Light as Air

by Mari Carr

  “What’s wrong with doing it under here?” TJ asked.

  “Oh, we’ll do a lot of it under here, but we need an opening scene.”

  TJ recalled that every single episode of Light as Air began with Rosalia out in the elements, speaking to the camera as she was pummeled by wind, rain, sometimes even hail.

  Doug looked around. “We don’t need to go far. I can set up the shot to capture the horizon.” He looked at TJ. “We just have to be careful not to pan out too far. Don’t want to get the church or the playground in the scene. Once we’ve got the opening footage, we can walk back here and Rosie can do the majority of her lesson on supercells under the shelter. Luckily, there are no trees too close to hit us if they fall.”

  She studied the area and pointed. “That one possibly could, but that’s not my main concern. We need to work fast, in case of lightning or funnel clouds forming.”

  TJ hated the whole conversation, suddenly worried about the tree, the potential tornado and the lightning. His protector instincts roared to the surface, and he was tempted to suggest they forget the whole idea of an opening scene and just film the footage under the shelter. Or in the RV. Or better yet, can the entire show.

  Instead, against every fiber of his being telling him to get Doug and Rosalia inside to safety, he followed them about fifty yards from the shelter, fighting to breathe as the wind slammed into him, straight on. Somehow he found the strength to lift the camera. Studying Doug’s location in front of Rosalia, he picked a spot that would work as secondary footage, capturing her slightly from the right, while keeping the church and playground out of the frame and maintaining the unhindered backdrop.

  Justin and Eric were inside the RV. Eric would make the camera cuts for the live feed. In the meantime, they would capture everything on the cameras’ hard drives to download later for the YouTube version of the show.

  They’d only just started when a bolt of lightning struck a different tree a few hundred yards away. A large branch splintered and fell to the ground. It sounded like a bomb had been dropped on their heads.

  TJ lowered the camera, shocked when Doug gave him a quick shake of the head, he and Rosalia still recording. She was actually excited about the lightning flash and making some comment about how lucky they were to capture that on film.

  Then Eric yelled at them from the door of the RV. “We’ve got funnel clouds forming to the west. Hurry up and record this bit and we’ll move closer!”

  TJ looked that direction and spotted what Eric had seen on the horizon. Logically, he could see the tornado wasn’t particularly large and it was a fair distance away. Neither of those facts calmed him down. He’d never seen a tornado in his life and he really didn’t fucking like it.

  “Third,” Doug yelled. “Start filming again. You’re missing it.”

  TJ didn’t pick his camera back up.

  “Are you crazy?” He had to speak loudly to be heard over the howling wind and rumble of thunder.

  Rosalia had been studying the funnel cloud, waiting for TJ to resume taping. She was clearly surprised by his outburst.

  Doug narrowed his eyes. “What are you doing, TJ?”

  “This is insane. She’s in danger out here.”

  “What?” Rosalia asked.

  “Am I the only person who saw that lightning strike the tree? Who sees that goddamn tornado? Get closer? Did he seriously say we’re moving closer to that?” TJ gestured toward the huge branch on the ground before waving his hand toward the west. “If that branch had hit anyone, it wouldn’t have just injured them. It would have killed them.” He looked at Rosalia. “It would have killed you.”

  “It wasn’t anywhere near us.” Rosalia looked over her shoulder, dismissing the broken tree as if it were nothing. “Can we start again? We really should do this fast. Because, you know,” she said with a laugh as she pointed up, “lightning.” And then toward the twister, “Tornado.”

  TJ’s sudden anger grew hotter at her continued nonchalant attitude. “Get back to the shelter, Rosalia. Or better yet, get in the RV.”

  “What? Why are you acting like this? You realize we tape these shows in severe weather, right? What did you think this was going to be like?”

  Doug raised his free hand, waving it in surrender. “Let’s all take a breather, okay? It’s TJ’s first time out, Rosie. It took me some time to get used to the tornadoes, too.”

  Rosalia’s hands were on her hips, her eyes shooting sparks. “That doesn’t give him the right to boss me around. This is my—”

  “I’m not getting used to this,” TJ interrupted. “You’re putting yourself in danger. Both of you. What’s wrong with you, Doug? You say you care about her,” TJ said, turning on his friend. “But you can’t tell me you’d let your mother or sister or female cousins do this without dragging their asses back inside.”

  “Excuse me,” Rosalia yelled. “But who the hell do you think you are? I don’t need men protecting me. I’m completely capable of taking care of—” Her voice broke unexpectedly, and TJ realized she was on the verge of tears. “Never mind. We’re obviously done here.”

  Justin popped his head out of the RV and yelled across the parking lot to them. “Uh, you guys remember this is a live feed, right?”

  Doug quickly hit the pause button on his camera. “Fuck.”

  “You aired all of that?” Rosalia asked, horrified.

  Justin jogged out to them, wearing nothing more than a T-shirt and jeans, both of which were soaked through by the time he reached them. “Sorry about that, Rosie. I was watching the action between you three, forgot about the live feed.”

  “Can we have this conversation inside?” TJ persisted.

  “Eric said the funnel cloud dissipated. Tornado is a dud. And the storm is already starting to die out.”

  TJ didn’t give a shit, even as he looked over his shoulder to confirm the twister had vanished.

  Justin, ever the joker, had shitty timing when he said, “So, my friends were texting me during all that. They want to know which cameraman you’re dating.”

  “No more live feeds,” Rosalia muttered as she stalked back to the shelter. “Ever.”

  “Man. I think that would be a loss,” Justin said, grinning widely as they all followed her. “There was some pretty serious sexual tension out here. I’m surprised the sparks you three are setting off didn’t create even more lightning.”

  Rosalia dropped down onto the picnic table. “Go away, Justin.”

  He looked around, aware that he’d interrupted them mid-fight—and none of them were ready to laugh about what had happened. “Oh. Yeah. Hey, listen, since we’re done here, you mind if me and Eric split?”

  “Split?” Rosalia asked. She sounded tired all of a sudden.

  “Eric’s got a girl he’s sweet on who lives about forty miles away. You okay if we head there for the night? She promised us a hot home-cooked dinner and, while Eric’s getting to sleep in a real bed, I’m cool with the couch since it includes chicken parm.”

  Rosalia nodded. “That sounds great. The two of you go on. We’ll reconvene tomorrow.”

  If TJ weren’t still so enraged, he might have felt bad for Rosalia’s subdued tone. She’d been energized when they’d stepped out of the RV. That excitement was definitely gone now.

  Then the sky lit up with another flash of lightning and a loud crash of thunder, despite Justin’s assertion that the storm was dying.

  Fuck this.

  His temper spiked and shot his blood pressure into orbit again.

  He couldn’t land. Not on this. This was insane.

  Chapter Five

  None of them spoke as they watched Eric and Justin climb into their car and pull out of the parking lot.

  Even when the three of them were completely alone again, Doug wasn’t sure how to break the silence. Primarily because he agreed with both of them.

  Like TJ, he hated seeing Rosalia in danger, and while he’d been with the team long enough to appreciate the precautions a
nd care she took, the only way he’d managed to accept things was to stay as close to her as possible.

  But Rosalia was right, too. This was her job. More than that, this was her passion. She was smart and careful, but driven. Watching her talk about weather, about these storms, had actually become a bit of a turn-on for him. Because she was so animated and excited, he couldn’t help but get wrapped up in her enthusiasm. She made him want to be a part of it.

  Rosalia shivered, wrapping her arms around her middle, and suddenly Doug knew exactly what to say. Even in the shelter, they were getting wet, the wind sending enough of the deluge pounding down around them under the roof to drench them even more.

  Walking over, he sat down next to her, taking her hand in his. “Why don’t you head back to the RV? Change into some dry clothes. TJ and I will give you a few minutes, then we’ll join you inside. Okay?”

  She nodded, then stood slowly. He noticed she didn’t spare TJ a single glance as she walked by him.

  TJ was leaning against a corner post, arms crossed, scowl firmly in place.

  “That went well.”

  Doug’s joke succeeded…a little. While TJ didn’t crack a smile, the tension in his shoulders gave way and his arms dropped.

  “I don’t think I can do this job. I’m going back to Compton Pass.”

  Doug thought about that, trying to decide if TJ’s words were sincere or knee-jerk. “Does this have anything to do with Slim’s phone call earlier?”

  TJ had blindsided him about two hours into their mad dash to the storm, asking him if he knew about his dad taking a swing at Sawyer.

  While it had been easy to fib through omission, it was impossible for Doug to lie to his friend’s face, so he’d confessed to knowing about his dad’s stint in jail. He had expected TJ to be pissed off about it, but instead, he’d merely nodded and let the subject drop.

  That should have been a big warning sign, but Doug had misread it, interpreted it as TJ turning a corner on his past, moving on.

  “This doesn’t have anything to do with my father,” TJ replied, his voice suddenly as tired as Rosalia’s had been.

  Given TJ’s heated response to Rosalia and the storm, Doug knew exactly what reaction his next words would generate. He said them anyway. “I think this has everything to do with Thorn.”

  TJ’s scowl deepened, his rage resurfacing, hotter than before. “Don’t pull that crap on me.”

  “What crap?”

  “You can’t crawl around inside my head and tell me how I think, how I feel, Doug. Not everything in my world revolves around Thorn.”

  Doug disagreed, but he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut about it. “Fine. So why don’t you tell me why you can’t do the job?”

  TJ fell silent. It was all the answer Doug needed.

  “It’s Rosie, isn’t it? You want her.”

  TJ shook his head too quickly, a dead giveaway that Doug had hit the nail on the head.

  “No, man. I know how you feel about her. I’ve only known her a month.”

  “I’ve known you since you were five, Third. You’re the king of love at first sight. I saw it with Beth Kincaid in second grade when she gave you the big Valentine’s card and a lollipop, while the rest of us sad saps just got the standard card and a sticker.”

  TJ chuckled. “Beth was hot in those flannel shirts and leggings.”

  Doug rolled his eyes, but didn’t disagree. “Every boy in class had a crush on her. She picked you.”

  “Hardly think you can make a blanket statement about me rushing to fall in love based on a second-grade romance.”

  “Maybe not, but I saw it again the first night we were here, sitting in Rosie’s RV when she shared her lasagna with us.” What Doug didn’t say was, he hadn’t seen it any of the years between TJ’s mom dying and now.

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “Why not?”

  “You were there first.”

  Doug snorted. “This isn’t finders keepers, TJ.”

  “She doesn’t mix work and play. You said so yourself.”

  Doug sighed. “I think she might break that rule for you.”

  TJ smirked miserably. “I’m not the only one she’d break it for.”

  If TJ had said that last spring, Doug would have flat-out denied it, but he’d spent the last two weeks reliving that dance by the campfire over and over. Regardless, he dismissed the comment, unwilling to let TJ get away with changing the subject. “I don’t think she was as offended by your alpha-male, caveman-style tactics out there in that storm as she pretended.”

  “Not sure where you got that impression. Woman looked plenty pissed off to me. Besides, there’s a difference between attraction and affection.”

  Doug frowned. “What’s that mean?”

  “We’re attracted to each other.”

  “Attraction can turn to more. Can turn into affection,” Doug said quietly.

  “You’re right. And you’re miles ahead of me on both. I know you don’t believe me, but Rosalia does have feelings for you. How many times has she made that work husband joke? And whenever she chooses a seat, it’s the one next to you. I gotta admit it. I know we’re best friends, man, and I know that’s rock solid, but when I watch the two of you, I feel a little jealous how tight you are. The two of you get each other.”

  Doug closed his eyes, rubbing his forehead wearily. When he opened them again, he rested his elbows on his knees and studied the concrete floor of the shelter. “You and I get each other, too. So I’m just going to say what I’m thinking, because I know you won’t judge me or freak out.”

  “You gonna look at me when you say it?”

  Doug lifted his head. “We need to talk to Rosie.”

  TJ sighed. “If you’re telling me I need to apologize, I know that. But that’s not going to change the way I feel about her work. It’s one thing to watch her sitting at a computer, analyzing data. It’s not in me to stand aside while she steps out into the path of these damn storms. I’m not made that way.”

  “I’m not telling you to apologize.”

  TJ frowned.

  “Well, I mean you should, but that’s not what our conversation is going to be about.”

  “Oookay,” TJ drawled. “So what are we saying?”

  “We’re gonna ask her to invite us to her bed.”

  TJ stared at him without speaking. The lack of shock on his face told Doug his friend had come to the same conclusion.

  “But you already knew that, didn’t you?” Doug asked.

  TJ still leaned against the post. The storm had subsided, the sky dropping nothing more than a steady rain instead of the torrential downpour earlier. The wind was still whipping around, but it came in occasional gusts now.

  “And how do you think that’s going to go down after what just happened between her and me?” TJ had a point. Not a valid one, but a point.

  Because Doug had a pretty damn good idea how it was going down. Actually, how they were going down.

  “Let’s go find out.”

  TJ pushed off the post. “Okay.”

  He chuckled at Doug’s surprised expression when he said, “That was easier than I expected.”

  “I’ve been with Rosalia for a month solid. Spent the last two weeks trying not to think about that kiss by the campfire. Figured you wouldn’t like it if I jerked off every night in the sleeping bag next to you.”

  Doug would have laughed if he hadn’t been battling the same affliction. “I hear you, man.”

  “Worst-case scenario?” TJ asked as they started walking toward the RV.

  Doug nodded. It was a game they’d started playing after catching Doug’s mom in the living room, crying over an episode of This is Us. They’d been concerned something really bad had happened until they realized the show had provoked the tears. After they teased her for crying so hard over something that wasn’t even real, they got sucked into the damn show.

  Two of the characters always played Worst-Case Scenario, where they sa
id all their fears out loud, and since then, he and Doug had played it a few times as a joke. This time, it felt a little too real.

  “She turns us both down,” Doug said.

  “She just turns me down.”

  Doug swallowed heavily. “Or me. Then she fires both of us on the spot.”

  TJ was quiet for a moment as they let that soak in. “Or she suggests an orgy and insists on including Justin and Eric, too. I sincerely hope to never see Eric’s scrawny ass naked.”

  Doug feigned a shiver, then laughed. “That would be really bad.”

  “The worst.”

  They paused just outside the door.

  “You sure?” TJ asked.

  Doug nodded. There were a million things he didn’t have a clue about, but this wasn’t one of them. This felt right.

  He reached for the knob, but TJ put his hand on his shoulder. “If this goes the way we hope, you’re gonna have to stop calling me Third.”

  Doug laughed. Now that they’d said the worst out loud, Doug figured there wasn’t anything they couldn’t handle.

  TJ knocked on the door. They waited for an invitation, but when it didn’t come, their alarm got the better of them and they walked in.

  Rosalia wasn’t in the front part of the RV, so they shed all their wet rain gear, then made their way down the short corridor to her bedroom.

  She was sitting cross-legged on the bed, propped up by pillows and the wall at her back. She was dressed in an old college T-shirt and fleece pants. Her hair was wet from the rain, but combed.

  Doug had worried they’d find her crying, but instead, she looked nervous.

  Rosalia gestured to her outfit. “My sexiest pajamas.”

  He tried to make sense of that comment. Was she making fun of her pj’s, or had she been aiming for sexy?

  “You’d look hot in a burlap sack.” TJ was leaning against the doorframe, his alpha male resurfacing.

  Doug gave him a pointed glance, waiting for TJ to get the apology out of the way. His contrary friend didn’t take him up on the offer.