I'M SORRY IF TYLER STEPPED OVER THE LINE.

CAROLINA WOKE UP FIRST, but she didn't dare think about getting out of her bed. No, she was content, wrapped in Tyler's t-shirt, Boone's arms around her, and all their legs intertwined. It was a perfect way to wake up, and she would've lived a perfect life if she could wake up like this every day.

She turned her head to the left and smiled when she saw Tyler's peaceful face, no signs of stress or frustration to be found. He looked so calm and content, and she wished she could always see him like that.

Then she looked at Boone on her other side, whose face was squished into the pillow. He snored, which made her snicker. But she leaned in and began kissing his exposed jaw softly to wake him up.

Boone let out a sleepy hum, still not fully awake as he craned his head back even more, exposing more of his skin. Her tongue darted out, licking him before beginning to suck a dark mark on him.

That was enough to rouse him as he slid his hands around her waist and pulled her on top of him.

"Now that's a hell of a way to wake up," he mumbled sleepily with a lazy grin on his face. Carolina just smiled before kissing him on his pretty lips, greeting him properly. He rolled his tongue against hers while cupping the back of her head to deepen it.

As they got lost in each other, neither noticed Tyler, who'd begun to wake up when he no longer felt Boone and Carolina's legs mixed up with his.

"Well, I much prefer waking up to this than an empty side of the bed," Tyler said, a handsome smile on his face.

Carolina bit back a smile, unable to believe she was this happy this early in the morning.

"Go on and tell him good morning, Darlin'," Boone said while kissing her exposed collarbone.

Carolina crawled to the other side of the bed where Tyler was waiting with open arms. She pecked his lips sweetly before pulling back, but that wasn't enough for him, so he pulled her into a proper kiss, making her hum contently into his mouth.

"Yeah," she mumbled against his lips, hands on his firm chest. "I could get used to this."

"I should hope so," Boone said, coming up behind her. He pushed the collar of the shirt she had on to the side to kiss the top of her shoulder. "You feelin' okay?"

She nodded sleepily. "Not nearly as sore as the first time."

Tyler hummed and tightened his hold on her waist. "Then I figure we didn't do our job right."

She just laughed and shook her head, pushing him back as he smiled. "So, what time are we leaving?"

Last night, while wrapped up in each other's arms, the boys explained to her that they had to leave Sapula eventually and get back to Lily, Dani, Dexter, and Ben. And when they asked Carolina to come with them, she agreed — though she'd still need to be back at school for finals soon. She couldn't stay for the rest of storm season, much to their displeasure. Though they understood that her education was important.

"I figured as soon as we all woke up," Tyler told her. "Just give you time to say goodbye."

"You ain't leaving this house without breakfast," Cathy said from the open doorway.

"Mama!" Carolina exclaimed while quickly pushing both Tyler and Boone off her.

But it still looked bad given that both of them were shirtless. Boone at least had the decency to pull the quilt up to his chin with a sheepish smile on his face. Carolina's cheeks were burning as she looked at her mother's smirking face.

"Get dressed," Cathy said, pushing off the wall. "Got biscuits comin' out of the oven. Care, help me set the table."

Then she was off, leaving them behind as if she hadn't just embarrassed the shit out of Carolina, leaving her with two smirking men on either side of her.

"Well," Tyler said, raising an eyebrow. "Go help set the table, Carolina."

She scoffed and elbowed him before climbing out of bed. And as she passed over him, he smacked her ass lightly, making Boone chuckle as she glared at him.

Rather than fuss at him and potentially make it worse, she just grabbed a pair of sweatpants and headed toward the door.

"You're in my shirt," Tyler called after her.

So, with a huff, she pulled it off her body and threw it at his face, blocking his view of her shirtless form. By the time he pulled it off, she'd already turned her back to him and was throwing on a sweatshirt. But Boone had a shit-eating grin on his face, having caught the full show.

Tyler rolled his eyes as Carolina hurried to the kitchen where her mother was waiting, leaning against the counter with an eyebrow raised and a smirk on her face.

"Well, I'd normally ask if you slept good, but from what I heard in the barn, there whatn't much sleeping," Cathy said before taking the biscuits out of the oven. "So, you and your little boyfriends made up, I see."

"Yeah," Carolina muttered while getting the plates down. She got one for Kate too even though she'd probably not leave her room after she broke down in front of all of them yesterday.

"And that's what you want? All three of you?" Cathy asked to make sure.

Carolina's face softened. "It is, Mama. It really is," she said, moving on to the glasses. She glanced at her mother who was pulling out things like butter and jelly — and peanut butter, because that was how Carolina liked hers. "Are you, like, ashamed of me?"

Cathy let out a breathless laugh and shook her head, coming over to her. "Well, I figure if Kate's not gonna bring home a son-in-law, it's fine if you bring home two."

Carolina giggled and let her mom hug her. "I think calling them that is a bit too soon," she murmured.

"I don't know. I bet that Boone would propose today," she teased.

"Yeah, and then Tyler would tell him to get up off his knees and stop embarrassing him," she laughed.

Breakfast was weird — for Carolina at least. Tyler and Boone were so gentlemanly and polite to her mother, even helping clean up and do the dishes so that Carolina could go get fully dressed for the day.

And as she left the kitchen, her mother called, "And cover up those marks! It's unladylike!"

So that's how Carolina ended up with Boone's red bandana tied around her neck like he usually wore it, a sight that had him grinning proudly when she stepped out of her room. And Tyler got jealous, so he sat his white cowboy hat on her head, feeling a need to claim her in his own way, something Cathy teased her about

Carolina ended up saying goodbye to Kate through her closed and locked bedroom door.

"I'm heading back," she mumbled, knowing she was awake and could hear. "And I - I hope that we don't go another five years before seeing each other again. And if you're staying — not going back to New York — then I'll be back in two weeks from college anyway."

"I'm sorry if Tyler stepped over the line. He has a habit of doing that," she said with a sad smile. "But I love you, Katy Bear. Just don't forget that."

When she got no response, Carolina sighed and went back downstairs. Tyler and Boone were waiting for her at the door, and Boone slid his arm around her waist as Tyler got the door for them.

Carolina frowned up at the cloudy sky as it started to rain before letting Boone lead her to the truck. Neither man really cared about the rain, and admittedly, Carolina liked how it made spots of Tyler's white shirt a bit see-through.

Despite the rain, Boone took the time to open up the passenger side door for her and help her in before getting in the back seat while Tyler was behind the wheel.

"You should let me drive sometime," Carolina said, still marveling at how cool the interior of the truck was.

"Awe, naw," Boone said. "Tyler don't let nobody drive his baby. Not even me. He loves her too much"

Carolina pouted and leaned over, resting her chin on Tyler's bicep. "Please, baby? I'll take good care of her."

Tyler sucked on his teeth and shook his head. "Ain't happenin'."

"Maybe I could sit on your lap and drive?" she suggested. "And maybe... we could pull over and I could do somethin' else on your lap."

Tyler groaned and hit his head against the headrest. "You're gone kill me, baby."

She grinned and went to make another teasing comment, only to be interrupted when there was a quick tapping on his window.

Carolina grinned brightly when she saw Kate, hoping deep down that she'd changed her mind about it all. Or was at least giving her a real goodbye.

"You said you could get a new model running?" Kate asked with a hopeful smile as Tyler rolled the window down.

Tyler grinned and looked between the two girls, who had excitement in their bright eyes. Then he looked at Boone, ready to get to work. "Yes, ma'am."

☁︎

Thirty minutes later, Tyler had it all set up, and Carolina was in awe of his computer — it was nicer than any of the equipment she got to work with at school. It made her wonder just how much he made as a tornado wrangler YouTuber.

He thought it was so terribly cute any time she asked questions about the different programs, reminding him of Boone when he first got him into chasing. And sometimes, Boone would be the one excitedly answering her, proving his knowledge

"So, this is an EF 1. Perfect conditions," Tyler explained. "Run your experiment and see if it works."

Kate nodded and typed in the numbers she calculated years ago. "Okay, so fifteen hundred kilos of polymer absorbing three hundred times its weight."

"Which means four hundred and fifty thousand kilos," Tyler said, adding it as she did the math in his head. Carolina and Boone just watched him, thinking it was incredibly hot as he used his brains. "Precipitation loaded into our water-filled polymer to load the updraft. Let's see how the model responds."

After taking in a deep, hopeful breath, Kate hit start on the run, watching as the simulation began reporting new stats.

"Buoyancy in the rising air is reducing," Kate noted.

"It's reducing — slowing the updraft," Tyler added.

"It's slowing down," Carolina realized, seeing the signs. It was working far better than Kate's from five years ago.

"Kate. Kate, in theory, this should've worked," Tyler said, a bit in awe.

"In theory," Kate said, her shoulders sinking. "But it wasn't an EF 1 that day. I mean, we never had a chance."

Tyler glanced between the two disheartened girls, knowing he had to fix this. He had to help them any way he could, so he shared a look with Boone, who nodded. "You want one?"

☁︎

Tyler was back in that damn red flannel that Carolina had stolen that morning, one of Boone's ball caps backward on his head as he drove — Carolina still had his cowboy hat and she wasn't eager to let go of it. Carolina was in the backseat with Boone, thinking it wasn't fair at all for him to look so good.

Kate was in the front seat, and just like her sister, was in awe of the truck. But unlike her, she had to touch everything.

"Yeah, that's my radio," Tyler sighed as she turned on some music.

"What is all this for?" she asked, looking in the back a bit at some of the filming equipment of Boone's.

"Wait, what are you touching back there?" Tyler asked, whipping his head around. "Stop! That's Boone's!"

"You do got a lot of stuff in here," Carolina said as Kate reached up and opened the mirror, which had nothing attached to it.

Tyler rolled his eyes. "That's a mirror," he said flatly, making Boone snicker.

Next, Kate opened up the dashboard, only for a handful of signed headshots of Tyler to fall out. Actually, it was a lot more than a handful.

"Oh," Kate mumbled, quickly shutting it.

"Wait," Carolina laughed, leaning forward. "Give me one!"

But before Kate could do so, Tyler swatted her hand. "Have you ever been in a car before?" he asked grouchily, his ears burning from embarrassment.

"You got a lot of gadgets," Kate said, beginning to flick all the switches by the gearshift.

"Yeah, yeah, don't touch — there's guards there for a reason," he said quickly.

But it was too late as she hit one. Hearing the noise, Carolina leaned out her open window, holding the hat to her head so it wouldn't blow away, watching as a rocket shot right up into the air.

"Yeehaw!" Boone exclaimed, watching the fireworks excitedly.

"It's a rocket," Tyler told Kate as if she didn't know. "And baby, get back inside."

Carolina climbed back in and buckled up, rolling her eyes, which he caught in the rearview mirror.

"Don't roll those eyes at me," he said, raising an eyebrow.

Then Boone leaned in, whispering so that Kate couldn't hear. "Yeah, or he'll give 'em a real reason to roll back like that."

That rendered Carolina silent, her cheeks burning. And with her silent, Tyler focused back at the task at hand.

"Alright, what about these two little ones? Just west of Enid."

"Yeah," Kate said before pointing to a larger one, "but this one to the east has the sky all to herself."

Tyler eyed her and shook his head. "Yeah, I'm not falling for that again." But then he actually thought it over. "You serious?"

"I'll tell ya later."

So, the group drove out to the big one. And Kate hadn't been lying. All of them scrambled out of the car excitedly, looking at the storm. Kate had her camera out, and soon Boone was joining her, taking out his own camera. Carolina smiled at him, this the first time she was seeing him enjoy his hobby. He and Kate looked so excited as they watched the storm through a lens.

Carolina just came up behind Boone and hugged him from behind as Kate and Tyler geeked out over the storm, shouting words she didn't quite understand because she wasn't there in her curriculum yet. Boone smiled and turned in her arms before taking an up close picture of her face which was no doubt unflattering.

She laughed and pushed it aside, kissing him softly.

"Oh, she's perfect!" Tyler shouted.

"She's gorgeous!" Kate exclaimed, making Tyler look at her, only to see the position Boone and Carolina were in.

He couldn't help but smile softly, thinking the sight was far more gorgeous than the storm as Carolina said something that made Boone throw his head back and laugh.

"She's gonna give us something," Kate said excitedly, breaking up the moment. "Come on! I call front!"

The four ran back to the truck and didn't waste any time driving toward the storm. Boone got his big camera out to film it all. And soon, they saw a thin funnel coming down from the sky, touching down on the ground.

"Alright, let's harness up," Tyler instructed.

"What?" Carolina asked, scrunching her face up.

"Come on, Darlin'," Boone said, already reaching over and working on her harness.

"Um, we're just gonna drop the trailer in its path, right?" Kate asked uncertainly.

Tyler smirked at her, deciding to get her back. "I'll tell ya later."

"No, you'll tell us now!" Carolina exclaimed. "Ty, you ain't being funny!"

They were getting closer and closer, and Tyler wasn't slowing down. He even turned on the radio while speeding up.

"We - we don't have to drive into it. It's really dangerous!" Kate said, freaking out just like her sister for once.

"Oh, that's why we have to drive into it. Can't miss from in there," Tyler said with a wide grin.

"Oh, shit," she said, holding onto the bar on the ceiling when Tyler hit a huge bump, the truck coming completely off the ground.

Carolina shut her eyes tightly, and Boone reached for her hand with the one not holding the camera.

"Darlin', Ty and I have done this a million times," he said in a gentle tone.

"He's right," Tyler told her, looking back. "This thing's rated for an EF 1 today. We got extra weight on the chassis. We got anchorage down two feet. Don't worry. I'm a professional," Tyler insisted.

"You're an asshole," Carolina snapped, opening her eyes.

Tyler just grinned and kept going, mere feet from the tornado. "Hold on, baby!"

"Oh, Tyler, this is dumb. This is dumb. This is really dumb," Kate insisted as they got closer.

It just made him laugh harder. "Alright, we got this, Kate, Care."

Then they drove right into the tornado, and Carolina shut her eyes. But then Boone cupped her face and brushed her cheek, coaxing her eyes back open. She watched, holding her breath as debris smacked into the car. The truck shook a bit, but the wind wasn't enough to take them away.

"Oh, god. Oh, god! Oh, god!" Kate panicked.

"Alright, we're slowing down," Tyler told them, slowly coming to a stop. Then he hit the red button on the gear shift, and Carolina heard the anchors drilling into the ground, keeping them steady.

Tyler opened the guard over the button that would release the latch on the barrels. It had a label that Boone made that said 'KATE'S BARRELS' in his messy handwriting.

"Here she comes," Tyler said, waiting until the tornado was right on them. "Now!"

Though she was scared, Carolina still whipped around and watched as the lids to the barrels flipped open, the polymers being sucked up into the vortex. And she could've sworn that the sky above them lightened the slightest bit as it absorbed the polymers. She couldn't help but smile, thinking it was kind of beautiful from inside the storm.

She could understand why they did this now.

A few moments later, the tornado moved past them, and all of them, even Carolina, were laughing giddily.

"Did you see that?" Kate asked excitedly.

"I saw it. Did it work?" Tyler asked her.

"Oh, right," she said, beginning to unbuckle. Only to struggle with the harness. "So many belts."

Like her sister, Carolina needed help to get out of the harness, which Boone unbuckled quickly. All of them got out and ran after the tornado, but Kate frowned when she saw that it wasn't letting up. It kept taking out everything in its path.

"It's not working."

While Tyler kicked the dirt, Carolina put her hand on Kate's shoulder. He looked at the two saddened girls, really wishing that he could fix this for them.

"Hungry?"

"Always," Boone answered. He was quick to head back to the truck with Kate to grab some food.

Carolina and Tyler walked a little slower, her looking up at the taller man with clear lust in her eyes. Tyler noticed and just raised an eyebrow, thinking she'd still be pissed about driving into a tornado.

"Nothin'," she shrugged. "Just ain't fair. You look better in a ball cap than a cowboy hat."

He smirked and pulled her closer, using his other hand to tip the hat on her head back a bit. "You're just saying that 'cause you want me to keep letting you wear mine."

"I mean, I've already reaped those rewards," she said teasingly.

"What do you say after this, you reap them again?" Tyler asked before leaning down, kissing her jaw. "And again." Then he hovered his lips over hers. "And aga—"

"Cut that shit out!" Kate snapped.

With the PDA tucked away for the time being, five minutes later, Tyler and Carolina were sitting on top of the truck while Kate and Boone were on the hood, eating the sandwiches that Cathy packed for them.

"What if it's the model that's the problem?" Kate asked, her mouth full of turkey as she thought.

Tyler just looked at her. "How do we create a better one?"

"Well, we'd need better data," she said.

"Like Javi and Scott's data?" Carolina asked, her mind quickly going to them.

Kate grimaced at the thought of Javi, and Boone and Tyler grimaced at the thought of Scott, so Carolina sighed.

"Kate, I know Javi was out of line," she said softly, looking down at her. "But you two... you're — you know what you both mean to each other. So, you can't just stay mad at him, especially when he was there that day too."

"I know," she said, looking down at her lap. After a moment of thinking, she gazed at her sister. "You know he didn't mean the stuff he said to you either, right?"

"Yeah, he did. He don't want me here — he just thought me coming along would encourage you to stay," she said, having figured it out. "He don't care about me like I thought."

"Now, even I know that ain't true," Tyler scoffed.

"He's right," Boone said. "I'd have believed he was your sibling before I'd have believed Kate was with how protective he is of you."

"He's just lookin' out for you since you've got two, ruggedly handsome cowboys chasing after you," Tyler said with a smirk.

"Please," Kate scoffed. "You're only passable handsome. And still an asshole."