Chapter seven — bro let her breathe!!!

Caroline became aware of many things when she opened her eyes the next morning.

One: She was in a bed with Tyler Owens. His head was a few inches above her, facing away—but one of his arms was strewn over her head like he'd been holding her as he fell asleep.

Two: She couldn't remember if he had been holding her when they fell asleep. She doubted it, but, then again...

No. She did not sleep with Tyler Owens. Well... okay, she did, but not sleep with sleep with him, just—they slept in the same bed, a respectable distance from each other, both vaguely aware of the fact that they could have initiated contact but did not.

The third thing she noticed—no, remembered—was that Tyler slept like a horse. He had been gifted with the ability to sleep through anything, and clearly, as Caroline stumbled off the mattress and onto the cold tile of her empty bedroom floor: That matter had not changed.

The fourth and final thing Caroline realized was that somebody was at her door.

The rapping was polite, but loud, echoing through the unfurnished house like a boombox. Caroline furrowed her brow, confused—she didn't have neighbors, much less any that would come give her a welcome wagon party at seven in the morning.

Briskly, she glanced down to the rest of herself. She had slept in her clothes from the day before, because she didn't really have any other option—hell, she wasn't about to sleep naked (or even half-) with her ex in bed next to her. So the old, worn-in jeans and Massachusetts T-shirt had to do for the night. (They didn't do well. Her legs ached in uncomfortable places and her back stung from a stuck-out wire in her bra.)

Again, the person on the other side of the door knocked to alert their presence. Caroline scowled, shutting the door to her bedroom as quietly as she could behind herself, and padded down the hall to the front door.

The knocking slowed to a stop, and Caroline paused, her hand catching just an inch away from the knob. The sound of the creaky stairs down to the gravel driveway caught her attention. Then—and she didn't know what did it, since her early bird visitor was already on their way out—she wrenched the door open, hastily running a hand down her hair as the man turned around at the bottom of the steps.

Caroline's breath caught in her throat, and her heart seemed to be right up there with it. Her eyes were suddenly stinging with sharp tears. She blinked them back, inhaling a shaky breath, tipping her head to the side in disbelief. "Daddy?"

Hugh Sullivan's face—battered and wrinkled with the years since Caroline had last seen him—broke into a grin, the corners of his eyes folding in a genuine happiness Caroline knew he never faked. He spread his arms, and she exhaled a little laugh, then rushed down the three short steps to meet him in an embrace that she had been missing for years.

"Carrie," Hugh exhaled in relief, wrapping his arms around her, resting his chin on her shoulder. "My baby girl. Oh, my god, I don't believe it. You're here."

"I am," laughed Caroline, her voice shaky. She squeezed her father a little tighter, then let go, letting him get a view of her face as she fought back tears. "God, Daddy, what the hell are you doin' here? How did you know where I was?"

He chuckled to himself, not taking his eyes off his daughter for one moment. "Well, I come down here every other mornin', water your flowers for you. Just in case you ever decide to come back. When I pulled up this mornin', and I saw this big thing..." He gestured to Tyler's monster of a truck, then puffed up his cheeks and shook his head. "Whew, Carrie, you been luggin' this around all this time?"

Caroline laughed, shaking her head. "No, that's not mine—it's Tyler's."

Hugh's eyebrows shot up on his forehead. "Tyl—Is Tyler in there with you? Well, I'll be..."

"No," she said quickly, waving her hands. "Not like that, Daddy. He's just a person. Just a—just a coworker, even. That's it."

"That's it?" repeated a voice from the window. "Well, Mr. Sullivan, I feel obligated to tell you I consider myself more than just a coworker."

Caroline and Hugh turned toward the kitchen window, where Tyler beamed down at them, the perfect picture of bed-head. He raised a stiff hand toward Caroline's dad.

"Hey there," he called down to the pair. There was a toothpick sticking out from his idiotic grin. "I'm Tyler."

Having expected the house to go un-lived in for another few months or so, Caroline hadn't yet hit the Pampa grocery store to pick up any food, snacks, water—coffee. She felt better than she usually did at this time every day, what with having slept a whole night through, but her fingers still itched to have a mug of something to wrap around.

Luckily her dad knew his way around town from all the times he'd visited on account of plant-watering. God, couldn't your heart just melt at the thought? Caroline hadn't visited him in years, but he still had the sense to drive the hour to water her flowers, just in case she wanted to come back to them. Not to him, to the flowers. That was all he'd been doing.

Meanwhile Caroline had been following storms and working beneath the iron fist of Storm Par. She felt hideous on the inside.

Hugh drove Tyler and Caroline to a little diner down the road from her house. He tapped on his wheel with the palm of his hands to the tune of the songs—Big Iron by Marty Robins, then Jackson by Johnny Cash—and hummed along with that richer-than-Caroline's southern twang. She couldn't help grinning at the sight.

"So tell me how it happened," Hugh said, as he slid into the booth across from Tyler and Caroline, three mugs of coffee hooked across his hands. He spread them out along the table. "'Cause last I heard of you, Tyler Owens, it was 'cause this one sent ya packin'."

Caroline gave her dad a look. "Come on, Daddy—"

But Tyler only laughed, leaning back in the booth. "No, I mean, he's right. Yeah, we'd broken up. Y'know, hadn't heard from her in... how long?"

"Seven years," Caroline said into her mug, though she was pretty positive he knew the number.

"Seven years," Tyler repeated immediately, spreading his palms. "Seven years, no contact. Then, all'v'a sudden, there she is, workin' with this rich-kid corporation, Storm Par, tryna make a livin' off saving the environment."

Hugh smiled at Caroline, sipping from his mug. "Guess you really haven't changed, huh, Carrie? Still got that green thumb a' yours?"

Caroline managed a smile for her dad's sake. "Sure do."

"She sure does," said Tyler, with a self-satisfied smile, nodding once. "Yessir. This girl," he added, putting one hand on her shoulder and giving her a little shake, "is gonna change the world, Mr. Sullivan. I fully believe it. Stop tornadoes, even."

Hugh laughed a full-belly laugh, rolling back in his seat. Tyler grinned alongside with him. But Caroline shook her head, shrugging Tyler's hand off her shoulder, keeping her eyes on the sticky table before her. She rested her arms on it, fingers fiddling with each other.

"Aw, don't get all bashful on us," her daddy said, tipping his head to the side. "You know we mean it, don'tcha, baby girl?"

She pursed her lips together in an excuse for a smile.

Luckily, she didn't have to say anything—Tyler's phone began to ring and, still laughing, he excused himself from the table. Caroline watched him step outside, only taking her eyes off him as he disappeared behind the corner of the diner.

"Oh, c'mon, baby," Hugh said, softer now. He smiled. "What's wrong? You can tell me. Quick, while Arkansas's gone."

Caroline sniffed, lifting her head from her mug to meet her father's eyes. She wet her lips. She tried to search for the words to express how she felt, but she hadn't spoken to her dad in years, and though she knew he would always have her back, for some reason she couldn't see how she could get him to understand her problem. He always saw issues as a whole, not the way Caroline saw them: She dissected them, created brand new issues inside of the big one, then solved them all at once at the very end. Hugh wouldn't understand what had her upset that couldn't be handled easily.

And her stupid little dream of a science experiment wasn't about to be solved by something small.

She managed a smile. "Nothin', Daddy. I'm alright. Hey," she said, shifting up straighter in her seat, "how's Miss Linda doin'? She still live next door to you? I ain't seen her in ages."

Hugh's lips split in a mischievous sort of grin that Caroline recognized from her childhood. "Well, that evil ol' pussycat a' hers finally died, if that's anythin' to her mental health at the moment—"

Caroline gaped at him for a moment, shaking her head slightly. "No! She finally killed Mittens?"

Hugh spread his hands. "Hey, now. Can't say officially if it was a murder or not. 'Cause then I'd probably find my way onto the list of suspects, right?"

They laughed in a similar way, both letting their heads fall back toward the vinyl seats of the booth. Then they both exhaled, picking up their mugs and taking short sips from the stained rims. Caroline cleared her throat, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

Just as Hugh opened his mouth again, Tyler threw the door of the diner open, rushing back over to Caroline's table. He looked flat-out exhilarated.

Caroline blinked, glancing from her dad to Tyler. "What is it? Somethin' wrong?"

He shook his head, clearly holding back a smile. He held up his phone. "That was Kate. She's got somethin' goin' on at her mom's house that she says we need to see."

"We?"

Tyler shrugged offishly. "Well, she didn't exactly say we, but I'm not about to go alone. If you'll have me?" he added, more hesitant, glancing to Hugh.

Hugh exhaled a short sigh, looking to Caroline. Then he pursed his lips and tipped his head toward the door. "Yeah, a'right, go on, Carrie. Just promise you'll visit more often."

She grinned, leaning across the table to press a kiss to his cheek. "I will, Daddy. Thanks for the coffee."

"Thank you!" Tyler added, waving to Mr. Sullivan one last time before he and Caroline took off down the road to Caroline's driveway. This time, Tyler took the driver's seat in his own truck, and Caroline didn't complain.

The GPS told them it would be a four and a half hour drive, but Tyler's foot didn't let up from the gas pedal once, and slowly the digits on his phone shrunk down. Caroline didn't mind—she was curious what Kate had to show them that Tyler needed to see so damn bad.

She shot him a sideways glance from the passenger's seat. "So. Kate's got somethin' to show you."

Tyler tapped his palm against the center console. "Yep."

Caroline lifted her shoulders and exhaled an innocent sigh. "Kate has got somethin' that you need to see. And she's got your phone number. And she uses it. How nice."

Tyler's eyes darted over to her for a second. He smiled. "If I didn't know any better I'd think you were jealous."

"Jealous?" Caroline scoffed, her voice rising in pitch. "Of what? Of City Girl? Never."

He sucked his teeth. "She's actually from Supulpa, Oklahoma. Not a city girl."

Caroline nodded slowly and emphatically. Somewhere in her mind a tally was drawn beneath a side of a scoreboard that was labeled KATE. "Wow. She tell you that herself, or did you read it in her Tinder bio?"

Tyler shook his head, exhaling an amused scoff. "Line—"

"No, no, I'm only wonderin'," Caroline insisted, crossing her arms. "Come on. You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but is she a good kisser?"

"Line!"

"What?" She gawked at him, matching his tone of voice. "I'm just wonderin'! And I said you didn't have to say if you don't want to! I know a lady doesn't kiss and tell, but that doesn't exactly mean—"

"I wouldn't know," said Tyler, making each syllable very clear to Caroline. "I wouldn't know 'cause I've never kissed her. Never had any intentions to, either. Kate and I are barely even friends. Barely colleagues, for Pete's sake."

Caroline watched Tyler for a moment to see if any of his tells appeared, outing him for lying, but after a short pause Caroline decided he was telling the truth. She cleared her throat.

"Mhm," she said, almost to herself, turning her head to look out her window, "but she still feels comfortable enough to call you up whenever she got somethin' big to see."

"Jealousy is a green-eyed monster."

"Don't quote Hamlet to me."

"That's Othello. And you didn't deny it."

She pursed her lips, still glaring out the side window, so she couldn't see his stupid grin; but she could imagine it, and even that brought a small smile to her own lips.

"Shut up," she mumbled through her sheepish beam, hiding her face by resting her chin in her palm.

"You know I'm right," he said in a singsong sort of voice.

She scoffed sharply, shrugging her shoulders. "Why would I be jealous? I got no right to be."

"Jealous-ex-girlfriend-says-what?"

"What?"

"Got ya."

"Tyler," she said dryly, turning to glare in his direction, "I can assure you that I am not jealous. Kate's cool. And pretty. And she's a damn good storm chaser. She's funny, too. Smart. I mean, damn. If anything, I'd be jealous of you."

"Yeah, yeah," he said in a tone that made Caroline think he really didn't believe her. He shot her a grin, then shrugged his shoulders like it was no big deal. "Hey, I'm just sayin', I wouldn't blame you if you were."

"Well," she said, stumbling for something else to say, "I... am not jealous, so. That's that."

He gave her another smile. "That's that."

She nodded once, firmly. "Yep. That is that."

"That's mighty fine news then, that you're not jealous," he said, throwing the car into park as he pulled up in front of a big red barn next to a small little house. "'Cause I really do think that Kate's plan all along was to get me back to her house and make all sorts of moves on me."

He tossed his door open and hopped out of the truck without another word, not looking back over his shoulder once. If he had, he'd've seen Caroline, fuming in his front seat, glaring in disbelief at him as he carried on, unperturbed, up to the front porch of Kate Carter's childhood home.

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