[ a lot of pathetic looking and staring this chapter my friends ]

☁︎

BOONE AND I ARE THE CUTEST.

BABY was looking through the viewfinder of her camera again, and Tyler was looking at her as subtly as he could.

They were at a gas station in Tennessee, waiting for a storm that would be there within the hour. Rather than take pictures of the clouds, Baby was taking photos of Lily as she worked on Cairo. Boone was there too, and every now and then, she'd look up at him and take a picture of her smiling brother.

Tyler couldn't help the intrusive thought that hit his mind all of a sudden as that soft, barely there smile hit her face over something Lily said.

Baby was beautiful, and it wasn't just the way she looked. That had always been obvious. Everything about her was beautiful. Her mind, the way she treated people, her rare laugh that made his heart hammer any time he heard it.

So, Tyler's eyes — behind the protection of his sunglasses, of course — took in her form. She had her hair pulled back with one of Boone's blue bandanas, a baggy and cropped t-shirt hanging off her shoulder with a pair of shorts hiked up her hips. Shorts that definitely didn't make her ass look perfect as she squatted down to take a picture of Lily from below, he thought.

Tyler swore under his breath and quickly looked away, knowing he didn't need to be thinking about Baby like that. It was inappropriate and wrong — and he didn't want to risk her spotting him and feeling uncomfortable given how shy she was when it came to that kind of attention. He quickly walked off to the edge of the parking lot, opting to look at the clouds.

Clouds were far safer a view than Boone's little sister's ass.

Meanwhile, the subject of Tyler's suddenly conflicting thoughts was getting back up, moving to show Lily the picture she'd taken of her.

"Damn, I look good," Lily nodded, raising an impressed eyebrow.

"Lily, as pretty as you are, you'll always look good in pictures," Baby said sweetly.

"Thanks, Baby," Lily said before blowing her a kiss. "Let's see the ones of Boone."

Baby happily flipped through a few, finding one of Boone laughing and running his fingers through his long hair as the sun was hitting him perfectly. She excitedly showed her brother her work.

"Oh, now this is headshot material," Boone said with a wide grin. "Gone make Ty's tacky one look ridiculous."

"Well, I still ain't seen it," Baby said, shaking her head.

"Know a secret?" Boone asked with a smirk. "He keeps about twenty of 'em in the glove compartment of the truck."

In an instant, Baby was up and scurrying to the truck, grabbing Tyler's attention, who came after her. He watched as she threw open the passenger side door and climbed up on the side bar of the tall vehicle so she could reach.

"Baby, what are you doing?" he asked, raising an eyebrow as he stood behind her.

Rather than respond, she just giggled while popping the glove compartment open, watching as countless signed headshots fell out messily. Baby grabbed a few of them and then spun around, now finally his height as she stood on side bar.

"I can't believe you keep these on standby," she said, a big grin on her face.

The tips of Tyler's ears turned red, which she found terribly adorable. He quickly snatched the pictures from her, but she grabbed them again. So, he tugged them out of her hold and held them over her head. Baby raised a challenging eyebrow before just reaching back and grabbing more out of the glove box pointedly.

"Come on, now. You're too sweet to make fun of a fella for this," Tyler said, shaking his head.

"I just can't believe it," she said, grinning. "You've always been a dork, but you've really outdone it with these."

"I am not a dork," he scoffed.

She raised an eyebrow before pointing at his autograph on the headshot where he'd draw a little cloud next to his scribbled name while also sitting down in the passenger seat, legs hanging out the side.

"I'd like to think that makes me adorable, not dorky," he said, crossing his strong arms.

And god, his biceps tugged at the material of his flannel shirt just perfectly.

Blinking slowly, Baby looked away from his arms, not sure where that thought had come from. And as she did so, she actually noticed how close Tyler was to her, his knees brushing hers as he stared down at her, clearly amused and unbothered by how much of her personal space he was taking up.

"So," Tyler said when she didn't say anything else. He didn't take her silence to mean anything — she was always silent unless someone initiated a conversation. "Does that mean it's time for my new headshots?"

Baby rolled her eyes playfully. "I guess. Since the rest are getting pictures. I'm guessing you want the truck in the background?"

"Oh, you know it, Baby."

Ten minutes later, Tyler had moved the truck at Baby's instruction. She wanted the clouds from the coming storm in the background, thinking it'd look better. But she frowned when she saw him unbuttoning his flannel shirt.

"What the hell are you doing?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

He smirked cockily at her. "Looking good for the fans, Baby."

Baby couldn't help but snicker, the sound covering up the fact that she agreed. Because even just the few wardrobe adjustments helped.

Tyler had untucked and unbuttoned his flannel, revealing a tight white t-shirt underneath. Then he rolled up the sleeves of his flannel, exposing strong forearms. Finally, he leaned back against the side of the bed of the truck, his arms propping him up.

"How do I look?" he asked before giving a dramatic smoulder that made her laugh again, which was what he'd been hoping to achieve.

"Just relax and look natural. Don't worry about looking good," she told him, shyly looking at her camera and adjusting the settings. "Ain't like you got a problem with that anyway."

Tyler almost didn't hear her but he did, making him smile softly down at the ground. Only to hear the shutter clicking, making him look up once more to see she'd caught a picture of the gentle expression on his face.

And that one, in Baby's opinion, was far better than the one he ended up using for a new headshot.

☁︎

That wasn't the only time that week that Tyler was the subject that Baby's lens was focused on. But it was hardly her fault the second time.

Thursday was a rare, no weather day, and the heat was sweltering. So, to kill time and cool off, the Wrangler crew made their way to the pool outside of the motel they were staying at. As everyone messed around, having splash wars and dunking heads, Baby sat on a chair and took some candids with her camera, loving how carefree everyone was.

With her eye looking through the viewfinder, she panned the nearly empty pool area before stopping on Tyler, who was laughing along with Boone down by the diving board.

She froze for a second, taking in his smooth, toned stomach and the pair of blue swim trunks that hung low — real low — on his hips.

Baby had to take a picture.

And she took another when he sat on the edge of the pool, his abs more prominent as he did so.

And then of course, a photo had to be taken later when he got out of the pool, drops of water slowly dripping down his muscular back as he ran a hand through his dark blonde hair as the swim trunks now clung to his body.

Realizing that she was invading his privacy like some kind of freak, she put her camera away then. She instead drew her knees up to her chest and just watched everyone having fun, keeping her eyes off Tyler.

But of course, he had to be the one to notice she wasn't having fun with the rest of them.

"Hey, Baby!" he called from inside the water. "Come on. Water's fine."

"I'm good," she said, shaking her head. She didn't exactly plan to get in the water. Hell, she still had one of Boone's shirts with the sleeves cut off covering up her swimsuit.

"Nuh-uh," Boone said, running up to her. "Need help in the next splash war."

Before she knew it, Baby was kicking and squealing as Boone picked her up, running her toward the pool. He threw her down, right into Tyler's waiting arms, who dunked her down underneath the cold water.

She grabbed onto his shoulders as she resurfaced, her hair now clinging to her as her chest pressed to his. She sighed and looked at his amused face, ignoring Boone, who cannon-balled into the pool.

"You think you two are so cute," she huffed, shaking her head, doing her best to ignore how his hands were around her waist and helping her float.

"Boone and I are the cutest," Tyler said with a sickeningly cute grin on his face. "You're in now. No need to get back out."

"Coulda let me take my dry clothes off," she muttered while letting Tyler go and heading for the steps.

He watched slyly how she got back out of the water simply to peel the soaked shirt off her body, throwing it over to the chair she'd been sitting at. And just for a moment before she dived back in, Tyler saw how the red one piece hugged her body. It was high-cut, making her short legs seem longer, and the top was so tight around her—

Suddenly, Tyler's head was shoved underwater by a cackling Boone. And Tyler forgot all about Baby's body — or at least he tried to as the next splash war began. And Baby assisting her brother did nothing to stop Tyler from winning.

☁︎

There had been another storm, but this one was far too big to chase. The Wranglers could do nothing but watch as it headed right for a small town, taking out a library and the neighborhood behind it as it passed.

That was the first time Baby got to see what the real difference her brother and his friends were making.

So many people's lives had been ruined. They had nothing except the clothes on their backs and the food and water that the Tornado Wrangler team was handing out.

Baby helped pass out meals, letting people cry to her about the decimation that had happened not an hour ago. She donned work gloves and helped sift through rubble to try and find anything salvageable or sentimental. She handed out free t-shirts to those that had just lost all their clothes.

This, she knew, was the important part. This was they they all cared about. Not the thrill of chasing storms and being famous. The Wranglers all had bleeding hearts, and Baby had never been more prouder of her brother for the kind of family he'd found himself after moving out.

As the work slowly died down for the day, Baby sat on the side of a curb. A stray cat was eating a small piece of turkey that she was holding out — at least she figured it was a stray since he didn't have a collar.

"You ready to go, Baby?" Boone asked her, coming over. She nodded, smiling sadly up at him. And he instantly began worrying over her, taking a seat next to her on the curb. Instantly, the cat wandered to him, checking to see if he had food as well. "What's wrong?"

"How do you do this all the time?" she asked quietly while wiping her eyes. "You just see all this destruction all the time but are still so excited every time you see a tornado. I don't get it. Why keep chasing them?"

"Well, there ain't no stopping nature," Boone told her softly. "And it's hard, seeing the destruction these storms are capable of. That's why we chase 'em — to study them and see how they form. Maybe one day, all the Cowboy Scientists like Ty will figure out how to warn people more in advance. At least, that's what he hopes for. Just so happens filming it for YouTube worked out in our favor."

Baby nodded a bit in understanding. Then she smiled a bit. "Cowboy Scientist?"

"Yeah, we're working on trademarking the term. Like Tornado Wrangler."

"And then Dani can put it on a t-shirt?"

"Exactly," he nodded with a grin. "Speaking of, I've been trying for months to talk the into a Wrangler bandana line. Think you can help me convince her?"

"Oh, I think those sales would be killer."