Page 8 of Out of the Storm

Annoying. Yet still somehow sexy.

“I called to correct you about the tornado sh—”Live radio, Jeff, live radio!“Stuff.”

“Well now, that’s unexpected. What did I have wrong?”

“Tornadoes happen in the winter.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, uh, a couple of years ago, Tulsa had a tornado on Christmas Eve. I was there. Visiting a friend.”

Not a friend, but Chris, the only man Jeff had really, seriously tried to be in a relationship with after he had ended things with Don.

“Wow! Christmas Eve? How’d Santa make it to the children, I wonder.”

“Hah, yeah...” Though Jeff’s mind vaguely registered Gary’s silly comment, part of him was still stuck in Tulsa with Chris. Earlier that summer two years ago, when Chris had finished teaching Jeff everything he knew about storms, the two of them had started seeing each other romantically. Over the phone, initially. But then, when Jeff had traveled to Tulsa in December, it hadn’t been long before he’d been reminded of the fact that, for him, romance was no longer in the cards.

Ten Goddamn minutes into meeting up, Chris had kissed him, and somehow, that fucking kiss had made Jeff’s heart seize, icy panic flooding his veins as unwelcome memories had crashed over him, and as ridiculous and misplaced as that panic had been, he hadn’t been able to recover from it, no matter how hard he’d tried. Even though he’d forced himself not to pull back from the kiss, he hadn’t been able to enjoy even a single second of it.

Later that night, on Christmas Eve, while a storm had raged outside, Jeff had been hell-bent on making things work, and so, he’d forced himself to be okay with things progressing beyond a simple kiss. They’d eventually moved to the bedroom, and when Chris’s hands had begun roaming over Jeff’s bare torso, Jeff hadtried desperately to keep all his fucked-up feelings from escaping. But the moment Chris’s hand had found the waistband of Jeff’s briefs, the metaphorical storm shelter had been breached. Jeff’s entire body had started screaming at him to stop, and yet, pathetically, Jeff had still kept trying—trying to push himself, trying to show Chris how much he liked him, trying to be the man he wanted to be.

But then fear had overtaken him. God, the way he’d panicked and crumpled in on himself, it had been so Goddamn humiliating. Chris hadn’t been interested in him anymore when it was over.

Gary’s voice cut through Jeff’s thoughts, pulling him back to the present.

“So that must have been scary. The tornado?” Gary asked, and Jeff swallowed thickly as he took a pause to bury the shame, his face still burning.

“Wasn’t,” he forced out.

Gary chuckled. “You’re a brave man, Billy McCoy.”

“No,”Jeff wanted to say.“I’m not.”

Gary continued, “I’d have been shaking in my shoes. Or, well, maybe notshaking.”

God, what a cornball Gary was. Despite the memories of that horrible Christmas season still being fresh in his mind, Jeff couldn’t help but smile a little. Because he knew exactly what cheesy Gary Graham wanted to say next.

“Because it wasn’t an earthquake,” Jeff finished for him.

“Exactly!” Gary exclaimed, sounding so excited that it was impossible not to picture his probably-silly smile. Thoughts of Don and Chris and Tulsa faded away. “I had a feeling you’d appreciate my humor.”

“Appreciatemight not be the right word.”

“Ouch!” Gary said with a chuckle. “So, was there anything else I had wrong?”

“Well, cities and mountains won’t provide tornado cover.”

“Sounds like I need to brush up on my meteorology. I’m happy you called in to correct me. I’m not sure if I’ve ever even read a single book on weather, come to think of it. Before we return to our topic of the evening, I have to ask, are you studying meteorology for school?”

“No.”

“Just a, uh, weather enthusiast, then?”

Jeff chewed on his bottom lip, trying to think of how to phrase it. “I... chase storms.”

“Excuse me, youchase storms? Now, I know we’re supposed to be talking about French fries, but I am itching to know what you mean by that.”

“I like watching them. I, uh, head out to Oklahoma and Texas once or twice every year.”

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