust Miles more than anyone. He would never let me be in any real danger. The snow spooked this Cali girl for a second, but I’m good now.
I blow out a breath. “Alright. Teach me how to be a Michigander in a power outage.”
