Daisy's Back in Town (29 page)

He would have apologized anyway. His mom bugged him sometimes, but he loved her. He hated to see how sad it made her when he yelled. It made him feel like his chest was caving in, but he never realized he was doing it until it was too late.

Nathan started across the field to the opening in the fence. It was Saturday and he didn't have work. Maybe he'd go take a nap for a while or play the XBOX that his mom had brought back with her when she'd gone to Seattle.

His footsteps slowed as he watched Brandy Jo move through the opening and walk toward him. She wore a red dress with tiny straps and big chunky flip-flops on her feet.

"Hi, Nathan. I haven't seen you in awhile. What are you up too?"

"Taking driver's ed." He stood up a little straighter, then slouched to put his hands in his pockets. Brandy Jo was about the prettiest girl he'd ever seen. Even wearing those big shoes, the top of her head barely reached his chin.

He got that caving-chest feeling, only this time it had nothing to do with his mom. "What are you doing here on Saturday?"

"I forgot my sweater in the school."

The sun shone in her dark hair, and when she licked her pink lips, his stomach twisted. "Need help?" he asked and almost groaned out loud. Of course she didn't need help.

"No, but I'd like your company."

He swallowed and tried not to smile. He nodded and said, "Cool."

"When are you going to get your driver's license?" she asked as they walked around the side of the school.

"I have to take the test pretty soon." Her bare arm bumped him right beneath the sleeve of his T-shirt and his shoulder kind of tingled.

"I got my license last month," she said.

"Do you have a car?"

She shook her head and her hair brushed the tops of her shoulders. "Do you?"

"Jack is going to let me drive his." He bumped his arm into hers to see what would happen, and the tingle traveled across his chest.

"Who's Jack?"

"He's... like my dad."

She looked up at him through her big brown eyes. "What do you mean? 'Like your dad'? Is he your step-dad?"

"No. He's my real dad, but I just met him about a month ago."

She stopped on her big flip-flops. "You just met him?" she asked, in the drawl of hers that he was starting to think was real cute.

"Yeah. I've always known about him, but when my dad died ...When my first dad...other dad..." ...He sighed.

"It's confusing."

"My mom's been married three times," Brandy Jo told him as they started toward the front again. "My daddy died, but my baby brother's daddy lives in Fort Worth. I have another step-daddy right now, but it's not looking too good. Everybody's family is confusing for one reason or another."

They walked side by side into the building, bumping arms and pretending it was an accident. Brandy Jo found her sweater in the art room and somehow by the time they walked back outside, Nathan held her hand in his.

His throat kinda closed, and then she smiled up at him and he thought his heart stopped. It squeezed light and he was afraid he'd pass out right there next to the stupid boulder with the words "Lovett Stallions" chiseled in it.

Right there beneath the hot Texas sun. Right in front of the prettiest girl he'd ever seen. He really didn't want to do that.

Nathan looked down at Brandy Jo as she talked about her family. He squeezed her hand, and she moved closer until their arms touched. His heart swelled like a balloon in his chest and it felt good and horrible and overwhelming. He'd never been in love before. Well, except with Nicole Kidman, but that didn't count. But on that day, beneath the endless blue sky over his head, Nathan Monroe fell in love for the first time in his life.

Daisy stuck her thumb in the end of the garden hose and sprayed down the hood of her mother's Cadillac with water. Then she plunged a soft sponge into a bucket of soapy water and washed dirt from the car. The hot afternoon sun beat down on her, and she could feel it toast her shoulders, chest and her back above the scoop of her red tank top.

She'd spent most of her day over at lily's, cleaning house and doing laundry while Lily sat on the couch with her cast resting on pillows. Lily's divorce was final now, and her lawyer had come through for her. He'd showed the judge bank statements prior to Ronnie draining the account, and the judge had ordered Ronnie to pay Lily ten thousand dollars, monthly child support, and he had to pay Pippen's medical insurance, too.

Her mother was still over at Lily's fetching and toting. Daisy knew that her sister was having a hard time doing simple tasks since she'd come home from the hospital. She didn't mind helping out, but Lily's messed up life had put Daisy in a bad mood.

Actually, it was more than just a bad mood. She felt unsettled, but lily had very little part in that. Lately, Daisy's mood had more to do with the sum total of her life rather than just one piece. She was anxious to get on with her life, yet scared and uncertain. Her house in Washington hadn't sold yet, but it had only been on the market for about a month. She was moving forward with her plans to open a photography studio, yet she felt a stitch of anxiety when she thought of leaving Texas. It seemed to her that one moment she was crystal clear about what she wanted, and in the next she was confused as hell.

She'd gone out twice with Matt and she'd had a good time. But when he'd kissed her, she'd known there wouldn't be a third time. She was in love with someone else, and it wasn't fair to Matt.

Daisy leaned as far as possible over the Caddy's hood and washed a spot she'd missed. She glanced up as one of the biggest reasons for her confusion pulled his Mustang beside the curb in front of her mother's house.

Jack got out of his car and walked across the yard toward her. A lock of dark hair hung over his forehead, and for once he wasn't wearing a hat. Sunlight refracted little blue pinwheels off the lenses of his sunglasses. His green shirt buttoned up the front and he wore faded Levi's. It was Saturday and he hadn't shaved. Dark stubble shadowed his face and drew attention to the sensual lines of his mouth. Every time she saw him, her heart squeezed a little while her head told her to run screaming in the opposite direction.

"Hey there," she said as she straightened and rinsed soap from the hood. "What are you up to, besides no good?"

"I'm looking for Nathan. I thought he might stop by my house after his driver's ed class, but he didn't."

"He's not here yet," she said and could feel his gaze on her from behind his glasses. "I'm sure be here soon if you want to wait.'

"I'll wait a few," he said as he glanced down the street. He'd been doing that a lot since they'd returned from the lake about a month ago. Undressing her with his eyes then turning away. Of course it was entirely possible that he wasn't even looking at her with any more interest than a bug. It was very possible that she was imagining it all. Kind of like wishful thinking. Which made her not only sad and pathetic and extremely delusional, but as crazy as the rest of her family. Scary thought.

She picked up the bucket and hose and moved to the opposite side of the car from Jack.

"Tomorrow night, Billy and some of the guys are getting together to play football over at Horizon View Park."

He rested his weight on one foot and returned his gaze to her. "I talked to Nathan about it the other day, and he was going to get back to me about whether he could make it."

"We don't have anything planned, so I don't have a problem with him going." Daisy set the bucket on the ground and raised the hose to the roof of the car. "Tackle or flag?"

"Flag football is for sissy men," he scoffed as he moved to stand directly across from her. "And girls."

She decided to let that one pass. "I don't want Nathan to play without a helmet and pads."

"We'll make sure he has all the right equipment." He tilted his head to the side as if he where sizing her up too.

"Why don't you come on down in one of your old cheerleader outfits? You can do cartwheels and backflips like you used to." The corners of his mouth slid upward into a purely carnal smile. "Or those toe-touch jumps. You used to give a beauty of a crotch-shot."

Daisy's thumb found the end of the hose again and water sprayed across the roof of the car, hit Jack's chest and shoulders, and splattered his sunglasses.

"Oops," she said and removed her thumb.

His brows lowered and disappeared behind the lenses. "You did that on purpose."

She gasped. Scandalized. "No. I didn't."

"Yes," he said very slowly, "you did."

"Wrooong." She shook her head, stuck her thumb in the end of the hose again and hit him dead center in his chest between his shoulders. Water sprayed up to his chin and down to the front of his shirt. "Now that," she said when she pulled her thumb out, "was on purpose."

"Do you have any idea," he spoke as he removed his sunglasses and stuffed them in the pocket of his soggy shirt, "what I'm going to do to you?"

"Nothing."

His green gaze promised retribution as he walked around the hood of the cat "Wrooong," he mimicked her.

She took a step back. "Stay where you are."

"Scared?"

"No." She took another step back.

"You should be, baby girl."

"What are you going to do?"

"Quit movin' and you'll find out."

She stood her ground, raised the hose and shot him in the head with a stream of water. He ducked, and before she could even think to run he was on her, pinning her against the back passenger door and wresting the hose from her hands.

"Jack, no!" She started to laugh. "I'll never do it again. I swear"

He looked down into her face and water ran from a lock of hair hanging above his forehead and dripped on his cheek. His long eyelashes were wet and tangled on the ends. "I know you won't," he said as he pulled out the front of her tank top and shoved the hose inside.

"That's cold - auggg!" She grabbed his hand and attempted to wrestle the hose from her shirt.

"Laugh it up, funny girl." He pinned her with his body and was getting just as wet as she was.

"Stop!" Water shot between her cleavage and ran down her stomach. Her nipples puckered from the cold.

"That's freezing."

With his face just above hers he said, "Tell me how sorry you are."

She was laughing so hard she could barely talk.

"Sooooo sorry" she managed as she tried to squirm her way out from beneath him. His hips held her exactly where he wanted her.

'That's not good enough." He pulled the hose from her shirt and dropped it on the ground. "Show me," he said, his voice rough.

Daisy's laughter died on her lips and she looked into his face. Really looked at the desire shining through his green eyes. He stood with his feet on the outsides of hers. His thighs, hips and lower abdomen pressed into her, and she was suddenly aware that at least eight inches of him was very happy to see her. A ribbon of warm sensation uncurled in her stomach. Her heart told her to stay while her head screamed at her to run. "How?"

"You know how." He lowered his gaze to her mouth. "And make it good."

She ran her cold hands up his wet chest and shoulders and through the side of his hair. She lifted her face and slid one hand to the back of his head. She touched her mouth to his and she felt her heart expand. It filled her chest and made breathing difficult and there was no denying it for exactly what it was. She'd felt it before. Only this time it was stronger. Less confused. Like turning the camera's focus ring until it was very clear.

She was in love with Jack Parrish. Again. Her heart had won this round.

The thinnest slice of sunlight separated their mouths. They both held their breaths; their gazes locked. Waiting for the other to make the first move.

Daisy gave him a sweet little peck. "Is that good?"

His lips brushed across hers as he shook his head.

"Try again."

"How about this?" Her lips parted and she touched the seam of his mouth with the tip of her tongue.

He sucked in a breath and his voice was rough when he asked, "Is that the best you can do?"

She raised a hand to the side of his face and brushed her fingers against the stubble of his jaw. "No, but don't think you can handle the best I can do."

"Try Me."

Daisy's eyes drifted shut and she melted into him just a little. The tips of her breasts brushed the front of his shirt and her nipples puckered from more than the cold. Warmth spread across her flesh and settled between her legs. She pressed her open mouth to his and kissed him. At first she gave him soft teasing kisses that had Jack chasing her tongue for more. A frustrated groan rose from his chest, and he tilted his head to one side and turned up the heat. He forced her mouth open wider and took over.

With their lips locked together, he wrapped his arms around her and took a step back. He grabbed her behind in his big hands and pulled her onto the tips of her toes.

He drew back and looked into her face. "You feel good." Very slowly he let her body slide down his, then he pulled her back up. "No one has ever felt as good as you." His mouth covered hers again. Cold water from the hose ran across her toes as the kiss turned hot.

Behind her, Daisy heard someone clear his throat, a split second before Nathan's voice penetrated her lust-filled haze. "Ah, Mom?"

Jack raised his face, and she dropped onto her heels and spun around. "Nathan!" It took a few dazed moments for her to realize that he wasn't alone. A teenaged girl stood next to him. Nathan looked from her face to Jack's and his cheeks turned deep red.

"How long have you been standing there?" Jack asked, his voice calm and collected for a man who'd just had his hands on Daisy's behind, sliding her up and down his body.

"We saw you from down the street." Nathan returned his gaze to Daisy. He didn't say anything more and she couldn't tell what he was thinking.

Daisy forced a smile on her face and said, "Are you going to introduce your friend?"

"This is Brandy Jo." He pointed toward Daisy. "That's my mom and Jack."

"It's a pleasure to meet y'all."