His name rang out in the big metal building, and he pivoted to see Esperanza. She hesitated, just for a moment, uncertainty crossing her face for just a second before she hurtled herself forward and into his arms.
His duffel slid to the floor and he wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her hair briefly, holding on until she loosened her arms and pressed her hands against his shoulders to make him straighten so she could look at him.
He drank her in. Though she’d only been gone a few weeks, he felt like he hadn’t seen her in too long, and he inspected her from her crazy curls, her uptilted eyes, her cupid bow mouth, her loose Twister Sisters white t-shirt and her, yes, her cut-off shorts with the pockets sticking out the bottoms.
“What are you doing here?” She held onto his biceps, and darted her gaze over his face.
“I came to go on your tour.”
Her eyebrows slammed together. “Why would you do that?”
“I decided I wasn’t very, ah, encouraging when we had our conversation about you moving to Broken Wheel.” He looked over at her sister, who was listening avidly, and he stepped back, drawing Esperanza away, bending his head to her so he could lower his voice. “I thought this might be a way to convince you that if you can take a risk like that, I can take a risk like this.”
She squeezed his arms with both her small hands. “You don’t have to do that. I know how you feel about storms.”
Not as much as she thought she knew. “It’s not just storms,” he said. “I’ve avoided risk as much as I could for most of my life. I’m here to show you I’m ready to take a risk. Ready to take a risk with you.” He lifted his hand to stroke her smooth cheek, willing her to understand how vulnerable he felt right now.
“Aww,” Angelica said, and Esperanza shot her a look of pure fire.
Esperanza turned back to him and took his face in her hands. “You don’t have to do this.” She gestured her head toward the vans. “You can get a motel room and hang out and wait for us. I’m not going to make you do something that makes you miserable.”
“No.” His voice carried now, echoing off the walls. “I’m going. If you can uproot your life to come live in my hometown, I can see what it is about this insanity that keeps you facing this week after week.”
She slid her hand down to squeeze his. “You’ll ride with me, and I’ll show you what makes me good at my job.”
“Oh. Good.” He tried to infuse excitement into his voice, but when he looked at Angelica, she just raised her eyebrows.
Because he was early, the two women put him to work loading the vans with the snacks and cases of water. Angelica showed him some of the equipment she used to track storms, her Wi-Fi signal booster for when they were in the middle of nowhere, and a heavy-duty laptop, and really not much else.
“I’ve seen those shows, you know, where they have all this equipment like a radar and stuff like that,” he said.
“Yes, well, technology has come a way since then, and we’re just as accurate with our computer tracking, as long as we have a signal.”
The other tourists arrived in groups close together, a group of three young women who Javi never would have pegged for storm chasers—but neither would he have thought that of Esperanza—and a family of four, two of the kids pretty young, late elementary maybe. He wondered why they weren’t in school this time of year, and figured the parents must deem the trip pretty safe if they’d bring their kids along.
Angelica corralled the three young women into her van with her and her driver Jeff, since the girls giggled every time they were within three feet of Javi, and she let Esperanza and Javi host the Mainka family. Javi found himself with more in common with the son, Kaden, who was nine, than with the parents, who were a bit too excited for Javi’s taste.
But he liked the kid, and they talked about cars, superhero movies and Netflix series as Esperanza led the expedition out onto the highway.
Javi’s apprehension built as they headed toward the dark clouds. Would he ever get over the trauma of the storm that had happened nearly half his life ago? He had to push the unease from his mind so he could absorb some of the excitement from the passengers in the van.
“We’re going to take a left at the next farm road,” Angelica’s voice said over the two-way radio. “We might be getting some hail, so be prepared, but there’s a definite hook on this storm. You all are lucky. We might get to see a tornado our very first day out.”
“Lucky,” Javi repeated under his breath, and Esperanza reached over and patted his hand, resting on his thigh.
“This is an adventure. You’ll see,” she said, flashing him a grin, and turned left.
CHAPTER18
Espy could have been knocked over by a mild tropical breeze when she’d walked into Twister Sisters and saw Javi standing next to the van talking to Angelica, who had been oblivious to who he was. Espy still wasn’t sure why he’d come, something about taking a risk or whatever, but he didn’t have anything to prove to her.
But maybe he had something to prove to himself.
She could sense his tension as they drove toward the storm, different from the tension of her passengers in back. She wanted him to trust her but knew it would do no good to tell him that. She had to show him.
“Is that a funnel?” Kaden, who had been discussing the nerdiest stuff with Javi, asked, leaning forward to point. Javi seemed to be embarrassed by the conversation, but in Espy’s eyes, he was that much more appealing.
“No, that’s a scud cloud,” she replied. “Buckle in now, because we could be making some quick turns.”
