She looked in the rearview mirror and met Susan’s, the child’s mother’s, eyes, and the mother helped her son buckle back into his seat.
“I promise,” Espy said. “As soon as I see one, I’ll make sure you all can see it.”
“Do you think it’s going to come from that same area?” Kaden’s dad Santiago asked.
“A lot of times you do see a twister come from that kind of cloud. Look at that. Do you see the rotation?”
She hit her hazard lights with one hand, then pointed, at the same time looking for a place on the road to pull over. Even as she scanned the area, she peered through the windshield up at the clouds. Once she put the van in park, she removed a hand from the steering wheel and circled it sideways. “Do you see it? Not sure it will come down, but that storm definitely has a tornado in it.”
She opened the driver’s side door and slid out.
No one followed. She turned back to look at Javi to see his jaw dropped, not looking at the tornado, but looking at her.
She waved her hand in a come-on motion. “Come look at it.”
He hesitated, and she closed the van door to circle the back of the vehicle. By the time she did, the Mainka family had exited, apparently trusting that she knew what she was doing, and Javi followed a little more slowly, standing beside her as she reached into the van for her camera case.
“You don’t think we’re too close?”
“No, and if it drops down, we are in a good position to get away from it. Remember, I always have an escape route.” She turned to the family as she strapped her camera around her neck. “But if I say go, it’s go, no questions, okay?”
She was satisfied with the nods, though no one looked at her. Their focus was on the storm in front of them. Espy raised her camera to her eye, her heart thundering in anticipation though she had done this dozens of times. She still got a buzz from watching a funnel cloud descend. Nature was fascinating and powerful, and she was lucky to get to see that time and again.
She heard her sister, whose van had pulled off behind them, describing what they were seeing to the tourists, much as Espy had done, but Espy focused on her photographs, watched the funnel descend, just a bit, then return to the cloud. The group of tourists groaned, and Espy drew in a breath. Angelica would make the call whether they would wait it out and see if it produced a tornado, or go chase another.
The rain, which had been splattering them intermittently, began to come down in earnest, and she didn’t have to direct anyone back to the van. Everyone scattered. Javi let her vault in over the passenger seat before he followed.
She wiped the hair from her eyes and grinned over at him. “Having fun?”
He took her hand and pressed it to his chest, where the rain had plastered his shirt to his skin, cool, beneath her palm. But beneath that, she felt his heart hammering in his chest. She grinned up at him and he leaned over to cup her chin in his hand and place a kiss on her mouth.
She couldn’t stop the smile that spread ear to ear as she put her signal on and shifted into drive. “Let’s go find another one.”
* * *
They didn’t findanother one that day, and they checked into a motel that night in Kansas, not much better than Sofia’s place, though Javi remembered Esperanza say they liked to stay in name-brand hotels. But this town, while not as small as Broken Wheel, didn’t have one. After he checked into his room, he headed out to the courtyard, this one with an actual pool that was not paved over. The Mainka family was already there, the kids splashing around in the water. Javi looked around for Esperanza, wondering which room was hers. They’d agreed to meet for dinner. He wondered if this town—he didn’t even know the name—had much of a selection of restaurants. He thought he’d seen a chain burger place when they drove in, but that might have been one of the other towns they’d driven through today. They had done a lot of driving. Seriously. He thought he drove a lot every day.
Angelica said they’d head a bit farther south tomorrow and have a good chance of encountering a tornado. He was satisfied with what they’d seen today, but he knew the others on the tour were anxious to see more.
One of the three girls who was riding with Angelica came out of one of the motel doors facing the pool, and she brightened when she saw Javi. She bounded over to him, with a lot more energy than he thought anyone could have after the long day of driving.
“Hey, you going to get something to eat?”
“I am, but I’m waiting for Esperanza.”
“Who’s that?” Her brow furrowed.
He knew she knew who Esperanza was. “The sister driving my van. She’s my girl.” Even as he said the words, he blushed. He didn’t think he’d ever said those words before, about anyone.
“I am?” a voice asked behind him, and he could hear Esperanza’s smile in her tone.
Just that tiny familiarity lifted his heart in his chest.
He turned to her, part of him feeling rude about ignoring the young woman, but most of him happy to see Esperanza in front of him, smiling up at him.
He linked his fingers through hers. “You are. Even if I think you’re crazy for loving what you do so much.”
She swung their joined hands back and forth between them. “Ha! You just wait. I’ll find you a good storm tomorrow. You’ll understand the excitement of the hunt.”
