(Dianne) Fox Writes

“Go watch him.” Cyrus glared at Dane. “Perhaps you won’t have to look after him, after all.” The door slammed and Dane was left in the hallway, shut out.
He wanted to punch something. Punching things was what he was good at, beating things, fighting, but not caring for things. He wanted to snarl at Cyrus [...]

With the linens stripped and the few things Jasper owned already packed in a suitcase and out in the hall, Jasper’s room in the halfway house looked less inspiring than the room he’d left at Raindell. For all that he was free of the institution, his time at Wakely House had been difficult. The fault [...]

Jasper woke long before the lights came on, dragged out of sleep by the dreadful feeling of something going terribly wrong. He woke pawing at his head, trying to untangle the thing that was wrapped around it and finding nothing but his own hair. The thing that was tightening around his brain wasn’t there. There [...]

They sat on a bench and watched the empty swings sway in the breeze, their fingers still twined together. Gray closed his eyes for a long moment, listening to the faint squeak of the rusted chains, the whisper of the last autumn leaves blown across the newly-fallen snow, and the steady huff of Vale’s breath. [...]

“Do you need an ambulance?” A kindly-looking older woman had her phone out.
“No!” Jasper gulped and shook his head. “It’s okay. It… it just happens. I can get home.” Samson could feel him shaking; maybe it was the seizure, but now Jasper smelled like fear. “Come on, Samson.” He wasn’t ready to be walking, but [...]

“Why did Perry get to know and not me?” Bryce sloshed beer again, but the cup was already a quarter empty and it only went over his hand and wrist.
“Bryce…” Zac wasn’t sure what to say to that. That wasn’t what he’d expected, not at all. He’d known things with Bryce would change, but he [...]

Toby had convinced Ven to take one day off, really take a vacation day. It turned out to be more of a half-day, since the gas inspector had been by to check out the pipes and the new fireplace in the master bedroom that morning, but after that, Ven had been hauled away from work [...]

“Okay,” Brenda said, straightening up from being hugged by Charlotte, who promptly shifted from hugging her mother’s neck to hugging her mother’s leg. She was always a little clingy when she got to whomever it was she hadn’t seen for a few days, even if that person was Ven. “The colors we’re after are yellow [...]

Sunday morning, just past dawn. The birds were singing. Denny refrained from picking up a stone and whipping it into the nearest tree. Goddamn things, being all cheerful. They could cut it out.
Denny hadn’t had a damn reason to care what day of the week it was for months. He went by dates, due dates [...]

“Do you boys want some more pie before I’m done in here?” Momma called from the kitchen.
“It’s a crime to let Momma’s buttermilk pie just sit there,” Ven murmured.
Toby rested a hand on his belly and hummed a little, then started to wriggle up off the couch. “I’d love some more pie. Anybody else want [...]