Daisy's Back in Town (23 page)

He tried to do the math in his head, but something that usually came pretty easy to him was impossible at the moment. "Okay."

"Nathan?"

He looked back across the car at Jack. "Yeah?"

"I should have known about you before today," he said, but he kept his gaze on the road.

Nathan agreed, but he didn't say so.

"If I had known, I would have been in your life. No one could have kept me out."

He didn't know what to say to that, so he kept quiet.

"Maybe while you're here, we could get to know each other."

"Cool"

"And if we don't get on each other's nerves too much, you could think about staying the summer."

The whole summer? In Loserville? No way.

"When the 'Cuda's done, I'm going to need someone to test-drive it for me. You think you could do that?"

He bit the inside of his lip ring to keep from smiling. Oh man! "I could do that."

"You got your driver's license, right?"

His excitement plummeted. "No, I'm only fifteen. You gotta be sixteen."

"Not in Texas. You can get it when you're fifteen."

"Really?"

"Yep. You have to have your license to test-drive the 'Cuda for me. It's company policy for insurance purposes.

That means you'd have to sign up for driver's education. That might take half the summer."

Since before Nathan could remember, he'd dreamed of the day he'd get his driver's license.

"You don't have to give me your answer today. Think it over and let me know."

If he stayed in Texas for the summer, he could get it early. Plus work on a Hemi and make serious bank. He adjusted the chain around his neck. "I'll have to ask my mom." And she wasn't going to like it one bit. She was always telling him no. She didn't want him to have fun or grow up. She wanted him to be bored and stay a little kid forever. "I'll talk to her for you." "You would?" "Oh yeah." His smile showed his white teeth. "It will be my pleasure."

Chapter Thirteen

You remember Azelea Lingo, don't you?"

"No," Daisy answered absentmindedly as she stared out her mother's front-room window.

"Sure you do, she's the one who bought Lily half a vacuum when she got married," Louella continued as if Daisy had been at Lily's wedding, which she hadn't.

"How does a person buy half a vacuum for a wedding present?" Daisy asked, although she really didn't give a damn at the moment. It had been over an hour since Jack had come and gone. Over an hour and she hadn't seen hide nor hair of him or Nathan.

"She put it on layaway and Lily had to pay to get it off. Cost her fifty bucks for a ninety-dollar vacuum. And you know, Azelea isn't poor. She's so big she has to sit down in shifts, so it isn't like she can't afford a whole vacuum."

Daisy had started to leave a dozen times only to decide that staying put was the best course.

"Anyway, Azelea's husband, Bud, left her a few years back and married a gal from Amarillo. Only the gal in Amarillo doesn't know that Bud's been sneaking back to Lovett the whole time for a little lovin' on the side with Azelea."

Daisy massaged the deep crease that had formed between her brows. Her head was going to explode.

"What is it, darlin'?" Louella paused in her story to ask Pippen. "Oh, you want your hat? Daisy, honey, where's Pip's hat?"

Daisy was so tense it felt like she had to,unlock her jaw to speak. "Probably in your bedroom."

"Go check grandma's bed."

"You go," Pippen demanded in his tiny voice.

"We'll go together."

Daisy kept her gaze out the window as they left the mom. She grabbed a handful of her mother's dark blue velvet drapes and pressed her forehead to the glass. Since Nathan hadn't returned, she figured Jack had found him, and all sorts of scenarios ran through her head. Ranging from the two of them sitting somewhere talking to Jack kidnapping Nathan and heading some place where she'd never find them. The last scenario she didn't really think was likely, but with Jack she never knew.

She opened the front door, and stuck her head out to look up and down the street. There was no sign of either of them.

"You're letting all the bought air out. Shut that," her mother said as she entered the room. Daisy glanced behind her, at her mother dressed in a pink blouse with fake pearls sown on it and a denim prairie skirt. Pippen stood beside her, wearing his coonskin cap and a pair of Big Bird pull-ups.

"This afternoon as I was leaving the hospital, they brought in Bud Lingo," her mother continued where she'd left off. "Appears he had heart failure while he was with Azelea. I couldn't stay at the hospital, but I am powerful curious to know what's gonna happen when Bud's wife gets her tail up here from Amarillo." Louella walked to the cabinet where she kept her VHS tapes and opened it up. "And their youngest girl, Bonnie, was there too.

She's the one who had that real ugly baby last Valentine's Day. Lord, when I picked the blanket off the baby's face in church, I 'bout had heart failure myself. It was all bald and pink and skinny like a newborn rat, bless her heart. Of course, I lied and told her it was precious. You remember Bonnie, don't you. Short. Dark hair..."

Her mother was determined to make Daisy's head explode. Daisy stepped out onto the porch and shut the door behind her. She sat on the first step and rested her temple against the white post that supported the roof. Her nerves were frazzled. Her head pounded, and her patience had deserted her awhile ago. It was barely one o'clock in the afternoon, and she knew the day was bound to get worse. Jack hated her now, and he was going to make her life a misery, just as he'd promised the first night she'd seen him. While she understood his anger at her, she couldn't let things get ugly. If they did, the one person who was totally innocent would be the one to suffer the most. Nathan.

She glanced downward at her bare feet and red toenails. For the first time, she noticed the perfect fingertip bruises on her thighs. She didn't have to wonder how they'd gotten there. Jack. He'd left his mark on her long after he'd made love to her.

It was apropos, she supposed. Jack had left his mark on her years ago too, and she didn't mean Nathan. He'd marked her where no one could see. He'd left an indelible mark on her heart and her soul. One that no mailer how far away she traveled, how long she stayed away, or how long she hid from it, had not faded nearly as much as she'd thought.

Despite his feeling toward her, she was very much afraid that she was falling in love with Jack again. She knew the signs just as surely as she knew better than to let it happen.

The sooner she grabbed Nathan and got out of town, the better. Jack knew he had a son now. He could call or write or visit Seattle sometime in the future. Lily was recovering and would be home soon, but she was still a basket case. Yet, Daisy had problems of her own, and she had to get away before her life fell completely apart.

From half a block away, she heard the unmistakable rumble of Jack's Mustang. She looked up and turned her attention to the black car moving toward her. As she stood, the car rolled to a stop at the curb in front of her mother's house. Jack shut the car off then turned to look at her. From across the distance, their gazes met: His angry; hers resigned to his anger. Daisy leaned her head to one side and looked beyond Jack to Nathan. Her son sat in the passenger seat and kept his attention pinned to his lap. He said something, then the two of them exited the Mustang. Both doors shut at the same time, and Jack waited for Nathan at the front of the car. The hot Texas sun baked Daisy's shoulders, and it took every ounce of her self-control to keep her feet planted at the bottom of the steps and not running toward her son.

The two moved up the walk, their strides keeping perfect time with the other. Nathan's hands swung at his sides; his walk, an I'm-fifteen-and-trying-so-desperately-to-be-cool amble. Yet his blue eyes were guarded; he was wondering if he was in trouble or not.

Jack had one hand buried to his knuckles in the front pocket of his Levi's, the other hung loose at his side. As always, he moved as if he were in no hurry to get anywhere in particular.

"Where have you been, Nathan?" she asked when he stopped in front of her. She had to fight the urge to throw her arms around him and tell him everything would be okay. "I've been very worried about you. You know I hate it when you leave and don't tell me when you'll be back."

"We went for a little drive," Jack told her.

A furrow appeared between Nathan's brows and she asked him, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah."

But he didn't look okay. He looked tired and upset, and his cheeks were pink from the heat. "Are you hungry?"

"A little."

"Why don't you go inside and have your grandma fix you something to eat."

He turned to Jack. "I guess I'll see you later."

"Count on it," he said. "I'll call you after I talk to Billy."

"Cool." With his pants riding low on his hips, and his dog chains jingling, Nathan moved up the steps.

"Where did you find him?" Daisy wanted to know as she watched her son shut the door.

"At the high school. He was talking to some girl."

"Where did you take him after that?" She turned to face him. The blazing sun penetrated the thick weave of his hat and shot pinholes of light across his nose and mouth.

"Around."

"Around where?"

He smiled. "Just around."

She placed her hand across her brows and shielded her eyes from the sun. He was really enjoying this. "What did you talk about?"

"Cars."

"And?"

"Him working for me this summer."

"Impossible," she said and waved the notion away with her hand. "We have plans."

"Change them. Nathan says he wants to work for me this summer."

She looked up into his green eyes, surrounded by those long dark lashes of his. "Are you going to tell me that he came up with that all on his own?"

He shook his head and white pinholes of light slid along his top lip. "Doesn't matter who came up with it. It's what we both want."

"We can't stay here all summer." She felt a bead of perspiration slip between her breasts. "I've already been here longer than I intended."

"There's no reason for you stay. In fact, it might be better if you left."

"I'm not leaving my son here with you. You've known him an hour and you've already manipulated him into staying."

"I simply offered Nathan a job helping Billy tear down a Hemi 426. He jumped at it."

She lifted her hands upward. "Of course he did. The child has slept on NASCAR sheets most of his life and had his first car picked out at the age of three. A Porsche 911."

"Jesus!" he swore. "You let my son pick a European piece of shit?"

Under any other circumstance, she might have laughed. "What the heck does it matter?"

"He's a Parrish." He grabbed his hat from his head and rubbed his forehead against his short sleeve. "It matters to us." He ran his fingers through one side of his hair then jammed the hat back on. "If he'd been raised right, he'd know better," he said in a low grumble.

How dare he criticize the way she'd raised Nathan. She may not have always been the best mother, but she'd always tried her best. She'd kill anyone who tried to hurt him.

"If he'd been raised right," Jack continued, "he wouldn't have a ring through his lip and dog chains hanging off him."

Her nerves snapped, and in an instant she forgot all about trying to get along with Jack for Nathan's sake. She no longer cared whether Jack had a right to his anger, he'd just crossed the line and insulted her son. "He's a great kid," she said and poked her finger in Jack's chest. "What's on the outside isn't as important as what's on the inside."

Jack glanced down at her finger then back up into her eyes. "He looks like a hedgehog."

"A lot of boys where we live look like that." She poked him twice more. "Goat-roper!"

His eyes widened then narrowed. He wrapped his hand around hers and removed her finger. "You've turned into a Yankee woman with no manners and a bad accent."

Daisy gasped, and this time she went for the kill. She stood on the balls of her feet and said, "I'll take that as a compliment coming from a second-rate grease monkey."

"You conceited bitch." He grabbed hold of her shoulders like when they were ten years old and fighting over who had the best bike. They cut into each other with words, going at it tooth and nail, and all the while never raising their voices above a low rumble.

"You always did think the sun rose and set on your scrawny butt," he said.

"And you always thought you were God's gift to a pair of jeans." She put her hands on his chest and shoved, but he didn't move at all. "But I'm here to tell you on behalf of all women, what you've got in your jeans isn't that extraordinary."

"You thought so Saturday on the trunk of the custom Lancer. In fact, you burst into tears because you enjoyed what I've got in my jeans."

"Don't flatter yourself. It'd been a long time. It could have happened with anyone." She smiled, too angry to be embarrassed. "You could have been Tucker Gooch," she added, knowing full well that Jack had always disliked Tucker.

He laughed. "Tucker doesn't have what it takes to make you bawl like you just had a religious conversion."

The front door opened and Louella stuck her head out. "You're putting on quite a show for the neighbors."

Jack let go of Daisy's shoulders and had the grace to look embarrassed. "Good afternoon, Miz Brooks."

"Hello, Jackson. Hot enough for ya?"

"Hotter than a stolen tamale," he said, taking off his hat and exchanging pleasantries as if to show he'd been raised right.

"I haven't seen you in a tong lime."

"No, ma'am."

"How's your brother?"

"He's fine. Thanks for askin'."

"Well, tell him I said hello."

"I'll do that. How've you been, Miz Brooks?"

Daisy sat on the second to the last concrete step. She rested her forehead in her hand and waited for her mother to break into a long-winded story about her near heart failure at having seen Bonnie Lingo's ugly baby. And for once, Daisy was grateful because it would give her time to compose herself.