Chapter Text
Buck stared down at his phone in confusion.
Your flight from Harrisburg to Tulsa has been changed!
He groaned. He was supposed to board that flight in a little under three hours. He was pretty sure he didn’t have it in him to stay here any longer. He just wanted to get the hell out of here and back to his team. Two days under the same roof as his parents was more than enough to remind himself why he only came back once a year. Even Maddie didn’t come back this often.
He sighed and pushed his glasses up to his forehead to try and rub away the headache that had settled in-between his eyes the moment his mother had opened the front door.
Before he even had a chance to figure out what was going on with his flights his phone buzzed once as a notification from his Delta app flashed across the top of the screen at him.
You have been checked into your flight from MDT to OMA! Boarding begins at 3:30 PM.
What the—
Omaha? Why was he flying to Omaha?
A second later his phone started buzzing and Bobby’s face smiled up at him.
And now it was starting to fall into place. Bobby was the only other person with access to his SkyMiles number. He glanced down at his watch. It was 2:47, he was cutting it close.
“Bobby?” He asked as he answered the phone and started heading for security. He only had his duffle bag so there was no reason to stop at the front desk. “What is going on? Why are we going to Omaha?”
“Hey, kid. How are you?” Bobby asked, instead of answering his question.
Buck sighed. “Oh you know, as fine as I can be after listening to my mother berate me every second she wasn’t totally ignoring my existence.” He rubbed at his forehead again. “Really though, Bobby, why are we going to Omaha?”
Bobby sighed heavily. “Sal quit this morning.”
“He what? ” Buck asked. He really wished he could be surprised, but he wasn’t. Sal and Bobby had been at each other’s throats for weeks. Seems like half a year away from each other hadn’t calmed the man down after his last blowout with Bobby. Buck just wished it wasn’t when they were already a month into the most active tornado season they’d had in a decade.
“Yeah.” Bobby sighed. “We have an old friend in Omaha, someone who used to work with us before you joined. Chimney called in a favor, we’re heading up there now to see if we can convince him. Hen and Eddie are joining us tomorrow.”
Buck frowned. A new driver? He was still getting used to Ravi being on the team and he’d known the kid for two years now.
“Who?”
——
Tommy Kinard was not what Buck had been expecting. He’d left the team a year before Buck joined so he’d only ever heard stories about him. Along with only one kind of blurry picture of the team before he’d joined and started documenting their travels much better he really didn’t know what to expect. Chim’s stories of the man had always seemed larger than life and had him maybe expecting this loud brash man with a bit of an ego because he knew how much of a badass he was and carried himself like so.
The Tommy Kinard standing in front of him was not like that.
Yes, he was as big and broad shouldered as Buck had imagined him, with a handsome face that was dusted with a few days old stubble. His eyes were a deep blue that threatened to drown him the longer he looked.
But he had a gentle thoughtfulness around him as he reached forward to take Buck’s hand.
“Hi, I’m Tommy, sounds like I’m gonna be your driver for the season.” He smiled as Buck shook his hand. His hands were rough and warm and his teeth were so white and his eyes crinkled at the corners making Buck’s insides go a little melty. It was a little overwhelming to have all of Tommy Kinard’s attention on him.
You can drive me anywhere you want, Buck wanted to say. Instead he stuttered out a quick, “E-Evan. My name is Evan Buckley.”
“Nice to meet you, Evan,” Tommy said, his smile widening into a grin, crinkling his eyes even more. Behind him Buck ignored the puzzled look on Chimney’s face. He was still shaking his hand and Buck let go carefully to not seem like a freak when his hand started to get clammy. He pulled his hand back to grip the duffle bag strap across his chest.
“Uh, yeah, ni-nice to meet you too, Tommy.” Buck smiled, his tongue felt like it was stuck in his throat.
“Are you hungry? We can stop and get you something on the way back to the house,” Tommy said, turning towards the door and for some reason the angle drew Buck’s eyes down to the man’s chin.
Why was the cleft so hot?
He swore he physically felt the record scratch in his brain.
Wait what?
Why did he think that was hot?
Huh.
Well it seemed like this was going to be a thing.
“Evan?” Chimney hissed at him as they trailed after Tommy following him out to his truck.
“Shut up.” Buck hissed back, his face feeling hot to the point his glasses were starting to fog a bit. “I’ve been at my parent’s all weekend, it’s all I’ve heard.”
“Suuure.” Chimney drawled, popping his gum at him before jogging to catch up with Tommy.
Buck still trailed behind them a bit to sort his thoughts. His eyes drifted down to Tommy’s ass, perfectly hugged by the jeans he was wearing—
He sighed.
This was gonna be a long summer.
——
“I can’t believe Sal just upped and quit right in the middle of the craziest tornado season we’ve had in years,” Evan said, and took a giant bite of the California burrito Tommy handed him as he drove away from the 24 hour Mexican place a few blocks away from his house.
“I can,” Tommy and Howie said at the same time, sharing a glance as Tommy turned back onto the main road.
Listen, Tommy liked Sal. Maybe even loved the guy. He was the first best friend he’d ever had back when they were dumb teenagers in high school getting into all kinds of trouble. Sal had saved his life on more than one occasion even if he didn’t fully understand that. Tommy owed him a lot.
But that didn’t change the fact that Sal was the most temperamental son of a bitch he’d ever known.
“Like obviously I knew he and Bobby have had their problems, but I thought he might have waited until the end of the season. Like, did you know that this time last year there had been 589 confirmed tornadoes and by the end of the summer there were 836?” Evan rambled as he took another bite of the burrito, his words going muffled for a few moments before he swallowed. “This year alone there have been 1,097 confirmed tornadoes. That’s insane . We haven’t seen a storm season like this in years. It could potential rival 2011 and 2004 for most tornadoes on record— and the tornadoes themselves have been crazy—”
Evan kept rambling and Tommy couldn’t help but hang onto his every word. When Bobby and Howie showed up on his doorstep earlier this evening he didn’t think this is how his night would go, but damn if he wasn’t happy about it.
“The tornadoes this spring have been more intense than any other in the last five years.” Another bite, some chewing, and a swallow and then— “I still think we had our first EF-5 since 2013. Everything I wrote in my senior paper for my undergrad still stands I think the whole Fujita scale needs to be overhauled—”
“Buck, why don’t you take a break and breathe? Maybe chew your food? Bobby would kill me if you choked on my watch,” Howie said.
In the rear view mirror Tommy watched as Evan stuck his tongue out at the back of Howie’s head before taking another vicious bite of his burrito. He snorted and turned his eyes back to the road as he approached his neighborhood.
“Where is Bobby anyway?” Evan asked.
“Athena’s in town,” Howie said.
“Ah.”
“Yeah, Hen and Eddie don’t get into town until tomorrow. So he’s staying the night at her hotel while we’re stuck with Tommy at his old house.” Chimney explained. “We’ll probably take a day to regroup and then head out.”
“Hey now.” Tommy said, pulling into his driveway and looking up at the old split level house that had once belonged to his grandmother in her later years. “It may be old but it’s still mine.”
“I’m sure it’s great, Tommy,” Evan said quickly, unbuckling his belt. “Thanks for letting us stay on such short notice.”
“Anything for an old friend,” Tommy said. And maybe a new one.
There was a loud bark that startled Tommy when he opened the door that was quickly followed by an excited squeal of “DANNY!” As Evan dropped to his knees in the tiny foyer to greet the golden retriever. He forgot they had also shown up with “Buck’s dog”. The large golden lumbered down the stairs and nearly knocked Evan on his back. All while Tommy and Howie were left standing on the porch.
Tommy waited patiently and even Howie kept quiet as the golden licked all over Evan’s face as his tail wagged excitedly to see his person. He could tell that Evan needed this.
Another head popped around the corner from his kitchen… Ravi, he was pretty sure.
“Hey Buck! How was your trip?” Ravi asked.
“Hey Probie,” Evan said standing up. His face shuttered and he was back to the heavy tiredness that had dragged his shoulders down when Tommy first saw him in the airport. He decided he didn’t like that look on Evan, the easy smiles were much better. “The trip was fine, really quick there and back.”
Howie was frowning and pulling his phone out as Tommy kicked his boots off by the front door and followed them up the stairs.
“So I’ve already claimed the guest bedroom.” Howie declared, tapping away at his phone. “You two can fight it out over who gets the pull out couch and who gets the air mattress.”
“Um, have you seen Buck? I’m not getting into that argument with him again.” Ravi sighed, already reaching for the box the air mattress was in that Tommy had left on the coffee table.
And yes, Tommy had seen him, thank you very much. He couldn’t stop seeing him. He would certainly be seeing Evan in his dreams tonight.
He didn’t know if he had met anyone who could be more his type. Tall, broad shouldered, the bluest eyes and a killer smile that could put him on his knees. He just seemed so genuine and fun and he was smart too, spitting out facts quicker than Tommy could keep up with. Tommy had only known Evan for an hour, but he liked to think he was good at reading people after so many years of bartending, and Evan seemed like the best kind of person.
He’d said yes when Howie and Bobby had asked if he could be their driver for the rest of the season but he’d still been a little uncertain about getting back out there. But for a chance to get to know Evan better? He’d be their driver until he couldn’t drive anymore.
——
“Hey Mads.” Buck smiled when his sister appeared on the screen. “I’ve missed you. How are you feeling?”
Maddie smiled back at him. “Feeling really good. I think I am truly past the last of the morning sickness and Albert’s been a big help now that I’ve grown to the size of a hot air balloon.”
“Oh come on, you’re not that big.” Buck laughed lightly.
“Tell that to my back.” Maddie huffed.
They talked about mundane things for a few more minutes before Maddie finally asked the question he knew was coming ever since she texted and asked to video call him.
“How are you doing? Really? I’m sorry I couldn’t come with you.”
“No, Maddie, it’s okay. Don’t apologize. I know you don’t like going back there. You don’t need the stress.”
“You don’t like going out there either, Evan,” Maddie said quietly. “I don’t know why you keep doing this to yourself.”
“You know why I do it.” He replied quietly, looking away over Tommy’s yard and watching the lightning bugs blink in the bushes.
“He wouldn’t want you to put yourself through that. He wouldn’t want you to keep punishing yourself.”
“Well we don’t always get what we want do we?” Buck said harshly. Maddie frowned at him and he winced. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“It’s okay.”
They were quiet for a few moments and the wind rustled the trees in the yard. The warm summer breeze was soothing as it washed over him. He would never admit it but the humidity wasn’t all that bad, not when it felt like this… like Daniel was still around. He picked at the old worn bracelet around his wrist.
“Did Chim tell you what we were having?” Maddie asked suddenly.
Evan’s face broke into a grin, cracking through the melancholy. Chim had hollered “It’s a girl!” at him the moment he’d stepped through security. “It was the first thing he shouted at me when he picked me up at the airport. Congrats! I can’t wait to meet my niece.”
“Well you stay smart this summer and you’ll be able to come meet her when she gets here in October.” Maddie smiled and Buck could see her hand rubbing over the top of her belly. She let out a big yawn.
“It’s getting late. I should let you go to bed.”
“It’s later where you are and I know you still want to talk.” Maddie had always been able to read him like an open book. It had been annoying sometimes, but he was thankful he had her as his big sister.
“I’m not the one who’s five months pregnant. Go get some sleep, we’ll talk more tomorrow.”
Maddie bid him good night and he closed his eyes and leaned back in the patio chair and just listened to the air.
He did this sometimes. Chim and Eddie would tease him about it, calling him the “atmosphere whisperer” which was not clever at all; they could definitely do better. He would tease back and ask if his whispering had let them down yet (it hadn’t). You could have all the scientific equipment in the world but sometimes you just needed to listen to what the forces of nature had to say.
He didn’t know how long he sat there until he felt a cold wet nose nudge his arm and a soft whine. He cracked an eye open and let out a yawn rubbing at his eyes, geez he might have actually fallen asleep.
Danny was sitting on his haunches in front of him, head in his lap, and Tommy Kinard was standing behind him, arms folded across his chest.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to bother you. Your dog was getting a little antsy watching you out here,” Tommy said.
“Oh, no you’re okay. Sorry, about that, he has some separation anxiety and I’ve been gone for a couple of days.” Buck leaned forward to scratch behind Danny’s ears. The golden retriever perked up and his tail started wagging across the deck behind him.
“That’s what Howie was saying.” Tommy sat down on the chair next to him. “Mind if I…?”
“It’s your house, dude.” Buck chuckled. “We’re the ones totally taking over your space.”
“Ah it’s fine.” Tommy smiled, his eyes twinkling in the dim porch light as he looked over at Buck. “It’s not the first time Howie has invaded my life and turned it upside down.”
“Yeah? How’d you meet? “
“Howie spun out on a dirt road and absolutely destroyed one of the chasing cars they had in the way early days before the RV. They brought it into my shop and the thing was a piece of junk anyway, there was no saving it and I told them they needed a better driver—”
“Literally anyone is a better driver than Chim.”
“I know.” Tommy laughed and it made Buck feel warm. Danny wandered over to the other man and Tommy scratched the top of his head. “Bobby asked me if I wanted to be that driver.”
“Just like that?”
“Well, I had known Sal since we were kids and I think he might have set up the whole thing. I was kind of listless after the Army— barely had my GED, no idea what I wanted out of life and Sal knew that.” Tommy sighed, smoothing back the fur on the top of Danny’s head. “I loved it, feeling like I was part of something again.”
“Why’d you quit?” Buck asked.
“My grandma got sick.” Tommy shrugged. He was playing with Danny’s ears now, rubbing his thumbs across them while the golden practically fell asleep in his lap. “She had been sick before and she was getting bad fast so I came back to help her with the bar and spend time with her. She died about three years ago and now I run the bar. It’s good, keeps me busy.”
Buck nodded along even though he couldn’t imagine a life where he wasn’t out there doing what he loved. He did like listening to Tommy talk though, even with the faint wistfulness that echoed after each of his stories.
He was in the middle of telling Tommy a story of his own, from their chasing season last year about Eddie and how he got stuck in mud up to his thighs and they had to call the fire department to come get him, when he let out a jaw shattering yawn.
“Jesus, sorry.” Buck let out another yawn and raised his hand to cover it.
“Don’t be.” Tommy waved him off and went to stand. Danny, who had long settled into a spot between both of their chairs stood up and stretched out his back. “It’s late and Howie told me you had a long day today.”
Buck stood up with him and stretched his arms above his head, he still felt stiff from the four hours of flying and layover he had. He was exhausted but at least his headache was gone. “What time is it even?” He asked, looking around for his phone.
“2:17,” Tommy said before letting out his own yawn.
Buck’s eyes went wide. He’d been on the phone with Maddie at 10:00 and it wasn’t even that long of a call. He hadn’t even realized how late it was.
“What! You should have told me to shut up and let you go to bed or something,” Buck said. “I’m so sorry—”
“Evan, relax.” Tommy chuckled lowly. “I regularly work until 2 in the morning. If I wasn’t enjoying myself I would have said something. I didn’t realize how late it was either, if anything I shouldn’t have kept you up.”
Buck frowned at him. That didn’t seem right. “I—”
“Trust me, Evan,” Tommy said and there was something about the way he said his name that sent a tingle up his spine. “I liked listening to you talk and if you didn’t notice you let me talk just as much.”
“That feels like a lie, but I’ll take your word for it.” Buck smiled.
Tommy slid the glass door open to let Danny in and stood by to wait for Buck. There was a broad smile on his face.
“Thank you,” he said and Tommy would never know but he wasn’t talking about the door. It’d been nice to talk to someone who didn’t know where he’d been the past weekend. Someone who wasn’t waiting for him to fall apart after the visit to his parents. It made him feel real again.
——
The skies were blue and the sun was shining and not a cloud was in sight when Hen and Eddie arrived the next day around noon with Bobby and the RV.
He’d woken up late in the morning to the sun in his face, streaming in through the big windows in Tommy’s living room and the smell of bacon and something cinnamon-y in the air. He yawned and sat up stretching his arms, the springs in the pullout couch creaking along with the cracks of his spine.
For an old pull out sofa bed it wasn’t half bad, though he might need Hen to massage the knots out of his back later when she was around. It was better than an air mattress at least, he never slept when he was on one of those things.
He let out a jaw cracking yawn and swung his legs over the edge of the mattress to the floor. He was still yawning as he shuffled into the kitchen to find Chimney sitting at the table eating and talking with Tommy who was standing at the stove still cooking. Danny’s head was sitting in Chimney’s lap, begging for a piece of bacon.
Chimney had no doubt already given him a piece or four.
“Good morning sleepyhead.” Chimney grinned.
Buck hummed and sat down at the table right as a steaming mug of coffee was put in front of him.
“Morning Evan!” Tommy smiled. “How do you take your eggs?”
“Uh…” He blinked at the mug of coffee as his brain tried valiantly to boot up faster. “Scrambled is okay.” He blinked at the coffee again and perked up a bit when he saw some hazelnut creamer. “Um, thanks Tommy.”
“No problem!” He said cheerily over his shoulder, turning back towards the stove.
Danny momentarily came over to him sniffing at him to see if he had any food before moving to sit next to Tommy by the stove. Buck smiled as Tommy reached down and patted the dog on the head.
“Am I the last one up?” He yawned, turning to look at Chimney.
“Yeah.” Chim nodded, scooping the last of his eggs off the plate and into his mouth. “Ravi’s in the shower,” he said, standing up to rinse his plate off.
Buck nodded and tried to rub the last of the tiredness from his eyes. He took another sip of his coffee and thought about everything he needed to do today mentally making a to-do list in his head. He’d have to go get his planner out of his bag when he was a little more awake.
“Not a morning person?” Tommy asked, setting a plate down in front of Buck and taking Chimney’s spot with his own plate of food and reaching for the syrup at the center of the table.
“Uh, depends actually,” he said. “I’m not usually up until odd hours of the morning.”
“Well I hope breakfast can make up for that.” Tommy smiled at him and Buck smiled back.
Danny dropped his head down on his lap heavily with a whine causing Buck to look down at him. Buck scratched behind his ears, flopping them over his eyes with a coo. “You don’t need anymore bacon, buddy.”
Danny gave him a small bark but stayed settled in his lap.
On their plates were scrambled eggs, a few strips of bacon, and a couple small slices of French toast.
“This looks great ,Tommy, you didn’t have to do this,” Buck said, picking up the fork Tommy had left on the plate.
Tommy just shrugged. “I have some food I need to use up before we hit the road, whatever we don’t use today I’ll leave with my bar manager tonight when I stop by.”
“Sorry for interrupting your life like this.” He apologized.
“Not your fault Sal’s a temperamental asshole. Besides I owed Howie a favor.” Tommy replied with a small laugh.
Buck wanted to hear it again.
“Oh?”
Tommy’s lips quirked up on one side. “Howie saved my life about eight years ago when a twister suddenly turned the opposite direction it had been tracking—” Buck’s eyes widened and he wanted to know more, but he kept quiet and let Tommy keep talking. “We were stuck in the middle of a field, half a mile away from the truck with a tornado coming straight at us. We took off running when suddenly Howie drags me to the side and throws me in an irrigation ditch and jumps in right next to me.”
“Oh wow.”
“Yeah, we got far enough to the side that the tornado went by us instead of over us but it was still one of the scariest moments of my life.”
Buck could understand that. The scariest moment of his life had also involved a tornado.
“So there we are, half drowning in mud, bruised to hell from flying debris when Howie sits up and looks at me and goes ‘You owe me for that’,” Tommy laughs brightly and Buck feels warm on the inside. “I’ve probably paid him back about ten times over at this point, but I could never say no to him.”
They continued to chat while they ate and Buck soaked up everything he could learn about the other man. So far he knew that Tommy was an only child. He owned a bar that his grandmother had started as a safe space for the lesbian community in the early 80s. He’d lived in Nebraska for his whole life save for the few years he was in the Army and stationed in Virginia before being deployed to Iraq twice. And when he smiled he did it with his whole face.
He was just so interesting.
He really hoped they could be friends this summer.
“Bobby’s here!” Chimney called from down the hall a few moments before the doorbell rang and Tommy stood to get it.
Buck watched him cross the room and jog down the stairs to the door. His ass looked just as good in those sweats as they did in jeans. Yeah that was definitely going to be a thing wasn’t it?
He let out a sigh and below the table Danny echoed it, forlorn at being denied more bacon.
A moments later Bobby’s face appeared at the stairs with Hen and Eddie close behind and his face cracked into a smile, his minorly inconvenient crisis temporarily forgotten.
——
“Tommy, do you still have the truck?” Chimney asked once Buck was freshly showered and they were all sitting around Tommy’s dining room table discussing the goals and plans for the rest of the season.
“Of course I still have the truck.” Tommy scoffed, cuffing Chimney on the shoulder. “It’s out back in the other garage.”
“You have two garages?” Buck asked.
“I have two trucks.” Tommy replied simply like that explained everything. Buck wouldn’t know, he wasn’t a car guy, but Eddie was nodding along like that made complete sense.
“This is the best storm chasing truck ever,” Chim said as Tommy led them all out to the back garage. “This thing has gotten us out of more jams than you would believe.”
“Are you counting the bar fight in—” Tommy started as he unlocked the padlock.
“Yes I’m counting the bar fight,” Chimney said.
“I didn’t know if we were gonna end the night in a jail cell or hospital bed.” Hen laughed and Bobby shook his head with a huff.
Buck watched them all go back and forth, feeling completely lost, and by the looks on Eddie and Ravi’s faces they felt the same, which made him feel better at least.
Tommy rolled the door of the garage upwards to reveal a brilliantly blue painted truck with a big bull bar across the front bumper and an extra set of lights across the top. It was an older model of the truck Tommy had driven them home in last night but it looked to be in pristine condition.
“There she is.” Chimney sighed and Buck elbowed him in the arm.
“Am I gonna have to tell my sister she got her man stolen by a truck?”
He laughed as Chimney started smacking him with one of the nearby work rags. Danny started barking at him, thinking it was a game until Buck grabbed his ball and threw it across the yard a few times while Tommy, Eddie, and Chimney discussed any modifications that needed to be made to the truck and Buck listened with half an ear.
The three of them were still talking about the truck when Buck’s arm started to get tired and he needed a rest. He headed back into the house where Bobby and Hen had long since retreated, both sitting at the table with their laptops open in front of them. Buck smiled at them and after making sure his water bottle was full of water sat down next to Bobby where he still had a good view of the back garage. Chim was waving his hand wildly making Tommy and Eddie both laugh.
“The boys are still talking about their toys?” Hen asked dryly with a raised eyebrow.
Buck huffed. “I think so? I honestly did not understand half of what was coming out of their mouths and I helped Chimney and Eddie out all the time!”
Chim and Eddie were their resident engineers. They built most of what they used every day from scratch and improved upon the stuff they hadn’t. They had brought to life several of Buck’s ideas over the years.
He and Bobby were the meteorologists, reading the radars and looking at all the variables to figure out where the best storms would be brewing. They were the ones who decided where they went and what storms to chase. He’d known Bobby since his undergrad years when the man had taken him under his wing, all the way up through his doctoral studies mentoring him the entire way. He didn’t know where he would be without Bobby.
Hen was a climatologist. She was researching all the ways climate change was affecting the weather patterns and creating stronger and more violent storms every year and what they could do to reverse it.
Ravi was their meteorologist in training. He was in his third year of his undergraduate studies. Buck had taught one of his entry level science courses his freshman year as part of his own doctorate work and they’d been friends ever since. He was in his summer internship and still a little wary of actually chasing the storms but he seemed to be doing good so far.
He could hear him in the other room muttering to himself while he studied. He was a good kid.
Over the next few hours between reading radars and models and atmospheric measurements he and Bobby decided that their best bet would likely be in Oklahoma over the next few days which gave them enough time to finish here and drive the six hours south to get ready for the chase the following day.
Eventually Tommy, Eddie, and Chim all returned indoors declaring that the truck would only need a few minor modifications to get it fully ready which would take them a week or so but it would at least be ready for a chase or two.
With their plans decided and ready to be set into motion the next day, Bobby went back to Athena’s hotel and the rest of them decided to trail after Tommy to have a chill night at his bar.
——
“You sure it’s okay that I do this?” Tommy asked as he finished looking over the books one last time to make sure everything was in order before he was gone for the next two and a half months. He hadn’t been away from the bar this long since he’d taken over.
“Yes, Tommy.” Melton, his bar manager, said. He’d worked with Tommy’s grandmother and knew the ins and outs of the business better than even he did. “We’ll be fine. This will be good for you.”
“You excited, boss?” Lucy asked. He would never tell her but she was one of his favorite bartenders on the nights she wasn’t studying for her masters degree.
His eyes drifted over to the booth where his friends were sitting, old and hopefully new, laughing together as Evan exaggeratedly waved his arms and told a story.
Hen and Howie were as stalwart as ever, it was something that he liked about them, they adapted and grew when they needed to but their core always remained the same.
He and Eddie had clicked faster than he’d probably ever clicked with anybody after finding they had several shared interests from cars to UFC and probably several more they would discover over the next few months.
Ravi seemed like a good kid. He liked him. He hadn’t talked to him much yet but he seemed enthusiastic about what he was doing with his life, which is more than Tommy could say about his own life.
Bobby had seemed the same as ever but settled with himself in a way he’d never seen before.
And then there was Evan.
Tommy tried really hard to keep it together around the man, but every time Evan turned those inquisitive blue eyes and bright smile his way he could feel his heart start stuttering rapidly in his chest. He hadn’t been lying when he told Evan that he’d been enjoying himself the night before on his back porch. Evan was so easy to talk to that he hadn’t realized four hours had gone by until they started yawning.
“Ohhhh,” Lucy said.
He whipped his head back towards her with a withering glare.
“Oh what?” Melton asked, looking up from where he’d been double checking the books for Tommy. His gaze followed Lucy’s and Tommy saw the moment understanding dawned in his eyes. “Ohhhh.”
“Shut up.”
“The boss has a crush!” Lucy squealed.
“Keep your voice down!” Tommy whispered loudly at her, his face flaming, but he could still hear the others laughing on the other side of the bar completely unaware.
“This will be really good for you then.” Lucy grinned before it softened into a more friendly smile. “He seems nice.”
Tommy glanced back towards where Evan was currently gathering everyone’s empty glasses and discarded trash. When he turned around to see Tommy looking at him he smiled brightly. Tommy smiled back.
“Oh you got it bad.” Lucy giggled (which she would vehemently deny) and Tommy rolled his eyes at her. He could feel the tips of his ears burning.
“Shut up,” He said again because he couldn’t argue. Evan walked up to them with a bright smile asking for another round. He did have it bad.