Pool ─ Twisters

4. Safe With Me

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chapter four.
safe with me.

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SMOKE rolled into the sky, curling above their heads as Tyler manned the grill, flipping burgers while Lily cut up toppings and put them in little paper bowls. Frankie couldn't remember the last time she had been to a cookout — being out on the road so much, she was perpetually familiar with every fast food chain in America.

It was nice, though; before they started grilling, Frankie helped Lily wire some sensors to Cairo so they could get data from the tornados they were chasing that she could use later, and she was even able to wire a thermal camera to the top of Dexter's camper. Boone wants to say that he didn't watch her the whole time, but he would be lying — she looked beautiful as her hands were covered in JD Weld and even more so when she was soldering wires, her tongue poking out as she concentrated.

Getting data wasn't really something that the Wranglers particularly cared about, but they were happy to have the equipment to help Frankie and her causes. Besides, Dexter and Dani wouldn't shut up about all of the informational videos they could make using the thermal imaging they were now equipped with. Lily liked the way the sensors made Cairo more bulky and sturdy, making the drone look more aggressive, so it was a win-win situation all around.

Now, though, they had all settled, nursing beers as Tyler finished up with the food. Frankie found herself on that same blanket again, barefoot with her legs crossed, looking up at the stars as they peeked out from the sunset. Her face was still warm from the words that Boone had said to her upstairs, hours before.

"Pretty, huh?" Boone plopped down on the blanket next to her, placing his beer in a small divot in the grass. She nodded, not looking away from the sky.

"Don't see 'em like this in New Orleans." It was true; she can't remember the last time she had been home and seen this many stars, if she ever had. All the lights from the city tended to do that, but now they were three hundred miles out from the nearest one, and it was like the sky laid bare all of herself to them.

"I grew up in Arkansas," he tells her, and it's the first time he opened up to her about himself, so Frankie finds herself hanging on the edge of his words. "Kind of in the boonies, you know? Saw stars like this all the time."

"You're lucky," she says. The more Frankie looks over at him, the more handsome he becomes; soft freckles scattered across his nose bridge, curly hair wrapping around his earlobes and licking at the nape of his neck. He didn't have a hat on, so she could see for once how it looked against his forehead.

"The luckiest," he agrees. On the truck bed, Tyler's finished grilling and is calling them over, so Boone helps Frankie off the ground like the gentleman he is, and they all sit around with burgers and chips and beers, the Wranglers chatting about the storms they've seen this time, telling Frankie about their wildest experiments.

And it all sounds so fun, and they're all so passionate, she can't help but have ideas pop into her head about having a crew out here in Tornado Alley, about talking to Tyler to team up so she can have eyes on the plains all year.

"City girl?"

Frankie looked up in time to see Kate walking by, her shoulders dragging. They hadn't gotten close enough to get their data, and Frankie could tell it stung. She waved a hello to the girl, soft smile welcoming her into their space.

Tyler tuts, "one to the east has the sky to herself, cells to the west will choke each other out, she said."

"Well, didn't throw you off the scent any," Kate cocked a hip to the side, eyes squinting down at Tyler.