She hurried back and jumped into the SUV, slammed the door, and immediately grabbed the map to study it. “Let’s go down a few a miles and get a little closer.”
Nick pulled back onto the road. Gayle peered out the passenger window at the mountain of dark clouds. “Those striations are beautiful.”
“Almost as beautiful as you.”
At the familiar deep voice rumbling from the driver’s seat—a voice so not the young kid she’d been listening to for weeks—every cell in her body froze. Lightly shaking her head, she blinked. Was she freaking hallucinating now? Only one way to tell. Turn and look. But for the life of her, she was too terrified to do so. Because if Mac wasn’t sitting there next to her, she would have to give Nick directions to the nearest psychiatric hospital. She was finally losing her mind.
“I personally like that the mothership has a rain-free base so it doesn’t seem anchored to the ground and appears to be hovering in the air.”
Wide-eyed, she stared at the supercell. Yes, the person speaking had Mac’s voice, but the words coming out of his mouth didn’t sound like Mac at all. Rain-free base? Anchored to the ground? That was chaser talk.
She took a calming breath and twisted to peer over at him. Her mind was having a hell of a time computing things. This wasn’t possible. It went against all logic. Mac had left her in the hospital because she had been in a wreck while storm chasing. This Mac was sitting behind the wheel in an active chase—driving the damn chase vehicle down the road, calm as could be. That made no sense.
Sending her a quick glance, he arched a questioning brow. “Baby? Are you okay?”
“Wh-” Shock had sucked the moisture from her mouth. She licked her lips and tried again. “Where’s Nick?”
“Where’s Nick…” The Mac look-alike sucked his teeth. “You asking for another man was not the homecoming I was hoping for, but what the fuck, I’ll play along. I just paid him a crazy amount of money to return my rental car for me. He has no loyalty, Gayle. He snatched the money and took off.”
Eyes locked on Mac, she leaned back against the seat. “Why are you even here? You left me.”
A pained grimace contorted his face. “I did, and I regret that.”
“Without one word, you left. It’s been weeks.” And the festering hurt was still there in spades. And the fury. Seeing him made it all bubble to the surface again.
“I’ve been recovering,” he said.
She crossed her arms, filled with anger. “From what? Terminal stupidity?”
A deep chuckle filled the SUV. “As a matter of fact, yes.” He tapped a finger to his temple. “Sometimes it really does take a good punch to the head to knock some sense into a guy.” He grasped the steering wheel again. “Am I supposed to turn or keep going, or what?”
“How about you drop me off and then keep going…straight back to Atlanta.”
“Nope.” He sent her a lazy smile. “I’m good right here.”
Her mouth dropped open. He hadn’t even blinked at her retort. His laid-back reaction only goaded her anger more. “Really? You’re good…right here? Holy shit. Where’s the Lollipop Guild to welcome us, because we sure as hell ain’t in Kansas anymore.”
His soft laugh made her want to smack him. Hard. Why was he so damn relaxed and unresponsive to her hostility? Grinding her teeth, she folded her arms tight across her chest and stared out the windshield. Did the ass really think he could just show up and all would be forgiven? Not damn likely. He left her. In. The. Hospital.
After a quick glance at the weather monitoring screen, Mac took a right turn onto a side road. Gayle struggled to hide her surprise. She would’ve instructed Nick to take that same route to follow the clouds.
Come to think of it, how had he known proper terminology? He’d deliberately dropped those words to make her curious and, damn it, the ploy had worked. She snapped her head around. “How did you know that cloud has a rain-free base?”
“I’ve been studying. A person can learn a lot if they open their mind instead of letting fear close it.”
She dragged her gaze up and down him. He sure looked like the man she’d fallen in love with—correction: thought she’d fallen in love with—but something was definitely off. “Man, what a shocking discovery. I mean, who knew ed-u-cation made you smarter?”
Her snippy tone only earned another chuckle from him.
If the man didn’t stop laughing, she was going to kill him. She fisted her hands in preparation.
“I know, right? Those books and videos showed me a lot.” He paused for a long moment. “But it was life happening that taught me the most important lesson. And made me a much smarter man. I’ve learned something invaluable with you, Gayle. Something losing my family didn’t ever teach me. In fact, their deaths made me live in fear of it.”