“I’ve been on a hunt already,” he reminded her.
Her expression sobered, and she nodded. “I know it sounds terrible, being excited to see something that can be so devastating, but the power of nature is just so beautiful.”
“Beautiful,” he echoed, and lifted her hand to his lips so he could kiss her knuckles. “Yes, it is.”
Her blush amused him, and she took a step back, though she didn’t release his hand. “Let’s go get something to eat. We have an early start in the morning.”
She hadn’t been lyingabout an early start. Javi was jolted awake by someone pounding at his door at a little after six thirty, though he had his alarm set for seven. He rolled out of bed, pulling his t-shirt over his head as he approached the door.
He opened it to Esperanza, whose eyebrows raised as her gaze traveled from his boxers to his bare belly as he tugged the shirt into place, up his chest, past his eyes to his no-doubt messy hair. A smile curled her lips, Grinch-like, and she met his gaze.
“Good morning,” she said, her voice in no way mimicking the urgency with which she’d pounded on his door.
He looked past her into the courtyard to see it was lit only by the lights by each door. “What’s going on?”
“We want to get on the road. We have a lot of driving, and looks like the storms might come in earlier than we thought, so we’re waking everyone, going to breakfast, and loading up.” She glanced past him into the room, then back at his chest before making eye contact again. “How long do you take to get ready?”
He noticed her damp curls still dripped onto the shoulders of her t-shirt, and one of her eyes had more eyeliner than the other. He smiled, completely charmed.
“Not long.”
“Meet me in the courtyard in fifteen?” She motioned with her thumb over her shoulder.
“Twenty,” he said, and when she nodded, he stepped back to close the door.
* * *
“There!Look at the rotations in that wall cloud!” Esperanza exclaimed, leaning over the steering wheel to point up through the windshield about three hours later as they crossed into Tennessee.
Rotations? Javi’s heart leapt in his chest. The whole sky was circling overhead. “Do we need to get out of here?” he asked, the words barely making it past the tightness of his throat, his lips paralyzed.
She glanced over at him and smiled. “We’re okay, it’s moving away from us. Let me find a place to park.”
He thought she might choose the gravel driveway ahead, or a turnout even farther ahead, but she waited until she saw an intersection and then pulled over.
“Make sure we have a way out in case it switches directions,” she said. She turned to say over her shoulder, “We still have a pretty good view.”
How could they not? The storm was right over their heads! Javi’s pulse was pounding so hard in his ears, he didn’t hear Esperanza tell them to get out of the van until she reached over and touched his hand, then lifted her chin to indicate what she wanted him to do.
He nodded that he understood but he couldn’t make his body act, like he had a disconnect between body and brain, and neither fully believed he had decided to do this. Still, he opened the door and slid out to the ground, realizing belatedly that he should have been looking where he put his feet, but unable to take his gaze from the swirling clouds overhead.
The wind whipped toward the storm, the grasslands nearly flat under the wind. Esperanza stepped up beside him with her camera, her calm presence reassuring. Her curls danced around her face, and she tried to hold them back with one hand while pointing her camera with the other. He reached into the van for a cap and set it securely on her head. She cast him a distracted smile and took a few more pictures, then lowered the camera to watch the storm.
Now he couldn’t take his eyes off of her. She was nearly glowing with excitement, even as the skies darkened and the wind howled.
She grinned up at him, and linked her fingers through his. “Watch it, not me.”
“I’d much prefer to watch you.”
She squeezed his hand, but then he turned to look at the clouds, at the funnel descending on what looked like the other side of the field from where they stood. He had to admit, seeing such a powerful storm form before his eyes, descending like a finger from heaven, stirring up dirt beneath, awoke something primal in him. His entire body felt electrified. The funnel was thick, and the roar of the wind was just as described, a freight train and a fighter jet combined. Every one of his instincts screamed at him to run, but Esperanza was standing firm, so he would too, his fingers entwined with hers. She didn’t release him to take more photos, only leaned into him. He lifted their linked hands to his chest, pressing the back of her hand to it so she could feel his thundering pulse. She took his other hand and brought it to her own chest, so he could feel hers, then she laughed up at him and turned her attention back to the storm.
When the tornado played itself out, she turned to him, gripping both his arms beneath the sleeves of his shirts. Her eyes were bright as she met his gaze.
“So?”
“Still not a fan of storms.”
“But it was cool to see? The force of nature and all that?”
“It was…pretty amazing to see,” he admitted, and lowered his mouth to hers for a gentle kiss before he lifted his head to look into her eyes. “But you’re my favorite force of nature, Esperanza. Now and forever.”
