The Weather Girl (20 page)

Fueled by her hurt, she took off down the hallway back to the conference room. She sat in her seat and picked up her pen. Her hands were shaking so badly Ryan put a hand on her shoulder.

“What’s wrong?”

Summer had no words to explain what had happened. She could still feel the softness of Travis’s lips on hers and smell that familiar cologne. Travis was here and he loved her. He loved her and she’d run away, leaving him by the vending machines probably as hurt and confused as she felt.

“I have to go,” she said, fumbling with her things.

Ryan’s grip on her tightened. “Hold on there. We only have one more person to interview.”

“I don’t care who you hire. I have to go.” Summer flung her purse over her shoulder and stood up. She had to find Travis and figure out what was going on. She feared she’d chased him away and was never going to find him again.

“I think you’re going to want to stay for this one.” Ryan motioned for someone at the door to come in.

Travis, looking quite chagrined, walked in with a cup of coffee in hand. Summer fell back into her chair. He set the paper cup in front of her. “You forgot this,” he said quietly.

“Look at that,” Ryan said. “He already knows how to bring you coffee. I think we have a winner here.”

Summer tore her eyes from Travis to find a very smug Ryan looking back. He had known what he was doing all along. Her whole body was shaking now. “Can Travis and I have a minute alone, please?”

“It’s your assistant position to fill. I’ll leave this interview to you.” Ryan popped up and grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair. “Wait till you see this guy’s references. David Raines had some very nice things to say about him when I talked to him the other day.”

Big D. Summer had been set up by her own family—and not by the usual suspect. Mimi was the meddler, not her husband. They were both getting a very stern talking-to when this was all over.

Ryan stopped and shook Travis’s hand, quickly introducing himself. “I’m looking forward to seeing you again, Travis,” he said on his way out.

All those other interviews were for show. There was only one person truly up for this job.

“I can’t believe we managed to surprise you. I thought for sure Mimi would blow it,” Travis said, taking a seat across from her.

She probably would have laughed if she could get over her shock and simultaneous relief. “Why are you here? I thought you were going to Alabama.”

Travis smirked—the same look she’d taken note of earlier was back. “I’m here because this is where I belong.”

“What does that mean? You belong here?” She didn’t dare to hope. She hadn’t asked him to come to New York with her because he was going to Alabama.

“I didn’t take the job in Alabama, because that was what my dad wanted, not what I wanted. I told you I was taking it so you wouldn’t give this job up. I thought I could make it work, but I would’ve been living a lie. I’m not a coach. I don’t want to be a coach.”

“What do you want?” The words came out in a rush. Summer gripped her armrest. The way he looked at her had her pinned in her seat.

He let out a laugh that could be mistaken for a breath if you didn’t know him. “That’s been the magic question for a while, hasn’t it?”

It had. From the moment she met him, he was trying to figure out who he was and what he wanted. Was it possible he finally had an answer? “Well?”

“Did you know that when you see a rainbow, the sun is always behind you and the rain in front?”

Summer covered her face with both hands. “Oh no, I did it. I cursed you with random weather factitis.” She peeked through her fingers. “There’s no cure. I am so sorry.”

“It comes in handy when the conversation gets tough.” Leave it to him to see the bright side of her quirk. “I may have looked a few things up so I could impress you and Ryan today. I really want this job.”

Summer dropped her hands. “What about your job at the station?”

“I quit. Turned in my resignation to Ken about a week ago. My last day was yesterday.” He seemed so calm for a guy in a strange city with no job. He was unemployed and here because he loved her. This was too much to process on so little sleep. She picked up the coffee and took a sip in hopes the caffeine would help her make sense of all this.

As she set the cup down, her shaky hands came back. “Ken must have flipped.”

“I guess you could say it didn’t go over well. I feel bad. If it weren’t for Ken, I might never have met you,” he said. Hope bloomed in her chest. There was no stopping it. “We should send him a gift. What says ‘thanks for introducing me to the love of my life and sorry for bailing on you’?”

“The love of your life?”

“That’s what my heart tells me when I listen closely.” Travis stood up and walked around the long conference table.

“Is that all it says?” she asked.

He swallowed hard and shook his head as he pulled her to her feet. He took her hand and placed it over his own heart. “It also told me to come here and follow you around forever and ever.”

Summer could feel his heart beating like hers. “For sure?”

He nodded and leaned down to kiss her again. “With a little help from Mimi and Big D, I realized I want to do this with you. I don’t care if I have to lug equipment around or pick up your dry cleaning. I need to be here—or wherever you are. Always.”

She could feel tears sliding down her cheeks. “I want you here. Always.”

He kissed her tears away and pushed the hair from her eyes. “I love you, Weather Girl.”

One side of her mouth quirked into a lopsided grin. His smile was full and wide. He wrapped his arms around her waist. “I still love you, too,” she confessed.

“You do?”

She nodded, rubbing her nose against his.

Travis held her face in his hands and looked down on her with a reverence she felt in her soul. “More than El Niño and cumulonimbus clouds?”

Summer’s fingers slid through the hair at the nape of his neck, pulling him closer. “The fact that you even know there are such things as cumulonimbus clouds makes me love you a million times more than any weather event known to man.”

“So does that mean I got the job?”

There were no doubts. As sure as she knew when it was going to rain, she knew Travis was the only one for her. “You are most definitely hired.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

One year later...

“W
E
 
HAVE
 
SOME
exciting news here at Channel 6. Two former members of our KLVA family had a very exciting day today. Local football legend Travis Lockwood and Abilene’s favorite former weather girl, Summer Raines, spent the rainiest day in city history doing something not even Mother Nature could stop from happening.” Christina Wilson, the new nightly anchorwoman, sat at the news desk alone but smiled brightly. “Brian Sanchez is our man on the scene tonight.”

The control room switched to a shot of Abilene Southern Baptist Church. The pale stone building looked darker as the rain came down and puddles covered the sidewalk in front of it. Brian’s voice played over the video of the flooded parking lot and a pile of umbrellas in a corner of the church entryway. Water dripped from a huge swell in the ceiling in what looked like a bridal room.

“Abilene has not seen this much rain in a twenty-four hour period since May 11, 1928, when a record 6.24 inches of rain fell. Given the drought our area has endured for the past decade, it’s hard to believe we were once the precipitation capital of Edwards Plateau. Today we attempted to regain our title. Luckily, a little—or maybe I should say a lot of—rain can’t stop true love.”

The Irving Berlin song “Love and the Weather” played in the background. A shot inside the church sanctuary revealed a young man and woman holding hands and looking very much in love. She wore white lace that stopped just below her knees and he wore a dark gray tuxedo better than anyone else could. The pastor announced them husband and wife and told the man he could kiss his bride. The groom didn’t hesitate. He took her face in his capable hands and kissed her with all he had as the guests cheered.

“In spite of flooded streets and the threat of quarter-size hail, Summer and Travis couldn’t pass up the opportunity to say ‘I do’ on this day in weather history,” Brian’s voice said over the shot.

“There’s nothing Summer loves more in the world than the weather and Travis.” The name Sarah Raines flashed on the screen as the proud grandmother spoke to the camera. “So it makes sense for her to get married on the rainiest day this city’s ever seen.”

Brian continued while old footage of Travis and Summer reporting from football games played. “The couple met while working here at KLVA. Summer told me today that she will forever be grateful to station manager Ken Collins, who brought the two of them together.”

Sam Lockwood, father of the groom, was interviewed next. “If you told me a few years ago that my son would be traveling the world as a storm chaser instead of a quarterback, I would have said you were crazy. But Summer and this show of theirs make Travis happier than he ever was playing ball, and that means the world to me and his mother.”

A clip ran of the newlywed storm chasers standing on the shores of Bermuda with waves crashing on the rocks nearby, just before Hurricane Owen hit the island. “Like Mr. Lockwood mentioned, you can catch the happy couple every weekend in some even wilder weather conditions. Their show, ‘The Weather Girl,’ airs Sunday nights on the Discovery Channel.”

Chief Meteorologist Richard Mitchell smiled as he was interviewed. “Should’ve known the rain wouldn’t want to miss this wedding. Good thing Summer is never caught in the rain unprepared.”

The next shot showed the wedding couple coming out of the church protected by a bright red umbrella. They stopped, standing in ankle-deep water, and kissed in the rain. She was wearing pink and purple rubber boots and carried a bridal bouquet of roses and calla lilies. Barefoot, the groom had his pant legs rolled up to his knees.

Brian came on, live via satellite. “Believe me, it was wet out there. There wasn’t a dry eye or a dry anything in the house today.” Behind him, the wedding guests crowded the dance floor. Tables draped in winter white were cleared except for the centerpieces—pink rain buckets filled with flowers and covered by red parasols. “Here at the reception, we’re finally warm and dry. I heard someone say they think we should go outside and dance in the rain, but I think I’ll stay right here.”

“Good idea, Brian.” Christina was still smiling. “All of us here at Channel 6 say congratulations, Summer and Travis. We wish you a lifetime of love and happiness and hope it’s nothing but blue skies from here on out.”

* * * * *