[ felt wrong leaving you on a cliffhanger ]

☁︎

WE AIN'T GOT NO BUSINESS FOOLIN' AROUND WITH A TEENAGER.

CAROLINA WAS TUCKED AWAY ON THE COUCH UP IN THE HAYLOFT, her climatology textbook book open on her lap and Frodo at her feet. She was trying to forget about the two men roaming around her house, helping her mother when she asked. God, how was she not meant to fall harder when Boone offered to fix the leaky faucet in the bathroom and Tyler was fixing the loose floorboard in the kitchen so Cathy stopped tripping?

She shook her head, trying to shake away thoughts of them, as she focused back on the paragraph she'd read twice now, highlighting meaningless words. It was something about the effects of modern farming methods on climate change.

Rather than read, she just closed her eyes, feeling exhausted even though it was a good three hours too early to even think about going to bed. She closed her book and turned on her side, curling up into a ball, wishing that her life were a little less complicated.

And just when she was on the cusp of sleep, her tired mind faintly heard two sets of heavy footsteps that certainly didn't belong to her mother and sister. Rather than move, she just kept her eyes closed, hoping they'd leave before they realized where she was.

She'd much rather sleep than have it out with them at the moment.

"She in here?" Boone asked, clearly looking for Carolina.

"Go check up on the loft. Her mama says she likes it up there," Tyler told him while poking around all of Kate's stuff to see if Carolina was sitting just out of sight. "She wasn't anywhere in the house."

She knew it was very coward-like of her, but Carolina kept her eyes shut and pretended to still be asleep as Boone made his way up to her. His heavy steps came to a stop just by her head, and he stared down at her silently for a moment before kneeling next to her head.

"Hey, man," he whispered, turning back to look down at Tyler. "She's sleepin'."

"Well, wake her up," Tyler said, though even he whispered, not actually wanting to do that. "I've got words to have with her."

Boone rolled his eyes as Tyler made his way up to the loft as well.  "I ain't doin' that."

Then he focused on Frodo, who was watching him warily, never one to trust strangers. And since he hadn't seen Carolina being friendly with the two men, he wouldn't be friendly either.

But then Boone scratched behind his ear and he caved. Boone smiled at the dog, already in love with him. "Hey, buddy. You guarding our girl?"

Tyler huffed as Boone called her that and then finally laid eyes on Carolina, his frustrated gaze softening. She looked so peaceful — the opposite of how on edge she'd been from the moment they got there. And then his eyes trailed to her shoulder, which was still bandaged from the tornado.

"Ty," Boone whispered, not taking his eyes off Carolina. "Don't you think—"

"She's nineteen, Boone," he cut him off, and Carolina could nearly hear the pain in his voice. "A teenager. We ain't got no business foolin' around with a teenager."

"It ain't foolin' around, and you know it," Boone claimed. "Can't you just stop tryin' to find reasons why this can't work and let yourself feel what you got to for her?"

Tyler swallowed thickly, his heart pounding. And it was fear, he knew that he was feeling. The fear of falling in love with a nineteen-year-old girl that worked at his nerves and drove him insane. 

"Just let her sleep, B," he finally mumbled. "We'll handle this when she's awake."

With a dejected sigh, Boone got up off the ground and left the loft. Carolina kept her eyes shut, waiting to hear Tyler's boots following after him. Only to just barely hold back a surprised gasp when she felt Tyler press his lips to her forehead before actually leaving her side.

Once they were gone, Carolina peeled her eyes open and stared sadly at the wooden floor. Maybe Boone was willing to give her chance in spite of her age, but it didn't sound like it was something Tyler could move on from.

If she expected them to leave, she was wrong on that front. No, Tyler was nosily poking around Kate's research, reading from a notebook aloud to Boone. And both were clearly intrigued by Kate's theory that got three of her friends killed.

And of course, Kate just had to walk in while Tyler was flipping through her notebook full of calculations. He looked up at her with a grin, realizing there was way more to Kate than she originally let on.

"You thought you could disrupt a tornado?" he asked, chuckling.

"Hey, don't look at that," Kate said defensively. Carolina slowly sat up, not caring that she was now visible from below. She wanted to make sure Kate was okay with talking about this.

"You're the OG wrangler," Boone joked as Tyler kept flipping through the book.

"Tyler, give that to me—"

She tried to reach for it, but he just turned away and kept reading. "Using super absorbent polymers to reduce moisture in the updraft—"

"Tyler."

"I mean, you'd have to drop a silo of it in the funnel for any real effect."

"That's why we were trying to use reagents to enhance it—"

But Tyler just kept holding the notebook at arms length from the girl, continuing to read aloud. Seeing that the sister was getting upset, Carolina stood up and glared at him.

"Give it back, Tyler. It ain't your business," Carolina said, drawing his and Boone's attention.

"Now you woke her up," Boone muttered, feeling a bit bad.

"I'm serious, Ty," Carolina kept on. "She don't want you lookin' at that."

Tyler raised an eyebrow, glancing between the two very serious Carter girls. "What? You both really think I'm an idiot, don't you?"

"No, I don't think you're an idiot," Kate sighed. Carolina didn't answer, him already knowing she thought the world of him — at least she hoped he knew.

"Hey, my link up is so much better. I can upload this to my laptop, link up to a super computer. I'm telling you, we get a new model running," he said, getting excited. "This is a great idea. How did you not tell me about this before—"

"Because, I got it wrong!" Kate shouted, cutting him off. And it was finally enough to shut him up as she cried.

"In the field, in the moment, when it mattered, I got it wrong. Okay, I underestimated what we were up against, and I pushed it too far. And for what? Some childish dream I had that I could make a difference. It was never gonna work. And I - I have to live with that forever," Kate said, hanging her head.

Carolina rushed down the stairs to her sister's side, holding her. And Kate instantly hugged her little sister, hiding her head in her shoulder.

Tyler, feeling horrible, came closer after a moment of silence. "You know, uh, an EF 1 or EF 5 tornado rating, it's not based on size and wind speed. The power we assign to it, it's based on damage. That's only after the fact, we can really define it. What it destroys. What it takes from us. I'm sorry for what happened."

Through teary vision, Kate looked over at Tyler, taking in his surprisingly sensitive words. "How much more are you gonna let this thing take from you?"

Carolina's eyes softened, her heart reaching for Tyler as he handed the notebook back to Kate. Him just showing that he cared about her sister made her care about him all the more. It meant what was coming when he finally got her alone would hurt all the more.

She was standing in front of a man that she knew she could love, and before long, he'd be telling her it was over for good.

☁︎

"Go on," Tyler said, nodding to the closed door.

"I ain't gone just barge in there. I'm gone knock. What if she's changing?" Boone asked, his hands on his hips.

"Boone, your tongue has been inside that girl. I think it'll be okay."

"You're a very lewd fella."

"You don't seem to mind most nights."

It was late — so late that both Kate and Cathy were asleep up on the second floor. But Boone and Tyler were so goddamn tired of waiting to talk to Carolina, who had been expertly avoiding them since dinner.

In her room, Carolina could actually hear them bickering outside her door as she sat in the built-in seat of her window, staring out into the darkness. She might've smiled if she didn't know what was coming.

So, when one of them finally knocked, she murmured a timid, "Come in," without looking their way.

Tyler and Boone took a moment to examine her room. The walls were a light blue and there were flowers all over her quilt — as well as five different stuffed animals on it. She had posters of Thomas Rhett and One Direction on her wall, as well as a bookshelf that was full of more movies than actual books. And they saw her sitting in the window, her knees drawn to her chest in nothing more than a baggy shirt and pair of tiny sleep shorts that showed off her legs.

Frodo was asleep on a dog bed, but upon hearing the door close, he peeked an eye open.

"Hey," Boone managed to say when Tyler and Carolina remained silent. She wouldn't even turn her face toward them. "Can we, uh, can we all talk?"

"You don't gotta talk," she said, leaning her cheek on her knee. "I know what you're gonna say."

"Is that right?" Tyler asked, crossing his arms.

She swallowed thickly, hating that her eyes watered. "You're - you're gonna say that I'm - I'm too young for you. That you don't - you don't want me anymore. And that - that you're mad at me," she said, hating how her voice trembled. "You probably hate me."

And as soon as he realized she was crying, Boone caved. He moved to her side and cupped her cheek, making her face him. And he instantly wiped her tears away with his thumbs.

"No, baby, hey," he said speaking softly. "We don't hate you. And we ain't mad."

She let out a mix between a scoff and a sob, rolling her eyes. Carolina cut her eyes to Tyler, who was standing there with his arms crossed and a conflicted look in his eyes.

Why was it always Tyler that was upset with her?

"Yeah, right. Like he cares," she mumbled, trying to look back at the window, only for Boone to turn her back to him, his grip on her chin tightening. And he had a hard look in his usually so soft eyes.

"You're gone listen to what he has to say, and you're not gonna give him any attitude until he's done, you hear me?" Boone said, raising an eyebrow. "I've had it up to here with you two not gettin' along."

"Well, that's his fault—"

"Don't put this on me," Tyler said. "You lied."

"I did not!" she said, standing up and pushing past Boone. "You didn't ask!"

"Well, 'scuse me for assuming you were at least twenty-one in a bar that don't let in anyone younger," he scoffed.

Her bottom lip quivered but she tried to hold her own. "Then get it over with and leave," she huffed. "You could've just let me run and never see you again like I planned. Saying it to my face just makes it hurt more. There wasn't no point in driving all the way out here other than to be cruel."

"No, see, you don't get to leave again," Tyler said in a harsh tone. "You don't get to make us feel this way and then leave. But damn it, you're nineteen—"

"Yeah, I know I'm nineteen!" she snapped, more tears falling that she quickly wiped away. "Just go already, Tyler! Both of you."

"Darlin', we ain't—"

"Fine!" She whirled around to face Boone, more tears falling. God, she couldn't hear them tell her it was over. "Then I'll leave."

She stormed past Tyler, knocking into his shoulder — okay, his arm given how tall he was — and left her room. Tyler closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose before looking at Boone, who looked nearly in pain. And he couldn't deal with him and Carolina being upset. It hurt his heart too much.

So, both men high tailed it after her.

To Carolina's credit, despite her short legs, she made it all the way to the barn, slamming the door shut before stomping up the stairs to the loft so that she could sleep on the couch. But just as she touched the quilt on the back, Tyler grabbed her from behind and pulled her into him, his chest brushing her back as he held her in place.

"I told you not to leave," he said in a low voice, practically shaking with frustration. Boone was half a step behind him, watching with a frown on his face. "I'm not - I'm not good at it, but just let me talk, goddamn it."

"Fine," she muttered, her eyes so full of tears that she could barely see the wall in front of her. "Talk."

☁︎

[ jokes on you. you get a cliffhanger again. I'm actually just edging you ]