Daisy's Back in Town (16 page)

"I think you're afraid and now you're questioning everything."

"Maybe."

"Daisy, you were young and scared and you made the right decision at the time."

She'd always thought that too. She didn't know anymore. The only thing she knew for certain was that she'd been wrong to wait so long. How was she ever to make it right?

"Jack wasn't ready to be a father," her mother insisted. "Steven was."

"You always liked Steven more than Jack."

Her mother was quiet a moment than said, "That's not really true. I just always thought Steven was the stabler of the two. Jack was more wild. You can't blame a person for what's in his nature, but you can't rely on him either.

Your daddy was reckless like that, and look what happened to him. To us."

"Daddy didn't die and leave us on purpose."

"No, but he did. He left me with two children, a busted-up Winnebego and three hundred dollars." Louella shook her head. "When it came to taking care of you and a baby, Steven was better prepared."

"Because his family had money."

"Money is important." She held up her hand as if Daisy were going to argue. "I know love is too. I loved your daddy. He loved me and he loved you girls, but love doesn't put food in your children's mouths. Love doesn't buy a winter coat or school shoes." Her mother reached across the table and grabbed Daisy's hand. "But even if you made the wrong decision all those years ago, it can't be changed now. Nathan has a good life. Steven was a wonderful father. You did the best thing for your child."

Listening to her mother, made it all sound so logical. Daisy wasn't so sure anymore that the choice should have been left up to logic. Being young and scared explained why she hadn't told him fifteen years ago. It didn't explain why she hadn't told him until now.

"Look at Lily," her mother said just above a whisper. "Her life was chaotic long before you-know-who finally moved out. He was always running around on her. Always doing crazy things. She never should have married that wild boy, and Pippen is paying the highest price. He doesn't talk as well as he should, and he is no where near ready for potty training. He's actually been back sliding in his behavior."

Daisy thought Lily could have done a lot more to protect and nurture Pippen, but she didn't say so. She hadn't been the perfect mother and wasn't about to cast aspersions on anyone else's parenting. "I'm going to call Nathan and remind him what time I'll be home tomorrow." She stood. "Then I'm going to Jack's," she said, and if she'd had any other option, she would have used it. He'd told her not to come to his house, and he'd given her that warning about fainting. Now, when she showed up, would he think she came there looking for sex?

Probably.

She took her coffee to her bedroom and called Nathan.

"I can't wait for you to get home," he said as soon as he picked up. "I can't wait to get away from Michael Ann."

"Come on now, she's not that bad."

"Mom, she still plays with Barbies. Last night, she tried to get me to be Ken."

"Isn't she a little old for Barbies?"

"Yeah, and Offie tried to make me play dolls with her," he said, his voice cracking with pubescent indignation.

"I hate it here."

"Well, this is your last night." She set her mug on the bedside table and pulled Steven's letter from the drawer.

"Tomorrow they'll take you home, and I'll be there around three or three-thirty"

"Thank God. And Mom?"

"Yeah, sugar lump?"

"Promise you won't ever make me stay here again."

Daisy laughed. "I promise if you promise to get a hair cut."

There was a long pause and then he said, "Deal."

After she hung up the telephone, she took a shower and thought about the night before. Jack was probably over his anger by now. More than likely he'd found some willing woman to take home. While she'd been dreaming about flying, he'd probably been having wild sex and was no doubt relieved this morning that she'd stopped things between them before they'd gone too fat Now that the fever of the night before had passed, he probably wouldn't even remember that he'd threatened her.

Funny, though, the thought of him with another woman bothered her more than it should and more than she wanted to admit. The thought of him touching someone else made a lump in her stomach that hadn't been there that first night when she'd seen him and Gina together in his kitchen.

Daisy dressed in her black bra and panties and tried to understand how her feelings had changed so much in such a short time. She pulled a plain black T-shirt over her head and figured that the more she was around Jack, the more she relived the past. It was inevitable, really. She'd always loved Jack as a friend, then she'd fallen in love with him. She'd fallen so hard and so deep, and despite what she'd said the night before, sex had been a big part of their past. Being close to Jack brought up all the old feelings. All the old lust and obsession and jealousy.

She'd thought she could breeze back into town, tell Jack about Nathan and not have to deal with the rest of it.

She'd thought it was buried and long gone.

She'd been wrong. It hadn't gone anywhere. No, it had been waiting for her right where she'd left it.

She pulled a pair of shorts out of a drawer. If there was a consolation to this whole confusing mess, it was that once she was back home, it would all be over. No more secrets. No more confusion. No more kissing Jack Parrish.

"Daisy, if you show up at my house tomorrow, I'm going to give you what you really want," Jack had warned.

"I'm going to fuck you till you faint."

His warning had intrigued her last night, this morning it gave her pause. She definitely didn't want him to think she was showing up at his house to "faint." No, that was the last thing she wanted him to think.

She shoved the shorts back in a drawer and walked to her mother's bedroom. She riffled through the closet until she found a sleeveless dress made of heavy denim. It was so loose it didn't have buttons or a zipper Tigger and Winnie the Pooh were sown on the bodice and around the hem. It was the antithesis of sexy: like a kindergarten teacher, and it could in no way be confused for a dress that inspired "fainting."

She pulled her hair into a ponytail and wore her black flip-flops. She couldn't bring herself to go out of the house without makeup, and applied a coat of mascara, blush, and pink lip gloss. She looked herself over one last time in the mirror and determined that she looked very drab and would not inspire interest, let alone lust, in any man. Especially a man like Jack.

She shoved Steven's letter in the side pocket of the dress and grabbed her mom's car keys. All the way to Jack's, she had to fight the urge to turn around. She didn't have to guess or wonder how he would feel about Nathan now. She'd seen him with his nieces, and she knew.

She turned onto Jack's street and her fingers turned white on the steering wheel. Her mother was probably right, she'd done what she'd thought best at the time. What everyone else had thought best, too. Everyone except Jack.

Jack would have a different view, and by the time she pulled her mom's Caddie behind Parrish American Classics, her stomach was in knots and she felt physically ill.

Jack's Mustang sat in front of the house, and she parked beside it. Her black flip-flops slapped her heels as she made her way across the yard and up the sidewalk. The house was still the same white color she remembered from her childhood. The same green shutters. The same yellow roses, although they weren't as well attended as they'd once been. Now they grew more wild, except for where someone had hacked at them next to the front porch.

Daisy knocked on the screen door as she had a week ago and hoped Jack was alone this time. That if he had picked up a woman, she'd left by now.

No one answered and she stuck her head inside and called out. The hum of the air-conditioner was the only sound filling the dark interior. She looked over her shoulder at Jack's Mustang and noticed that a light from inside the garage was on. Old elm trees towering overhead cast lacy shadows on the asphalt, and a slight breeze blew her ponytail as she moved to the back of the business. As quiet as possible, she opened the door and slipped inside. Sunlight from the windows high above her head threw rectangular patches of light on five classic cars in different stages of restoration. Some had theft engines suspended on racks, other looked to be torn down to their frames. Along the walls, and hidden in the deeper shadows of the garage, were huge pieces of equipment, work benches, a tool chest taller than she was, and shelving that looked to hold car parts. She moved between a gutted Corvette and a shiny red-and-white land yacht that seemed to stretch out forever. The four taillights of the classic car stuck out like silver tubes of red lipstick.

She half expected to see buckets of oil and grease and metal shavings on the floor. She didn't; the garage was very clean and smelled like pine. It was a lot cleaner than it had been when Jack's father had been alive.

Despite the odds, Jack had made something of himself. Something better than what he'd been given. Certainly something more than anyone ever expected of him, and in spite of her apprehension at seeing him today, she was proud of Jack.

She looked up at the doorway to the offices and stopped in her tracks beside the rear end of the red and white car. Jack stood with his arms folded across his chest, one shoulder shoved into the door jam, watching her.

"Surprise," she said, her voice a little shaky as he'd just about given her heart failure.

Flourescent lighting shone from the room behind him and made his T-shirt appear incredibly white. A scowl turned the corners of his mouth downward and a lock of dark hair fell across his forehead. "Not really. Those shoes you're wearing make a lot of noise."

She looked down at her red toenails then back up at him. "Are you hiding from me in here?"

He slowly shook his head. "Not hardly." He looked completely at ease, but the tension that lay between them was anything but easy. His gaze on her was hot and intense, almost tangible as it lowered from her face to the front of her dress. One corner of his mouth lifted.

"The garage sure is different," she said into the silence. "You should be proud of yourself, Jack."

He looked back up into her face and his arms fell to his sides. "You didn't come here to tell me that."

"No.”

He pushed away from the doorframe and moved toward her, the thud of his boot heels a menacing echo as he stepped into a long patch of light. She grasped one red fin on the rear of the car to keep from backing away from him.

"I told you what would happen if you came over here today," he said.

She didn't have to ask what he was talking about. She knew, and her failing heart pounded in her throat. "I came here just to talk."

"Then you shouldn't have worn that outfit."

She looked down at her mother's dress. "This?" She laughed despite the dog in her throat. "Jack it's ugly."

"Exactly. It needs to be taken off and burned." He stood so close that Tigger and Winnie the Pooh were almost touching the front of his T-shirt.

She looked over his shoulder at a poster of a half-naked woman sprawled out on the hood of a beefed-up Nova.

"We should talk right now."

His fingertips touched her chin and brought her gaze back to his. "Not now." His thumb swept her jaw, and he lowered his face until his nose touched hers. "Even in that stupid dress, you turn me on." Her stomach clinched and she could hardly breathe. "You're even more beautiful than you were growing up. And you were so beautiful back then you made me ache." His lips brushed hers, and he kissed the corner of her mouth. "All morning, I've been half hoping, half dreading seeing you walk through that door." His lips touched her cheek.

"You shouldn't have come back, Daisy Lee. You should have stayed gone, but you didn't. You're here and I can't think of anything but getting inside of you. Deep inside where you're hot and wet and want me too." The tip of his tongue touched her earlobe and her purse fell to the floor. "The first night I saw you again, I told myself this wasn't going to happen. But it is, Daisy."

The warmth of his breath swept the side of her neck and across her flesh. Desire tightened her nipples and pooled between her legs, and she had to stop him now, or she was a goner. "Jack listen -"

'This was inevitable the second you stepped foot in town. I'm tired of fighting it," he interrupted, as his hand moved to the side of her head, his thumb stroking her temple as if he were trying to soothe her. "Tell me you feel it too. Tell me you want it as much as I do."

"Yes, but -"

"We can talk later. After we have sex."

She placed her palm on the front of his T-shirt. His muscles turned hard and everything in him seemed to still -

except for his heart, which beat as fast as hers. Making love would make it more difficult to tell him about Nathan, but it was already going to be difficult. She didn't make a conscious decision to give in to her desire. It was just too big for her to deny any longer. It had been over two years now since she'd been with a man who desired her, and she had no willpower to resist Jack. She didn't want to resist him. He was right, this was inevitable. "You promise we'll talk later?"

"God, yes," he said on a rush of breath. His hands grabbed the front of her dress. "Anything, Daisy."

For days her body had responded to his, seeking an outlet for the passion he'd stirred back to life within her.

And here it was. Here he was. Right in front of her. She pulled back and looked up into his face. "After you left last night, were you with someone else?"

"Almost, but I wanted you." He yanked her dress over her head and tossed it on the Corvette. She didn't even try to stop him and her T-shirt joined her dress. Within the natural light pouring in through the windows, she stood in front of him in her black bra and panties and flip-flops. He didn't give her time to think before he pulled her onto her toes and into his chest. She wrapped her arms around his neck, smashing her breasts into his chest as his mouth swooped down and covered hers in a rough kiss.