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“You can’t stay any longer?”
Kate feels something in her chest twist and constrict her ribs at her friend’s words. It had its ups and downs but this week of reuniting with Javi, facing her fears, connecting with her mom, and surviving all of that with….a man she’s trying not to think about as she’s preparing to leave to save the hurt in her heart…was one of healing.
For the first time since the day everything had gone wrong with losing her favorite people to a horrific tornado, she had felt the warmth of being home wrapped around her like a blanket. For the first time since moving away, she wished to be home. To stay home.
It’s a thought she clings to as she wonders how long it’ll take to settle her change from New York back to Oklahoma.
“It’ll take a while to move all my stuff back here, Javi.” Kate shakes her head softly, “I have to pay rent for the next month until I figure all that out.”
Javi nods, tapping his fingers against the wheel. He won't say anything.
"What?"
“You know....with the NWS sponsoring us now...the grant money's coming through in two weeks-” He shrugs at her growing smile and laugh, “It’s coming in fast. Just so you know.”
“I’m well aware.” She says, zipping her purse with a gentle slide. It was always easy to be goofy with a friend she’s had since she was fifteen even after time apart. It felt good to joke around with Javi again after all they’ve been through. “It’s part of why I’m coming back so we can get started on the prototypes. Are you sure you could handle the iodine imports when I’m gone? I feel bad for leaving you with setting up in the barn.”
It’s quiet for a moment too long. Was he even listening to her? Kate turns to look at him in the silence but he’s busy looking ahead at something in front of him. “Javi? Did you hear me?”
“Hold on—“
”Sir, you can’t park there!”
”I said I’m coming back! Hold on!”
Kate has only known him for a week but she recognizes the voice instantly. It holds a smooth deep drawl to his words that make him sound confident and gentle at the same time. It belongs to a man that makes the breath escape from her lungs out of her control.
Javi taps the wheel three times, clicking his tongue. He points a finger to the scene in front of them.
“Is that the other part of why you’re coming back here?”
“Javi.” She warns, unable to look away from a stumbling-on-his-feet Tyler who was trying to back away from an airport attendant on his tail.
He unlocks the door to push it open. “My bad. I’ll be more specific. I meant to say ‘is the cowboy weather boy the reason you’re staying besides wanting to save the world?’”
He exits the car before she could respond. Kate is glad to avoid the answer because she doesn’t know if her heart would allow her to say no in the moment. She’s falling fast for Tyler Owens and she could try to deny it for as long as she can but it was inevitable. She’s healing. She’s allowed to feel love again and she has to keep reminding herself of that.
Kate doesn’t move until she hears Javi unlock the back trunk with her suitcase. She races to get out of the car at the sound, wondering what Tyler would say to her when he’s done defying the airport rules for her.
“You can’t stay?”
“I would if I could.”
“You could.”
Kate held her breath watching Tyler take a step forward. Her suitcase was the only barrier between them. She glances down to his hands where he’s clutching his car keys tightly.
He won’t stop looking at her, eyes trained on every emotion flashing on her face. She’s feeling everything — joy and sadness and the urge to tease the man who stole her breath and filled her mind with curiosity and wonder about how he could’ve fallen into her life at the perfect time when she needed him most.
“I have to stay for at least a few weeks to pay next month’s rent. I need to give my two weeks and start packing my apartment.” She maintains eye contact, squinting just a little at the sun shining over Tyler’s shoulder. He’s tall enough to hide most of the morning light from her vision. He’s been enough to light up her life in only one week. She smiles at the frown taking up his handsome face, “I have to look for a bigger place to set up a lab for all of us. It’s a-lot of work.”
“You won’t do it alone,” Tyler is quick to assure her, “You’ve got us. You’ve got me.”
Her heart picks up. Her palms begin sweat under the grip of her suitcase handle.
You’ve got me. Kate feels breathless all over again. He stares at her, eyes wide in something she can’t recognize as he scans her face, and the uncertainty in his emotions makes her want to end the goodbye. “I’ll see you soon, ok?”
He nods and she takes it as quiet confirmation that their conversation is over. She doesn’t want to say anything she can’t act upon across the country. Kate turns on her heel to suddenly be stopped by the sound of his voice and feeling of someone grabbing onto her hand. She turns slowly allowing herself to be tugged by his grasp. Tyler’s words are soft, acting like a whisper in the wind in the universe that has just shrank to the space between them. With her suitcase out of the way and to the side, he’s able to stand in front of her with their shoes touching.
“Do you know exactly when you’re coming back?”
They had survived two tornadoes together — keeping the conversation between them with no distractions is the easiest thing they can do because it’s just them. Kate isn’t sure if he heard the way she held her breath at their close contact but the worry soon leaves her mind at the feeling of his thumb rubbing circles on the back of her right hand and his breath on her cheek as he looked down at her.
They were a few inches apart and it was borderline torture after just realizing how fast she grew a liking toward him. Was it admiration? A crush?
Kate sets a hand on his shoulder, forcing herself to exhale at the feeling of his muscle flexing under his green collared shirt when experiencing her touch for the first time. They were always in sync, she’s noticed that since they had first met — it’s why nothing but wonder fills her mind when she feels him inhale when she exhales.
Was it love?
“A month at least.” She tells him. “Maybe two.”
He smiles, although it quickly turns into an endearing smirk — a look she’d personally call him adorable rather than teasing. Was she feeling love?
“Cruel.” He whispers to her, “You’re leaving as soon as—“
She couldn’t help herself, she had to cut him off.
“As soon as what?”
It was worth seeing Tyler duck his head and smile to himself. His smile was big and wide and everything she wants—god. She’s so gone for him. She’s sure if she touched his cheek, she’d feel the warmth of a blush or embarrassment tint his skin. She thinks her heart might implode if it wasn’t about to break at the thought of him missing her.
“You know what.” Tyler shakes his head and squeezes her hand. “Forget being the OG wrangler, you’re the tornado itself. Unpredictable and leaving when—“ He stops himself, glancing over her features once more before settling on the spot above her right eyebrow. She knows instantly what he’s looking at. The already fading cut of knocking her head against the glass of his driver side window after dismantling the tornado yesterday. He deflates and simply just holds onto her hand. She stands still, almost frozen as she waits for him to finish his sentence. He’s the one to exhale now, “Leaving when I just got you.”
Kate says the first thing that comes to mind.
“You know what I heard this one guy tell me a few days ago?”
Tyler shakes his head, voice low. “I wanna know what you have to say to what I just told you.”
Kate can’t breathe. She feels like she’ll fall straight into his arms if she says what she’s thinking right now. If she tells him how much she cares for him, how much she likes him back, she doesn’t think she’ll leave. If she can’t leave, she can’t come back. She needs to sort things out in New York. She can’t stay until that chapter of her life is closed to start a new one.
“It’s a good quote, I promise.” She says, “He said something like: if you feel it, chase it.”
He laughs something small and holds her just a little tighter. In that moment, she could see a future with him perfectly.
A new chapter with him. She could see it perfectly in her head. They’d have Javi and the rest of his, now their, friends in a big group to create millions of iodine sensor release devices to dismantle tornadoes bigger than EF3’s and form groups all around the South to widen the outreach with solution. They’d all pitch in to rent or buy a lab to do their testing and data, use her barn for late night thinking, spend the weekends at her mom's house for dinners, and buy a bigger place with the help of the product profit and funding to make sure they all stuck together. They’d all be friends for life and they’d get to see their families grow and bask in happiness of all that life held for them.
It was a perfect plan.
For later.
Kate suddenly felt the urge to cry as she thinks about it which is why her voice shakes when she decides to speak. She has no control over how her eyes fill and she lets him hold her cheek when he notices. “I thought it was dumb at first. I had let fear guide me for so long that I thought chasing happiness or joy was something I wasn’t worthy of doing again. Everything changed when I came back and met you. I felt it—“ She adjusted closer to him, “I felt the storm brewing. I felt a new feeling, one I had felt in a long time. I felt things falling into place. Being home, being with you, Tyler — it all felt right. I’m not running away from it. From you. I’m feeling it, everything between us, and I’m not running away. I’m running back and chasing it all the way from New York. I promise you that.”
Tyler sighs her name like a broken sigh, his attempt to hold on tighter to her cheek is torn by Kate ripping herself away from him and stepping back.
"Kate.."
“I haven’t had a goodbye feel this hard—“
“—Kate, stop. Will you?”
She shakes her head roughly.
“I’ll see you when I get back. I’ll call.”
She leaves him with that, abruptly turning on her heel to walk through the airport doors like she hadn’t left her heart in his hands. She grips onto her suitcase in a tight grip, forcing herself not to look at what she left behind as she races to get as far into the airport as she could while holding her breath.
Kate doesn’t wipe at her face to dry her tears until she’s in line for check-in.
“Tyler?”
He wouldn’t listen. He was pacing back and forth outside the doors, trying to find a glimpse of Kate as she disappeared into the crowd.
“Tyler!”
The only voice he wanted to listen to was Kate’s and its what drove him to drown everyone else out. He had to find her. He—he…
A pair of hands land on his shoulders and turn him around. He comes face to face with an almost bewildered looking Javi who centers him just enough to notice that he’s yelling and pointing past the entrance.
“Go after her!” He encouraged, “You can stay with her until security. She couldn’t have walked far. Go!”
“Javi, what? What?” Tyler feels his mind running miles a minute. He can’t get Kate’s tears out of his eyes when he blinks. He rubs his face roughly with both hands thinking of what to do. Of course he’d love to go after her but what would that do for them? — “She’s leaving? I can’t make her stay!”
“Tell her you feel the same, you idiot!” Javi pushes him toward the entrance, “Kiss her, do something!” He calms down just enough to let his own emotion about his old best friend shine through. “She deserves to know that you feel everything too. She deserves to be happy and you can give her that.”
Tyler doesn’t need to be told twice. He looks once more through the automatic doors to try and spot her to give him an area to call her name first but he can’t see much from outside. After waiting for an elderly woman to exit, he’s off. He’s off to find the girl he’s falling in love with to tell her how he feels.
He isn’t running after fear. He isn’t chasing after a thrill. He isn’t running after something that’ll disappear.
He’s running to a girl that he plans to keep in his life. He’s chasing after love and god, it’s enough to keep him grinning to himself as he races down the corridor into the check-in area.
The line was moving fast, and she was thankful for that. She had a few people in front of her and they acted like a shield in covering her face as she tried to wipe away her tears before talking to the desk attendant. Kate couldn't believe she had told Tyler how she felt when she knew and told herself countless times that it was useless to confess now because they'd be separated across the country. How can you start a relationship as long distance? It was an unfair chance for the both of them. Now, she'd have to deal with missing him dearly and knowing what it was like to hold his hand. She had told herself to wait but the words blurted out and she was unable to stop them.
It was cruel to tell him how strongly she felt and then leave. It was stupid-
"Kate!"
The busy noise of the airport drowned out in an instant. She closed her eyes and shook her head at herself, wondering how she could hear a voice so clearly in her head. It was impossible. Her throat burned with tears threatening to bubble up again and she kept her attention facing forward to focus on the people in front of her.
She could be strong.
She could ignore the whisper of his voice in her head. She could...
"Kate!" The voice says again, louder this time. "Where are you?"
What the hell. Kate shakes her head again, gripping her suitcase handle tighter. Why is the voice so loud? Why does her mind want to torture her? Hasn't she been through enough--"Kate, please!—sorry ma'am, I'm trying to find someone—"
The break of calling her name to apologize is enough to break the spell she believes her mind is trying to play on her. The Tyler in her head wouldn't be talking to other people. Kate whips her head around and, as if the universe begins rooting for her second chance at love with its own hands of fate, finds Tyler out of her head and a few feet away in front of her. He looks frantic and worried he had missed her, oblivious to her being at the front of the line.
Her heart breaks and tears open at the same time.
"Kate!"
She urges herself to speak through the emotion scratching her throat, "Tyler?" and god, she doesn't know how he's able to hear her but he does. She watches his head snap to find her, watches all of the tension and panic evaporate from his person like he had just seen something beautiful worth looking at. Does he think she's beautiful? She feels warm at the thought.
“Tyler!”
She waits for him to start talking but suddenly believes they're too far away from each other. In an instant, Kate ducks under the rope and breaks away from the line, racing over to where Tyler waits for her by the middle of the walking crowd between check in and the entrance. She can't hide a smile from him when she reaches him, hoping that he's unbothered by her teary eyes.
"What are you doing?" She asks, taking a second to wipe at her face. "You should've left by now. I'm happy to see you but you should be gone. They're gonna tow your truck and—“
"I don't care about my truck—not right now. I don't care about that. I care about you, Kate." Tyler takes a deep breath to settle his outburst, clasping his hands together to give them something to hold onto while he talks. He can't hold back anymore. She gasps softly at his confession and freezes. The only way she moves again is when he pulls her suitcase out of way to rest at his side to take a step forward. He reaches for her arm to pull her forward, "I like you so much. I can't have you leave without telling you that. I wanna know when you're coming back cause I wanna take you out on dates and get to know you. The real you. I felt it too — everything you said, I feel the storm. I feel how strong our connection is. It's like — god —" He exhales to try to get air in his lungs and she feels a tear fall down her cheek at the wide smile across his lips. "It's like we were meant to find each other. It's like we were those twin tornadoes we found a few days ago, remember that? Circling each other and colliding when it mattered. Only this time, I wanna go where you go. I wanna follow you. I want you to follow me. I think..."
He trails off at the sudden touch of Kate reaching for his cheek. She inches closer and holds his face with both hands. She can't believe this man exists and fell into her life so suddenly. She let's out a watery laugh of nothing but joy at the sight of him breathless over her hands on his skin. As soon as her hands settle into the crook of his neck and he faintly hums at her thumbs running against the stubble of his beard under his jaw, Tyler allows himself to wrap his arms around her waist in a slow circle.
She thinks....no, she knows.....she feels....
"I think I'm starting to fall in love with you." Tyler confesses in a low whisper, hoping the words are faint enough only for her ears to hear. "I've never felt like this before. I wanna hold onto it. I wanna hold onto you and not let go."
"Tyler..."
Kate breathes his name to fan against his cheek, her heart racing and beating to the same pulse under her fingertips against his neck.
She feels love. She isn't doubting it.
"Go to New York—“
"You weren't stopping me."
She nuzzles into his hand when she feels it rest against her cheek, closing her eyes at how soft he is with her. Kate feels Tyler smile under her hand at her helplessness to tease him during such a big moment, and she matches him with ease. She holds her breath at the sudden touch of his lips, warm and gentle, against the side of her hand to tickle her pointer finger.
"Go to New York and do everything you gotta do to come back home, ok?" His grip on her waist grows more confident and strong which leaves her unable to breath again as he pulls her closer and closer until their noses graze together. They both exhale at the same time. Kate holds onto him with a gentleness she believed she had lost years ago, feeling her heart stitch itself back together as he continues to speak to her. "I'll be waiting. You've got people who are gonna be waiting for you so we could change the world."
"You believe we could change the world?" She whispers.
"Absolutely." He won't look anywhere but her eyes and she notices how teary his own had become. "You've already changed mine."
It's quiet for a moment as Kate feels something like a dam or the four walls surrounding her bruised heart and soul break. Her next breath is shaky and heavy but free. She allows love in and feels free.
"I think—“ Kate whispers, "I think I'm starting to fall in love with you, too."
"That's good." Tyler grins, "I was hoping you'd say that, city girl."
She surprises him with a kiss to his cheek, "Not a city girl."
He turns her head just a little, just enough, to prepare for what'll come next.
"Good." He says lowly, "I always wanted a country girl who knows how to chase tornadoes."
She grins, running a finger along his stubble. "I'm the best at what we do, honey."
Kate swears she could feel him hide a shiver down his spine at the nickname, feeling her insides flutter with the satisfied hum he lets out at her words. She's just a girl getting back to her roots. She could match him card for card.
It's something he knows.
"I don't doubt that, sweetheart," Teasing her slightly. "I can handle second best. I can handle you."
"Don't you forget it."
"It's impossible to forget anything about you."
It's the last thing he says before tugging her cheeks forward to kiss her. She lets her hands trail down to hold onto his shoulders to pull him impossibly closer, feeling herself melt into everything that was Tyler Owens. He's gentle, loving with how he holds and guides her to follow his lead, as if he could read her mind in knowing exactly how to make her swoon in his arms as he tilts his head just right to deepen the kiss in their slow back and forth of lips meeting.
They're forced to pull back due to the extent of how big they smile at each other.
He keeps her close enough to speak without their lips touching, "We've got a job to do so you better come back to me as soon as you can."
Kate nods, allowing her joy to overwhelm the reality of sadness that will burden her later when she's back in her New York apartment alone without the people she cares about.
Her lips tingle and her heart is happy.
She has a home to come back to. She has people who are and will become her family with time.
She's going to change the world.
She's going to chase her dreams with Tyler by her side.
"I'm coming back as soon as I can." Kate repeats and confirms, giving him another kiss just because she can and wants to. His smile would be blinding if she didn't already consider him being a light in her darkness. "Home is where I belong. Home is right here."
It's the truth.