CHAPTER THIRTY
ARCHER
THE DESERT SUN BURNED A HOLE in the sky. Cacti and yucca plants peppered the sand dunes past the two-lane, black-ribbon highway stretching all the way to California. A mustard-yellow cloud streaked across the horizon.
I wiped my hands on a greasy rag, pushing away from the old sedan. I shoved the rag into my back pocket and grabbed a can of soda resting on the car roof. An eighteen-wheeler rumbled past on the highway.
I took a drink of soda, which had gotten warm and flat in the heat. I glanced at my watch. My shift was over.
The station owner, Mick, was letting me stay in the room over the garage, though I couldn’t stand the thought of sitting there alone all evening. The other option, of course, was to hit the bars in town. Either option would lead to the same thing—a cold, tight feeling that not even the desert heat could melt.
“You done?” Mick called, his bulky frame filling the doorway of the store.
“Yeah. I can take the next shift, though, if you’ve got stuff to do.”
“No, go on. I’ll close up.” He went back inside.
I tossed the can into the trash. The smell of gas and oil hung in the dry air. A car appeared through the sunbaked haze and pulled up to the pumps.
For lack of anything else to do, I approached the driver and offered to wash the windows while he filled the tank. A couple of college kids returning to LA after a weekend in Vegas.
After getting gas, they stocked up on junk food and hit the road again. I walked toward the store. The sound of another engine drew closer. Must be rush hour with all the traffic.
I turned. A heavy, dark blue VW XXL Amarok truck swerved into the lot, the tires kicking up clouds of dust and sand. The driver pulled into a space in front of the store and braked hard. Only when the door opened did I see the streak of bright blue that had wound around my heart like a ribbon.
For a second, I couldn’t breathe.
Kelsey jumped out of the truck, one hand closed around a brown paper bag. She walked toward me, beautiful as all hell in cargo pants and a white T-shirt, her blonde hair shining. Her expression was guarded, but her blue eyes were unwavering behind her glasses.
She stopped in front of me, her hands on her hips, and tilted her head to look me in the eye. This close, I could see her uncertainty. I swallowed hard, fighting the urge to grab her and haul her against me, to kiss her senseless.
“Hi,” I finally said.
“Hi, yourself.”
I couldn’t stop staring at her. “How… uh, how did you know where I was?”
“Dean told me.”
I blinked. Though Dean and I had exchanged emails and a few phone calls over the past couple of weeks, he’d never said anything about Kelsey. I hadn’t asked, either.
Kelsey extended the wrinkled bag. “He also asked me to give you this.”
I opened the bag and took out a manufacturer’s box. A Sega Genesis portable game player.
“I didn’t know you were into video games,” Kelsey said.
“I’m not.” I slipped the game back into the bag and set it on the ground. “Well, except for this one.”
“Oh.” She looked confused.
I reached out with my thumb to smooth away the crease between her eyebrows. I wanted to explain it to her, and I couldn’t help hoping that maybe later I’d have a chance to.
“You look great,” I said. She looked more than great. She looked like heaven.
She smiled. My heart slammed against my chest.
“So do you,” she said, her gaze sliding over my grease-streaked T-shirt and jeans. “I missed you.”
Something flared to life in me, though I tried to ignore it. I’d gotten used to the cold. My defenses were all back in place.
I jerked my head toward the truck. “New wheels?”
“Just got it last week,” she said. “I’m going to talk with some people at a weather research center in Texas. They’re interested in sending along a Doppler on Wheels when the Spiral Project goes out into the field next season.”
“You got funding for it?”
Kelsey nodded. “Edison Power Company is supporting the next phase.”
I couldn’t stop a smile from breaking over my face. Though I had no right to be proud of her, I was. This woman could move mountains. I knew it.
“En route to Houston, I’m meeting Colton and Tess in Amarillo,” Kelsey continued. “There’s a convergence of activity heading into northwest Texas that looks like it might become a supercell cluster.”
She extended her fist toward me, her fingers wrapped around something. I held out my hand. She dropped a set of car keys into it.
The spark of hope grew stronger. I tightened my hand around the keys.
“I figured you would insist on driving,” Kelsey said.
I looked at her. Though her gaze was steady, it still contained a hint of uncertainty. I opened my mouth to respond, but she held up her hand.
“Wait,” she said. “I love you, Archer. Like… well, like crazy, okay? You’re beautiful, intense, and so perfect for me, and only when you left did I realize how desperately I need you. I feel like… like I’d spent my whole life waiting for you and didn’t even know it until you were actually there.”
Her voice cracked. I grabbed her shoulders and crushed her against me as the spark flared into a full, raging wildfire. Her gasp was lost against the pressure of my mouth.
I kissed her so hard. The almond-and-honey scent of her filled my head. I drove my tongue into her mouth, drinking in her sweet heat, wanting to possess her. She breathed my name, sliding her arms around my waist, her breasts pressing against my chest.
“Never again,” I said, taking her face in my hands as I lifted my head. “I will never leave you again.”
“Please don’t.” She rested her hand against my jaw, and her gaze searched mine. “Will you come with me? I… I need to stay in Mirror Lake and teach at King’s during the fall and winter, but for the rest of the year, I’m going to travel with the Spiral Project.
“We’ll have different units, at least fifty investigators and grad students involved, and we need someone to coordinate the equipment and vehicles, and work on repairs, not to mention all that driving…”
Worry darkened her blue eyes. “I know it might be tough for you to live in Mirror Lake, but it’s only for part of the year and I was so hoping you—”
I stopped her words with the pressure of my mouth. She leaned right into me, like we were two magnets pulled together by an invisible force. She was mine.
“I love you, storm girl,” I said. “I’d love to live in Mirror Lake with you. I’d love to work on the Spiral Project with you. I’d love to chase storms, outrun tornados, fix trucks, drive all over the country. Whatever you need me to do, I’ll do it. As long as I’m with you.”
Her smile made my heart stop and start all over again. She eased away to look at her watch.
“You have ten minutes to grab some clothes.”
I did it in five. When I came down the stairs from the room above the garage, Mick stepped out of the store. He slanted his gaze to where Kelsey stood beside the truck. Then he looked back at me.
I shrugged. “She’s my kotyenok.”
Mick grinned. We shook hands. I went to toss my duffel in the truck.
I approached Kelsey and slid my hand to the back of her neck. I pulled her in for another kiss. I couldn’t get enough of her. I never would.
“One rule,” she whispered, her eyes darkening as she ran her hand down my chest.
“What’s that?”
“Your body belongs to me,” she said.
“Pinkie swear.”
She smiled and hooked her pinkie finger around mine. I pulled open the passenger-side door for her and climbed into the driver’s seat.
In seconds, I reversed out of the lot and turned on to the highway heading east. We drove toward the storm, toward thunder, lightning, rain and dark clouds boiling up over the horizon. And we drove with the unbreakable knowledge that under it all, the sky would always be blue.