[ COMING SOON ]

☁︎

THEY'LL BE HEARTBROKEN.

KENNEDY SPENCER had been in love with Tyler Owens since she was eighteen years old. He was a lot older and just starting out his YouTube channel with his best friend, and she was a C-List model that he met at a networking event in California, where he and his crew had been, attending some convention for content creators.

He flirted, and she fell. Hard.

Because he wasn't just some charming guy with great looks. He was kindhearted and gave to charity and funny and so easy to get wrapped up in. So, Kennedy had never felt luckier when they started to date.

The dates were perfect. He got her flowers and took her to his favorite steakhouses and came to her shows. He pulled out her chairs for her and kept a hand on her thigh when he took her for a drive in that big truck of his. He let her steal his flannel and keep it forever the night of her nineteenth birthday when she let him take her virginity, him being so sweet and gentle and slow with her.

And a year in, Kennedy knew it as love. It had to be, as he was all she could think about. So much so that when he asked her to join him on the road as an official Tornado Wrangler, she said yes, leaving her modeling career behind for him.

And Dani, who was the content manager, was over the moon as views tripled in size and their follower count shot up, fans tuning in every day to watch as Tyler and Kennedy fell deeper and deeper in love.

Because to Tyler's credit, he said he loved her too — it sure felt like love to someone that'd never been in a serious relationship before meeting Kennedy.

Videos were now clips of tornados intertwined with sickeningly sweet scenes of Tyler picking up Kennedy in his arms as they cheered excitedly for storms and ones of him leaning across the center console to kiss her mid-chase. She'd hold his hand when they parked inside the larger storms, her always feeling less anxious with him touching her.

Things were so perfect. At least Kennedy thought they were.

But even she noticed when Tyler's heart stopped being in it.

He could always turn it on for the camera, of course, but she knew him enough to really know. She knew when he stopped buying her flowers and when he stopped asking her on dates and when he quit holding her in his arms until she fell asleep after getting tangled up in the sheets.

Deep down, she knew, but she wouldn't admit it to herself. No, she let herself live in delusion for a few more weeks, clinging to what she had left of Tyler. Because she still loved him so desperately that she'd do anything to keep him.

She cut her hair how she knew he liked it. She wouldn't wear her favorite heeled cowboy boots because he didn't like that they made her the same height as him. She brought him sweet teas from the stores they stopped at without him having to ask and wore the lipstick she knew he liked even though she preferred her strawberry lipgloss that he said was too shiny.

Kennedy didn't care about any of those trivial things if it just meant Tyler would stay. Tyler, who was so obviously on the brink of leaving.

And when he finally did, he didn't even have the guts to leave her properly.

She cried when he told her that night that he bought a second motel room instead of sharing with her. It was the night before they were meant to go to Oklahoma for a tornado outbreak.

"I think we should end this," Tyler had said, avoiding looking at her as they both sat on the edge of the bed in Kennedy's room. "This whole thing between us."

"Oh," Kennedy had replied in a small voice, her eyes already watering. "Wh - why?"

"Because this between us... it ain't workin'. It hasn't been for a while," he said, shaking his head.

A tear fell down Kennedy's cheek because she'd been doing everything to make it work. Everything.

"So you don't even wanna try to fix it?" she asked, hating how her voice trembled. "I mean, I can - can change. I can fix whatever I've been doing wrong."

"No, baby, it ain't you," he said softly. And Kennedy hated how he gently cupped her cheek and made her look at him. How dare he look so sad when he was the one ending things? "I just gotta do some soul searching, and I can't do that with you."

"It's not you, it's me," she said miserably, pulling out of his hold as her nose grew stuffy. "Can you just - can you just go? I'll - I'll pack up and get a cab to the airport or something."

"That's, baby, I don't want you to do that," Tyler said with a wince. "Not yet."

Kennedy looked up at him in confusion. He didn't want to be with her and he didn't want to try to work things out, so what did it matter if she fled for the airport? Within twelve hours, she could be back home in  California, which was all she wanted.

"What?" she asked weakly, more tears falling. She just couldn't stop them, and it hurt even more when Tyler didn't even try to wipe them away for her. He just let her cry, tears staining the collar of his shirt that she was wearing.

"It's just..." Tyler sighed, a frown fixed on his handsome face. "Ken, you know how good you've been for the channel."

Kennedy's mouth fell open in disbelief. She was crying her eyes out over him breaking up with her, and he was bringing up the channel?

"And the fans, they love you," Tyler kept going. "They love us. They'll be heartbroken."

"They'll be heartbroken?" she said in disbelief. God, it felt like her chest was burning all of a sudden.

"Heartbroken enough to stop followin' and watchin' the channel," he muttered lowly, avoiding eye contact. Because even Tyler knew this was especially wrong to ask of her.

"I don't understand?" Kennedy asked, shaking her head.

"Just - I'm asking you to stay with the Wranglers," he told her. "Stay with me, at least when the cameras are on. Just pretend like nothin's happened."

"You want me to... pretend?" she asked slowly, processing the request as more tears fell. "But we won't really be together?"

Tyler nodded solemnly. "In front of Boone and everyone too. They don't gotta know. Not yet. But we'll tell them when the time is right."

"And just when is the time right?" she scoffed, finally pushing past her sadness as she got angry. "It's cute and all that you need to find yourself, Tyler, but askin' me to act like we're still dating for the fans is messed up."

"It's just for a few weeks, baby," he said. "Until storm season is over. Then we can let 'em know."

"And in the meantime, I'm just supposed to act like I'm fine with you hugging me and kissin' me on camera? Actin' like you didn't break my heart?" she asked, choking on her tears. "I know you can be an asshole sometimes, but that's just cruel."

Tyler sighed and reached for her hands with one of his while cupping her cheek with the other, thumb swiping at her tears. And god, Kennedy was so weak as she leaned into his touch, clenching her eyes shut.

"Please, just do this for me, Ken," he said softly as if he was asking her something so easy. "We've been through so much. And the backlash of this will be bad if we don't handle it the right way."

The backlash would be bad for him.

The problem was what it'd always been — Kennedy loved Tyler, even now as he was crumbling up her heart like a piece of paper and throwing it in the trash. She loved him so much that she'd do anything to make sure he was happy and succeeding.

She'd do anything including break her own heart just to ensure his career stayed in tact.

"Fine," Kennedy had whispered, opening her eyes back up. And god, those blue eyes that she loved so much softened, and he smiled that beautiful smile that made her heart flutter. "Okay. I won't tell anyone about us."

Tyler sighed in relief and kissed her forehead. She closed her eyes, savoring his touch.

"Thank you. Thank you so much, Ken. And I promise to make this as easy on us as I can. It'll be over before you know it."

Then Tyler was leaving her side, going to his separate motel room. He'd probably fall asleep easy with this weight off his chest.

But Kennedy was alone and broken.

And it wouldn't be over before she knew it. No, it was over now, even if it didn't feel like it.