HOLY SMOKES

ten. ain't she pretty

“Maggie!”

The blonde turned, smiling as Ally rushed towards her. “Hey, kiddo.” She lifted her up and sat her in the booth next to her. John and Miranda, Ally’s parents, smiled as they slid into the booth across from Magnolia. “Y’all sleep alright?”

“Yeah, thank you again.” Miranda told her.

“What’s this?” Ally asked, tugging a little on the necklace around Magnolia’s neck. “It’s pretty.”

“Thank you,” she carefully pulled it out of the kids grip, not wanting her to break the chain. “It’s a ring that someone very special gave me a long time ago.”

“Don’t rings go on your fingers? Mommy's is on her finger.”

“Ally,” John warned lightly.

“No, it’s fine.” Magnolia assured them with a smile before looking at the kid again, who was still mesmerized but the silver ring. “A lot of the work I do is a lot of movin’ stuff and I don’t want it to fall off or break. I wear it on a necklace so I can have it close and not lose it.”

“Oh,” she simply hummed before she turned and pulled the menu towards her, she even scanned it like she was reading it.

“Y’all can get what y’all want, it’s on me.” Magnolia told them, fixing Boone’s bandana over her necklace. She usually tucked it into her shirt, but her tank top was too low to cover the ring.

“Oh, you don’t have to.”

“I know, but I want to.” She smiled, getting a teary-eyed smile from Miranda. “Just get you some food, maybe some coffee. And I can help y’all figure out your next move.”

“Are you an angel?” Ally asked, not looking up from the menu. “Mommy said that angels show up when you need them most, and they’re really nice and pretty.”

Magnolia smiled, rubbing the kid’s back a little, “no, not an angel. Just a girl that likes to help people is all.”

“Okay,” Ally hummed. “I want smiley face pancakes.”

“You got it.”

They finished eating and the waitress came to take their plates, and just as she walked away Hunter made his way towards the table, “hey, Maggie. I’ve been looking for you.”

“What’s up?” She looked up at him and he eyed the bandana around her neck for a moment – he had done the same thing every day she wore one.

“Um, just had a couple work questions,” he told her before looking at the other three at the table. “Are you the family she helped?” His eyes lit up upon seeing the little girl Magnolia had been carrying around most of the day before.

“Yes, and we can thank her enough.” John nodded.

“This is great, Maggie.” He grinned. “Would you be up for-”

“No, Hunter.”

“But this could be really good for us, for you.”

“I’m not using them like that. They just lost everythin’..”

“Excuse me, what are you talking about?” Miranda asked curiously.

“Maggie runs a non-profit and one of the branches helps with tornado relief. That’s why we're here to help out and raise money for the families that are losing everything. If we could get a statement from you about yesterday, that could help out a lot.”

“Hunter,” Magnolia shook her head, missing the look John and Miranda shared. “We can’t-”

“No, we want to.” Miranda cut in.

“You helped us, are helping us. We want to do this for you. Please.”

“Are you sure?” Magnolia asked as Ally leaned against her side. “This will be up on social media, it’ll be everywhere.”

Miranda reached across the table, placing her hand on Magnolia’s, “we want to.”

“Thank you,” the blonde turned her hand over and squeezed. “Seriously.”

Ten minutes later, they had set up in the parking lot of the combination diner and gas station. Hunter asked questions and they answered while Magnolia played with Ally in the grass.

“There,” Magnolia smiled, placing the daisy crown she made on Ally’s head. “Every princess needs a tiara.”

“Let’s play fairies!” Ally grinned, bouncing on her feet and the daisy crown shifted a little, sitting crooked on her head. “You need a crown, too!” And so she got to work, with Magnolia’s help, and once she was done she placed the daisy crown on the blonde’s head. Then they ran around in the grass, using dandelions as wands.

Ally giggled as she laid back in the grass, Magnolia doing the same next to her. Miranda and John smiled as they neared the two, their hands locked together.

“Thanks again,” Miranda got their attention.

“Seriously, you ain’t gotta thank me.” Magnolia pushed herself up, her flower crown crooked on her head. “I should be thankin’ you, your story, it’s gonna help a lot of people.”

“No, Maggie, you’re gonna help a lot of people.” John told her and she smiled up at them. “So, we got in touch with my brother over in Boise City, said we can stay with him while we figure things out. We have a flight in a couple hours, he set everything up.”

“That’s great.” She grinned as she pushed herself up. “Is there anything I can do?”

“You’ve done plenty.” Miranda told her, pulling her into a hug. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she squeezed the woman before she pulled back, then John stepped forward and hugged the girl as well, making her chuckle a little as she patted his back. “If you need a ride to the airport-”

“Hunter said he’d give us a ride,” John pulled back, smiling at the girl. “We just wanted to say goodbye before we left. Thanks again, for everything.”

“Come on, Ally, tell Maggie bye.”

“Bye, Maggie!” Ally wrapped her arms around her legs.

“Bye, kiddo.” she patted her head before bending down to give the kid a proper hug.

“You’re an angel,” Ally whispered before she pulled back, then she latched onto her parents’ hands and they waved as they made their way towards Hunter, who was waiting by his SUV.

>>>>> • <<<<<

The parking lot had flooded with amateur storm chasers, but Magnolia kept waiting for a certain red truck to roll up. She had to leave early that morning, merely leaving a note and a kiss on Boone’s cheek before she slipped out of the room. She and Kelly had a meeting that morning before she had breakfast with John, Miranda and Ally.

With Magnolia out in the field, Kelly was taking on the lead role at the office and though she could run that place with her eyes closed, she liked to have a second opinion on things. She also wanted to bug Magnolia about Boone, Kelly thought it was cute the way she would blush and fidget with her necklace every time he was mentioned.

Magnolia couldn’t believe she had survived ten years without him, it had been a few hours and she so desperately wanted to see him. She shook her head a little and focused on her laptop where she was posting on Instagram about the day before. Hunter had emailed her all the pictures he took and she made sure to tag the Tornado Wranglers since they were in several of the pictures. Then she added the link to the relief fund and hit post.

In the passenger seat of her Bronco, her phone was buzzing almost constantly, so she eventually reached for it. Almost all of the notifications were from TikTok, so she unlocked her phone and opened the app to see that it was flooded with comments.

Then she saw the video Hunter had done with Ally’s parents – which also included clips of Magnolia playing with Ally, which had gotten almost 100,000 views and had hundreds of positive comments and well wishes for the family. But one comment in particular caught her attention… make her a regular tornado wrangler! She chuckled a little, seeing as the person that commented it had tagged the Wranglers Tiktok as well as all of them individually.

And below it was a comment declaring that Boone should marry her, and if he didn’t then the commenter was more than willing.

It was safe to say that the fans liked the idea of her and Boone together. She smiled a little before tossing her phone into the passenger seat with her laptop. She stepped out of her Bronco, heading for the gas station. She reached the door just as Scott had and surprisingly, he held the door open and let her enter first.

“Hey, Scott,” she looked over her shoulder at him. “I wanted to apologize for yesterday, didn’t mean to get in the way of your work.”

He rolled his eyes under his sunglasses as he silently chewed on his gum and made his way through the store. She followed.

“Just wanted to find the kid’s parents.” She added when they reached the drinks.

He was quiet for a moment as he grabbed a Coke, and once the fridge was closed he turned towards her, having to look down at her, “and did you?”

“Yeah,” she smiled softly. “They were real happy.”

He just hummed and turned, making his way to the counter and she shrugged, grabbing her own drink, a Sunkist, then she made her way towards the candy and grabbed a bag of sour gummy worms. She paid then made her way back outside, tearing into her gummy worms as she caught up to Scott.

“So, what kinda work y’all doin’?”

“God,” he jumped a little, not expecting her to follow him. He turned, his eyes narrowed but she continued to chew on her candy as she tried to match his pace. “Why do you wanna know?”

“I’m curious.” She shrugged as they neared the StormPAR cars.

“We collect data on tornadoes.”

“Yeah, I got that.” she nodded, opening her drink to take a sip. “How?”

“What? Your boyfriend’s not here so you gotta bug me?”

He cheeks flushed at the mention of Boone, who wasn’t her boyfriend. At least she didn’t think he was, they hadn’t talked about it. “Just figured it’d be nice to be friendly, seems we're gonna be seein’ a lot of each other.”

He just looked at her for a minute before opening the trunk of one of the cars. She noticed that Scarecrow was painted on the back of it. “We use PAR – Phased Array Radars…” he watched as she nodded like she knew what he was talking about. “We’re trying to get a 3D rendering of a tornado.”

“I understood half of that, but it sounds cool,” she told him. “And what does all this…”

“Bring it in, team!” Scott looked over his shoulder to see Javi approaching the group with a blonde at his side.

“I’ll let you get back to work,” Magnolia smiled at him before turning away from him, waving a little as she passed Javi and the newcomer. “Hey, Javi.”

“Hey, Magnolia, saw your post on Instagram.” He gave her a smile, even though he knew she was single handedly ruining things for his investor. “Hope you get the donations you need.”

“Thanks, Javi.”

“Oh, um, this-this is Kate.” He motioned to the girl at his side.

Magnolia smiled, waving at the girl, “we can do introductions later, don’t wanna get in the way of your work… again.” She turned and made her way back to her Bronco, she opened up the truck and lifted herself up into that car as she sat her drink and her gummy worms next to her. Along with the flower crown she pulled off of her head.

She scanned the parking lot again, a pout tugging at her lips. Most of her team was out helping out with the clean up from the day before so she was pretty much alone. Then she perked up, a smile tugging on her lips when she heard very loud, very obnoxious country music. She knew it could only be one crew with their music that loud.

She was only proven right when the horn blared and a large red truck pulled into the parking lot followed by a blue van and the rv. She laughed as she watched the storm chaser hanging around form a crowd, all waiting for the Tornado Wranglers.

She grinned like an idiot when she saw Boone hanging out the passenger side window, his camera raised as they passed the StormPAR team. “Hey, StormPAR. We’re live on YouTube Say somethin’.”

“Blow me, Boone!”

“Hey, smile, man! Science is fun, right?” He teased and Tyler kept driving past them, taking them right by where Magnolia was parked. “There she is!” Boone grinned, letting his eyes drink her in. She wore a white low cut tank top that was tucked into her jean cut offs, on her feet sat her cowboy boots that she’d had for forever. And around her neck was his yellow bandana, which he knew covered the ring that hung around her neck along with the marks he'd left that had yet to fade. “Ain’t she pretty?”

It didn’t seem that either cared all that much about whether or not people knew about them.

She laughed, throwing her head back a little before blowing him a kiss, which he made a show of catching before he stuffed his hand into the pocket over his heart.

If she thought she couldn’t love that man any more than she already did, she was wrong. Because with each passing day, she knew she was falling just a little more in love with him.

Magnolia waited until the cameras were put away before closing the back of her Bronco and making her way towards Boone, being sure to avoid the crowd that had flocked to Tyler. Boone met her halfway, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her in for a kiss.

She hummed against his lips, pushing up onto her toes as she wrapped her arms around his neck, “missed you.”

“Me too, angel.” he brushed his nose against hers. “Don’t like wakin’ up when you ain’t next to me.”

She brushed her fingers through his hair, which she knew he loved, “sorry, baby. I had stuff to do. And y’all had to go pick up that reporter.”

“Still don’t like it.” He leaned in, softly brushing his lips against hers. She giggled, then she remembered that comment she had seen on TikTok. Her eyes went wide, a smile pulling at her lips as she pulled back.

“There’s this comment that wanna show you,” she reached back only to find that her back pocket was empty. “I don’t have my phone – anyways, someone commented on a video Hunter posted. Said you oughta marry me and if you didn’t then he would.”

His arms tightened around her, pulling her in closer, “oh, Imma marry you. Ain’t lettin’ you go again. I’m stupid, but I ain’t that stupid.”

“You ain’t stupid,” she told him softly, moving her hands to his cheeks. “Stop callin’ yourself that, you hear me?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he grinned, leaning down to brush his lips against hers. She smiled against his lips, ignoring the way his words replayed in her head, the erratic beating of her heart and the way her stomach twisted like one of those tornadoes he loved so much.

“If people didn’t know before, they do now,” Tyler mused as he passed the two, clapping Boone on the back and they chuckled a little as they pulled apart, but Tyler kept going, right towards the blonde Javi had introduced Magnolia to. 

“Seems we ain’t that good at keepin' secrets,” Boone mused, stepping away from her as he grabbed her hand, and she laced her fingers between his as they started towards the store.

Well, I don’t wanna keep you a secret.” She told him as he held the door open, letting her walk through first and he couldn’t help it when his eyes drifted down her body. He quickly swiped his tongue over his lips as he followed her into the store.

“You want anythin’?” He asked, looking over at her.

“No, I’m alright. Got a Sunkist and sour gummy worms before y’all got here.” She mumbled, swinging their interlocked hands a little as she hummed along to the Alan Jackson song that played quietly throughout the store. He smiled at her, grabbing what he wanted with one hand before making his way to the counter, with her in tow.

“How’d it go it with Ally and her parents?” He asked as he pushed the door open, again letting her walk out first.

“It was good. They’re gonna be stayin’ with family in Boise City. And they even did a video about the work we’re doin’.”

“I saw it,” he nodded. “Also saw you playin’ with Ally. You look damn good in daisies. ‘Member you used to make those all the time?”

She laughed at the memory – when she was fifteen she went through a phase where she wore a daisy crown almost every day, she’d even gotten the boys to wear them. “I still have pictures of you and Ty wearin’ ‘em, they’re in a box somewhere I think.”

“That’s a good place for ‘em,” he hummed and she rolled her eyes as she playful bumped her hip against his. He took a breath, trying to ignore the nagging thought in the back of his head, but he couldn’t. “Hunter take that video?”

“Yeah, why?”

“He has a thing for you, angel. Which I get, trust me. You're gorgeous. But I don’t like how he’s always filmin’ you.”

“It’s his job, or at least part of it. People gotta see what we’re doin’. How we’re helpin’.”

He sighed because he knew she was right, “I just… get a bad vibe is all.”

She pulled him to a stop and he turned to face her, “how many times do I have to tell you that he ain’t nothing compared to you before you actually believe me?” He parted his lips but she silenced him when she reached up and grabbed the bandana around his neck, yanking him closer to her. “I just want you. Why is that so hard to understand?”

“I-I got it,” he nodded quickly, placing his hands on her hips. “Understood,” he leaned in close and kissed her cheek. His lips then brushed her ear as he lowered his voice to a mere whisper, “and, baby, you keep doin’ stuff like that and a whole lotta people are gonna get one hell of a show.”

Her mouth went dry, painfully so, as her brain went hazy. Her knees even shook a little. He grinned as he pulled back, loving how her lips parted and her pupils dilated. She shifted on her feet, moving close to him while trying to soothe the ache that his words had growing between her legs.

“Boone.”

He chuckled, tugging her against him, “just a few words? That all it takes?” She nodded a little pathically, and he tugged her hips against his firmly, and she tell that she wasn’t the only one wanting to head back to the motel.

“We got one! Let’s go!” Tyler shouted as he rushed to the truck, pulling the couple out of their little bubble.

NOVA SPEAKS

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