The Weather Girl (17 page)

Travis laughed so hard he couldn’t speak for a couple seconds. “Good Lord! I thought we were talking about the horses. That’s funny.” He wiped his eyes, still chuckling at their misunderstanding.

“I saw you with Rachel right after I saw you with Summer. You better stay away from my Rachel,” Pete warned.

This time, the lights really came on. “Oh, Pete. Trust me, Summer’s the only woman for me. Rachel’s all yours. Although I will say, I think you can do a lot better.”

Pete pointed a long, dirty finger in Travis’s face. “I saw you, Lockwood. I saw you standing too close. I saw you whisper in her ear. Once I help her with Summer, she’ll be mine. You better not get any ideas.” He started to take off, but Travis grabbed the back of his shirt and halted his retreat.

“What did you say? Exactly how would you help Rachel with Summer?”

“I didn’t say nothing! Let go of me!” Pete struggled to get loose, but he was no match for the stronger, younger man. “Let go of me.”

“What did you do?” Travis spun Pete around so he could look him in the eye. “Tell me what you did to help her with Summer. Come on, Pete. Summer thinks you’re a nice guy.” She was wrong, and Travis was ready to make him pay for that.

It didn’t take more than that to get him to sing like a canary. “Rachel said Summer was trying to take her job. I found her crying at her desk one night. Do you know what it does to me to see that angel cry?” Pete asked.

Travis could feel himself losing control. All along he’d blamed Richard, when the real culprit was right here. His grip on Pete’s shoulders tightened. “You rigged that light to fall, didn’t you?”

“I was only going to try to get her fired, but that didn’t work. I thought I could scare her enough to make her leave on her own. I swear I wasn’t trying to hurt her, just scare her away.”

Rage engulfed Travis and narrowed his vision. All this time, it had been Pete and Rachel who were trying to hurt Summer. He heard his voice rising as he shook the smaller man. “We’re going to get rid of someone, all right.”

“Travis!” Summer crossed the street in a panic. “What are you doing? Let him go! People are going to wonder if you’ve lost your mind!”

He did as she said. “I hope her kindness makes you feel like the spineless creep you are. She’s protecting you when you went out of your way to do her harm.”

Summer latched on to Travis’s arm and pulled him away from a cowering Pete. “What are you talking about?”

“This is the guy who’s behind all your trouble at the station. Rachel made him think you were trying to take her job. Pete’s the one who was making your life miserable, not Richard,” Travis explained.

“Pete?” Summer’s eyes pleaded with him to tell her it wasn’t true. The coward looked away, unable to give her what she wanted. “How could you do that?” she asked, completely stunned. Again, no answer came.

Travis dragged Pete over to Ken and the rest of the crew by the van. He told Ken everything and demanded action. There was no time to settle the issue, however. The parade was beginning and Travis and Summer needed to be in it. Ken wouldn’t hear another word until the parade was over. Frustrated, Travis mounted his horse and followed Summer back to the float.

“You okay?” he asked as she got herself situated. He could see she was anything but.

Summer glanced over at Rachel, who was oblivious of everything that had gone on a few moments ago. She turned back to Travis. “Did you know that around twenty-four thousand people die by lightning strikes around the world each year?”

“Summer...”

“I’m fine. I’m completely fine.” She was lying. Before Travis could do anything about the vengeful look in her eye, the parade started and the float began to move. He rode alongside, watching Summer fume as she probably asked God to send some lightning Rachel’s way. He had to remind himself she could only predict the weather, not control it.

The high-school band in front of them began to play. Their green and gold uniforms looked uncomfortable in this heat, but they weren’t the ones Travis was worried about overheating. Summer was so furious she could barely put on a smile and wave to the crowd. The heat she was feeling had nothing to do with the weather. The Texas Star Chevy float was covered in red, white and blue tissue paper, streamers and glittery paper stars. Luckily for Rachel, a car with KLVA license plates and the words WIN ME painted across the windshield sat in the middle, separating her from Summer. A big Texas flag and the dealership’s logo were the backdrop.

Travis had a difficult time concentrating on the cheering crowd as Summer and Rachel both moved to the front of the float. He tapped his heels against the sides of his horse, encouraging the beast to speed up. He watched as Summer said something to Rachel, causing the woman’s public persona to slip a little. Rachel frowned and stared back at Summer. More words were exchanged, heated words he couldn’t make out over the music of the marching band.

“Summer!” Travis attempted to get her attention, but it was too late. Summer said something that sent Rachel into a fit. She pushed Summer so hard she almost fell backward off the float. Stuck on his horse, Travis was helpless, his heart thumping relentlessly in his chest. If anything happened to her, he’d never forgive himself. Summer stood her ground, and the two women screamed and gesticulated as the crowd looked on in complete shock and horror.

Travis stopped his horse and handed the reins to the nearest bystander. He ran up to the truck pulling the float, banging on the window and telling the driver to stop. He turned to go break up the fight.

“I knew you were crazy!” Rachel was yelling.

“I’m crazy? You’re paranoid and completely delusional!” Summer shouted back.

Rachel let out something like a battle cry and ran at Summer full steam ahead. Summer waited until the last moment before stepping to her left, and Rachel’s momentum carried her right off the side of the float and into a pile of steaming horse manure. Travis wanted to laugh at the beauty of justice being served, but Summer didn’t look as though she found any of it very funny.

Ken jumped up on the float and grabbed Summer before Travis could. Rachel popped up, ready to kill. Or cry. Travis couldn’t be sure, so he decided to put himself between the two women. Ken led Summer away from the onlookers and their camera phones. Everyone from the station followed.

Back at the van, Summer was full of uncontrollable fury. Her hair was a wild mess of curls on top of her head as her body shook with anger. Travis put his hand on her shoulder, hoping to provide what little comfort he had to offer in front of their coworkers.

“I want her fired!” Rachel screamed as she held her hand under her nose. The fresh horse manure staining her jeans smelled horrible.

“Me?” Summer asked, wide-eyed with shock. “You attacked
me!
”

“She pushed me off the float. You all saw!”

“You convinced Pete to make a light fall on my head! You told him I was trying to take your job so he would mess with my reports and get me fired!”

Rachel’s laughter enraged Summer further. “She’s lost it, Ken. If you don’t get rid of her, you will cost this station every advertiser I have ever brought you.”

Travis had heard enough. “Pete told us what he did, Rachel. He said you encouraged him.”

“I never asked him to do anything. I’ll admit I’ve felt threatened by her transparent attempts to upstage me. Maybe he felt bad for me and acted on those feelings. But I swear to you, Ken, I never asked him to do it.”

“You aren’t going to buy her lies, right?” Travis asked Ken, who was unusually quiet. There was no possible way anyone could believe her.

“I...” Ken shook his head. “I don’t know what to believe. Do you know what an incident like this is going to do to our reputation?”

“She knocked me off the float! You have to fire her. You have to!” Rachel demanded.

Travis stared Ken down, daring him to fire Summer. If he did that, he’d be out a weather girl
and
a sportscaster. There was no way Travis would work for Ken if he gave Summer the boot.

“Forget it,” Summer said before Ken could reply. “I quit.” Without another word, she stormed off, leaving Travis behind. It felt like a life-changing hit, similar to the one he’d taken in Chicago. Only worse. Because Summer mattered more than football ever did.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“I
SHOULD
 
CALL
 
Ken.” Summer was in panic mode. Travis had driven her home and now all she could do was pace her living room floor. The heels of her boots click-clacked on the wood floor. She tried to take a deep breath, but it felt as if the walls were closing in.

Had she really quit? Rachel had made her so angry. Ken’s lack of support hadn’t helped. She said she quit, but she said it without thinking about what it really meant. She’d considered the job with Ryan over the past couple days, finally deciding staying in Abilene was the best option. After much deliberation and soul searching, it was Travis who convinced her to stay. He didn’t even know he was doing it. And now everything was ruined.

“I’m sure he’d understand you got caught up in the heat of the moment,” he said.

She stopped pacing and cast a furtive glance in his direction. He had his head bowed and elbows resting on his knees, one leg bouncing anxiously. His patience was waning. She’d done nothing but fret for the last half hour. He was ready for her to rectify the situation, to call Ken. Travis had no idea what she had really done by quitting—the door she had opened or how badly she wanted to run. He couldn’t hear the wind calling her name the way she did.

“Did you know that we hit triple digits nineteen days in June and twenty-seven in July?”

Sidestepping her weather nonsense, he tried to reassure her. “You have a job. You just need to call Ken and tell him you want to keep it.”

The pacing resumed, as did the chewing on her thumbnail. Summer had more than one job. She could call Ryan just as easily as she could call Ken. Another quick glance at Travis and it felt as if her world were splitting down the middle. “I can’t leave.”

“Why would you leave?” Travis rose to his feet, wrapping his arms around her. “I want you to relax.” He was her shelter from the storm, the one place she knew she was safe.

A knock on the door pushed all thoughts of relaxation from Summer’s mind and sent Storm into a tizzy. Rachel had threatened to have Summer arrested for assault when she climbed out of the pile of manure. The last thing Summer needed was for the police to come for her. There had to be plenty of witnesses who could verify it was Rachel’s own fault.

Hesitantly, she opened the door to find Mimi and Big D with worry written all over their faces. Mimi hugged her granddaughter tightly. “We were waiting at the end of the parade route, thinking you were comin’ any minute, when we heard there was some sort of fight. Imagine our surprise when they said it involved the Channel 6 weather girl!”

“I’m sorry. I left so fast I didn’t think about you being in the crowd.”

“What happened?” Big D asked, petting Storm while waiting patiently for his hug.

Summer let go of her grandmother and sought comfort in his arms. “It was Rachel. She instigated all the trouble I’ve been having at the station. She told one of the techs I was trying to steal her job. How ridiculous is that?”

“Never liked that girl,” Big D mumbled as they made their way into the house. “Something was off with that smile of hers.”

“So you pushed her off the float?” Mimi laughed.

“More like she fell,” Summer said sheepishly. “And I quit.” Mimi fell silent. She and Big D exchanged a look. Summer knew that look. “But I’m going to call Ken and beg for my job back.”

“Sometimes our hearts know what we want before our minds catch on.” Big D put a gentle hand on her cheek. “Maybe it’s not Ken you should be calling.”

She should have known he would say that. For some reason, he was bound and determined to ship her off to New York on the next available flight. “Can we not do this right now?”

“Ryan chose you for a reason,” Big D continued.

“Ryan will have no trouble finding someone else for that job,” Summer argued.

Big D’s voice rose just a bit. “You’re braver than this, Summer.”

“I need a moment with my granddaughter,” Mimi interrupted. “Alone.”

Big D nodded and reached out to give Mimi’s hand a squeeze. “Come help me walk this beast,” he said to Travis, whose eyebrows were furrowed in confusion. “I better get out of here before I get myself in trouble.” He took the leash off the hook by the door and attached it to Storm’s collar. Travis followed them out without a word.

“I’m not going anywhere, Mimi,” Summer said, attempting to ease at least one mind. They sat on Summer’s sky-blue couch. Mimi, with her bright yellow sundress and her white-blond hair pulled up in a bun, looked like an unhappy sun.

“Because of me?”

“Because of a lot of reasons,” Summer replied.

“But mostly because of me.” It was a statement, not a question.

“Because of me.” Summer pressed a hand over her heart. “Everyone I love is here. You, Big D.” Travis. She thought it but didn’t say it. She’d been thinking it all week long. She was in love with him. She wasn’t sure how or when it happened, but it had. “Even Mom and Dad are here.”

Mimi shook her head. “Your daddy and mama aren’t here. I might have put their bones in Texas soil, but their souls are still in the whispers of the wind.”

There was no arguing with that. “Well, you and Big D are reason enough, then.”

Mimi’s eyes welled with tears. It was too much for Summer. Her gaze dropped to her lap, but Mimi’s voice was thick with the same emotion. “You’re like my pretty little caged bird, convinced you don’t want to fly when it was what God put you on this earth to do.” Mimi lifted her chin. “Listen to me, sweet girl. I’ve selfishly kept you here since your daddy died. It’s about time I let you go and let you live your life for you.”

Summer swiped at her own tears before they fell. Fear and doubt overwhelmed her. She was terrified of making the wrong decision, but she knew one needed to be made. It was like being asked to choose between divorcing parents. How did someone choose one love over another?

“Summer, we love you,” Mimi said, taking hold of her hands. “We want you to be happy. Tell me this job with Ryan won’t make you happy.”

“It will and it won’t.” She couldn’t ignore the way her heart ached when she imagined telling Travis about the other job. It would have been hard enough to leave her grandparents, but Summer had to go and fall in love with a man who had broken down all of her walls so effortlessly.

“Any of this indecision have to do with that mighty fine looking man who’s walking your dog with Big D right now?”

Summer shrugged, unable to speak around the lump in her throat. Maybe it had more to do with Travis than she wanted to admit.

Mimi nodded as one side of her mouth smiled. “He’d probably go with you if you asked. Something tells me that boy would follow you anywhere. The way he looks at you reminds me of the way your mama used to look at your dad, and we know how that worked out.”

That was impossible. How could she ever ask Travis to give up everything to follow her dreams? The man deserved to figure out what his own dreams were first. “Maybe I’m too afraid to do any of this,” she admitted. “Maybe Big D is wrong. Maybe I’m not brave enough.”

“Try,” Mimi said softly. “Try it and see. We’ll all survive here. You won’t be gone forever.”

Mimi always led with her heart. She did what felt right. Big D thought things through, did what he knew was best. Both of them were telling her to take this leap.

After a few minutes had passed, the front door opened and Storm came racing in, tongue out and tail wagging. Big D and Travis followed behind him. Travis’s blue-gray eyes were definitely overcast.

“Everything okay in here?” Big D asked.

The two women nodded and tightened their hold on each other’s hands.

“We should let you and Travis work this out,” Big D said, holding a hand out for his wife. He tapped the toe of his shoe against Summer’s foot. “We’re glad you’re all right. No more fights on moving vehicles, though.”

Summer managed a small smile. “Promise.”

Mimi gave her a hug before taking her husband’s hand. She walked over to where a solemn Travis stood. She squeezed his arm and whispered something in his ear. His head lifted, his eyes saying all the things he was holding back. Mimi gave him another reassuring pat on the shoulder and headed for the door.

Travis’s stare burned her skin as Summer said goodbye and saw her grandparents out. She leaned back against the front door after shutting it. Not sure what to say, she waited for him to speak first. His silence enveloped her like a scratchy wool blanket. It didn’t take long for the weather facts to flow freely.

“Did you know that a small thunderstorm can hold as much as thirty-three million gallons of water?”

He finally looked away, his gaze dropping to the floor in front of him. “That’s a lot.”

“There was once a storm that hit Dell City with hurricane-strength winds. Destroyed an airport hangar.”

“Scary,” he replied without his usual interest.

“At any particular time there can be almost two thousand thunderstorms occurring in our atmosphere. Luckily, they aren’t all that extreme and most aren’t deadly.”

“Who’s Ryan?”

She swallowed hard. It was the easiest question he could have asked, but still hard. Her mouth went dry. Hearing Ryan’s name made her want to call him. And if she called him, she would accept his job offer. That terrified her. “He’s a friend of my parents.”

The clench of his jaw made her nervous. “Your grandfather said he’s a television producer.”

“He’s that, too.” Summer pushed off the door and headed back into the living room. She resumed her pacing in front of the small fireplace.

“He offered you a job.” He wasn’t asking.

Feeling cowardly, she used the excuse her grandmother had just told her was no longer valid. “Yes, but it means leaving Mimi and Big D.”
And you.
“It requires lots of travel and I’d be based out of New York.”

“What kind of job is it?”

Summer didn’t want to talk about it, knowing there was no way to downplay how good the opportunity was. “I don’t know. He wants me to track storms as well as visit places that have experienced some of the wildest weather in history.”

“It’s like This Day in Weather History, only a whole hour instead of thirty seconds, and on location instead of in the studio?”

It wasn’t like that. It was a thousand times better than her little idea. “It doesn’t matter because I’m all my grandparents really have. My aunts don’t visit, don’t help.”

“It sounded to me like they want you to take the position.”

“What they want isn’t as important as what I want.”

“This job that’s supposedly perfect for you, isn’t what you want?” he challenged.

What she wanted was the courage to tell him she was in love with him and would stay if he felt the same, but the words were lodged in her throat. There was a part of her that hoped he’d come out and say it first, that he’d profess his own love and ask her to stay.

Instead, Travis threw his thumb over his shoulder. Her silence spoke all the wrong things to him. “I’m going to head out. You have a phone call to make and I need to... I have to... There are some things I should...” He couldn’t finish, but didn’t have to. Summer knew he was running away.

“I’m sorry I told Ken I quit,” she managed to choke out as he made his way to the door.

Travis’s hand stilled on the doorknob, but he didn’t turn around. “I’ll call you later.” He pulled open the door and slipped out without a goodbye. But that was exactly how it felt—like goodbye.

* * *

S
LEEP
E
LUDED
S
UMMER
that night. She tossed and turned, overthinking all the things she had and hadn’t done that day. She’d gotten into an actual fight. She’d quit her job. In a moment of passionate hate, she had done the one thing she was sure she wouldn’t be able to muster up the courage to do.

She hadn’t told Travis how she felt about him. Instead, she’d come clean with him about Ryan’s offer. And he’d left her to make a decision—a decision she still had to make.

She hadn’t called Ryan or Ken, although Ken had called her more than once. She’d let his calls go to voice mail and prayed the next time the phone rang it would be Travis. Travis didn’t call.

She flipped onto her back, staring at the ceiling fan as it spun around slowly. The nights were cooler this time of year. Summer had the windows open and the air-conditioning off. Tonight’s low was predicted to dip down to sixty-three. That was average. Tomorrow’s high was eighty-seven. That was slightly above normal. The sun and heat were getting old; they needed some rain. The storms that came with the tornado didn’t produce much precipitation. West Central Texas still suffered from drought.

Summer recited the highs and lows for the week over and over in her head, hoping it would lull her to sleep. When that failed miserably, she thought about how different things were when she’d woken up this morning. She was looking forward to seeing Travis at the parade and couldn’t wait to wrap her arms around him and sneak a sniff of his cologne. He smelled better than any man she knew.

Rolling over on her stomach, Summer hid her head under her pillow. She should have told him she loved him. Travis probably thought the job with Ryan was a done deal. He probably thought their relationship was over before it even began. He was wrong, though. She owed it to him and to herself to tell him how she really felt. As Big D said, she was braver than this.

Summer climbed out of bed and checked the clock. It was after midnight, but that wasn’t going to stop her from taking a leap of faith. She grabbed her phone off the dresser and typed out a text she figured Travis would read when he got up. It was a simple invitation to go running in the morning. She’d miss church and lunch with her grandparents, but it was worth it. She hit Send and crawled back into bed, proud of herself for having some sort of plan. It was right when sleep began to find her that her phone beeped with Travis’s reply.

Meet me at Red Bud @ 8.

R
ED
B
UD
P
ARK
was quiet and uncrowded, so different from the last time they’d been there. Summer twirled Storm’s favorite toy and tossed it for him to chase. The dog returned with his slobbery rope in his mouth and dropped it at Travis’s feet, as if he knew who had the better throwing arm. She tried not to let it hurt her feelings, which wasn’t so hard once Travis picked it up and threw it a good sixty yards.