Part 2 (1/2)

In high school, they'd tried dating. Logically, since they already spent a lot of their free time together, enjoyed every minute of it, and weren't dating anyone else, it should have worked perfectly.

It hadn't.

Max was a traditional guy in a lot of ways, and his idea of having a girlfriend was taking her to school dances and movies and holding hands at concerts in the park.

Bree had almost died of boredom. And disappointment. She'd wanted Max-poker-playing, joking, dirt-bike-riding Max-and some kissing.

She'd gotten the kissing. Which had been good. But she'd also gotten sweet, romantic, double-dating, let's-cuddle-on-the-couch Max.

And now . . . well, the kissing would probably still be good. h.e.l.l, if practice made perfect, then with the amount of practice she knew Max had gotten since high school, it would probably be phenomenal.

But he was still a traditional, romantic guy.

Bree didn't do traditional, and she wasn't that into romance.

So they were destined to be friends only.

Adventurous friends who shared a need for adrenaline. Which he clearly needed in smaller doses, less often than she did. He didn't date girls who liked to climb and race and get dirty. He dated nice girls who liked musical theater and art galleries and taking trips to places like Napa.

He saved his adrenaline rushes for his time with her.

”Okay, so walk me through the tornado thing again. How's it happen?” she asked him, focusing back on the moment as the raindrops began to fall more steadily.

His eyes lit up a little just at the question, and she smiled to herself. She didn't know if he was so easy to read because she knew him so well or because he just couldn't contain his pa.s.sion for this stuff, but she liked seeing it either way.

”We don't know for sure, but we know the ingredients you have to have. We know you have to have a parent supercell. And then there has to be the right conditions to cause rotation. You start with the warm, humid air on the ground and strong south winds,” he said, holding one hand in front of him palm down. ”Then there's colder air with a west wind on top.” His other hand moved over the first. ”The different temperatures and moisture levels between the two cause instability. You add in some strong wind shear to the instability and an updraft to get things rotating, and you have a pretty good chance of a tornado forming.” He moved his hands around each other and grinned at her.

Bree wondered for a moment if it was the information she was so intrigued by or if it was listening to Max. He got almost as enthusiastic talking about building stability and reconstruction. He'd even grab rocks and sticks to show her what he was describing, if needed.

”See the cloud formation?” He went back to studying the sky and pointing. ”See the band of rain?”

She nodded.

”And then there's the rain-free base.” He moved his hand.

She peered into the distance. She shook her head after a few seconds. ”Where?”

He leaned in closer. ”Up there,” he said, adjusting his arm. ”And there's the wall cloud.”

”Nope, sorry,” she said.

He pulled out his phone and took a picture of the scene in front of them, then pulled the photo up and pointed on the screen. ”Rain-free base. RFB. Wall cloud. And then there's the Rear Flanking Downdraft, or RFD, and the Forward Flanking Downdraft, FFD.”

”Wow, how can you tell all of that?” It looked like a bunch of clouds to her. She did see very slight variations where he was pointing, but without him guiding her, she'd have no idea what she was looking at.

”Practice,” he said. ”Lots of study. I have hundreds of amazing photos and videos. We can study them together.”

Sounded good to her.

This was the most fun she'd had since the last margarita night with Avery and Kit.

She didn't need margaritas with Max.

The thought seemed to hit her out of nowhere. But it was true. And . . . it was a relief. She wasn't quite willing to admit it out loud to anyone else, but she'd been a little concerned by how often a good shot of tequila had been sounding lately. She'd always been a social drinker. She loved beer, loved most liquors, and could definitely handle her share. But it seemed lately that she wanted it more and more.

It was the rush it gave her. She knew that. And the fact that she was having trouble feeling that rush in other ways was something she should probably a.n.a.lyze.

Later.

Maybe.

”Great.”

”So this is where the rotation is starting,” he said, pointing to the photo and then up at the cloud formation again. ”That will very likely produce a funnel cloud. We'll follow and see if it touches down.”

Bree felt a little thrill go through her chest. Ah. She loved that feeling.

”Okay, let's go.” Bree jumped off the tailgate and headed for the pa.s.senger side of the truck.

Just as she touched the truck door handle, the cloud overhead decided to dump some extra water. She jerked the door open and clambered inside, but not before she got soaked.

”A few seconds more warning would have been nice,” she said with a grin, shaking water from her arms and running a hand over her face.

Max looked over. Then c.o.c.ked an eyebrow at her. ”If you're going to be storm chasing, you might want to invest in some tank tops in other colors.”

She looked down. At her wet, white tank top. Right. She looked up at him. ”Good thing it's just you and me, I guess.”

He didn't smile as expected, but he turned his eyes back to the road. ”Yep, good thing.”

He pulled out of the small drive and headed west, into the storm.

”So now we're looking for a funnel cloud?” she asked, strapping on her seat belt.

”We're going to be looking for striations and a wall cloud,” he told her. ”The striations can indicate rotation. The wall cloud is usually behind the band of precipitation and sticks around fifteen minutes or so before a tornado. It can have some rotation to it, so let's check this one out.”

Bree watched him as he drove, looking up out of the winds.h.i.+eld and in the rearview mirror almost constantly.

”You already know, don't you?” she asked.

”What?” He glanced over.

”That it's going to turn into one.” She didn't have to say tornado for him to know what she was talking about.

He didn't answer immediately but then gave her a simple, ”Yeah.”

”How?” She believed him, but she was curious. ”You normally have your radar up and stuff, right?”

”I do,” he said with a nod. ”But I usually know anyway.”

”How?”