Page 4 of Chasing the Other Woman

I barely hear Luci say, “I’m always good. Just drive, boss.”

The headset only delivers the hurt in stereo, so I pull it off my head and crack my neck as I watch the feeds and the radar.

“Need a break?” Tony asks behind me. I’d honestly forgotten he was there.

“I’m good. Got to get these jerks past the monster.”

Tony leans against the desk next to me.

“When you gonna tell Brooks you want back in the field?”

“He knows.”

It’s a conversation we’ve had a hundred times since the accident. And each time, I have no idea why the conversation always ends with him suggesting that the operation couldn’t exist if I weren’t back here at command.

The chase lasts another hour and a half, give or take.

Brooks asks Luci to check the probe mount and grab the camera bag. He reminds her to zip up her jacket when they step out into the rain. She calls him ‘Dad’ again, and Hershel calls them both children. The stream chat continues to say things that I’ll have to scrub out of my brain later. The storm isn’t spectacular in terms of footage, but it gives us enough that the sponsors will be clamoring for the next chase.

I keep them out of the hail cores, redirect them past washed-out roads and a highway that says it's open on Google Maps, but intel tells me it has a detour two miles ahead of where they would have hit it.

There’s no doubt I’m good at this.

I’m just better at it when I’m in that truck cab. My best friend Petra always told me that the storms talked to me. It sounds woo-woo, but I can’t deny that I’ve felt that way since I was young enough to know what a twister was.

By the time the chase vehicles roll into the yard, the sky has gone dark with dusk, and the system has moved beyond the edge of where we can feasibly chase without redirecting all of our resources.

Making my way out of the trailer, I brace myself for the moment. I tell myself it doesn’t get harder every time. The red truck pulls up, and I see Brooks, hair windblown and his face shining with the thrill of another chase in the books. He climbs out, and my heart still does that stupid thing it always does because, as heart-sore as I am these days, he’s still the most beautiful thing I’ve ever laid eyes on. Muddy brown hair sun-kissed with streaks of blonde. That crooked smile that he wore the first time he called me ‘ma’am’ when he opened the truck door for me on our first date.

Luci climbs out of the passenger side, laughing at something. She doesn’t look like she just finished chasing a twister. She looks like an actress who just portrayed someone chasing a twister. Her blonde hair is escaping from her pony tail just right.

Brooks says something to her I can’t hear, and she shoves his shoulder. Then he looks down and grins at her. It’s the toothy grin that’s completely unpracticed.

I curl my fingers into my palms, the short nails biting into the skin.

That used to be my grin. It was me who would climb out of the truck beside him, getting that heart-stopping smile before he put his arm around me, drawing me to him and kissing the top of my head.

At least he doesn’t do that to Luci, I suppose.

Finally, he turns to me. His smile softens just a fraction. Then he walks toward me and, for one second, all the other stuff falls away.

I look him over. Jeans fitting just right. T-shirt clinging to him, a little wet from the rain. My hands ache to reach up and run through his hair.

He stops just shy of closing the distance between us, his eyes settling on something over my shoulder. I turn, seeing Tony standing a few feet behind me.

“Tony,” he says, but there’s an edge to his voice. Tony. Not Tone Loc. “Thought you were going in Hershel’s truck.”

“Thought Sam could use some help back here at command,” Tony says.

Brooks's eyes shift between Tony and me. Have they had an argument I don’t know about? These days, it seems like there’s more that I don’t know than I do when it comes to the team.

Brooks says nothing more, then gives a curt nod to Tony before rejoining Luci and Hershel, who’s just pulled up into the yard.

Luci says something quiet to Brooks. Brooks laughs, the tension gone from before, as if Luci was the only antidote he needed for whatever happened just a moment ago.

“You okay?” Tony asks behind me.

“Same as always.”