by Sara Brookes
“Can’t hurt to try.”
Tripp looked over his shoulder in the direction Kate had vanished. “I don’t know about that. She didn’t seem to want to see us beyond getting information about the storm.”
“So, what? We let her go? Pretend none of us felt anything in that room?”
Tripp sighed and his shoulders fell in defeat. “No, I don’t want that either. I was right there with you—remember? I miss her too, just as much as you do.”
“Yeah, I know.” It helped to hear Tripp vocalize the feelings Snyder suspected all along. They should’ve talked about this long before now, but the very mention of her name was too painful.
“I agree with you by the way. It can’t hurt to try. She’s worth it.” Tripp tossed a small briefcase at Snyder and smiled. “Tell me what you have up your sleeve while we unload.”
* * * * *
Kate sat in the narrow driveway, staring at the house in front of her. She’d told herself this would be easy. A walk in the park compared to facing a spinning vortex head-on. But she’d been wrong. She’d arrived ten minutes earlier and hadn’t worked up the courage to even get out of the car.
Knowing Snyder and Tripp were on the island didn’t help matters.
Avoiding them the past two months had been easier than she thought. It had been a stroke of luck the hurricane season started off with a bang. Tornadoes they chased alongside one another, but hurricanes were another matter entirely because of their occupations.
When they weren’t all chasing nature’s fury, they were all usually holed up in a lab somewhere studying data. She still remembered the gleam in their eyes when they’d showed up at her lab at the university. The two men had sought her out in order to be a part of her chase team. The team they’d been chasing with had spent more time arguing about where to go than actually going after the severe storms.
Annoyance and frustration had driven them to find a new team. They were done playing those games. They’d wanted to actually do something instead of sitting around. Later she discovered they’d sought her out because they were convinced she was one of the best chasers in the field.
As pilots for one of the monstrous planes that flew through hurricanes to collect data which aided forecasters in predicting paths, a busy tropical season meant the men had left for the Mississippi coast earlier than usual. Their early departure had been convenient, and made it extremely easy to keep the distance Kate needed.
But seeing them here, on the island where she’d spent most of her childhood, changed everything in the blink of an eye. She’d have to deal with them, no two ways about it.
The rainbow colored windsock she’d once hung on a hook on the front porch had lost its color from the sun years ago. Though the streamers still danced on the light breeze, the ends were tattered and frayed. Much as she felt at the moment.
The memories here were still vivid despite the number of years that had passed.
She wanted to be here, yet didn’t at the same time.
Gathering her courage, she grabbed her laptop bag and slung it over her shoulder as she shut the car door. Measured steps brought her to the bottom tread of the ash-colored stairway. Despite her hesitations, it was easy for her to see her mother standing there at the top, her father immediately behind as they worked to air out the house for the summer. She heard the sound of her brothers playing in the lot in front of the house, digging their feet into the sun-warmed sand.
Now the voices she heard were the neighbors’ children, strangers to her since she hadn’t been here in so long.
Even without the hurricane churning out there, she knew she needed to be here right now. She needed the familiarity this place brought to a life so full of chaos. For once, she needed steadiness. With so many months of the year spent on the road, she needed a home. Hopefully, this place would give it to her and she hoped the house still stood after the hurricane blew through.
As she stepped through the door, everything was just as she remembered. Though there were a few more cobwebs tucked away in the corners. She would leave them, more because of the charm they added to the house than because she didn’t want to clean.
The old house was warm and tangible. Somewhere she saw comfort around her wherever she looked. From the whitewash-painted walls to the hardwood planks, stained dark with age and covered in a few key spots with pastel-blue area rugs. There was something solid and so real about this place, her heart ached for the simplicity of her days of youth spent here.
This house was her haven, her salvation.
She never understood why her parents didn’t rent out this place during the season when they weren’t here. It wasn’t as if they came down here any longer. It wasn’t as if they needed the money either, the house had been paid for years ago. But at least with summer renters the place wouldn’t sit here hollow and alone. It deserved a better kind of life than to sit empty and ignored.
Dust flew in the air as she yanked on the sheets covering the living-room furniture and she sneezed a few times in reaction. The cream-colored couch and loveseat had faded a little in color, but were otherwise as she remembered. Her third-story apartment near the university didn’t hold the same friendliness. It was stark and unfriendly compared to her current surroundings.
Nothing inside those simple walls cemented her to the space.
She had no animals and lived simply in order to accommodate her schedule, which gave her the ability to leave for days on end without a second thought. She’d even tailored some of the lectures for her students so they could be done online, that way she didn’t need to be in the classroom.
Gazing at the handmade knickknacks scattered around the room with no thought to any kind of organization reminded her just how unfriendly her apartment was. They also reminded her why she stood here right this very moment and it wasn’t entirely due to the hurricane barreling toward the Gulf Coast of the United States.
Shaking off her stupor, she scolded herself. There were a lot of preparations to be made, and if she started now, she might finish before the hurricane roared onto shore.
Kate had just put the last of her food supplies in the cabinet a half hour later when her cell phone rang. She grabbed it without looking at the screen and flipped it open. “Hello?”
“Twice in one day. Has to be a record.” Snyder’s smooth voice washed over her, raising a line of goose bumps that made her even more irate. She hated the way her body reacted to even the slightest hint of his presence. As if she didn’t possess a brain in which to think with.
She scolded herself for answering without a glance to the screen, especially when she knew both men were in close proximity. “What do you want?”
“You.” She started to fire back at his answer, but he continued on without allowing her to speak. “Actually, your vehicle. Rental company doesn’t have anything that’ll get us where we need to go. Unless the new Camaro comes equipped with four-wheel drive or some kind of tow hitch.”
And here she’d thought Tripp and Snyder were above being seduced by the beauty of a sports car. “And how do you plan on getting out of there if you need to evacuate?”
“Never ran from a storm before. Not going to start now.”
Kate drummed her fingers against the thick slab of wood that served as a counter for the kitchen island. “Really piss-poor planning, which is unlike you two, especially when it comes to hurricanes. You should know better.”
“You know the call of the storm just as well as we do. You go, settle in and figure it out as you go along sometimes. We made a last-minute decision to come and assumed a beach community would have something a bit sturdier than a sports car.”
He had a point, as much as it pained her to concede. It also annoyed her to admit she’d rather see them ride out the storm here. At least they could all keep an eye on each other in case things got a little hairy. Judging by the size of this monster, they undoubtedly would.
“Fine. Where are you? At the airport still? I’ll come pick you up,
but Rutherford’s place is out of the question. That’s too dangerous, even for me. And that’s saying something.”
“Excellent. When can you be here?”
“Give me ten minutes.” She snapped the phone shut without saying more and dropped it on the counter.
She’d been hoping to get here, set up her equipment and start downloading the files waiting for her. She was ready to block out the rest of the world as she worked and tried to sort things out. Studying data charts and weather patterns always took her mind off things because of the intense concentration and complex calculations it required, and now seemed as good a time as any.
The presence of Snyder and Tripp on the island, not to mention in the same house, would definitely throw off her groove. It wasn’t usual for them to half-ass their plans for storms. This profession didn’t allot for a lot of planning, so the factors you could control—such as housing—needed to be taken very seriously.
But Snyder’s right, go where the storm takes you.
It would help to have an additional set of eyes and ears in the house with her. Their knowledge of hurricanes and violent storms would be an asset to anyone they worked with. That’s what made them all the perfect team when it came to chasing.
But she couldn’t ignore the fact the timing couldn’t be worse.
Scowling, Kate picked her keys off the nail in the wall and tapped her finger against her lips as she absently opened the front door. She came to an abrupt halt after slamming hard into a solid surface, the force knocking the breath out of her.
Strong, and familiar, hands came around her shoulders to steady her and she found herself staring up into two smiling faces that immediately weakened her knees.
Chapter Four
It only took a few hours for the men to settle in and for Kate to finally set up her equipment. The information she needed would take another few hours to download and compile, so she’d wandered out to the back porch to wait. She’d needed to get out of the house in order to put some distance between her and her new occupants.
No one had said anything, but she suspected they wanted to know why she’d left. But she couldn’t tell them. Or rather, she could, she just didn’t want to. She hadn’t come to terms with it completely herself, and until she did, it was something she had to work through on her own.
As long as they didn’t ask her, everything would be all right. They could stick to that vow she’d made long before she’d ever made the choice to sleep with them in Kansas.
Strictly professional.
Some of that professionalism had wavered as she’d watched the two men interact with each other as they brought in extra supplies. She’d seen the heated glance that passed between them on the stairs. And she hadn’t missed the covert pat on the ass Tripp had given Snyder, nor the accompanying sweet kiss Snyder had brushed across Tripp’s cheek in thanks. Each time she thought about the men together, tension built inside her and, unable to stand it anymore, she’d escaped out onto the back porch. Her hope had been neither man would follow, but luck wasn’t on her side.
She swallowed nervously, adjusting the way she sat on the wide bannister of the porch as she turned to see who had joined her. Tripp carried two cans of diet soda and handed one to her as he slid next to her on the railing.
“Nice place you have here.”
“Thanks.”
She popped the soda open and swallowed, grateful to have something to wet her throat. No reason to keep the truth about this place from them, since they were here now. She’d never made it a secret there was dissension within her family, but out chasing, she’d never had to face it head-on with them in tow.
“The beauty is all superficial. There are a lot of painful memories here. We used to come during the summer. Without fail, just after Memorial Day, we’d pack up the car and drive down here. Then pack up again just before Labor Day and go home.”
The setting sun to the west highlighted the subtle shades of gold in his brown hair, and the long shadows made the angles of his face seem harsher than she remembered. Even though he sat casually beside her, she detected a sense of tension under the surface. It was evident he was afraid of saying the wrong thing, making some mistake to spook her again.
She wanted to say something to make him feel more comfortable, but when she was so unsure herself, what was there to say? The silence between them drew out, lengthening like the rays of the setting sun on the other side of the house.
Tripp cleared his throat and shattered the silence. “Can I ask why you say painful memories? Most of us would be lucky to have that with our families. I know my parents couldn’t be bothered with that kind of family time.”
Family had always been so important to her parents, at least on the surface. She’d learned that lesson when she’d hit her teens and discovered they were more interested in the upkeep of their social stature than the fresh tears of a brokenhearted teen.
“That’s just it. We were family here. For nearly three months every year, we were a family. As happy as those times were, they also stood as a reminder of what would vanish the second the car pulled out of the driveway.”
“Really?”
Kate nodded, staring out at the crashing waves of the Gulf a block away. “Hard to believe, isn’t it? Back home, Mom and Dad seemed to be more worried about their social standing and their causes. By all appearances, my parents had the perfect life. Perfect marriage, perfect careers. Family, home—shit, even the dog was perfect.” She snorted as she remembered the high-pitched yip of her mother’s champion Pekinese.
“That can wear on someone.” He took a long drink of his soda and set the can beside his leg. “If those memories hurt so much, why are you here?”
“Here, we just were. We’d make mistakes, we’d laugh and cry and…we were happy. Some of the few times we were happy.” She paused, recalling the phone call she’d placed when she made the decision to come here after running a preliminary forecast model.
“My mother didn’t even care when I called to tell her I wanted to come here to track a hurricane. Didn’t even ask me if I thought it was headed for the island. It was as if I was bothering her. Taking her away from her social engagements or something.”
That reaction was what made Kate realize her summers here meant more to her than to the rest of her family. She hadn’t bothered to contact her brothers because she feared the same reaction. The heavy weight of recent disappointments already put her in a foul mood. She wasn’t interested in juggling even more.
“Maybe she thinks it’s time to move on. Find somewhere else to make memories instead of hanging on.”
Tripp’s logic made sense. Deep in her gut, Kate knew he was right. She needed to move on with her life, but she couldn’t. An enormous amount of upheaval and chaos made her want to be in the one place she was familiar with. “Good or bad, these memories are all I have, Tripp.”
His expression softened and he reached out to skim his fingers over her jaw. The pad of his thumb brushed against her skin and she realized his touch was a comfort she missed. “Then maybe it’s time for you to make new ones. You can’t keep living in the past, Kate. You have a life and a career. Not to mention two devastatingly handsome men by your side.”
Kate snorted and immediately sobered despite Tripp’s smile. “I spent so many summer’s baking to a crisp right on that very beach. It’s hard to let that kind of thing go.”
“A teenage Kate in a bikini. I would’ve liked to have seen that.”
“I wasn’t much. Pretty gangly as a kid. No boobs to speak of.”
He scooted closer, wrapping his arms around her as he pulled her against him. “But yet you’ve blossomed into the gorgeous woman you are today.”
He felt so good against her. So right and someone she could get very used to getting lost in. It was dangerous to feel so comfortable here in his arms, but a few minutes couldn’t hurt, right?
She buried her nose in his chest, inhaling the familiar scent of his soap that mixed with the sh
arp salt air from the water. “I don’t deserve you two.”
“Bullshit, you have every right to be with us.”
Those soft words were a weight in her chest, and despite the pain it caused, she pulled away from the warmth of his body. He muttered a protest as she hopped off the railing. She stopped after opening the door and glanced back over her shoulder.
He looked so damn handsome sitting there with the panoramic view of the beach spread out behind him. Disappointment darkened his gaze and she fought to find the courage necessary to walk away.
A gust of wind blew through the porch, whistling against the aging planks. The sound reminded her of the violent storm that had gotten her into this predicament in the first place.
Instead of courage, that reminder gave her the strength to do what she had to.
“I can’t, I’m sorry.”
* * * * *
Snyder leaned against the wall and quietly watched Kate work. The television across the room blared as a meteorologist talked about the hurricane’s brush with an island in the Caribbean.
The interaction with Cuba caused it to lose some of its energy, but not all. But it was enough to still cause concern about their position. The island wasn’t forecasted for a direct hit, but nearby Galveston to the north had suffered from several devastating hurricanes through recorded history. These kinds of storms were unpredictable. Ultimately, it was what made chasing so much fun.
Paper shuffled and he looked away from the television to find Kate smiling at him.
The glasses she wore when she worked on the computer sat on the end of her nose and were endearing to him. “You hate just sitting here, don’t you?”
She shrugged. “Somewhat. Chasing hurricanes requires a completely different approach to tornadoes. A lot of sitting around doing a bunch of nothing.”