Page 3 of Chasing the Other Woman

Just like we did that night.

“Lead, I’m going to need you to slow down,” I say.

“Reason?” Brooks comes back.

“Storm is cycling earlier than we expected. There’s a new rotation just southwest of your position. Keep going full speed ahead, and you’re gonna run right into it.”

I close my eyes because I know he’s seeing it, too. That night. We almost didn’t make it. Our baby didn’t.

The comms are quiet for a minute.

“You sure?” Luci comes back. I flex my hand around the coffee mug. Thankfully, it’s ceramic.

“The model isn’t showing it just yet,” I say. “But trust me, it’s whispering chaos.”

“Copy, Sam,” Brooks says, and I pull away from the mic so he doesn’t hear the sigh of relief. “Hershel, back off. We’re giving her room.”

“Hilarious,” Hershel says. “I’d already slowed the minute she started talking. I don’t ignore that tone.”

Hershel was there that night, too.

Luci wasn’t.

“Sam, talk me through it,” Brooks says.

I’m not Command this time. I’m Sam.

My focus stays on the monitor. I’d feel better if I had eyes on the sky, but the radar will have to do. “You’ve got backed winds feeding in harder than the models are showing. If that thing wraps, you’re not gonna have a lot of options. There’s a road just up ahead. It’s a gravel road the grain trucks use. Take it. It’ll lead you back out to the two-lane highway that goes north and south. That’ll ensure you lasso the thing, but you also won’t have your ass hanging out in the wind.”

“Copy that. My ass is too pretty to get windblown.”

Luci laughs into the mic. I don’t look at the feed. Don’t look at them possibly sharing a look as he wheels that truck around and takes them out of the path of danger. That way I don’t miss it like missing air.

Of course, that doesn’t stop me from catching snippets of the chat on the live stream.

They’re so cute together. Look at how she looks at him.

I’d look at him, too, if I was in that cab with him. Luci’s so lucky.

Not me. Luci.

I turn back to the radar, telling myself it was my call that saved both of their asses.

The next few moments get hairy. The winds pick up on the mic, and I venture a look at the feeds to see that Brooks' mouth has gone tight in the way that tells me he’s balancing safety with the performance of being the one on screen.

“You okay there, Brooks?” Luci asks.

“Just fine and dandy, Miss Ma’am,” he says. “How about you?”

“Dandy,” she says, and there’s that moment when I see it. It’s that moment when the survival instinct kicks in, and you question all your life choices.

Brooks takes his eyes off the road for just a minute, looking over at Luci.

“Wouldn’t be lying to me, would you?”

I look away. That way I won’t see him looking at her like he used to look at me. Won’t see him asking how she is, like he would ask me when he wondered if it was getting to be too much.

It never was.