#dozeydaisy

Phil had been outside when the trouble started, mowing the lawn. It was a warm year, and the grass hadn’t stopped growing for a minute. The atmosphere inside the house was too tense to bear, his mama fussing about the house, getting everything just so, and his dad sitting there, ignoring her manic energy with the practiced discipline of a buddist monk, turning the pages of a Patterson without really reading a word. Phil had gotten pretty good at sensing a storm front, and knew when to get out of the way.

The yelling began somewhere around the same time the mower got going, the growling engine only just covering the sound. But he knew the words by heart by now. His ma, feeling frazzled and unappreciated. His dad, who didn’t understand why she had to be so emotional. Didn’t he provide everything she ever wanted? And around and around. The kind of cyclical, unresolved fight that was sure to pick up into a twister one of these days, and bring the whole house down on top of them.

But he shut off the engine when he saw Ben’s car pulling up into the driveway, and left it sitting out, the job only half done, so he could warn them.

“They’re at it again,” Phil said as Ben climbed out of the driver’s seat, looking stiff after four hours in the car, two hours to Austin, two hours back. “Might want to hold on a minute before you head in. Give ‘em a chance to settle.”

“Aw, Christ. Again?” Ben glanced over as the passenger door opened, his mouth set in a grim line. “I was hoping they’d be— For Carrie, at least.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, Ben,” she said, standing up and stretching. She shut the car door with her hip and leaned her arms against the top, giving Phil a soft smile. “I’m no stranger to parents fighting. I’ve got two sets of ‘em that do that, and they fight with each other too. Phil’s the one I wanted to meet anyway. I’m Carolynn. Carrie. Nice to finally put a face to the infamous name.”

She was gorgeous. Of course she was, if she was dating Ben. Dark, glowing skin, tightly coiled curls that were pulled back into a round ball at the top of her head. A soft, round face and a real pretty smile. She had that sweet Georgia peach accent, and dark brown eyes that sparkled with a joke that Phil was pretty sure just the two of them were in on. She was a cheerleader, and in the journalism program, if Phil remembered right. Smart and pretty. The right kind of girl for Ben.

“Hope you haven’t heard too much. I’m not near as much trouble as I used to be.” He walked around the hood of the car, his hand out. “But it’s nice to finally meet you too, Carolynn.”