by Amy Vastine
“Rachel and Brian are team players. Team players get to stay. You don’t want to be a team player? There’s the door.” Ken pointed to the elevators, trying not to lose his cool. Nobody challenged Ken out in the open. He could handle a confrontation in his office, but in front of his staff he was much less tolerant.
Summer wasn’t going to hold her breath for Richard to quit. He knew KLVA was the end of the road for him. There wasn’t a station in all of Texas that was going to pick him up at his age. Fresh-faced newbies were joining the workforce every day. Richard was old-school. Old being the key word.
“I’m not going anywhere until you fire me. And I dare you to fire me.” His false bravado was not impressive. He had a family to take care of—two boys in college and a daughter getting married next summer. Being out of work wasn’t something Richard could afford.
“Don’t tempt me!” Ken shouted as he headed back to his office, finished with this pointless argument.
Summer stood next to the fan, shaking her head. “It’s just a title and some stupid billboards. It doesn’t mean anything.”
Richard scowled at her. “Get the hell away from my desk, you stupid witch.”
“Whoa, that’s no way to talk to a lady.” Travis magically appeared at Summer’s side. He spoke calmly, but the twitch in his jaw gave away his mounting anger. “Maybe you should go outside and get some air. You’re looking a little caged-in.”
Richard had obviously lost his mind. He got up in Travis’s face. “You’re no better than her, Lockwood! All you are is a pretty-faced...loser!”
Before Summer could tell them both to keep their testosterone in check, Travis tackled Richard. The two men began to scuffle on the newsroom floor. Appalled, Summer grabbed Travis’s arm and tried to pry him off Richard, who had absolutely no chance in a fight against a man half his age and in better shape than he’d ever been in his entire life.
Travis got up and pointed a finger at the big man on the floor. “Talk to me or her like that again and...” He stopped as if a switch had flipped inside him and he realized what he was doing. Everyone in the newsroom was staring. Then the whispers began. Travis looked around at all the shocked and frightened faces, stopping on Summer’s. His eyes were so dark and sad. The storm inside him blew over, but the damage had been done. After a second or two, he took off. Summer followed.
“Are you crazy?” she asked, grabbing the back of his jacket and pulling him to a stop. This wasn’t the easygoing Travis she had spent the afternoon with last weekend, the one who Mimi would marry her off to if she had any real say in who Summer married. This Travis had clenched fists and his chest heaved with labored breaths.
He spun around to face her as his anger bubbled to the surface. “That guy needs an attitude adjustment,” he said gruffly.
Summer stood her ground even though she could feel her whole body shaking. “I don’t know how they do things in the NFL, but here, we don’t settle disputes by tackling people in the newsroom.”
“He shouldn’t talk to you like that.”
“I don’t need defending.” She wasn’t the damsel-in-distress type. Trouble with Richard was nothing new. She’d been handling it way before Travis got here, and she’d be dealing with it long after he was gone. “Richard hates me. He’ll always hate me. Beating him up isn’t going to change that.”
“Well, he should watch who he calls a loser.” His fist hit the wall and rattled the pictures that hung in the narrow hallway. This time when he took off, Summer let him go. Evidently, the fight wasn’t about her after all.
* * *
THE FIVE O’CLOCK newscast began like any other. Summer put on her mic. She checked the monitor to make sure her hair looked all right. She picked up her clicker for the green screen. Nothing too exciting to report tonight. West Central Texas was experiencing normal weather patterns. She planned to talk a little bit about the unseasonably cooler temps up North, just to spice things up.
Travis took his spot to Rachel’s right. Thankfully, his baby-blue tie helped make his eyes more blue than gray under the studio lights, but the tension in his shoulders and the frown on his face made it clear he was still bothered.
The studio director counted down and Rachel introduced the weather segment. Summer wished her viewership a good evening. She clicked the button so people at home would see the national map with the current temps in various big cities. Another click and the map of West Central Texas popped up. She clicked it again, expecting the screen to change to a broader view with weather-in-motion radar. Instead, the graphic with the high temperatures for the day appeared on the monitor.
She played it off, carrying on as if there was nothing wrong. Until she clicked again and the five-day outlook appeared. Her heart rate sped up. She tried to go back, she skipped ahead, she apologized for the technical difficulties. She tried to deliver her report without the visuals, giving up on the screen behind her altogether.
“We’ll hope you get everything worked out by ten,” Rachel said as Summer’s segment came to an end. “You should be better prepared by then, right?”
Somehow Summer kept smiling even as she imagined poking Rachel in the eye. “I’m sure the technical team will figure out what the glitch is.”
Summer stormed into the control room, looking for Ken. “I’m going to give you one guess as to who messed with my graphics.” Someone had most definitely messed with her graphics. And she was ready to shove his fan right down his throat.
“You don’t know that.”
Summer put her hands on her hips. “Someone had to go in and switch them around. Who else would want to disrupt my forecast besides Richard?”
Ken tried to appease her. “I’ll look into it.”
“You’ll look into it?”
“We’ve had enough drama around here for one day, don’t you think? I will look into it. Maybe it was a computer glitch.”
“It wasn’t a glitch. Someone had to go in and—”
“I’ll look into it, Summer. What more do you want me to say?” Ken asked, losing his patience. She was going to have to accept that was all he could do. Not that Richard was going to admit to his deceit. Or maybe he would. Maybe he’d get off on gloating. Ken would have to take some sort of action then.
Travis found her a couple hours later in the Stormwatch Room, guarding her graphics. From the look of him, the softer, gentler Travis was back. He dropped a bag from the deli across the street on the desk. “Someone said you didn’t get dinner. I brought this as a peace offering. I feel like maybe this was all my fault. Like fighting with him pushed poor Richard over the edge.”
“Well, Ken doesn’t think Richard had anything to do with it. But part of me wishes I hadn’t broken up that fight earlier today.” Summer took a peek in the bag. Inside, there was a sandwich and a bag of chips. Her stomach growled.
“I have to say, you handled yourself on the air better than I would have. You were a total pro.”
His compliment didn’t soothe her injured ego as much as she would have liked. “I almost tackled Rachel after she insinuated I was unprepared.”
Travis laughed until she turned her glare on him. “I’m sorry. I was picturing you tackling Rachel. I shouldn’t laugh. I know it had to be horrifying.’
Summer sighed. “I don’t understand what Richard’s so mad about. It’s a couple billboards and some promos.”
“Yeah, it’s not like you were given thirty seconds of his reporting time. I mean, that would be a legitimate reason to hate someone,” he said.
Touché.
“Hate’s a waste of time, remember?” she said, pulling the sandwich out of the bag. “How can I hate someone who bought me dinner without being asked?”
Travis stood with his hands in his pockets. He wasn’t wearing his suit coat and his tie was loosened just a bit. Even though he looked good, it
was clear he wasn’t a suit-and-tie kind of guy. “Like I said, I fueled the fire, I’m sure. And if I scared you earlier when I lost my temper, I’m sorry about that, too.”
Carefully unwrapping the sandwich, Summer took a second to consider how his outburst made her feel. It had been somewhat scary to see him lose control like that. At the same time, it made her curious. Why would the opinion of someone like Richard matter so much to someone like Travis? “Apology accepted. Thanks for the sandwich.”
Travis shrugged and started backing out the door. “Gotta make up for being the bad guy somehow.”
* * *
THE TEN O’CLOCK report went off without a hitch. Summer was vigilant and took no chances. She checked and double-checked seconds before she went on. She didn’t have high hopes that Ken would get Richard to confess. It flabbergasted her that he would be so petty. Did he really think that tampering with her graphics would make her quit? There were much better reasons to quit than this trouble.
Ryan’s name stood out in her inbox as she checked her email one more time before heading out for the night. He was trying much harder than Richard was to get her to change jobs.
Imagine staring up at a million points of light in the sky from the comfort of your bed, or watching the mesmerizing northern lights dance above you before you fall asleep. Come work for me and there’s a glass igloo in the Finnish Lapland with your name on it. They don’t have those in Texas, do they?
Summer rubbed her tired eyes and closed the message. She couldn’t deal with this now. Not when she was coming off a bad day at work. Leaning back in her chair, she glanced over her shoulder at Travis and Rachel. The flirtatious news anchor sat in Travis’s chair and twirled a strand of hair around her finger. Did women really think stuff like that worked? From across the dimly lit newsroom, it was hard to tell if Travis was falling for it or not. He stood beside his desk and loosened his tie, politely nodding at whatever she was saying.
Rachel was irksome. Rachel and her perfectly plucked eyebrows. Her sparkling white teeth and generous...assets. She was a thirty-something ex-cheerleader who wanted nothing more than to sink her claws into someone like Travis. Young, handsome, virile. The last guy she dated had probably been collecting Social Security for a couple years. Rachel was obviously looking for fresher meat.
Summer tried to ignore them, but Rachel was speaking so loudly about how much she loved the idea of Travis starring in ads for the station. Unsurprisingly, she didn’t mention anything about Summer, who went back to her computer and looked up information on glass igloos in Finland. Ryan’s bait was too tempting, given the circumstances. Brian walked past her desk a few minutes later and wished her good-night.
“Have a good one,” she replied with a weary smile. She shut down her desktop and grabbed her stuff. Rachel and Travis were laughing together, giving her a much-needed push out the door. “Good night, y’all,” she said, getting Travis’s attention.
“Summer, wait. Let me walk you to your car.” Travis pulled his jacket out from behind Rachel.
She didn’t need to be escorted to her car. It wasn’t like Richard was going to be waiting in the parking lot to take her out. She was about to refuse when Rachel chimed in. “Pete can walk her to her car. Right, Pete?” Summer hadn’t even noticed the tech engineer lurking in the shadows. Pete didn’t look too keen on walking anywhere with Summer.
“I got it,” Travis said. “Have a nice evening.” He scurried to catch up to Summer.
The elevator arrived and Travis held it open so she could walk in first. The doors closed, and even though there were only two of them, the space felt smaller than usual.
“Did you know that in the winter months in the northernmost parts of Finland, the sun doesn’t rise for fifty-one days?”
“I’m making you nervous, aren’t I?” Travis asked, almost apologetic.
She shook her head, though the gesture was a lie. Lately there was this gentle pull when she was near him that was followed by a much bigger desire to run far away. He was more complicated than she’d first thought, and that made him interesting. She didn’t need interesting men in her life. Especially not when Ryan was tempting her to fly the coop earlier than she’d planned.
They made it downstairs without any other weather facts escaping her lips. The parking lot was nearly empty. Some clouds had rolled in, but they didn’t hold any rain. Summer hadn’t felt rain since Sunday.
“Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day,” Travis said as they approached her car.
Summer sighed and started searching the bottomless pit that was her purse. “If today is any indication of what I have to look forward to, I’m not sure I’m going to like being the face of the station.”
“It’s one heck of a face,” he said. “One of the prettiest in Texas.”
She froze for a moment, wondering if she’d heard him right. “If you’re trying to get more weather facts out of me, it’s not going to work.”
He shook his head and grabbed her bag from her, reached in and pulled out her keys effortlessly. He didn’t bother hiding his grin. “Good night, Weather Girl.”
She snatched her keys from his hand, got in her car and drove home. Summer couldn’t wait to get into bed and put this crazy day to rest. Storm greeted her at the door as if he’d been waiting for her for days. She took him out back and let him run around under a perfect crescent moon. Her head fell back as she gazed up at the twinkling stars set against the inky backdrop. Summer loved the endlessness of the Texas sky. It reminded her that there was so much more world out there for her to discover. People in Finland looked up at the same moon, but she couldn’t help wondering if there would be different stars to wish on over there.
Back inside the house, she quickly changed out of her work clothes. Washing off the studio makeup helped her feel better. She stared at the reflection in the mirror. Somehow she’d become the face of Channel 6. Mimi was going to love that title. She ran her hands over her cheeks and thought about Travis and what he’d said. Did he really think she was pretty? Her eyes looked tired. Her bottom lip was too big compared to her top lip. The dusting of freckles across the bridge of her nose always made her feel like a kid, but that wasn’t the way she’d felt when Travis looked at her tonight.
She turned up the air-conditioning so she could sleep under the covers comfortably. Giving her pillow a fluff, she lay down and stared up at the ceiling fan her grandfather had helped her install as it spun slowly. It usually did the trick in lulling her to sleep. Tonight her head was too full. Her thoughts were scattered. Finland. The Arctic Circle. Northern lights. Ryan sure knew how to entice her. Faraway places with seasons and snow. Mother Nature’s brilliant light show. Texas did not have glass igloos. But Texas was her home. It had her grandparents. It had her dog and a job she was usually very good at. It also had Travis.
She laughed out loud as she flipped onto her side. She pulled the covers up under her chin. Was he a reason to stay or a reason to run away? She grabbed the other pillow and used it to cover her head. She’d told her parents she wasn’t taking the job, but maybe they were trying to send her a message. Maybe it wasn’t Richard who had messed with her graphics. Maybe it was divine intervention. Maybe it was a sign that television meteorology wasn’t for her.
Or maybe Abilene had more to offer her than she thought. Travis was the first guy who didn’t make a run for it every time she rambled on about the weather. He asked questions. He listened to her answers. Very few people humored her. Even fewer encouraged her to keep talking. Awkward silence was usually the only response to her weirdness. Travis didn’t make her feel weird. He almost made her feel normal.
Normal was something Summer hadn’t ever felt. Was that a sign? She tossed the pillow on the floor, restlessly flipping over to her other side. As normal as Travis made her feel, the man was a bigger unknown than the job Ryan was luring her into. Travis was d
ealing with a world of hurt, hurt that had nothing to do with his shoulder. He didn’t have to say it, he was one of those people who tried to hide his vulnerability but couldn’t stop his eyes from giving it away.
Summer rolled onto her stomach, smashing her face into her pillow. She hated not being able to predict the future. Not knowing meant things could go very wrong, like they had the night her parents died. She was such a hypocrite. She’d told Travis not to be trapped by fear, and that was exactly what was happening to her. Life needed to be worth living. If she stayed in Texas, she needed something more.
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE NEWSROOM WAS a maze of desks filled with producers, assignment editors, reporters and anchors. People were always on the phone, on their computers or consulting with one another about a story. When Travis pushed away from his desk and spun his chair a quarter turn to the left, he could watch the Weather Girl do all those things. She was usually staring at her monitor, probably researching some random weather fact like the average snowfall in Idaho. Summer knew the strangest things.
Travis was on the phone with his mother, who decided she needed to see him and meet his coworker before the football game on Friday. “I don’t know, Mom. Can’t I just introduce you to her at the game?”
“I promised to help sell tickets for the booster club’s fifty/fifty raffle. I’ll be working. You two will be working. Can’t you both come over beforehand? I’m baking.” The woman drove a hard bargain.
Travis leaned back and looked left. As if she knew he was watching, Summer turned her head to meet his stare. He watched as the heat crept up her neck, the skin flushing red. Her fingers glided up her throat as if she was trying to contain the blush.
“I’ll ask her, but no promises.” He continued watching Summer until the right side of her mouth curved up in a shy, stop-looking-at-me-like-that smile. Those soft pink lips of hers were something. He knew they were soft. He had touched them.
Travis slid back toward his desk and rested his forehead on his fist while his mom told him all about what his aunt Kelly had to say about the road construction between Sweetwater and Abilene. He wished traffic was his only issue with going home. “I’ll let you get back to work,” she said before hanging up. “We’ll see you on Friday. Your dad’s looking forward to seeing you. He misses you.”