Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When he catches her in the terminal, he’s slightly out of breath. Her eyes widen, then soften, a smile at the corner of her mouth.

“For the record,” Tyler huffs. “I’m chasing it.”

Her smile widens, but she shakes her head.

“Not yet,” she says, and his confusion must show, because she cups the side of his face and smiles softly. Her thumb scratches against the stubble on his cheek. “I need… I need some time.”

He watches her eyes, asking but not asking, and he nods once, twice. He wants to go with her, he wants to tell her she can have as much time as she needs, he wants, he wants—

“I’ll be here,” he says instead.

In the next two months, he tries so hard not to think about her. It’s peak season, so he’s busy keeping the team in line and out of trouble (and mostly out of danger). Kate texts him occasionally, one off things that he doesn’t know how to respond to.

SPC is calling an area in NW OK today. Should be good. Be careful.

A screenshot of the doppler hook of a nasty cell in Georgia, no comment, just an exclamation point.

A photo of the Manhattan skyline darkened by storm clouds.

A comment on the YouTube channel, side-eye emojis on a video of him explaining the importance of moisture in mesocyclone development. He tries not to think about what it means.

He’s climbing out of the truck at a gas station near Chickasha, his Tornado Wrangler smile dazzling and ready, when he sees her behind the crowd, leaning against a beat-up pickup. He stops mid sentence and without thinking he excuses himself from the crowd, ignoring the confused voices, ignoring Boone. He pushes his way through, smiling but eyes only for her. She’s wearing high waisted jeans and a cutoff T-shirt, the skin of her shoulders dusted with freckles. Her hair is longer, maybe a little darker, blown in the wind so that she has to tuck it behind her ear.

“Hey there, City Girl. How’d you find me?” he asks, once he’s close enough. He can feel the excitement thrumming through him, and the urge to reach out and touch her to make sure she’s real is overwhelming.

“Pretty easily,” she replies, holding up her phone, the screen open to their YouTube channel. They had just that morning recorded and posted the day’s plan, including the meet and greet in Chickasha. He grins at her, and Kate grins back, then cocks her head and squints into the sun to look up at him. “You never called. Or texted.”

“I’m not in the habit of chasin’ things I can’t catch,” he says, and he feels like it’s only a half truth, because had he been given the chance back at the airport he sure as hell would have chased and chased and chased.

She says nothing for a moment, seems to be considering something, then, “I put in for a transfer. Storm prediction center in Norman.”

His eyebrows rise. “That so.”

“Mmhmm,” she hums, her eyes searching his face. “Can I buy you dinner?”

Christ, he thinks. She may be the end of him. He grins widely and tips his hat. “Yes ma’am.”

When he and the wranglers wrap up their day out west and are headed back toward Oklahoma City, Boone finally cracks.

“So. City girl.”

“No,” Tyler responds right away.

“She back, or just here for more chasin’, or—?”

“I swear, Boonie, shut it.”

He keeps quiet for all of thirty seconds. “I’m just saying, she’s got that freaky weather sight. Would be ace to have her on the team.”

“She’s starting a job at SPC in Norman.”

“Oooohoooo, so she is back!”

“God dammit Boonie.” But Tyler is smiling, and so is Boone, but he jabs him in the shoulder all the same for good measure.

She picks him up at their motel, much to the delight of the entire wrangler crew. Tyler is pretty sure it takes everything in them not to catcall as he clambers into Kate’s pickup. She takes him to a BBQ spot she knows, out in the middle of nowhere with colorful Christmas lights strung up around the outside. She insists on paying for the food, but lets him get beer for them both, and her hair glistens with the red and blue lights from outside the window as they sit in a booth and dig into ribs.

“So,” he says, wiping the corner of his mouth with his napkin and taking a swig of beer. “Whatcha been up to.” He tries for a casual tone but he’s not sure it succeeds with the way she smiles at him.

“Went to physical therapy,” Kate says. “Went to therapy therapy.”

Tyler remembers the haunted look in her eyes after the first tornado Javi drove her to, thinking it was odd she seemed so shaken by a wimpy F1. He remembers her panicked breathing that took too long to subside after the rodeo twister, the way she clutched his shirt desperately, her eyes incredulous to find him still there. He knows she was down playing how much it was affecting her to be back, and he doesn’t blame her for it, for feeling like every twister was out to get the people she cared the most about. For feeling like if she lost one more person, she might fully lose herself.

“You wanna talk about it?” he asks gently.

“Not yet,” she replies, and he’s temporarily floored by the realization that the unsaid part of her sentence was but someday, yes.

“Your ma must be happy to have you back.”

“Hah, yeah, too happy maybe. She actually fully cleared out my old room. Was heartbroken to hear that I got a place in Norman instead.”

“SPC huh. Bet they’re pretty excited to have the O.G. tornado wrangler.”

Kate smiles, runs her finger around the rim of her glass. “I’m glad to be back here, helping folks prepare better. Part of my job will be working with communications. If you and I can be caught by surprise at a rodeo—” she just raises her hands to finish the sentence. “Anyway. Seemed like a good opportunity. And they said I could do school at the same time.”

He feels his grin widen, unable to contain it. “Hey, that’s great! Finish that Ph.D. and we can call you Dr. Dandelion.”

“Absolutely not,” she says, pointing a finger at him and laughing. “But I think, I think I’m ready. For school, I mean. Again. And being here, being back.”

Tyler doesn’t say anything as he leans back against the booth, throwing one arm across the seat back. He studies Kate across from him, can see that the wall she kept herself behind the first time he met her has mostly been disassembled. She holds herself more loosely. Still quiet and reserved, still clever and observant, but unguarded in a way he hadn’t seen in her often. Once, maybe, he caught a glimpse as they watched a twister form in a field before they tried to tame it. Or when she weakly twirled her fingers, bleeding from her head and concussed, after saving hundreds of lives, including his own. Now she’s looking directly at him, dark brown eyes hard to read, freckles sprinkled on her cheeks.

“You’ve been out in the sun,” he says out of nowhere, and could slap himself for how stupid it sounds. But to his delight, she blushes.

“Helping with the cows, mostly.”

He frowns. “How long have you been back?”

“A week.”

Tyler tries so hard not to take that personally, and he knows he must fail, because her face scrunches into a look of shame. “Don’t hate me, I needed to sleep for days after moving, and I wasn’t sure — well I wasn’t sure if you wanted to see me, so I…chickened out.”

“Kate,” he says, his voice serious. She cuts him off.

“I thought, I dunno, you didn’t reply to my texts, I thought maybe… I would understand, you know, I left for two months, I—”

“I told ya I’d be here.” He can’t say what he means—I was waiting for you to come back to me, Kate—because he’s pretty sure that it’s both lame and a little creepy.

Her face is serious, eyes scanning across him, and he doesn’t miss the way they glance to his open collar, his mouth when he licks his lips. “And here you are.”

“Here I am,” he agrees, spreading both arms. He folds them in and leans on the table towards her. “So you need help painting your new place or anything? Some landscaping?”

“Landscaping?”

“Yeah y’know, shrubs and things.”

“What,” she starts, then laughs. “What do you know about landscaping?”

“I used to help my aunt with her garden!” he protests. “Seriously, got a green thumb.”

“Ok,” Kate concedes, still laughing. “Ok, but no, it’s a shitty apartment, just has a small porch. And I can’t paint, I’m renting. But I do have an idea.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Something I’ve been wanting to do since the first time I came back.”

He stares at her for a second, then laughs. “This feels like it’s gonna be a big reveal of a crazy idea, but I literally saw you drive into an F5 tornado, so.”

“For the record, that is not something I make a habit of.”

“You sure?”

She glares at him, drains her beer, and puts the glass back on the table with some force. “No, listen. Let’s go dancin’”

Jesus, he thinks, I might be in love.

Kate has the radio low in the pickup as they drive ten miles further outside of town to a run down bar with the parking lot full. The neon sign rising over the bar has the name of tonight’s band—no one he recognizes—and when the door swings open he can hear the twang of the music from where they’ve parked.

“You ready?” Kate asks, unbuckling her seat belt, then flipping the visor down to pull her hair up into a ponytail. He wants to press his lips to her neck, just there under her ear. “Tyler?” she asks again, her eyes sliding sideways to find his. He flips her an easy smile.

“Sweetheart, I was doing this since I could walk. I’m ready,” he replies. She sees her blush, maybe at him using a pet name, and he files that away for later.

In the bar the music has pulled couples onto the cleared open space in the middle, folks doing a mix of old school two step and newer moves from the younger crowd.

“You want a drink first?” he asks, and he has to lean close to her ear to say it so she can hear over the din, his lips not quite accidentally brushing her ear lobe. Kate bites her lip, looking up at him, and shakes her head, grabbing his hand instead and pulling him into the dancing crowd. He pulls her close as the song slows and they sway, not doing any formal steps, just learning the movement of each other. The bar is loud, between the music and people’s chatter, but Tyler feels like they're in their own quiet bubble, Kate’s thumb grazing the hair at his neck. He’s worried she can hear how loudly his heart is beating.

“So what have you been up to, in these last two months,” she asks.

“Well I saw this incredible woman that I was really gettin’ to like drive herself on a suicide mission into a tornado from hell,” he replies conversationally. “That fucked me up pretty good.”

She winces. “Tyler, I—”

“I know why you did it,” he interrupts. “I get it. What I don’t get,” he pauses to twirl her out and then back in, bringing her closer against his chest, “is why you thought you had to do it alone.”

Kate’s eyes shift away. “My therapist says it was a bit of survivor's guilt mixed with really bad decision making. I once placed three people in harm’s way, and none of them survived, and there was no way I could do that again.”

“You could have died,” he says, and he hopes she doesn’t notice how his voice catches just slightly. The fear of that day has mostly subsided, but every once in a while comes back, often in nightmares where he watches his red truck get thrown into the air, where he finds her broken body in the field.

“You could have died, Tyler. I couldn’t live with myself if that happened.”

“How do you think I felt, watching you disappear into that cloud?”

“I’m sorry,” Kate whispers. “I really am. I know what I did was insane and stupid and I don’t think I’d do it again—”

“Liar,” Tyler says, his lips quirking in a small smile despite himself. He tucks a strand of loose hair behind her ear. “Just don’t leave me behind next time, alright? Can we be in this together?”

Kate’s expression changes to a little mischievous. “I think I might need some practice.”

Tyler blinks at her, mouth open, trying to figure out how to reply to that while not losing all credibility as a gentleman. He’s saved from replying by the song changing, ramping up to a faster tune, and the crowd swells as more people join the floor. Kate gets knocked into by someone, sending her stumbling, but Tyler catches her by the elbow. The person apologizes to Kate, but when he sees Tyler his face lights up as he does the tornado finger twirl. Kate and Tyler are swept up into a line dance, and each time he looks over to her she’s laughing, her face bright with sweat and with an excitement and energy he hasn’t seen before. Folks randomly give them both hugs if they recognize them from the El Reno news coverage, or ask Tyler for an autograph, but he’s too busy messing up dance steps on purpose to get Kate to laugh to care that his Tornado Wrangler persona isn’t in place.

It’s an hour later when they finally drag themselves from the dance floor, leaning against the bar. Tyler signals for two glasses of water and Kate downs hers, wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. She catches his gaze on her lips, her eyes darting to his.

“Kate—”

“Wanna get out of here?” she says instead.

Tyler searches her face, trying to find a glimpse of the reserve, of the not yet from two months ago, but only finds dark eyes trained on his, a confidence in her gaze that momentarily makes him nervous, of all things, but he recovers and gives her a dazzling smile and nods.

Outside the quiet is deafening, his eardrums thick with the noise from inside the bar. Kate hums a tune under her breath, her neck craned up at the sky.

“One last stop?” she asks.

“Where we goin’?” He thinks it doesn’t really matter.

She grabs his hand and drags him to the car. “Tell ya later.”

Later finds them laying in the back of her pickup on an old dusty blanket that was in the cab, staring at the sky. Out here it’s dark dark, with no light pollution to hide the dazzle of the night sky. The wind is soft, and there’s not a cloud around—something Tyler doesn’t usually hope for, but now he finds himself grateful.

“That’s Orion,” he says, pointing at the three dots that make up the belt. “Cassiopeia is over there, the ‘W.’”

“I know the constellations, Tyler,” she says, but her voice has a laugh in it.

“Dunno, thought you might have forgotten what the sky looks like. New York is awfully bright.”

“And loud,” she says. “Used to help me fall asleep, block out my own head. Now it’s just loud.”

“So you’re here for good?” She had implied it, but Tyler needs to know. Needs to hear her say it.

“Yeah,” she says. He turns his head to look at her, but she’s staring at the sky. He can only just make out the curve of her cheek and chin in the darkness. She sighs. “This feels like home.”

“The sky’s a lot bigger here. And the tea is sweeter.”

He’s still looking at her when she turns her head to meet his gaze. He should feel embarrassed he was caught staring, but Tyler finds he doesn’t care.

“No, I meant right here. With you.”

He doesn’t even think when he leans over, places one hand on the side of her face, and kisses her. She makes a soft noise in the back of her throat and he melts into the feel of her. When he pulls back to gauge her face, she’s all dark eyes and swollen lips and Tyler brings his mouth back to hers, uses his tongue to coax her lips open. He moans at the feel of her tongue, pulling himself over her to cage her in with his elbows, his hips pressed against hers, her knees coming up to bracket him. Her hands run along his jaw, into his hair, where she tugs just this side of hard and he thinks he might come right then and there.

“Is this alright?” he whispers, looking down at her, brushing hair away from her face.

“Yeah,” she whispers back, pulling him back down to her and kisses him deeply, her tongue sliding against his. The feel of her beneath him, her hands in his hair, down his arms, has him feeling crazy. He’s already painfully hard against his jeans, and she must feel it because she moves her hips seeking the friction, then gasps when he presses more firmly against her. He spreads his hand across her stomach where her cutoff tee has ridden up, his thumb ghosting along the bottom edge of her bra, and she keens and arches into him.

He wants more than anything to see where this goes, but he slows their kisses, nuzzling at the place between her neck and jaw. “I don’t wanna do this here,” he whispers and feels her smile.

“I had no objections, just want you to know,” she says back. He lifts up and looks down at her, her hair a halo around her head.

“Don’t tempt me sweetheart,” he says, placing a soft kiss to her lips.

“My first day of work is tomorrow.”

He rears back. “Are you serious?” He pushes away from her, sitting up, and she props herself up on her elbows, laughing. He runs a hand down his face, then up through his hair. “We should definitely go. You need to rest!”

“I’m fine,” she protests, still laughing.

He’s already sliding off the bed of the truck, dragging her with him by the ankle. He lifts her off the bed with his hands around her waist and sets her down, then flips the tailgate up and shut.

“Get in, let’s go,” he says, all business, pointing at the driver’s side.

“Tyler, seriously,” she says, hands on her hips. “It’s still early!”

“Kate,” he says equally seriously. “My hand to God, if you don’t get in that truck right now—” he steps closer, his hands cupping her jaw, a thumb tracing across her lip. “The things I want to do to you… there’s not much sleeping involved. So get in the damn truck.”

Chapter Text

He’s sitting on the top of his truck, staring out into the distant sky, definitely not thinking about last night, when his phone buzzes.

Pick me up at work? 5ish.

“Boone,” Tyler says, looking back out at the horizon. “We settin’ up for chasin’ today or nah?”

“Doesn’t look good Boss,” Boone replies. Tyler’s not surprised—it’s almost July, the air is just permanently an oven, and tornado season is all but over. The crew will spend most of the fall off doing their own things, then they’ll regroup in the winter to visit classrooms across Oklahoma and Arkansas to teach kids about tornadoes, and how to stay safe from them. Springtime will be here before they know it.

“All right. We need anythin’ for the feed?”

“Oh, yeah, I had a great idea, actually,” Boone says, popping up on the side of the hood. He’s got a smirk on his face that immediately sets Tyler on edge. “What if we get someone from NWS on there? Know anyone?”

“No,” Tyler says sternly, pointing his finger at Boone. “Don’t start.”

“C’mon man, she’s smart and a badass!”

“Who?” Dani has emerged from the camper, toweling off their damp hair.

“Kate.”

“Ohhh yeah. Yes. Definitely,” Lily chimes in from her position in front of the truck where she’s bent over a tablet showing drone diagnostics. “She drove into a tornado. I mean, who does that.”

“Lily, I literally do that all the time,” Tyler defends.

“Yeah but you’re annoying about it.”

“OK that’s it,” Tyler says, hopping down from the roof by grabbing a side rig and swinging down. “Shut it, all of you. Moratorium on Kate talk. Take the day off today, the sky is dry and we’ve been workin’ hard. Boone, can you ride with the others?”

“Why, where are you going?”

Shit. Tyler hides his face momentarily in the cab, pretending to search for something. He sees Dex hop out of the RV, taking his headphones out, a tablet in hand. Tyler turns back to Boone, “I gotta go pick someone up”

“You finally taking Kate on a date?” Dex asks, oblivious to the previous conversation, and everyone else erupts in laughter. Tyler flips them all off, fighting back a smile despite himself.

After a shower at the motel they’re holed up in for the week and some fresh clothes, Tyler follows his phone’s GPS to the Norman address Kate texted him. Despite his weather inclinations, he’s never been. He pulls up alongside a new-looking building, brick and glass sticking out against the backdrop of sweeping plains. A large sign that says “National Weather Center” welcomes him into the circle drive, flags snapping in the breeze above. Kate’s waiting for him in the shade of the building, and as soon as she sees his truck she pushes off the wall she’s leaning on, drops her sunglasses down onto her eyes, and smiles as she approaches the truck.

“Hey,” Kate says, hopping up into the cab. She’s dressed professionally, at least more professionally than he’s ever seen, in loose khaki shorts that float to nearly her knees, a white blouse, and a blazer. Her hair is pulled back into a neat, small knot at the base of her head.

“Hi,” he says. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about last night, he thinks, but instead asks, “How was work?”

Kate pulls at the clip holding her hair back and lets her hair cascade around her shoulders. “Good! I think. I have an actual office, which is somethin’. It’s shared, but still. Today was mostly a lot of onboarding stuff, though.” She seems nervous, is talking fast and kind of rambling, avoiding his eyes. Then she’s flipping the visor down, looking in the mirror, flipping it back up, locking and unlocking the door.

“Kate,” he says, softly.

“But, I think my coworkers are alright, and the OU meteorology department shares the building, so that’s nice, for when I want to start school again, which I guess will be soon, but I still need to apply so—”

Tyler laughs, stills her hand that started fumbling with the radio dial, and uses his other hand to touch the back of her neck. She freezes and gazes at him, wide-eyed, and he pulls her toward him to kiss her. She melts into him instantly, her lips soft and warm against his. He feels her deep exhale from her nose against his cheek.

“Been waiting to do that all day,” he says gruffly, and her smile is wide, her nerves calmed. He wonders at that. How can a woman who drove into a twister be nervous about him of all things. “How should we celebrate your first day?”

“Wanna have dinner at my mom’s?” Kate asks. “I know it’s kinda far, so it’s cool if not—”

“A chance to hear more stories about you? Absolutely. Sapulpa it is!” Tyler says, grinning and throwing the truck into drive. She laughs beside him and tells him more about her new job—in a less rambling way—as they circle around Oklahoma City and out toward Tulsa. When Tyler pulls off the interstate, Kate rolls her window down and leans her arm on the frame, letting the wind whip her hair around.

Cathy has the table under a big tree all set for dinner, but Tyler insists on helping her bring glasses and sweet tea out so that she and Kate can talk some about her first day. When he’s setting the glasses down, Kate’s telling her mom about a coworker who reminds her of someone whose name he doesn’t catch, but he does see the way Kate says it with a wistful smile and how Cathy puts a comforting hand over her hands.

After dinner, when Cathy ducks inside to get a peach cobbler, Kate smiles at him and he wants to lean down and kiss her, but settles for placing his arm around the back of her chair, his fingertips grazing her arm. He likes the way Kate melts into it, relaxing in her seat. If Cathy notices, she doesn’t say anything, but Tyler thinks he catches her sending pointed looks to Kate. Tyler and Kate wash dishes while Cathy takes care of the evening animal chores, and as they hand off dishes between Tyler’s washing and Kate’s drying towel, he thinks he could get used to this, he thinks he wants to get used to this.

After the dishes are dried and put away, he follows Kate out to the barn and sees that she’s already gotten to work organizing some of the space in the week she’s been back. It’s cleaner than before and there’s a space cleared out on her old desk, the notebooks from her graduate work stacked neatly on the side.

“I like what you’ve done with the place,” he jokes, turning away from the desk, but Kate doesn’t hear him. She’s miles away, staring at a photograph thumb-tacked into a beam. Tyler comes up behind her and studies the photo—Kate’s in the center, younger and her face carefree in a way Tyler has only rarely seen. Next to her are four others—he recognizes Javi—all beaming at the camera, a truck behind them, and the wide blue skies in the background. He knows this photo, or feels like he does, because he’s taken countless similar photos with his crew, the high of storm chasing etched into the laugh lines on their faces.

Kate runs her fingers down the front of the picture, across the face of the man with his arm around Kate’s shoulders.

“I miss them,” she whispers, and Tyler knows instantly these must be the friends who died. He grabs her other hand in his, rubbing his thumb across hers.

“I bet,” he replies, equally quiet. “Who’s this?” he asks, pointing at the small blonde at the edge of the group.

“Addy. We started at OU together. Different lab, she focused on topography and how it affects storm formation.”

“And this?” His finger moves past Javi to a shorter man with dark hair.

“Praveen. He was so smart, and so good with programming.”

“Him?”

Kate’s quiet for a long moment. “Jeb. He—” She shakes her head. “He died trying to protect me. One minute he was there, the next—” Tyler’s chest and throat feel tight, and he grips her hand harder unconsciously. “I loved him, and he vanished from me, from my life, in an instant.”

“It’s not your fault,” he says.

“I know,” she says, and Tyler is momentarily surprised, remembering her reaction in this exact same spot all those months ago when he was too excited by her old research to see how each reminder was a stab to her heart. Now, though, she’s not anxious or on the verge of a panic attack.

“I know it’s not directly my fault. They all went willingly. They knew the risks,” Kate says, and reaches out again to draw her fingertips across the photo. “That night at the rodeo, with you between me and the storm I—it was like I was back at the underpass, Jeb trying to protect me, and—” Her voice is thick, like she’s trying not to cry. Tyler grabs her other hand and pulls her into a hug, his arms coming up to squeeze around her shoulders. She tucks her arms against his chest, allowing herself to be enveloped in his arms.

“I’m really proud of you, you know,” he says after some time, once her breathing is regular again.

She chuckles into his chest, then pulls back to look at him. “For only ruining your shirt a little bit?”

“Did you?” Tyler asks, peering down at his plaid button-up, looking for evidence. “I just had this dry cleaned.”

“Stop,” Kate says, laughing again.

“Mmm,” Tyler agrees, brushing her hair out of her damp eyes. “No, I’m proud of you for working to accept your past, and everything that happened.”

“I have a lot of things I wanna do, and having a meltdown every time the wind blows wasn’t gonna cut it.”

“A lot of things you wanna do, huh?” Tyler asks teasingly.

“Yeah. Speaking of which, Javi’s probably almost here,” Kate says, patting him twice on the chest before pulling away from his embrace.

“Wait—Javi?” Tyler stutters. “What?”

She just laughs over her shoulder as she heads out the barn door, and Tyler can hear the faint sound of an engine pulling down the driveway. He follows her out of the barn and they watch together as Javi’s truck pulls up. He’s dressed in jeans and a faded OU t-shirt, and he gives Kate a big hug before sticking out a hand to Tyler.

“Sorry, who are you?” Tyler asks.

“Shut the hell up man,” Javi laughs, and Tyler shakes his hand briefly. “How was that cell in Texas last week?”

“Fizzled, only got one good tornado out of it,” Tyler replies.

“Wait,” Kate says, staring between the two of them. “Do y’all, like, talk?”

“Nah, Kate,” Javi says, “we watched you almost die and we almost died together and we just never spoke to each other again after that.”

Kate takes a minute to realize he’s being sarcastic. “Oh my God.”

“Beer?” Tyler asks Javi, laughing at Kate’s shock, and turns back to the house to get them all a drink. He can hear Kate laying into Javi behind him, Javi protesting with a “Don’t worry, I still think he’s a little shit.”

Tyler and Javi did keep in touch, because Javi stuck around, quietly undermining Riggs’ credibility in the press until he pulled out as an investor, forcing Storm Par to dissolve. Since then he’s been working a temporary position at another startup focused on developing drone technology for weather monitoring (Lily found this development particularly interesting). Tyler hadn’t responded to Kate’s texts while she was away in a misguided effort to stay clear of what could absolutely destroy him. But Javi clearly kept in touch with Kate, and Tyler found it odd that Javi hadn’t mentioned their friendship to her.

When Tyler gets back to the barn, they’re sitting around Kate’s old desk, a third chair pulled up for him. “So, what’s goin’ on?” Tyler asks, handing Kate her beer. “What’s with the clandestine meetin’.”

“Big word for you, Ty,” Javi says, and Tyler smacks the back of his head.

“This is really weird,” Kate says.

“It’s weird for me, too,” Tyler says. “Not used to seeing Javi without a stupid little logo on his shirt.”

“At least I don’t have a giant shiny belt buckle.”

“Hey—”

“Okay, stop, please,” Kate says, but she’s laughing. “I did want the three of us to talk for a reason.” She looks pointedly at Javi.

“Right. The radars that Storm Par was using—those weren’t under a patent. Or rather, the tech behind them isn’t.”

“Okay,” Tyler says, slowly.

“And I need data, real data, to show that the polyacrylate works,” Kate says. “We can apply for all the grants and investor funds we want, but without preliminary data, they’re not getting past initial review.”

Tyler catches on. “Right. How hard can it be to make a radar?”

“Hard,” Javi says drily. “But I’ve met some folks at the new job, and Kate has old connections at OU, too, that could help.”

“Sounds like y’all are set,” Tyler says, hoping his voice projects calm, rather than a the little bitter disappointment he feels welling.

“Sorta,” Kate says slowly, glancing at Javi, who nods at her. “Turns out we need a crew,” Kate’s eyes sparkle in the dim light, the corner of her mouth turning up. “Know anyone?”

Tyler feels his whole world shift, a sense of certainty forming that Kate is staying, and that he gets to work with her, by her side. She’s the smartest person he’s ever met, and also the bravest, and he finds that all he wants is to be a part of her story, even if he’s just a footnote, or the driver on her crew.

It’s an hour later when they’re saying their goodbyes to Javi, and Tyler, once Kate is out of earshot cleaning up the beer bottles, stops Javi from getting in his truck. “How come you didn’t tell her we kept in touch?”

Javi glances at Kate, as if to make sure she’s not listening. “She was—is—head over heels for you man. But I knew she didn’t need the distraction then. She was working through it, y’know? Figured she’d come back when she was ready.” He turns away back toward his truck, but stops and gives him a serious look over his shoulder. “Don’t fuck it up.”

“I won’t,” Tyler responds, not meaning to be cocky (though that’s definitely what Javi thinks, judging by his face). If he messes this up with Kate, Tyler knows he’ll never forgive himself, will never allow himself to forget this and her. He knows he can’t lose her, so he knows he’ll do everything to make sure he doesn’t.

They drive back to Norman with the music on low and her hand in his, resting on his thigh. It’s late, the clock flashing nearly midnight, when he pulls up as directed to a parking spot in her apartment complex.

“I know it’s late, but d’you wanna come inside?” Kate asks softly, her smile small and a little coy. He’s briefly taken back by her forwardness—he could definitely get used to that—but grins at her and turns the engine off.

She unlocks her front door and holds it open for him. Her apartment opens right into a small but airy living area, a kitchen and eating nook off to one side, a living room on the other. A bank of windows is on the far wall, dark now, with sheer curtains drawn over them. Boxes are still on the floor in various stages of unpacked. For some reason Tyler thought her rented apartment would be empty and bland, but it’s warm and homey, with pastel colored pillows scattered on the tan couch, potted plants along the windows, a stack of picture frames leaning against a wall, ready to be hung.

The front door snicks shut. “Sorry, I’m still unpacking,” she says from behind him, her keys jingling as she fidgets with them.

All he can think about is how relieved he is at the sight of her, here, boxes strewn across the apartment and the promise of more time with her.

He spins around and grins at her, then crowds her back toward the door, cups her face and kisses her. She lets out a “mmf!” of surprise, drops her keys and the blazer she was holding and snakes her arms around his neck. This is no polite kiss, no tentative assessment of desires—he presses her against the door, pulls her arms up and pins her hands over her head. He kisses her deeply, feels her groan into his mouth, her chest pressing into his, meeting his fervency with her own.

“Please tell me you’re not starting another new job tomorrow,” he pants against her mouth, bringing his hands down to thread through her hair.

She laughs and shakes her head. “No.” He feels her slip off her shoes and her hands land the skin above his belt, her fingertips cool across his hips and abdomen. He breathes out harshly at the touch, his mouth pressing against her pulse point under her ear, memorizing the noises she makes in response. His hands find the hem of her shirt and trail underneath, pulling back to look at her, asking—she nods and bites her lip, then holds her arms up over her head as he pulls her blouse off. He tosses the shirt and his hands skate back down, tracing the sides of her breasts through her pink bra, thumbs grazing her nipples through the lace. Tyler kisses her again as her fingers move to the buttons, working quickly to push it off his shoulders.

“Why do you have so many shirts on,” she huffs, tugging his undershirt up. Tyler pulls it over his head and her hands are already on his abdomen, nails scratching gently over his chest. He presses her against the door again, groaning at the feel of her skin against his, the feel of her tongue, the soft moans she makes. He’s crazed with her—her smell, her sounds, her skin.

He drops to one knee, then the other, his hands on the waist of her shorts, his thumb dipping below to graze her hip bone. “I wanna taste you,” he says, his voice gruff to his own ears.

She looks down at him with what seems like surprise, her mouth slightly parted, her pupils blown wide. After a moment she nods, and then he’s undoing the button and zipper, dragging the shorts down her legs. He presses kisses to her inner thigh, one hand cupping her calf, the other moving to her hip to angle her where he wants her. He pulls one of her legs up and over his shoulder, opening her up to him, then presses his mouth against her core through her underwear.

“Oh God,” she says, her hands flying to his hair.

He’s overwhelmed by her, the feel of her warm skin and her scent, and then he pulls her underwear to the side to finally taste her. She gasps and her head falls back against the door with a thud. Tyler groans against her, feeling like he can’t get close enough. His tongue alternates between broad, flat strokes along her folds and tight circles over her clit.

“Fuck, Tyler,” she grits out, his name like a prayer on her lips. He presses one finger, then two, into her, keeping his tongue in place. When he looks up at her, she’s watching him hazily, mouth ajar. Her hands grip tightly at his hair.

“You gonna come for me like this?” he asks, not taking his eyes off hers.

Her only response is a breathy moan. His mouth is back on her and he feels her rock against him, pressing her hips down onto his hand and mouth. When he thinks she’s close, he sucks her clit into his mouth and curls his fingers, and she moans loudly as she comes. He lets her ride it out, then dusts light kisses against the inside of her thigh, stroking her hips with his hands. Kate tugs on his hair to get him to stand up, then she’s pushing him backwards toward the couch in the living room.

Kate pushes him down to sit on the sofa, still in his shoes and pants. He looks up at her, mesmerized by the sight of her pale skin in nothing but a light pink bra and plain underwear. “You’re so fucking beautiful,” he whispers, reaching towards her, but she swats his hands away.

“You have on too many clothes,” she responds, and then kneels to start unlacing his boots. He lets her, licking his lips at the sight, takes a moment to be incredulous that any of this is happening. She tugs one boot off, then the other, then scoots forward on her knees to grab at his belt.

She pauses, her hands on the buckle. He frowns and asks, “Kate?”

“I’m sorry it's just—” and for a moment his blood turns cold, wondering what he did, but then she continues with a giggle, “it really is so shiny.”

“Wow, rude,” he says, then surges forward to capture her lips. Her giggles abate and her hands get back to work, unbuckling and sliding his belt off. He lifts his hips to push his pants and underwear down. Kate’s soft hand on him nearly undoes him, and he breaks their kiss to groan into the curve of her neck, grabbing her hand with his own.

“Some other time,” he says, barely keeping it together.

“Promise or threat?” she says, her mouth back against his.

“There’s a condom in my wallet, in the pocket.”

She grabs his wallet from his pants on the ground and hands him a foil packet. Kate stands, shimmies out of her underwear, and straddles him once he’s tossed the wrapper aside. He thinks he might die, his mind a haze, unable to think about anything clearly except the vision of her sitting across his lap. His hands smooth up her thighs, grip her hips. She lowers onto him slowly, so slowly, and they both groan at the feeling, her forehead against his, his hands around her back, tracing up and down her spine.

“Shit you feel good,” he whispers, and then she’s moving, and he’s lifting his hips in rhythm, making her gasp and clutch at the back of his neck. She tips her head back and Tyler leans forward to kiss her neck, her breasts, her collarbones. It feels too good and he’s hyper focused on the feeling of her sliding down and over him, over and over. He presses a thumb to her clit and she moans loudly.

“Baby I’m so close—” he rasps out in warning, but she comes hard around him, gasping his name, and he’s right behind her, his hips thrusting erratically. Kate stills against him, her head on his shoulder. He wraps his arms around her securely, his eyes fluttering close. They both try to slow their breathing. She kisses him again, then disappears down the hallway naked, and he takes a moment to regain control of his limbs and his brain, because all he can think is Kate, my God but he should really find at least some of his clothes.

She comes back in cotton shorts and a loose T-shirt as he’s pulling his pants back on and hands him a glass of water, which Tyler takes with an appreciative murmur. Kate pulls him back down on the couch and curls up next to him; he wraps his arm around her shoulder, presses a kiss to her head.

“I was afraid,” she admits into the quiet. “Of how I..feel about you. Seems crazy, to feel so much—”

He just hums, letting his hand stroke down her hair. He can’t tell her—yet—about how he almost begged her to stay last time she left, how he’s thought every day since about her. He can’t tell her that he’s tried so hard to suppress how he feels about her, because it does seem crazy, and they barely know each other, and yet it’s the most known he’s ever felt in his whole life.

“But someone gave me some good advice,” Kate continues.

“Oh yeah?” he asks, peering down at her. She looks up at him from where her head rests on his chest, and a wicked smile blooms over her face.

“Yeah. They said that I shouldn’t face my fears—”

“No—”

“I should ride ‘em.”

He rolls his eyes and groans as she cackles into his chest. Her laughter settles and she peers up at him again. “I’m serious, though. About you, about tryin’ this out.”

He didn’t realize he needed her to say it first, but she has and he feels like he’s flying, feels his stomach swoop. The anticipation of something big. His smile is wide, dazzling, and all for her.

“Well, if you feel it—”

“Tyler—”

He kisses her, and he thinks he might just be done chasing for good.