Page 52 of Through the Storms

“Cool.” Chloe leaned forward in her seat and craned her neck to see out of the front windshield. “This is getting exciting.” She put her hand on Riley’s knee and squeezed.

Without thinking, Riley put her hand on top of Chloe’s and then froze. Should she be obvious and pull it away?No.She needed to be casual. “Oh, hey.” Riley lifted her hand off Chloe’s and pointed toward the black vans that had fishtailed out in front of them. “I don’t think they stopped at the stop sign, either. Another law broken.” After she finished pointing, she dropped her hand high on her thigh away from where Chloe’s hand rested on her knee.

Oakley finished talking on the radio and swiveled in her chair, so she faced the back of the van. Between the wind, rain, and Oakley constantly running her hand through her hair whenever she got excited about the weather, her hair splayed out in several directions. “We possibly have ourselves a live one. It’s the most promising one we’ve had so far.”

“But you said the one earlier looked good, too, but all we got was some hail,” Peggy said.

Oakley smiled. “I hear that disappointment in your voice.”

“Oh, dear, no. I didn’t mean it that way,” Peggy said.

“It’s okay. We get that a lot. Let me give you some statistics to put this into perspective.” Oakley made eye contact with Riley. “Riley, how many thunderstorms do you think there are in an average year in the U.S.?”

Riley bit her lip.Shit.How should she know? Oakley continued to stare, so Riley said, “I dunno, maybe fifty thousand.”

“A million,” Sandy said.

“Wow. That’s quite a range.” Oakley chuckled. “The answer is about a hundred thousand.”

“Ha. You blew that one,” Peggy said.

“Well, at least I tried.” Sandy huffed.

“Now,” Oakley said. “How many tornadoes do you think there are in a year?”

“Oh, crap, you told us that yesterday when we talked about hurricanes,” Peggy said.

“Anyone remember?”

“Um, twenty-five thousand?” It was a wild guess, but it wasn’t something Riley remembered from her notebook.

Oakley chuckled. “That would be a storm chaser’s dream, but on the other hand, I doubt if anyone would want to live in Tornado Alley. The answer is over a thousand.”

“Really?” Chloe said. “That means that only about one percent leads to a tornado.”

“Bingo.” Oakley pointed at Chloe. “You’ve got it.”

“Holy hell,” Peggy said. “Storm chasing is like finding a needle in a haystack.”

Riley grinned. She’d not heard that expression in a long time. Not since her grandma had passed.

“You could say that,” Oakley said. “We up our odds when we find a supercell, which is what we believe is forming to the west.In a supercell, we’re likely to get a tornado twenty-five to thirty percent of the time.”

“Jesus, we’re hitting the jackpot.” Sandy clapped her hands. “We saw four yesterday and three already today. Luck of the Irish, I tell you. Luck of the Irish.”

“We aren’t Irish,” Peggy said.

“Don’t matter as long as we’re lucky,” Sandy responded.

“I’m afraid we don’t have any leprechauns in the van,” Oakley said. “What if I told you we haven’t seen a tornado yet?”

Riley studied Oakley’s face. She had a slight smirk. Was she just messing with them?No.By the twinkle in her eye, there was something they were missing.

“They never touched down,” Chloe said from beside Riley.

Riley turned. Chloe had a contemplative look on her face. Smart women were sexy.Damn it.Riley needed to stop.

“We have a winner,” Oakley said. “Chloe’s right. Until it touches down, it isn’t considered a tornado. It’s just a funnel cloud.”