ChasingSin (5 page)

“Nothing.”

A soft thud sounded as Tripp dropped the bag he’d slung over
his shoulder. Snyder turned to find his lover’s hands on his hips and an amused
expression on his face. “Something tells me you have in mind that we’re going
to persuade her.”

Tripp was right. Now that they knew exactly where Kate was,
he intended to do everything he could think of to get her to tell them why
she’d been gone that morning. Why they’d awakened to a bed without her in it
when everything had gone so perfectly the night before.

Both he and Tripp had thrown themselves into their work when
their repeated phone calls to Kate went unanswered. Then the hurricane season
had swung into high gear and they’d been forced to abandon their attempts to
find her. An active season had kept them up to their eyeballs in data and when
they’d heard Hurricane Jean was headed for the Gulf Coast, they’d jumped at the
chance to let someone else fly their precious planes. Based on all the
prediction models, this was one storm they wanted to be on the ground for.

“Can’t hurt to try.”

Tripp looked over his shoulder in the direction Kate had
vanished. “I don’t know about that. She didn’t seem to want to see us beyond
getting information about the storm.”

“So, what? We let her go? Pretend none of us felt anything
in that room?”

Tripp sighed and his shoulders fell in defeat. “No, I don’t
want that either. I was right there with you—remember? I miss her too, just as
much as you do.”

“Yeah, I know.” It helped to hear Tripp vocalize the
feelings Snyder suspected all along. They should’ve talked about this long
before now, but the very mention of her name was too painful.

“I agree with you by the way. It can’t hurt to try. She’s
worth it.” Tripp tossed a small briefcase at Snyder and smiled. “Tell me what
you have up your sleeve while we unload.”

* * * * *

Kate sat in the narrow driveway, staring at the house in
front of her. She’d told herself this would be easy. A walk in the park
compared to facing a spinning vortex head-on. But she’d been wrong. She’d
arrived ten minutes earlier and hadn’t worked up the courage to even get out of
the car.

Knowing Snyder and Tripp were on the island didn’t help
matters.

Avoiding them the past two months had been easier than she
thought. It had been a stroke of luck the hurricane season started off with a
bang. Tornadoes they chased alongside one another, but hurricanes were another
matter entirely because of their occupations.

When they weren’t all chasing nature’s fury, they were all
usually holed up in a lab somewhere studying data. She still remembered the gleam
in their eyes when they’d showed up at her lab at the university. The two men
had sought her out in order to be a part of her chase team. The team they’d
been chasing with had spent more time arguing about where to go than actually
going after the severe storms.

Annoyance and frustration had driven them to find a new
team. They were done playing those games. They’d wanted to actually do
something instead of sitting around. Later she discovered they’d sought her out
because they were convinced she was one of the best chasers in the field.

As pilots for one of the monstrous planes that flew through
hurricanes to collect data which aided forecasters in predicting paths, a busy
tropical season meant the men had left for the Mississippi coast earlier than
usual. Their early departure had been convenient, and made it extremely easy to
keep the distance Kate needed.

But seeing them here, on the island where she’d spent most
of her childhood, changed everything in the blink of an eye. She’d have to deal
with them, no two ways about it.

The rainbow colored windsock she’d once hung on a hook on
the front porch had lost its color from the sun years ago. Though the streamers
still danced on the light breeze, the ends were tattered and frayed. Much as
she felt at the moment.

The memories here were still vivid despite the number of
years that had passed.

She wanted to be here, yet didn’t at the same time.

Gathering her courage, she grabbed her laptop bag and slung
it over her shoulder as she shut the car door. Measured steps brought her to
the bottom tread of the ash-colored stairway. Despite her hesitations, it was
easy for her to see her mother standing there at the top, her father
immediately behind as they worked to air out the house for the summer. She
heard the sound of her brothers playing in the lot in front of the house,
digging their feet into the sun-warmed sand.

Now the voices she heard were the neighbors’ children,
strangers to her since she hadn’t been here in so long.

Even without the hurricane churning out there, she knew she
needed to be here right now. She needed the familiarity this place brought to a
life so full of chaos. For once, she needed steadiness. With so many months of
the year spent on the road, she needed a home. Hopefully, this place would give
it to her and she hoped the house still stood after the hurricane blew through.

As she stepped through the door, everything was just as she
remembered. Though there were a few more cobwebs tucked away in the corners.
She would leave them, more because of the charm they added to the house than
because she didn’t want to clean.

The old house was warm and tangible. Somewhere she saw
comfort around her wherever she looked. From the whitewash-painted walls to the
hardwood planks, stained dark with age and covered in a few key spots with
pastel-blue area rugs. There was something solid and so real about this place,
her heart ached for the simplicity of her days of youth spent here.

This house was her haven, her salvation.

She never understood why her parents didn’t rent out this
place during the season when they weren’t here. It wasn’t as if they came down
here any longer. It wasn’t as if they needed the money either, the house had
been paid for years ago. But at least with summer renters the place wouldn’t sit
here hollow and alone. It deserved a better kind of life than to sit empty and
ignored.

Dust flew in the air as she yanked on the sheets covering
the living-room furniture and she sneezed a few times in reaction. The
cream-colored couch and loveseat had faded a little in color, but were
otherwise as she remembered. Her third-story apartment near the university
didn’t hold the same friendliness. It was stark and unfriendly compared to her
current surroundings.

Nothing inside those simple walls cemented her to the space.

She had no animals and lived simply in order to accommodate
her schedule, which gave her the ability to leave for days on end without a
second thought. She’d even tailored some of the lectures for her students so
they could be done online, that way she didn’t need to be in the classroom.

Gazing at the handmade knickknacks scattered around the room
with no thought to any kind of organization reminded her just how unfriendly
her apartment was. They also reminded her why she stood here right this very
moment and it wasn’t entirely due to the hurricane barreling toward the Gulf
Coast of the United States.

Shaking off her stupor, she scolded herself. There were a
lot of preparations to be made, and if she started now, she might finish before
the hurricane roared onto shore.

Kate had just put the last of her food supplies in the
cabinet a half hour later when her cell phone rang. She grabbed it without
looking at the screen and flipped it open. “Hello?”

“Twice in one day. Has to be a record.” Snyder’s smooth
voice washed over her, raising a line of goose bumps that made her even more
irate. She hated the way her body reacted to even the slightest hint of his
presence. As if she didn’t possess a brain in which to think with.

She scolded herself for answering without a glance to the
screen, especially when she knew both men were in close proximity. “What do you
want?”

“You.” She started to fire back at his answer, but he
continued on without allowing her to speak. “Actually, your vehicle. Rental
company doesn’t have anything that’ll get us where we need to go. Unless the
new Camaro comes equipped with four-wheel drive or some kind of tow hitch.”

And here she’d thought Tripp and Snyder were above being
seduced by the beauty of a sports car. “And how do you plan on getting out of
there if you need to evacuate?”

“Never ran from a storm before. Not going to start now.”

Kate drummed her fingers against the thick slab of wood that
served as a counter for the kitchen island. “Really piss-poor planning, which
is unlike you two, especially when it comes to hurricanes. You should know
better.”

“You know the call of the storm just as well as we do. You
go, settle in and figure it out as you go along sometimes. We made a
last-minute decision to come and assumed a beach community would have something
a bit sturdier than a sports car.”

He had a point, as much as it pained her to concede. It also
annoyed her to admit she’d rather see them ride out the storm here. At least
they could all keep an eye on each other in case things got a little hairy.
Judging by the size of this monster, they undoubtedly would.

“Fine. Where are you? At the airport still? I’ll come pick
you up, but Rutherford’s place is out of the question. That’s too dangerous,
even for me. And that’s saying something.”

“Excellent. When can you be here?”

“Give me ten minutes.” She snapped the phone shut without
saying more and dropped it on the counter.

She’d been hoping to get here, set up her equipment and
start downloading the files waiting for her. She was ready to block out the
rest of the world as she worked and tried to sort things out. Studying data
charts and weather patterns always took her mind off things because of the
intense concentration and complex calculations it required, and now seemed as
good a time as any.

The presence of Snyder and Tripp on the island, not to
mention in the same house, would definitely throw off her groove. It wasn’t
usual for them to half-ass their plans for storms. This profession didn’t allot
for a lot of planning, so the factors you could control—such as housing—needed
to be taken very seriously.

But Snyder’s right, go where the storm takes you.

It would help to have an additional set of eyes and ears in
the house with her. Their knowledge of hurricanes and violent storms would be
an asset to anyone they worked with. That’s what made them all the perfect team
when it came to chasing.

But she couldn’t ignore the fact the timing couldn’t be
worse.

Scowling, Kate picked her keys off the nail in the wall and
tapped her finger against her lips as she absently opened the front door. She
came to an abrupt halt after slamming hard into a solid surface, the force
knocking the breath out of her.

Strong, and familiar, hands came around her shoulders to
steady her and she found herself staring up into two smiling faces that
immediately weakened her knees.

Chapter Four

It only took a few hours for the men to settle in and for
Kate to finally set up her equipment. The information she needed would take
another few hours to download and compile, so she’d wandered out to the back
porch to wait. She’d needed to get out of the house in order to put some
distance between her and her new occupants.

No one had said anything, but she suspected they wanted to
know why she’d left. But she couldn’t tell them. Or rather, she could, she just
didn’t want to. She hadn’t come to terms with it completely herself, and until
she did, it was something she had to work through on her own.

As long as they didn’t ask her, everything would be all
right. They could stick to that vow she’d made long before she’d ever made the
choice to sleep with them in Kansas.

Strictly professional.

Some of that professionalism had wavered as she’d watched
the two men interact with each other as they brought in extra supplies. She’d seen
the heated glance that passed between them on the stairs. And she hadn’t missed
the covert pat on the ass Tripp had given Snyder, nor the accompanying sweet
kiss Snyder had brushed across Tripp’s cheek in thanks. Each time she thought
about the men together, tension built inside her and, unable to stand it
anymore, she’d escaped out onto the back porch. Her hope had been neither man
would follow, but luck wasn’t on her side.

She swallowed nervously, adjusting the way she sat on the
wide bannister of the porch as she turned to see who had joined her. Tripp
carried two cans of diet soda and handed one to her as he slid next to her on
the railing.

“Nice place you have here.”

“Thanks.”

She popped the soda open and swallowed, grateful to have
something to wet her throat. No reason to keep the truth about this place from
them, since they were here now. She’d never made it a secret there was
dissension within her family, but out chasing, she’d never had to face it
head-on with them in tow.

“The beauty is all superficial. There are a lot of painful
memories here. We used to come during the summer. Without fail, just after
Memorial Day, we’d pack up the car and drive down here. Then pack up again just
before Labor Day and go home.”

The setting sun to the west highlighted the subtle shades of
gold in his brown hair, and the long shadows made the angles of his face seem
harsher than she remembered. Even though he sat casually beside her, she
detected a sense of tension under the surface. It was evident he was afraid of
saying the wrong thing, making some mistake to spook her again.

She wanted to say something to make him feel more
comfortable, but when she was so unsure herself, what was there to say? The
silence between them drew out, lengthening like the rays of the setting sun on
the other side of the house.

Tripp cleared his throat and shattered the silence. “Can I
ask why you say painful memories? Most of us would be lucky to have that with
our families. I know my parents couldn’t be bothered with that kind of family
time.”

Family had always been so important to her parents, at least
on the surface. She’d learned that lesson when she’d hit her teens and
discovered they were more interested in the upkeep of their social stature than
the fresh tears of a brokenhearted teen.

“That’s just it. We were family here. For nearly three
months every year, we were a family. As happy as those times were, they also
stood as a reminder of what would vanish the second the car pulled out of the
driveway.”

“Really?”

Kate nodded, staring out at the crashing waves of the Gulf a
block away. “Hard to believe, isn’t it? Back home, Mom and Dad seemed to be
more worried about their social standing and their causes. By all appearances,
my parents had the perfect life. Perfect marriage, perfect careers. Family,
home—shit, even the dog was perfect.” She snorted as she remembered the
high-pitched yip of her mother’s champion Pekinese.

“That can wear on someone.” He took a long drink of his soda
and set the can beside his leg. “If those memories hurt so much, why are you
here?”

“Here, we just were. We’d make mistakes, we’d laugh and cry
and…we were happy. Some of the few times we were happy.” She paused, recalling
the phone call she’d placed when she made the decision to come here after
running a preliminary forecast model.

“My mother didn’t even care when I called to tell her I
wanted to come here to track a hurricane. Didn’t even ask me if I thought it
was headed for the island. It was as if I was bothering her. Taking her away
from her social engagements or something.”

That reaction was what made Kate realize her summers here
meant more to her than to the rest of her family. She hadn’t bothered to
contact her brothers because she feared the same reaction. The heavy weight of
recent disappointments already put her in a foul mood. She wasn’t interested in
juggling even more.

“Maybe she thinks it’s time to move on. Find somewhere else
to make memories instead of hanging on.”

Tripp’s logic made sense. Deep in her gut, Kate knew he was
right. She needed to move on with her life, but she couldn’t. An enormous
amount of upheaval and chaos made her want to be in the one place she was
familiar with. “Good or bad, these memories are all I have, Tripp.”

His expression softened and he reached out to skim his fingers
over her jaw. The pad of his thumb brushed against her skin and she realized
his touch was a comfort she missed. “Then maybe it’s time for you to make new
ones. You can’t keep living in the past, Kate. You have a life and a career.
Not to mention two devastatingly handsome men by your side.”

Kate snorted and immediately sobered despite Tripp’s smile.
“I spent so many summer’s baking to a crisp right on that very beach. It’s hard
to let that kind of thing go.”

“A teenage Kate in a bikini. I would’ve liked to have seen
that.”

“I wasn’t much. Pretty gangly as a kid. No boobs to speak
of.”

He scooted closer, wrapping his arms around her as he pulled
her against him. “But yet you’ve blossomed into the gorgeous woman you are
today.”

He felt so good against her. So right and someone she could
get very used to getting lost in. It was dangerous to feel so comfortable here
in his arms, but a few minutes couldn’t hurt, right?

She buried her nose in his chest, inhaling the familiar
scent of his soap that mixed with the sharp salt air from the water. “I don’t
deserve you two.”

“Bullshit, you have every right to be with us.”

Those soft words were a weight in her chest, and despite the
pain it caused, she pulled away from the warmth of his body. He muttered a
protest as she hopped off the railing. She stopped after opening the door and
glanced back over her shoulder.

He looked so damn handsome sitting there with the panoramic
view of the beach spread out behind him. Disappointment darkened his gaze and
she fought to find the courage necessary to walk away.

A gust of wind blew through the porch, whistling against the
aging planks. The sound reminded her of the violent storm that had gotten her
into this predicament in the first place.

Instead of courage, that reminder gave her the strength to
do what she had to.

“I can’t, I’m sorry.”

* * * * *

Snyder leaned against the wall and quietly watched Kate
work. The television across the room blared as a meteorologist talked about the
hurricane’s brush with an island in the Caribbean.

The interaction with Cuba caused it to lose some of its
energy, but not all. But it was enough to still cause concern about their
position. The island wasn’t forecasted for a direct hit, but nearby Galveston
to the north had suffered from several devastating hurricanes through recorded
history. These kinds of storms were unpredictable. Ultimately, it was what made
chasing so much fun.

Paper shuffled and he looked away from the television to
find Kate smiling at him.

The glasses she wore when she worked on the computer sat on
the end of her nose and were endearing to him. “You hate just sitting here,
don’t you?”

She shrugged. “Somewhat. Chasing hurricanes requires a
completely different approach to tornadoes. A lot of sitting around doing a
bunch of nothing.”

“You know how it is. Spend the spring chasing tornadoes and
then summer waiting for the hurricanes to chase you. Boredom central.”

One of her eyebrows rose as she reached for the glass near
her mouse. “Says the man who flies into the heart of some of those violent
storms.”

“Always have to go where the action is.” The air between
them crackled with energy from his meaning and he cleared his throat to snap
everything back into focus. He gestured to the screens in front of her with his
chin. “Anything different?”

“No. Still looks to hit New Orleans head-on. The front
pushing off the Pacific won’t get here soon enough to affect the track they’ve
been calling for.”

“And what do you think?” Computer models and forecast tracks
were one thing, but nothing beat good old-fashioned instinct. Kate had it in
spades and that’s what made her so damn good at what she did.

She snorted and swirled the cursor around on the screen.
“They get paid the big bucks, not me. I’m just a professor with a lab and a few
brave souls who follow me out into the heart of the monster.”

“Kate, cut the bullshit.”

The glass hit the countertop with a heavy thud. “It’s going
to shift, Snyder. That front is going to move differently than the computer
models are suggesting because of this right here.” She tapped the screen and
Snyder pushed away from the wall to cross to her. He came to stand next to the
table and leaned closer for a look, curious as to what she was up to.

She’d created her own storm track and overlaid it with the
forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Though the
line was nearly the same for the next day, after that Kate’s forecast veered
further to the west with a sharp curve NOAA’s model didn’t indicate. He leaned
closer as she hit a button to put the map into motion.

“We’re looking at a direct hit. Almost as if we had a great
big target on my roof.” Sometimes it was all about knowing your gut and he’d
bet anything those instincts drove her forecast. Kate sighed heavily as she
pushed away from the table. “Though I don’t think it’s going to strengthen any
more. Unless I’m wrong about that too.”

Doubt was a natural part of this business and he’d seen her
have it enough to know she didn’t truly believe she’d made an error. “Should I
remind you that after five years of chasing together you’ve never been wrong?”

Her eyes cut to the computer. “I think in this case I wish I
was.”

“Wish you were what?” Tripp’s voice, still thick with sleep,
sounded behind Snyder. He pressed a quick kiss to the back of Snyder’s neck as
he passed, and Snyder took a moment to admire the way his ass moved under the
towel he’d slung around his hips. “Got any coffee?”

“Third cabinet on the left. Top shelf.”

Snyder watched Kate’s focus return to the laptop but he’d
seen something that caused him to smile. It had been subtle, and if he hadn’t
been watching her, he would have missed it completely.

But seen it he had.

That faint shimmer of those strong eyes, the flash of red on
her cheeks when Tripp came up behind him and kissed his neck, was hard to
simply ignore. Whatever reason had driven her out of the hotel room that night
hadn’t been because of the lack of desire. The brief flare had been enough to
tell him she wanted them both still.

Lucky for them, sitting around waiting for this monster to
get here at the end of the week left him plenty of time to get to the bottom of
things. One of the few times he was certainly going to appreciate the downtime.

But evidently it would not be right now as she pushed away
from the counter. “I’m going to take a shower. Save me some coffee.”

Kate tossed her glasses down in front of the computer and
left so quickly, Snyder wondered why there weren’t skid marks on the floor.

“Like a skittish mouse.”

Snyder turned and smiled at Tripp. “You noticed too?”

Tripp gestured to him with a glass of orange juice, which he
accepted. “Oh hell yeah.”

Leave it to Tripp to never miss a beat. He loved that about
him. Loved they both saw the same thing, even though it confused them and gave
no indication on how to fix it. “She was fine until you walked in.”

“My sexual prowess has that effect on people.”

Snyder snorted and took a few gulps of his drink.
“Something’s up.”

“I noticed that yesterday when I talked to her outside.
Tensed up right away as soon as I got near. Never fully relaxed, and when I
pushed some, she bolted. Maybe she just has a lot on her mind with the storm
churning out there. She’s always felt differently about the hurricanes than we
do. Remember when she said she felt the draw to chase the storms, but she was
always more attracted to the ones over land.”

Snyder had already thought the same, but something still
wasn’t right. “Maybe. But she’s always been able to keep her focus on the
storms. It’s what makes her so good at this. She just seems…”

“Scatterbrained?”

Thank God he wasn’t the only one who noticed. “A bit, yeah.
Not sure I’m comfortable with that.”

“Think what either of us wants doesn’t matter. Especially
since she walked out on us.”

Snyder walked over to Kate’s computer and moved the mouse to
stop the screensaver. The bright-yellow line she’d used for her forecast track
stood out against the deep-blue of the Gulf of Mexico. “I meant more with her
being here and riding this storm out. She’d got a computer model that is
nowhere close to what everyone else thinks. It’s wildly different than the
three models put out by the best computers in the world.”