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“What is a pretty girl like you doing all alone in a place like this?”
Kate looked up from her notepad and resisted the urge to roll her eyes. One of these days she would be able to sit alone in a bar without getting hit on by some random man, but today it seemed her luck had run out once more.
“I see you’re interested in tornadoes,” the man pointed out as he spotted the picture that Kate had been looking at on her tablet. “If you really want to get close to one, you should come with me tomorrow. I’m a storm chaser you know.”
Kate had yet to say a single word in the interaction, not that she was surprised. She knew the type, she had been in the storm chasing game for long enough to know where this was going to go. “Thank you for the offer, but I’m good.”
“Let me buy you a drink before you turn me down,” the man flagged down the bartender with a wave of his hand before Kate could shut him down again. “I’ll take a Bud light and what do you want?”
“7-Up with lime please,” Kate hoped that her clear disinterest would be translated with her drink choice.
“Sure, a 7-Up,” the man’s voice faltered a bit and Kate wondered if that would be enough to make him leave. “So what’s your interest in tornadoes? I’m one of the only guys that can bring you real close to one.”
Clearly, the message hadn’t gone through and the man sat down. Kate sighed for real this time and the bartender sent her a compassionate look as he slid over her soft drink. There were many reasons why Kate wasn’t interested at the moment, added to the fact that he wasn’t her type at all in the first place.
It’s not that he wasn’t attractive, the man was fairly tall, darks hair and a nice beard. He seemed nice enough from what she could tell from their short interaction and maybe in another life it would have worked on her, but it certainly wasn’t her situation at the moment.
“Howdy.” Thankfully for Kate, her very specific type of man sat down in the free spot next to her. She was very particular about the type of men she liked. Well, there was one man in particular that had ruined all other men for her and thank fully, he had just sat down next to her.
“You’re Tyler Owens,” the man pointed and looked Kate who now had a huge smile on her face.
Tyler tipped his hat, but his eyes were still focused on Kate. “7-Up?”
“With lime,” Kate replied playing with her straw.
“Wow, I’m going to have to work extra hard tonight,” Tyler said dramatically as he waved down the bartender. “I’ll take a Miller and bourbon for the lady.”
“Buffalo Trace good?” The bartender asked, holding up the bottle of Kentucky bourbon.
“Perfect,” Tyler replied, smirking as Kate stared at him with amusement.
“You’re bringing out the big gun tonight, what makes you think that’s going to work?”
“Call it a feeling,” Tyler retorted and handed her the drink once the bartender put it in front of him. “That and you have that look on your face that tells me that if I play my cards just right, I’m going to have a great night.”
After watching the exchange, the man realized he had never stood a chance in the first place and left the couple at the bar. If he had known the girl at the bar was Tyler Owens’ girl, he wouldn’t even had attempted to flirt.
“Sorry for taking so long, it took the guy a little bit of time to find the piece we needed for the RV,” Tyler informed her as he took a sip of his beer and sat down next to her properly.
“It’s fine, my friend over there was just offering to bring me close to real tornado,” Kate teased her boyfriend and took a sip of her bourbon.
“Did he now?” Tyler rarely felt threatened by other man and tonight was no exception. Firstly, he trusted Kate more than enough to know she would never cheat on him. Secondly, if that guy’s whole game was telling girls he could bring them close to a tornado, then it wasn’t even a competition. Not to mention that it would take more than some guy flirting with his girl to shake his self-confidence.
“He did, I swear,” Kate laughed before gulping down the rest of her drink in one go. Tyler watched in amusement as she flagged down the bartender again to get a refill. This was really going to be a good night for him. “Are we set for the RV?”
“Dani is fixing it up tomorrow morning. We should be back on the road before lunch,” Tyler informed her. When Dani had told him she would take care of it in the morning, he hadn’t protested much and even told her to take her time. Dexter and her had already gone back to the motel for the night to sort through some of the supplies they had gathered while they had been waiting for the guy at the garage. It would also mean everyone would get to enjoy a late morning in bed was more than appreciated, especially with the speed at which Kate was drinking her bourbon.
“That means we get to sleep in,” Kate pointed exactly what Tyler was thinking. She picked up her glass and downed it in one go again. “Let’s go have some fun.”
“You wanna dance Sapulpa?” Tyler chugged his beer as he watched Kate put her note pad and tablet into her bag. He wasn’t as nearly as drunk as she was, he’d only had a single pint of beer and he needed to drive later anyway.
“You goin’ to take me dancing?” She had that look in her eyes, the one that Tyler thrived on making her have.
“Always,” Tyler stood up and took her hand. They walked over to the small dance floor where a few other couples were already dancing together and joined in.
Tyler put his hands low on Kate’s waist while she wrapped her arms around his neck. There was an old George Strait song playing on the speakers, and they swayed to the music together, oblivious to the sight they made as they enjoyed themselves.
Tyler wouldn’t say he was a great dancer, but he was good enough for him to avoid stepping on Kate’s feet. Kate on the other hand, was pretty bad and let Tyler lead her or else they would both end up with bruised toes the next morning.
Eventually, Kate reached up and took Tyler’s hat before putting it on her own head. It was too big for her and fell down to her brow which forced her to tilt her head back so she could look at him in the eyes.
“You know the rule baby,” Tyler teased her as he spun her around. He flicked the brim of his cowboy hat which made her laugh.
“Maybe I want you to take me back to the hotel right now,” Kate replied with a smirk and put her hand on his chest. “We have to respect the rule don’t we?”
“I am a real cowboy, so I do have to follow the code,” Tyler said jokingly as his hands slid down to her ass. “Let’s get out of here.”
“I like how you think cowboy.”
Kate lead Tyler out of the bar, both of them stumbling a bit on their own feet in their enthusiasm.
***
“They do realize they are our ride back to the hotel right?” Boone asked Lily as they watched their friends laughing as they left the bar.
“Do you really wanna be in the same car as them at the moment?” Lily asked him as she downed her shot of tequila. Drunk Kate was definitely a fun Kate to be around, but when she was in the same confined space as Tyler, the rest of team knew to make themselves scarce.“It’s like a ten minute walk and there’s two of us, we’ll be fine.”
“I didn’t want to go for a walk tonight, my feet are killing me,” Boone whined which made Lily laugh. In his defence, they had been running around random fields since five in the morning so he had a reason to be sore. “I could have closed my eyes and put headphones on.”
“It’s probably already too late,” she told her friend. “One of the kids in here would probably jump at the opportunity to give us a ride.” Young chasers had been coming up to talk to them from the moment they had entered the bar.
“You’re a genius Lils,” Boone said as he stood up. “I’m getting us another round and then we can work our Wrangler magic to get ourself a ride.”
***
“Kate?”
“What?” Kate was in the bathroom, going through her bedtime routine as well as she could considering how tipsy she was. She brushed her hair, trying to get the tangles that Tyler had missed with his fingers earlier.
“I think we forgot Boone and Lily at the bar,” Tyler said as he looked for his pants on the floor. “Crap, where’s my phone?” They had been a bit in a hurry once they had made it to their room and hadn’t really been careful with where they were throwing their things on their way to the bed.
“We can go back to get them, just let me get dressed,” Kate told him as she came out of the bathroom and looking for her own clothes. She found Tyler’s phone next to her bra and handed it to him.
“Never mind, they got a ride from some other chasers,” Tyler replied with relief as he looked at his notifications. He felt like such an asshole for forgetting about them completely, but at least he didn’t need to get out of bed. “Get back over here.”
Kate got back onto the bed and laid down next to him abandoning her task of picking up their clothes. They would have more than enough time tomorrow to sort through their things. Tyler’s limbs felt heavy as he threw an arm around her waist, but he was more than happy to make a small effort if it meant touching her bare skin.
“Don’t fall asleep on me yet Cowboy,” Kate said as she noticed his closed eyes. She always thought Tyler was attractive, but he looked particularly handsome when he was sleepy and satisfied.
He was resting against a couple of pillows that he had stacked considering how thin they were. His five o’clock shadow, which was more a two day’s worth growth, looked very striking in the low light of their motel room. His hair was messy, her own personal work from earlier and she ran a hand through it. His skin was warm and had a soft flush from all the exertion. She didn’t think she would ever get bored of looking at him.
“Are you sleeping?” Kate asked him with a teasing tone, putting her index finger on his lips.
Tyler laughed, but complied with her request and opened his eyes before kissing her her finger. “I’m still awake, don’t worry.” He loved every single thing about Kate, but when she gets in her little playful moods, he falls in love with her all over again. He likes to tell her that it’s the country girl in her taking the wheel which just makes her laugh even more. “How do you still have energy after all that?”
“Maybe I just want us to talk,” Kate retorted before peppering kisses on his jaw.
“Sure you do.” he didn’t believe her for a moment, but man was he ready to do anything for her. They were both a little bit drunk on bourbon and love, tired from a busy day in the field and from respecting the hat rule, yet nothing of that really mattered as long as they had each other.