Ginny shrugged that she didn’t care, and Javi walked into the kitchen, grabbing an apron and a cap hanging by the swinging door.
Between Ginny, Espy, Javi and one of the other waitresses who lived in town, Sandra, they were able to get people through and out to the shelter pretty quickly. Even after business slowed, Ginny didn’t close in case someone else wanted to come by, so she motioned for Espy to take a seat at the counter and called for Javi to whip them up some dinner while she served tea.
“So you and Javi not only saw the tornado? You were going toward it?” Ginny asked as she slid a glass in front of Espy, sending a glance in Javi’s direction.
“Ah. Yes.” Espy tapped her straw out of its wrapper. “That’s what I do, chase tornados.” Javi had told her as much.
Ginny’s lips twisted sardonically. “But Javi doesn’t. Javi doesn’t do storms at all.”
“I mean.” Espy looked through the pass-through window at him, feeling guilty for talking about him when he was right there. “He did.”
Ginny shook her head. “Ever since the flood that washed the bus off the road when we were in high school, he has done his best to avoid storms.”
Espy frowned. He’d had trepidations, surely, but he hadn’t seemed phobic. “He can’t always do that, though, with his job?”
“I don’t know how he manages that, to be honest, but he almost died in that bus. So he avoids storms and bodies of water as much as he possibly can.”
“He almost died?” Espy riveted her gaze to him, watching him work efficiently on the grill. He must have sensed her watching him because he looked up and grinned, then went back to work. She could see where something like that could scar him, but he hadn’t seemed any more nervous than some of the tourists she’d traveled with.
Ginny leaned her elbows on the counter. “I wasn’t there, but I heard he had trouble getting out of the bus, and when he did get out, he went into the water and almost drowned. Beck Conover saved his life, I think fished him out. Either Beck or his brother. It was traumatic as hell, which is why I am just shocked that he went after the tornado with you.”
Espy rubbed at the goosebumps that rose on her arms as she listened to Ginny’s story. “He volunteered.”
Ginny straightened and looked at Espy a long moment. “Did y’all know each other before? I mean, before you came to town?”
“We met yesterday when he came up to the van on the side of the road.” Now that she thought about it, she should check to make sure Tommy’s place hadn’t suffered any damage, that her van hadn’t. But she would deal with that later. “He knew we needed a second vehicle for the tour and he volunteered to help us.” Maybe he hadn’t expected to encounter the tornado, or maybe he hadn’t thought they’d get as close as they did. What other reason could a man who hated storms have for driving into one?
“Interesting,” Ginny mused as Javi came through the swinging door shoulder first, balancing two plates.
“What’s interesting?” Javi asked.
Espy expected Ginny to lie, not to say, “Oh, that you volunteered to drive a group of people into a storm.”
“Why is that interesting?” Javi asked, his tone nonchalant, but he didn’t make eye contact with either woman.
“Because you hate storms.”
“Lots of people don’t like storms,” he said, setting the three plates of grilled chicken and sautéed green beans and tomatoes on the counter.
“And those people don’t drive into them,” Ginny said.
“Maybe I’m trying to get over that,” Javi said, pouring himself a glass of iced tea and draining it in just a few swallows.
Espy tore her gaze away from watching the muscles in his throat work to see Ginny watching her, a knowing glint lighting her eyes.
“Uh-huh.” Ginny dragged the word out as she dragged her gaze from Espy back to Javi. “What’s your motivation to get over that?”
He set his plastic cup on the counter with a thunk. “The fact that I’m in my thirties now, and the likelihood of something like that ever happening again is miniscule.”
“Couldn’t be because a cute girl is involved?”
Espy looked down at her plate the minute she saw Javi’s face redden. “This looks amazing, Javi. Thank you.” She was too hungry to be self-conscious as he rounded the counter to sit beside her and dug into his own dinner.
Dinner was delicious and flavorful but she was too hungry to linger on the flavor, and polished off her meal in a matter of minutes.
He grinned over at her plate. “Good?”
“Delicious.” She was still hungry, but she wouldn’t tell him so. She had snacks back in the room. “Do you think y’all need any more help?” She slid off the stool, picking up her plate to go wash it as she did so. “If not, I think I’m going to go crash.” Tomorrow would be another long day, whether she stayed in town or headed back to Oklahoma.
