GIVE US THE FULL TORNADO WRANGLER EXPERIENCE!

Dakota woke to gentle kisses being trailed down the back of her neck, heading toward her spine. It made her giggle as she turned over on her back, unable to believe she was waking up in Tyler Owens' arms, his handsome face staring down at her.

"Morning, Sweetheart," he said, his voice low and raspy from his night of sleep.

"Morning, Handsome," she said, reaching up to tangle her fingers in his hair.

Tyler leaned down to kiss her, both smiling into it, their teeth bumping. Then Tyler moved his head to rest on her neck, taking in a deep breath. "We got a long drive this morning."

Dakota's smile dimmed a bit, unsure of how Kate was doing after last night. And now, she didn't know how she felt about leaving her best friend at home when she was at her worst.

"I, um, I need to talk to her before we leave," she said softly, making him lean back and nod.

"Don't let her convince you to stay," he said, only partly joking. "Lily will be crushed."

So would he if she stayed behind in Sapulpa, especially after last night. Not when he was a complete goner for her.

She smiled gently and kissed his cheek. "How about you go get a shower while I talk to Kate?"

"Hmm, I think I'd like that idea better if you joined me," he said with a smirk.

But Dakota shook her head. "No way. Bathroom's right by Kathy's bedroom."

"Please," he scoffed before leaning his head to the window where light was coming in. "She's been up tending the cows for hours now."

"We'll see how long this talk takes," she said while pushing on his chest.

Tyler rolled back onto his back, letting her slide out of bed. And he let out a low whistle while putting his hands behind his back. All she was in was his t-shirt, and he quite liked the sight as the bottom hit her thighs. And when she bent down to grab her underwear and shorts, it gave him a perfect view of her ass, making his morning practically perfect.

Once Dakota was dressed, she headed to Kate's room, where her friend was sitting at her desk, looking through old photographs of them and their friends. Dakota stood behind her and smiled, seeing one of her, Addy, and Praveen. They were at Six Flags, and Praveen didn't want to go on the rollercoaster, too scared of it, but they were forcing him.

"I remember that. He barfed all over Javi's shoes," Dakota said, laughing.

"And his face was green in the picture that the ride took," Kate said with a smile. Then she looked at her friend over her shoulder. "What are you doing up so early? You value sleep more than anything."

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," she said before moving to sit on the edge of Kate's bed. "Tyler asked me to go back with him. And maybe I can't make a difference with Storm PAR, and maybe running with his crew won't be like old times, but I think it's what I need. It'll be good for me. Might even be good for you."

"I—" Kate shook her head, going silent as she processed the new information — that Dakota was leaving her behind and moving on. Then she sighed. "You'll fit right in. Driving in tornados and shooting fireworks into 'em."

"You mad at me for it?" Dakota asked in a small voice, fiddling with her fingers. "Because you know I wouldn't go if you really want me here."

Kate shook her head and smiled bitterly. "I can't ask you to stay. Not when I know you'd rather be with them."

With him.

Dakota nodded and got up. "Then I'm gonna go shower and get ready. But, uh, just think about it."

"Think about what?" she asked as Dakota moved toward the door.

"That stuff Tyler said last night. About a new model," she said softly, leaning against the doorframe. "Science has come a long way in the last few years. We've got some catching up to do."

With one last sad smile, Dakota pushed off the doorframe and went back to her room, gathering her clothes that she'd arrived in, which Kathy had washed. Then she grabbed a towel, standing outside the cracked bathroom door with a smirk on her face.

✵︎

It was just starting to rain when they left. With one hand, Tyler was holding his bag and the other arm was slung around Dakota's shoulder. She let him lead her to the truck, neither really caring about the drops of rain hitting their clothes.

They'd certainly been in worse weather.

And even despite the rain, Tyler was gentlemanly enough to open up the passenger side door for her and help her in before running around to his side. As he buckled up, she just looked around the cab in awe — last time, it had been dark and she couldn't see all the modifications too well.

"When we get back and it's not raining, I'm getting in all this baby's nooks and crannies," she told him with a grin.

"Is that right?" he asked with a smirk. "Why do I feel like you only like me for my truck?"

She shrugged, playing it cool. "Well, you certainly didn't draw me in with your charm and that stupid cowboy hat."

He scoffed at her and took the cowboy hat off his head. "You didn't seem to hate it that much last night," he reminded her while placing the hat on her head, loving how her cheeks heated up.

It made Dakota smile, who didn't move to remove the hat as he put his hand on the gearshift. Only to stop when there was a quick tapping on his window.

Dakota grinned when she saw Kate, hoping deep down that she'd changed her mind about it all.

"You said you could get a new model running?" Kate asked with a hopeful smile.

Tyler grinned and looked between the two girls, who had excitement in their bright eyes. "Yes, ma'am."

✵︎

Thirty minutes later, Tyler had it all set up, and Dakota was in awe of his computer. It was even nicer than the Storm PAR system, which made her wonder just how much money being a YouTube storm chaser paid.

He thought it was so terribly cute any time she asked questions about the different programs, soaking up that knowledge like a sponge that would never forget.

"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 Dakota calculated. "Okay, so fifteen hundred kilos of polymer absorbing three hundred times its weight."

"Which means four hundred and fifty thousand kilos," Dakota said, adding it as she did the math in her head. "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," Dakota grinned, realizing that from the model, it was working. Far better than any model she'd come up with five years prior.

"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. "You want one?"

Both girls looked at him in shock before looking at each other, sharing a knowing look. One that said everything. They'd only do it if the other was on board — which was an answer in itself.

So, Dakota grinned at Tyler, leaning her hip on the table. "Hell yeah, Grandpa."

✵︎

Usually one to ride in the back, Dakota was so excited that she was in the front seat of Tyler's truck while Kate was sentenced to the back. She had the seat all the way back and her feet propped up on the dashboard as Tyler drove them down an empty road, following the Doppler toward a few storms.

He looked good, she had to admit, with a backward baseball cap on his head. And the only reason he wasn't wearing his cowboy had was because it was on her head — which made Kate raise a knowing eyebrow when she saw it.

But now, Kate was too busy freaking out over the truck to worry about old sayings about cowboy hats. She wasn't even buckled up, reaching past Dakota to look all over the vehicle.

"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.

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

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

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

Deciding to help Kate out, she dropped her legs and opened the dashboard, only for numerous headshots of Tyler to fall out, all of them signed. She couldn't help but laugh hard.

"What the fuck, babe?" she asked as Tyler reached over and shut the dashboard, a little embarrassed.

"Have you two ever been in a car before?" he asked grouchily.

"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, Dakota 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.

"Yee haw!" Dakota exclaimed, making Tyler and Kate laugh.

"It's a rocket," he told Kate as if she didn't know.

"Dakota Mae, get back inside," Kate chastised.

Once Dakota was back inside and buckled up, Tyler pointed to the Doppler on the dashboard. "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 in the rearview mirror 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 trio 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 was taking pictures as Dakota ran ahead of both of them, getting excited to get close to the storm.

She didn't even hear Kate and Tyler geeking out about the conditions at first, too mesmerized by the storm. Sure, meteorology wasn't her specialty, but this was the perfect storm to watch on a front porch with a beer in hand.

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

"She's gorgeous!" Dakota exclaimed, and Tyler was just as mesmerized by her grin as she was the oncoming storm.

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

The three ran back to the truck and didn't waste any time driving toward the storm. And as they did, they saw a thin funnel coming down from the sky, touching down on the ground.

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

Dakota was practically vibrating in her seat as she did so, realizing what he was going to do. It was something she'd been dreaming of doing for years. Kate wasn't so keen though.

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

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

As they got closer and Tyler sped up, Dakota couldn't help but laugh. "Turn up the radio, baby! Give us the full tornado wrangler experience!"

"Yes, ma'am." Tyler was all too happy to do so, glad that she was just as excited as he was.

Unlike Kate, who was freaking out. "We - we don't have to drive into it. It's really dangerous!"

"Oh, that's why we have to drive into it. Can't miss from in there."

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

"Kate, Ty has done amazing on this thing," Dakota said, trying to ease her nerves. "This thing's rated for an EF 1 today. We got extra weight on the chassis. We got anchorage down two feet."

"She's right! Don't worry. I'm a professional," Tyler insisted.

"You're an asshole," she snapped.

"Hold on."

"I think she is," Dakota snickered.

"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."

Then they drove right into the tornado, and Dakota couldn't take her eyes off the windshield, watching the debris smack 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.

So, Dakota reached forward and grabbed her hand, not complaining when Kate dug her nails into her skin.

"Alright, we're slowing down," Tyler told them, slowly coming to a stop. Then he hit the red button on the gear shift, and Dakota 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. Dakota was proud of that switch, as she was the one to install it that morning, finally getting to mess around with the truck's wiring.

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

Dakota 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.

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

"Did you see that?" she 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."

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, Dakota 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," Dakota answered.

Five minutes later, they were sitting on top of the truck, eating the sandwiches that Kathy packed for them.

"What if it's the model that's the problem?" Dakota asked, her mouth full of turkey. "That was part of the holdup last time."

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

"Well, we'd need better data," she said. "It always comes down to data collection. Which means..."

Kate finished for her, a little bit hesitant. "Javi."