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The wind whips against the truck, the sound of it muffled by the Thomas Rhett album playing on the radio. Both of Tyler’s hands are on the wheel, his fingers tapping along with rhythm in a poor attempt to hide his nervousness. He wishes that the wind that was jostling his car along the road was from a storm.
It’s Thanksgiving weekend and somehow, Tyler is driving home. Not the home he built for Kate in their first year together or Cathy’s farm. No he’s in Arkansas, driving towards his parents farm. He hasn’t been there since the day his parents kicked him out of the house and had never really felt the need to come back, but somehow his aunt had managed to convince him to come.
Kate putting one of hands on his takes him by surprise. “Give me your hand,” she orders him softly.
Tyler realizes in that moment how hard he had been gripping the steering wheel and he unclenches the right one. She takes his hand in her left one and the simple feel of Kate’s wedding band helps him calm down.
“It”s going to be okay, don’t worry,” she insists squeezing his hand softly. “Maggie will be there and we haven’t seen her in a while.”
“I know, it’s why I agreed to come in the first place,” Tyler replies, his voice not sounding as confident as he wanted. Maggie is a smart woman and had played him like a fiddle, citing that it had been so long since she had seen Kate and him and that Thanksgiving was the perfect opportunity for them to spend a few days together. Of course, Maggie had waited until the week before their trip to mention that the dinner what at his parents farm this year.
“I can’t wait to meet your brothers,” Kate continues, stroking his knuckles with her thumb. “And your nieces and nephews.”
“I’m excited for that too,” Tyler admits quietly. Both of his brothers have had more children since he’s left home. He’d only met one of them, his older brother Jackson’s son, but he had been two years old the year Tyler had left home. The only reason Tyler knew he had nieces and nephews was because his aunt told him every single time one was born. That and he had the habit of stalking his brothers on Instagram so he could pretend they were still close somehow. “I haven’t even met Michael’s wife.”
“I can’t believe we’re going to be late though,” Kate says as she checks the time. “I’m sorry about that.” She had gotten stuck in a conference call with a research committee which lead to them leaving Sapulpa a lot later than planned.
“We are basically on time honey, Maggie said the dinner wasn’t until seven anyway and we’ll be there by five.” Tyler didn’t want her to blame herself for their late afternoon arrival especially since he was kinda glad her longer meeting had meant he would have to spend less time at his parents place.
In about, thirty minutes Tyler would arrive at his childhood home for the first time in over a decade.
***
Tyler takes his foot off the gas pedal as they approach his parents house, slowing the truck down as he takes in the moment. They had taken the Ram, just in case they ended up encountering a nice storm on their drive through Arkansas. It also helped that Tyler feels more confident in his prized truck than anything else, but it did look particularly out of place next to the row of new pick ups parked in front of the house.
Kate lets him stew in his anxiety for approximately a minute before she reaches and turns off the idling engine. “We have to go in at some point.” She presses the keys into his palm, keeping her eyes on her husband as he works through his emotions.
“I know,” Tyler’s voice is tight with emotions and after taking a deep breath, he lets go of his anxiety. Whatever happens next is out of his control anyway. The only thing that matters to him is Kate and protecting her from what could happen inside. He can’t be nervous if he has to be there for her.
Tyler gets out of the truck and briskly walks to the passenger side to open Kate’s door. As he holds her door open, he spots a little boy looking at him from the bay window and he realizes he’s looking at one of his nephews.
It’s drizzling outside so as soon as Kate feet are on the ground, they hurry up onto the covered porch which leaves no time for Tyler to change his mind and turn back around. Before knocking on the door, he removes his Stetson and raises his hand, but the door swings open before he even has the time to knock.
“Tyler!” Maggie calls out, wrapping her arms tightly around her nephew. “I was starting to worry that you had changed your mind,” she whispers in his ear.
“Work stuff,” Tyler answers simply and his aunt lets him go only to grab Kate and kisses her on the cheek.
“Kate, my dear. Thank you,” Maggie tells Kate who doesn’t even need to ask why she’s being thanked in the first place. Both of them know Tyler wouldn’t even have considered coming if she hadn’t been with him.
“Alright, let go of my wife auntie,” Tyler teases playfully, but his smile falls when he spots his mother over his aunt’s shoulder, standing a few feet away in the foyer. “Mom.”
“Tyler,” his mother said simply. “I’m glad you’re here.”
Her words surprises Tyler, but then he realizes how silly that thought is. They did get invited, so of course his mom is happy to see him. Or maybe it’s the way his aunt is staring at her little sister with daggers in her eyes that makes his mother a little more pliant.
“Let’s get both of you out of your coats,” Maggie says, breaking the tension. Tyler takes off his coat and helps Kate out of hers, hanging both of them in the mudroom. He leaves his hat on one of the shelves over the coat hooks.
Kate is used to Tyler being all over her, it’s rare that he’s not touching him somehow, so she doesn’t comment when he laces their fingers together and lets him lead.
As Tyler walks down the hall, he notices just how much the house has changed since he left. However, his thoughts are abruptly interrupted as they step into the living room, where it's clear everyone had been waiting for their arrival.
His father is sitting in an armchair in the corner of the room, nursing a beer, but Tyler’s focus shifts to his brothers. Jackson is sitting on one of the couch with his wife Stella, who Tyler had obviously met before. Michael is on the other couch with his wife, one that Tyler had never met but knows her name is Corine because of Instagram. Then there’s a bunch of kids playing on the carpet and even if he tried, Tyler knows he couldn’t tell who is who apart from the oldest boy, Jonathan.
It’s one thing to see the changes on photo and another to see it with his own eyes.
Kate squeezes his hand and Tyler realizes that he’s just been standing awkwardly in silence. He clears his throat and looks at Kate one more time, finding comfort in her warm smile. She gives him a discreet nod, offering her silent support, not that he ever doubted he had it.
“So, hi?” It’s the most awkward hello he’s said in a long time, especially when he hasn’t talked to any of the people in the room apart from his aunt for years, but he guesses it fits the awkwardness of the situation itself.
“Baby bro is back!” Michael calls out happily, standing up from the couch and stalks towards his little brother. Tyler lets out a shaky breath before letting go of Kate to hug his brother. “Let me get a good look at you,” Mike says, putting his hands on Tyler’s shoulders.
It reminds Tyler of how Mike used to check him over after he stepped out of the ring, but he shakes that thought out of his mind. Last time he had seen his brother was the day he had come home from the hospital with his broken leg and the family had thrown him a little welcome back party. That had been a week before he had gotten kicked out.
“Alright, alright,” Tyler says taking a step back, wrapping an arm around Kate’s waist.
Everyone’s eyes are suddenly on Kate and if she hadn’t gotten used to attention since being with Tyler, she might have felt her confidence falter slightly. “Everyone, this is Kate, my wife.”
“Hello, it’s nice to meet you,” Kate greets everyone politely. The only person from Tyler’s family that had been invited to their wedding had been Maggie after all, but considering how public their life is, she’s pretty sure everyone knows who she is.
“Hello Kate,” Michael replies easily and Kate decides that she likes him, at least for now. The rest of the family is eerily silent so it’s not like he has a lot of competition for now. “Ty, let me introduce you to your army of nieces and nephew.”
***
After the introductions to everyone, Tyler and Kate sit down on the two chairs that had been brought from the kitchen and chatter slowly starts to pick up. They find themselves being more observers than participants and it’s awkward, but not as awful as Tyler had anticipated.
“So what do the two of you do?” Corine, Mike’s wife asks, unaware that it was a sore subject. Clearly, he wasn’t a subject of discussion in the family, Tyler realizes.
“We’re storm chasers,” Kate replies for both of them. She figures that if she’s the one to say it, it might land better with Tyler’s parents.
“Like the people on Youtube?”
Tyler can’t help but let out a little laugh at her innocent question. “That would be us,” he confirms. “But Kate also teaches at Muskogee State in the off season.”
“I teach at the elementary school in town,” Corine replies happily, turning her attention on Kate. “Do you like it?”
“It’s fun, keeps me busy when we don’t have much to do in the field and is useful for research,” Kate tells her easily. “Tyler gives seminars too.” She looks at him with a proud look on her face and for a second Tyler forgets they have an audience.
Tyler’s father lets out a scoff, poorly disguised as a cough, the attempt falling flat. Kate arches an eyebrow at him, shooting a pointed look he doesn’t catch as his focus is firmly fixed on his beer bottle.
“You still in Arkansas?” Jackson asks his little brother, quickly changing the subject.
“No, I moved to Oklahoma two years ago,” Tyler explains. “Got some land and built Kate a home.” He’s proud of their home, they’d worked so hard on designing it according to the most recent tornado resistant technologies. Then they had designed the interior together so it reflected both their personalities and filled their needs.
“You bought land?” His older brother asks in disbelief. “In this economy?”
Tyler doesn’t want to look like a rich prick or anything, but with the income from social media, their investments and Kate’s job, they are making a lot of money. “Yeah, we needed a home base and owning was the best thing for us considering the job. We don’t have livestock or anything, we leave for too long when we chase, but it’s ours.” He tries to sound as casual possible, but he sees out of the corner of his eyes the way his father’s expression changes.
“What do you mean when you say you chase storms?” Everyone’s attention turns to Sarah, Jackson’s seven years old daughter. They are entering dangerous territory with this conversation, but the little girl has no idea.
“It means they spend too much time looking up at the sky,” his father grumbles before taking another sip of beer.
Tyler shifts uncomfortably on his chair as he fights his instinct to simply get up and leave, but Kate chooses not to let it slide.
“Tornado chasing is when people follow storms to learn more about how tornadoes form and to keep others safe. We use special tools, like weather radars and fast cars, to get close to storms without getting hurt. If the rain stops, maybe you could go see Tyler’s truck, it’s really cool,” Kate explains using the most simple words as possible. “It’s kind of like being a detective for the weather, we look for clues in the sky, like dark clouds and spinning winds, to figure out if a tornado might happen. Then we use our tools to get information so we can understand better what is going on.”
Little Sarah seems to accept that answer and goes back to her colouring book without thinking twice about it.
“Is that how the two of you met?” Stella asks, continuing her daughter’s questioning.
Kate could understand the kids knowing nothing about them, but the adults? She knows Tyler keeps up with his siblings on social media and wonders why neither of his brother do the same. Then she sees how Tyler’s father is looking at his daughter in law and it hits her. Tyler truly is the taboo subject of the family, the black sheep of the family.
“Yep, I was chasing in Oklahoma and ended up meeting the love of my life,” Tyler summarizes the situation greatly, but it’s the truth. “One minute I was stopping to put some gas in my truck and the next minute I spot the most beautiful woman in the world who also happens to be a meteorologist.” He leaves out the part where he was live streaming the whole thing for his fans and blasting music to signal his arrival.
“How sweet,” Stella replies genuinely and Tyler remembers why he liked her in the first place, she had always been nice to him. “It’s always nice to find someone who shares the same passion as you.”
Things are a little bit tense, but Maggie saves the day by jumping in and talking about something that had happened at the farmer’s market. Mike talks about his last big tractor order that his company got and Jack talks about the incident that happened with the sheep the other week.
Then everything comes to a screeching halt when the weather report comes on the Tv, which had been playing on mute in the background as they waited for the Macy’s parade to be shown.
The weather man starts going over the weather and Kate and Tyler can’t help but let their eyes stray to the screen. The subtitles are on so they can follow along and when the weather man says it’s going to stop raining in the next hour, both of them laugh. It’s one of their favourite things to do, criticizing weather reports.
“No it’s not,” Kate mumbles and Tyler agrees with a nod of his head. “We still have a few more hours of this.”
“The wind is picking up too,” he adds with a hum. “We could check the doppler ourselves,” he muses out loud without thinking too much about it. “Not the right conditions,” he mumbles.
“No, it’s not going to give us anything,” Kate concurs in a low voice knowing exactly that he’s talking about the possibility of seeing a tornado.
“Enough about the fucking clouds,” Tyler’s father barks out.
“Emmett!” His mother chastises. “The children!”
“It’s the weather report, calm down Emmett,” Maggie says to her brother in law.
However, it’s too late for Tyler, who is immediately thrown back to the day his parents kicked him out. His father had yelled those exact same words at him that day.
“Jack and Mike can talk about their jobs, but I can’t even comment the weather report?” Tyler snap backs. He’s going to stand up for himself this time.
“You’re not a goddamn weather man Tyler. You’re just waisting your life driving around the country and acting like a fool on camera.”
Everyone stops talking, the living room is so silent that even the kids look up at their parents wondering what just happened. Tyler hates his father even more for doing this in front of children. This is going to be the moment they remember of him, he just knows it. He’s forever going to be known as the mystery uncle that got thrown out at Thanksgiving one year.
“Why would you even say something like that to your son?” Kate demands, her tone sharp with accusation. A white-hot anger churns in her stomach. How could anyone dare to speak to Tyler that way? “He went to school, got his masters in meteorology and dedicates his life to understanding one of the biggest issue for the south of our country. Do you even know what he does? We don’t even keep most of our revenue, we donate it to the victims. He’s seen more trauma and tragedy in the last years than most people will in their lifetime.”
Tyler sits frozen in place, feeling like he was back to that day and watching his life crumble apart. He hates the hold that his parents still have on him, it makes him feel like a cheap joke. He feels like his entire life doesn’t matter.
“You’re in my house young lady, don’t speak to me like that,” Emmett chastises Kate and Tyler snaps out of it the moment he hears his father speak to her that way. He’s not an angry person, it takes a lot to rile him up, but the easiest way to do so is to disrespect Kate.
“You better shut the hell up right now and apologize to my wife.” Tyler stands up abruptly, pointing an accusing finger towards his father. “Talk shit all you want about me, I know you don’t want me here, but you’ll sure as hell won’t disrespect Kate in front of me.” His words almost come out as a growl, not only surprising himself, but everyone else in the room.
“If you still can’t respect me, get the fuck out of my house Tyler,” his father yells, also standing up. Emmett is unsteady on his feet and everyone can tell he’s had too many beers already and they haven’t even gotten to dinner yet.
“Fine!” Tyler turns to his mother, rage making his body tense up. “Why did you even invite us if we weren’t welcome?”
Caroline looks at her son, lost for words at how quickly the situation turned. Kate wonders for a moment if his mother was going to defend her son, but to her utter disappointment, the older woman says nothing.
Kate has rarely seen Tyler get angry, he’s usually a pretty passive guy and lets things slide. She knows her husband and can tell it’s time for them to leave before things get even worst. She knows she won’t get an apology and to be honest she doesn’t really care to get one. Today was always going to be a test for Tyler’s family and it seemed they had decided to fail it.
“It was nice meeting you.” Her words are aimed at her brothers in law and their families. “But I think we’re going to head out.” She stands up and puts her hand on Tyler’s forearm, holding him back as much as she needs his support.
“This is on you,” Tyler says, his tone sharp and unwavering as he stares his father down.
“Get out of my house,” Emmett reaffirms with anger. “You’re still an ungrateful brat after all these years.”
“Says the man who lived off my money for almost a decade!” Tyler snaps back, letting out an accusation that had been on the tip of his tongue for years.
“Get the fuck out of my house!” His father yells this time.
With one last glance towards his silent brothers, Tyler turns around and guides Kate back to the front door. His aunt and his mother follow them out, but Tyler is too occupied by the task of getting Kate away from his father’s toxic behaviour.
“Tyler wait a minute,” his mother pleads.
“Wait for what? For him to insult Kate again?” Tyler retorts as he helps Kate into her coat. His mother says nothing. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
“We told Maggie we would try, but this isn’t right,” Kate speaks up. “You shouldn’t let anyone talk about Tyler like this, especially not his own father. I hope you defend your other sons better than this at least.”
Caroline looks lost for words, defeated by the whole situation and Kate would feel bad for her if she didn’t know how much she enabled her husbands behaviour.
“Are you two going to go back to my place?” Maggie asks, even though she can already tell Tyler has no intentions of staying in town a minute longer. “I set up the guest room…”
“No, we’re going to go look at some fucking clouds,” Tyler says, loud enough so his words can be heard in the living room. It’s petty, he knows it but he’s past the point of caring about his parents opinions. “I’m sorry auntie,” he says, this time his voice softer, he hadn’t meant to snap at her. Maggie wasn’t to blame for all of this, she was probably the only person in the entire family that still believed that they could reconcile.
“Me too Tyler,” Maggie replies, remorse lacing her voice. “I shouldn’t have forced you to come.”
“It was our decision,” Kate insists. “We’ll call you later,” she adds as Tyler ushers her out the door.
With those words, they rush back to the Ram, and Tyler gives barely a second thought to his family before shifting into reverse and pulling out of the parking spot.
They are both quiet as they drive down the path from the farm to the road and when Kate looks at her husband, she notes how tense his jaw is.
“It went better than you expected,” Kate says, keeping her eyes on him. “We didn’t get kicked out before we made it inside the house.” It’s easier to joke about it, she knows Tyler will prefer that to her trying to pretend what just happened was normal.
Tyler laughs at her joke and his gaze leaves the road to look at her. “How many times do you think I need to get kicked out before I understand?” His voice his light and Kate knows it’s how he’s going to deal with the situation.
“I think we’re done, the message was pretty clear.” Kate turns on the computer screen that’s in between the two front seats. “Now how about I find us some fucking clouds to look at,” she repeats his words from earlier with a teasing tone and it has the exact results she was looking for.
“Man I love clouds,” Tyler quips, already feeling better. He spares a couple of quick glances at the screen while Kate moves the map around. She notes that Tyler gets on the highway in the direction of Oklahoma, so she focuses her search in that direction too.
November sometimes offers a second wave of tornadoes in the region, this year is no different, but Kate doesn’t think they’ll get anything like that tonight. “There’s this cell that might still be active when we get there.” She points to the screen and Tyler gives it a quick look.
“Works for me,” Tyler informs her, settling in his seat now that he has a direction to drive towards.
***
The end up parking the truck in a field after grabbing some Chinese take out in a nearby town. Both of them know that there isn’t going to be a tornado, but the sky is still pretty to look at. The rain hitting the windshield creates a relaxing atmosphere as they enjoy their makeshift dinner.
“I’m sorry about ruining Thanksgiving,” Tyler says after stabbing his chopstick into the container of chow mein.
“Don’t you dare apologize for that,” Kate cuts him off. “None of that was your fault.” She strokes his forearm, soothing his anguish. “We talked about this being a possibility before we told Maggie we we coming.”
“Yeah but now your mom is spending Thanksgiving alone for nothing,” Tyler insists, looking at Kate and sighing.
“She’s not alone, her sisters came over remember?” She cups the side of his face and the angle is a bit awkward considering they are in the car, but he still leans into her touch. “Now we know, you don’t have torture yourself wondering if you are the problem. You never were, but now I can tell you that I have proof since that thick head of yours needs evidence.”
“You love my thick head,” Tyler replies and Kate knows he’s changing the subject to avoid talking about his feelings, but lets it slide for now.
“I do love you, never forget that,” she says firmly, leaning over the center console to kiss him. "And since it's Thanksgiving, I'm especially thankful for having such a wonderful husband," she adds with a warm smile. “One that’s thoughtful and always tries to see the best in people.”
“I’m thankful to have you too sweetheart, every single damn day.”
Tyler may often question the love he receives from his family, but Kate’s devotion has never been in doubt. Even their rare arguments are born out of mutual concern for each other’s safety most of the time. He could have nothing left to his name, but if he has her - then nothing else matters. He’s got the Wranglers, his aunt and the best mother in law he could ever hope for. He’s got the best job in the world and a wonderful home he’s built with his own hands.
This Thanksgiving might not be the most perfect one he’s experienced, but sitting beside Kate in his cherished truck, gazing at the sky, he feels a quiet satisfaction with his life.