Chapter Four
“I love sunset lightning,” she says with a happy sigh as another cloud explodes into pale lavender splinters and thunder rolls lazily across the open fields.
I hum my agreement, captivated by the brilliant oranges and reds and pinks peeking out from the horizon while the storm grumbles in the distance.
“Kansas looks like the place to be tomorrow.” I glance back over my shoulder to where Matt has his camera pointed at a different part of the storm.
Wes is thankfully off doing his own thing.
“I’m probably going to try to get north tonight so I have time to pop into Mae’s in the morning. In the mood for donuts?”
“I’m always in the mood for donuts.” Tracy pivots, then shouts across the field, “Matt! Sloane wants to stop at Mae’s in the morning. You in?”
“I ever tell you I don’t want a donut, that’s how you know I’ve been kidnapped.” Matt grins wide with the excitement of a kid left unsupervised with a cookie jar. “I’ll text Wes.”
My groan slips out before I can stuff it back down. “Do we have to?” I grumble to Tracy, too quietly to be overheard.
“Matt chewed him a new one about the hook punch earlier.” Her eyes slide to mine, something curious peering back at me. “You know Wes. Stubborn as the day is long. Just like someone else I know…”
“My stubbornness doesn’t extend to idiocy.”
Tracy shrugs. “Maybe not, but I’m just saying, the two of you have an awful lot in common. He’s not a bad guy, Sloane. He stayed with us for a week when he was in LA for a job and—”
“And he’s reckless and arrogant and mocks me at every opportunity,” I interrupt.
It’s not the first time she’s tried to convince me that Wild Wes isn’t exactly what he appears to be since she started dating Matt.
After enduring her teasing earlier, I’m beyond not in the mood.
“I get he’s close with Matt and that you want us to be friends, but we’re too different.
It is what it is. I keep the peace for your sake. ”
I let out a long breath, my gaze straying to the horizon where the vibrant burn of the sunset is fading into twilight. “I think I’m going to call it a night and knock out a chunk of the drive before I crash. See you in the morning?”
Tracy stares at me, a slight crease between her brows, and then nods. “Ten work for you? We shouldn’t have too far to go from Mae’s to catch the storms if they pop off east of Dodge City like the models are saying.”
I nod my agreement and head for my car, but I’m still turning our conversation over in my head when I pull into the dusty parking lot of Mae’s Donuts the next morning.
I’ve known Tracy a long time, and she’s always been a straight shooter.
When we were chasing together, before she started to get closer to Matt, she agreed that Wes was an obnoxious adrenaline junkie with a death wish.
Nothing has changed as far as I can tell. Her relationship status aside, Wes is the same guy he’s always been, all of his antics alive and well.
As if in answer, he pulls into the parking lot behind me in a cloud of dust and music that cuts out abruptly when he kills the engine.
“Mornin’, darlin’,” he calls, exaggerating his drawl before emerging with a neon pink cowboy hat plopped on his head.
It would look ridiculous no matter what, but the fact that he’s in flip-flops, hiking shorts, and a T-shirt hardly helps.
“You and those cowboy hats this season,” I mutter, squinting at him in the bright sunlight. “Do you even know how to ride a damn horse?”
“I do, actually.” Wes tips his hat at me with exaggerated charm, like he’s not a trust fund kid cosplaying a guy with a grueling job.
“Been a while, though.” Shadows flicker across his face, and when he speaks again, his accent is tidily tucked away once more.
“Tracy and Matt are running a little late. Should be here in fifteen.”
Of course they are. I make myself breathe out slowly before I say anything. “Great.”
Wes chuckles, my obvious irritation yet another joke to him. “Still pissed about yesterday? I’m fine. I got this amazing video—”
“Good for you.” Not wanting to rehash the argument, I point at the monstrosity on his head before starting for the door. “Where did you even find that hideous thing?”
He grabs the handle and holds the door open for me with a dramatic sweep of his hand. “There’s this magical place called the internet.”
Rolling my eyes, I step past him into a blast of air-conditioning with a distinctly sugary scent.
Mae is waiting for us with her usual brand of over-the-top friendliness.
She’s got to be in her sixties now, gray hair streaked with pink, and giant plastic tornado earrings dangling from her ears.
A small mountain of her signature neon pink boxes sits stacked on the counter waiting for a stampede of hungry storm chasers.
“Well now, aren’t you two a sight for sore eyes!” She comes around the counter to embrace each of us in a cloud of vanilla, her expression alight with excitement. “I saw the forecast this morning and hoped I’d be seeing y’all on your way west. You just tell those storms to stay away from my shop.”
“We’ll do our best.” Wes grins, kissing her cheek before straightening from the hug. He reaches up, grabs the pink hat, and gently places it on her head. “Saw this and couldn’t resist.”
Heat crawls into my cheeks. The hat that I called hideous only a few minutes ago was a gift all along, one that Mae obviously appreciates by the way her expression softens.
She’s one of the kindest souls I’ve met in all the years I’ve come to the plains to chase each spring. She started selling her donuts out of a food truck, and once she realized that storm chasers are a bunch of sugar fiends, made a habit out of turning up year after year where we were likely to be.
It was a great marketing tactic until it wasn’t. A couple of years ago, a night tornado tore through the town that Mae was staying in. She was safe in a storm shelter, but her truck wasn’t so lucky.
It was a gut punch when I heard what happened.
In the weeks that followed, it quickly became clear just how many lives she had touched with her endless optimism and steady supply of baked goods.
The community rallied around her and organized a fundraiser that, together with the insurance payout, enabled her to buy the shop we’re now standing in. Most of us stop in every chance we get.
“I sure do miss being out on the road sometimes,” Mae says now, slipping behind the counter and reaching for a paper coffee cup.
“But it’s awful nice to only have a ten-minute drive at five o’clock in the morning.
” She slides the first cup of coffee in front of me and then starts to pour another.
“Weddings still treating you right, Sloane? I just can’t thank you enough for sending that bride my way last summer.
Never would have thought of that myself! ”
I shrug off the compliment. “She mentioned she and her husband got donuts and coffee on their first date. It was an easy suggestion.”
“Well, I still appreciate it!”
“Business is good?” Wes leans his elbows on the counter, his sunglasses dangling from his fingers while he waits for Mae to fix his coffee.
She laughs and wags her finger before setting down the paper cup. “As if you don’t know! I still have no earthly idea how you did it, but I guess my granddaughter was right.”
Wes shrugs. “Least I could do,” he says with uncharacteristic bashfulness, the tips of his ears turning pink.
Mae must see the confusion on my face. She pulls her phone out of her apron, taps the screen a few times with her long nails, and then turns it toward me. “Isn’t he just the sweetest?”
On the screen, Wes’s social media page is open to a video of him in one of Mae’s signature bright pink aprons.
The sound is off, not that I need to hear what he’s saying to see that the clip went viral.
Wes being topless beneath the apron probably violates some kind of health code, sure, but it’s effective.
It was also awfully generous of him to put his thirst-trap tendencies to good use.
“I’m still getting people driving from all over creation just to try one of the pink-velvet donuts.
” Mae gestures to the pastry case with a happy sigh.
Behind the sparkling glass, an assortment of treats sits tidily lined up, though most of the space is reserved for the donuts from the video.
Like the rest of the shop, they’re over-the-top, the dough itself a deep pink, with lighter-colored frosting and tiny high-heeled pink sprinkles.
“Might even start shipping during the summer when my granddaughter and her friends are off school!”
“That’s dangerous information.” I grin over the rim of my coffee cup before taking a sip. “You taking preorders?”
Mae laughs while grabbing one of the boxes and a square of parchment paper. “You want the usual?”
“Yeah, that’s great.”
“Or you could live a little, Sloane,” Wes taunts from my side. “All these concoctions to choose from and you’re going with boring plain glazed?”
“I like plain glazed,” I retort. “It’s a classic for a reason.”
“Lucky Charms are a classic. C’mon, taste the rainbow!”
“That’s Skittles.”
“I’ve got those this year too!” Mae sets the box with a half dozen plain glazed donuts on the counter and winks. “If you’re feeling adventurous.”
I pluck one of the donuts out of the box and take a giant bite, letting out a quiet groan at the perfection of sugar and light, airy dough.
“Nah,” I say with my eyes on Wes while he takes a big gulp of his coffee.
“I know what I like. And what I don’t.” I turn my attention back to Mae and offer her a genuine smile.
“These are fantastic. Even if some people think they’re boring. ”