The Weather Girl (15 page)

Travis pointed to the more familiar image. “You have this picture on your desk.”

Summer took that particular photo down, her fondness for her family evident in her expression. “That was our storm-chasing van. My dad reinforced the exterior with these ridiculous panels. This thing was souped up. He had all this equipment in there that would be completely outdated now, but back then, it was some cutting-edge stuff.”

“You had storm-chasing days, did you?”

“Oh, I was quite the adventurer when I was a kid. We used to travel wherever the exciting weather took us.” She was wistful for a moment. “I saw my first tornado when I was five. I remember thinking it didn’t look right. It wasn’t like the one in
The Wizard of Oz.
”

“Your first tornado? How many tornadoes have you seen?”

“Twelve.” She set the picture down. The subject changed her whole demeanor. Summer was brought to life by this kind of stuff. “It would have been more, but they didn’t always take me on the chase. Too dangerous, they’d say. It’s also not exactly easy to catch a tornado. Most of your time is spent driving around under clear skies, tracking where one is most likely to occur. They don’t appear as often as the movies would like you to believe.”

She was absolutely fascinating. Travis wanted to know everything. He wanted to see the world through her eyes. “So you spent your childhood in Tornado Alley?”

“Oh no,” Summer said with a laugh. “My parents did that for a little while, then moved on to other storms.”

“What other kinds of storms did you chase?”

“Hurricanes. Those are easier. You have a lot of warning before they hit land. We once went up to Toronto and studied steam devils off Lake Ontario. Got caught in this huge ice storm in Quebec one winter. It was bad. But if you want ice, Texas storms can really do the job. There’s a picture of me somewhere, holding hail bigger than a baseball—like in the movie last night.” She turned and headed for a big bookcase, her fingers dancing over the spines of photo albums.

“So your grandparents took you in after your parents died?” Travis asked.

Summer found what she was looking for and pulled the dark evergreen album off the shelf. “My aunt Ginny halfheartedly offered to take me in, but with three teenaged boys, we knew they kind of had their hands full. Plus Mimi cried so hard when Big D brought it up, he never mentioned it again.”

“She loves you, that’s clear.”

“Not as much as I love her,” Summer said with a smile that quickly faded. “Mimi was devastated when my dad died. She didn’t get out of bed for a month after the funeral. Big D did his best to take care of her and me until she pulled out of it.” Travis couldn’t picture the woman in the other room being so lifeless. She radiated life, just like her granddaughter. “We’ve kind of been taking care of each other ever since. I owe them so much, I feel like I can never repay it all.”

Summer flipped through the photo album. Travis took it away from her, setting it on the coffee table so he could take her in his arms. She didn’t resist, and rested her head on his chest. Even though her loss was a decade old, his need to comfort her was overwhelming.

“That had to be a dark time for all of you.”

“It was, but things worked out in the end.” Summer smiled up at him. Travis leaned down, ready for that kiss he’d been denied in the car.

“Dog needs to go outside to do his business. I take it you two aren’t interested.” Big D’s timing was as bad as his wife’s.

“I got him, Big D.” She stepped away from Travis and snatched the leash from her grandfather’s hand.

“I’ll go with you,” Travis offered.

“Good idea,” Big D said, sitting down on his recliner and grabbing a well-worn book from his side table. “Looks like you two need some fresh air.”

Travis nodded and tried not to laugh as Summer turned as red as a ruby. She got the leash on Storm and headed outside.

Summer was speed-walking down the driveway. Travis grabbed her arm, stopped her escape and slid his hand down to envelope hers. “Don’t be embarrassed,” he said.

“We’re lucky it was Big D who walked in. Mimi would have taken pictures,” she said, making him laugh harder.

“I think I love Mimi.” He could see why Mimi and Big D were worth it to Summer. The two of them meant the world to their granddaughter.

“That figures. She has a way about her.” Summer shook her head. “I can tell she likes you a whole lot, but don’t get any crazy ideas about trying to steal her away from Big D, though. He’s a lot tougher than he looks.”

Travis only had ideas about one of the Raines women. Summer was the one and only. He could only hope he was worth the risk.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

M
ONDAY
. S
UMMER
 
HATED
 
Mondays. But she’d gone to bed hopeful this one would be much better than the last, considering she was now kissing friends with Travis. However, as she began to wake, Summer’s body tingled. It told her something in the atmosphere was brewing this morning. Something big. She needed to get up even though her bed was soft and inviting, begging her to stay in it just a little bit longer. Summer often wondered if this was what it was like for Peter Parker when trouble was near. Superpowers were such a burden sometimes.

She dragged herself out of bed and shuffled into the den. She turned on the TV, switching the channel to KLVA. Richard had to be seeing something on the radar. Her laptop booted up while she went to make some coffee and let Storm out. Rain had blown in overnight and was currently pelting the house raucously.

Her oversize couch wasn’t her bed, but was almost as comfortable. Summer settled in and brought up the National Weather Service website. She clicked on the radar, watched and zoomed into Abilene. Her tired eyes widened as she made sense of what she saw. She scrambled to her feet in search of her phone. She needed to call Ken.

Running to her bedroom, she yanked her dresser open and pulled out a change of clothes. Her heart was racing at an impossible speed. She closed her eyes, feeling twelve years old again. She remembered her parents fluttering around her, talking too fast when they saw something on the radar. The excitement rolled off them in waves. So many things had to come together to unleash a tornado, and when that happened it was like magic instead of science.

This time it was her storm, not theirs. This time she would lead the chase.

There was no time to do her hair and makeup. She pulled her hair into a ponytail and called the station. When she finally got Ken, she unloaded on him in a rush. “My feeling is telling me I need a camera crew to meet me north of the air force base. You need to send them now. Have them call us on this number when they get west of 83. Can you get Richard? I need to talk to Richard.” She held the phone to her ear with her shoulder as she put on her shoes.

Richard came on the line. “Summer?”

“Tornado.” That one word was all it took. Ken dispatched a team before Summer finished telling Richard what she’d seen on the radar. She could hear Ken repeating the word
tornado
over and over again as if he couldn’t believe it was true.

“Summer,” Richard said before they hung up, his voice not full of its usual venom. “Be safe.”

* * *

T
HE
 
SKY
 
WAS
overcast, the clouds so heavy they couldn’t help raining down. Lightning flashed angrily as the rain pounded on Summer’s car, the visibility near zero. She had one more stop to make before she went looking for that storm.

Travis answered the door in nothing but his pajama bottoms. “Get dressed, grab your camera and meet me in the car in no more than five minutes.”

Travis rubbed his eyes. His brain seemed to only now take in the fact that Summer was standing on his front porch in the rain. He pulled her inside. “How about we stay inside this morning? I’ll make breakfast.”

As tempting as that offer was, Summer wriggled out of his arms. “There’s a tornado coming. I can feel it.”

Tornadoes were better than a gallon of coffee. Travis was wide-awake in an instant. “Tornado? For real? I thought you couldn’t feel those.”

Summer spotted her red umbrella perched beside the door. She reached in and snatched it. Opening it up, she smiled. “Are you really going to question me right now, or are you gonna come chasing with me?”

Travis was in the car in fewer than five minutes. Summer had him drive so she could watch the radar from her phone. Travis was fueled by pure adrenaline. He bounced in his seat, and his hands gripped the steering wheel for dear life. They drove just outside the city, toward the more rural west.

“Pull into that field up there.” She pointed and searched the sky for signs.

“What do we do now?” Travis asked as he parked. The car shook slightly from the force of the howling wind.

“We wait,” she said. She set his camera bag in his lap and smiled. “And then we take pictures of a tornado.”

Storm chasing had become a wild game anyone could play these days. The National Weather Service had issued a tornado warning for these parts overnight, but Texas didn’t see much action like this in the fall. Storm chasers were all farther east this time of year. But nobody had bothered to tell this particular supercell that it was out of season. It was primed for tornado activity.

Summer called the station. The producer patched her through so she could report over the phone. When they went to commercial, she spoke to Richard. “I’m telling you, this shear looks good.”

“Updafts?” Richard asked.

“There are a couple up ahead. I don’t know if the camera crew is going to get here in time.” A dark anvil cloud approached, high and wide, the most dangerous type. Soon, they were enveloped in a swirl of hail and debris. It hit the car in a rage Summer hadn’t witnessed in years. Then she saw the cloud drop, and the sky began to rotate. “We got one! Get those sirens going!” she shouted into her phone. She smacked Travis’s arm. “Take a picture of that!”

As if it were reaching down to touch the ground with a spindly finger, the cloud whirled itself into a funnel. Travis lifted his camera out of his lap and captured the fledgling tornado as it grew bigger and stronger, tearing at the soil and vegetation where its point met the earth. Its roar was deafening. They were just west of a small mobile home park, and the wind monster was headed in that direction. Summer could only pray she had given people enough time to find shelter.

“Let me drive,” she said, climbing over Travis as he slid to the passenger side. He continued to take pictures as the tornado skipped across the field, taking down everything in its path. Wire fences, telephone poles, trees, nothing stood a chance against it. Summer followed the twister, careful to keep her distance in case it suddenly shifted direction. Sirens rang out over the din of the merciless storm. They watched as it ran over the park like Godzilla, destroying whatever it touched. The gray, spinning mass ate the homes up and spit them out.

Travis took pictures of it all, documenting each disaster as it occurred. Summer watched in awe as the tornado thinned out and slowly retracted upwarded, until it was completely gone.

“It’s over,” she whispered. Her body thrummed with an energy she’d forgotten. It was a feeling she hadn’t realized she missed until now.

Summer and Travis eventually met up with the camera crew and filmed the damage. Thanks to their immediate sighting, the warning went out and provided the mobile-home residents with some notice. Although there was enormous property damage, there were only minor injuries.

The two of them stayed on the scene most of the day, documenting the destruction and helping in any way they could. It was amazing how something that lasted a few minutes could wreak such havoc. Travis took pictures of it all—a teddy bear buried under a pile of debris, a toilet sitting in the middle of a field, a heap of wood, shredded like mulch, that earlier in the morning had been the side of a barn.

When it was time for them to get cleaned up before work, Summer and Travis climbed into her car, still feeling the high from the chase. They drove in silence, both lost in their own thoughts. She walked him to his door, holding her umbrella over their heads—the clouds still sent a drizzling rain down to earth.

She was still in a fog when Travis wrapped his arms around her and kissed her dizzy. He broke away first and shook his head. “That was...”

“I know,” she answered, lost in the moment. Her feelings for Travis mixed with the thrill of the chase were a potent combination. Travis appeared to feel exactly the same. He rested his head against her shoulder. Each of them breathed heavily and clung to the other.

“That was amazing,” Travis said in between breaths.

“I know.” It was a rush that couldn’t be put into words. Mother Nature was a force to be reckoned with. It was beautiful and frightening at the same time. Witnessing the sheer power of it made a person feel small but alive.

“Your heart is beating so fast,” Travis said.

Maybe it was the tornado, maybe it was being in his arms. Summer couldn’t be sure, but she went with the safest choice. “Storms do that to me.”

“Storms, huh?” She could feel him smiling against her shirt. “Go clean up, Weather Girl. You have a big report to give tonight.” One soft, sweet kiss on the cheek and he let her go.

Back home, Summer started the shower and sent a text to Ryan. She was gloating a little, but she didn’t care. She found a tornado on her first try. It didn’t usually work that way. She got lucky.

He texted back right away.
Like mother, like daughter. Your mom spotted one on her first chase.

Summer smiled wider. Knowing that about her mom made her feel more connected to her in some way. She was her parents’ daughter. The little ache that still existed in her heart reawakened. They would have been proud of her for following her instincts because this was what she was born to do.

Her phone rang; Ryan wanted a detailed account. “Tell me all about it, start to finish, and don’t leave anything out.”

Summer talked so fast she was sure he couldn’t make out half of what she was saying. She told him about waking up and looking at the radar. She explained the conditions and her race to get right where all the pieces of the complicated weather puzzle came together in perfect harmony. She told him about getting the warning out and the damage done. She told him everything, and he listened to it all with rapt attention.

“Sounds like quite an adventure. I wonder how you’ll ever manage going back into a studio after that.”

He knew exactly what to say to knock her off the cloud she was on. “Ryan...”

“Don’t say it! Don’t say a word, Summer. We are not going to discuss this job that is absolutely perfect for you. I don’t want to hear you try to rationalize away the feeling you got today. I want you to relish it. I want you to remember this feeling so when I call you next week, you’ll tell me exactly what I want to hear.”

“You don’t play fair,” she complained. Ryan’s laughter on the other end of the phone line was infectious.

“What I want to know is, did you get any pictures of this thing?” he asked.

Oh, did she have pictures!

* * *

S
UMMER
 
LOVED
 
HER
 
JOB
.
In fact, things at work were so much better since the tornado. She and Richard had shared that moment, and he finally realized they could be partners instead of enemies. He was actually being nice to her. And interestingly enough, all of Summer’s other troubles at the office disappeared. No glitches, no lights falling on her head, no phone calls from angry advertisers.

A great job, a loving family and a man who had real boyfriend potential made Abilene the place to be. At least that was what she told herself when she was awake. But when Summer slept, she dreamed about wild tornadoes and lightning storms that lit up the sky. Dreams that wooed her as no lover ever could. She fantasized about hosting a show that allowed her to visit tropical wonderlands and frozen tundra. Almost four weeks had passed since Ryan offered Summer the chance to leave her life in Abilene behind. Saying no was going to be as difficult as saying yes. It was breaking her heart in two.

Distractions helped keep Ryan’s deadline from creeping into her thoughts. As long as she was busy, Summer didn’t have time to think about silly things like her future. Mimi and Big D always needed something done at their place, which was why she was in their backyard getting sunburned right now. The fence out back had some new slats that needed to be painted. The grass had grown an extra inch thanks to the rain they got on Monday. It tickled her ankles and made painting the bottom of the fence more difficult. She’d have to come back before Sunday and mow it.

The manual labor was great. It helped free her mind of her current worries. Unfortunately, Mimi had no idea what Summer was avoiding.

“Did you talk to Ryan about your big tornado chase?” Mimi asked from the shaded lounger on the patio. She fanned herself with a magazine as she watched her granddaughter slave away in the sun.

Summer glanced back at her over her shoulder. “As soon as I got home.”

“I bet he was impressed.”

“He travels around the world. He goes where volcanoes are erupting and tsunamis have hit. He roams around the Sahara and takes pictures of penguins in Antarctica. He sees things I only talk about when I’m nervous. One tornado isn’t very impressive to someone like him.” She tried to hide the longing she felt as she spoke. She loved Abilene. She loved her grandparents. There was also a distinct possibility she could be falling in love with Travis.

“Your daddy would have been there right beside him,” Mimi said wistfully.

“Mom, too. Ryan said Mom saw a tornado the first time she led a chase. He said I remind him of her.”

Mimi sighed. “You are so much like both of them,” she said with a hint of woe.

Summer’s heart clenched. She set the paintbrush down and removed her floppy hat so she could wipe the sweat from her brow. Her parents would have taken Ryan’s job offer without a second thought. Were they alive, they would have encouraged her to take it. But they weren’t here. They had left her. They had left Mimi and Big D without a son and daughter-in-law. They left Summer here. This was where she belonged.

“I talked to Ryan this week, too.” Big D’s voice startled her and Summer spun around. He had been snoozing in his chair when she got here, but now he handed her a towel to wipe the smudges of paint off her hands.

“You did?”

Big D gave her a look that made her very uneasy. He knew something she wasn’t ready for him to know. He knew something she did not want Mimi to know ever. “I wanted to make sure he saw your report. Then we talked about that new show he’s producing.”