Daisy's Back in Town (9 page)

"This is Jack Parrish," he said.

"Hi, Jack." He didn't respond, but he didn't slam the phone down either. "Surprise, it's me, Daisy."

"Don't hassle me at work, Daisy Lee," he finally responded, dragging out those vowels for all they were worth.

Yep, definitely in a nasty mood.

"Don't make me. Meet me later."

"Can't. I'm flying out for Tallahassee this afternoon."

"When will you be back?"

He didn't answer and she was forced to blackmail him. "If you don't tell me, I'll just call back every day. All day." That didn't prompt a response either. "And night."

"That's harassment."

"True, but filing charges is such a pain." She didn't believe for a minute that he'd actually have her charged for harassment. "Let's meet the day you get back."

"Can't. It's Lacy Dawn's birthday."

"Lacy Dawn? Stripper or hooker?"

"Neither."

"It sounds like a stage name."

"Probably a girl named Daisy Brooks shouldn't cast stones."

He had a point. "Meet me after the party."

"No can do. Those dancing bears take it out of me."

"Jack -"

"Goodbye."

The dial tone filled Daisy's ear as she thought about what to do next. Dancing bears? What was Jack into these days? "Hey, Ma," she called from the kitchen into the living room. And over the sound of sirens coming from the television she asked, "Is there some place in town that has dancing bears?"

"Dancing bears?" The sirens quieted, then her mother stuck her head into the kitchen. 'The only place I know is Showtime."

"Is that a strip dub?"

"No it's a pizza place, but it also does little kids' birthday parties. Lily had Pippen's party there last year. He wasn't quite old enough to understand that those big scary bears weren't going to hurt him. He screamed the paint off the walls. Juanita Sanchez was there with her grandson, Hermie. You remember Juanita, don't you?

She lived down the road in that pink stucco, bless her heart. One day..."

Daisy didn't ask why living in a pink stucco deserved a "bless her heart," but she wasn't about to ask. She called information and came up with a plan. She got the number for Showtime, and dialed it. After getting transferred around by teenagers who didn't know anything, she finally got put through to the party planner. "Hello," Daisy began, "I've lost my invitation to the birthday party of a little girl named Lacy Dawn. I'm not sure of her last name, but if we miss that party, my daughter will be so upset. Could you please tell me what time it starts?"

The party planner sounded older than the teens working there, and it took her about thirty seconds to get back with the answer. "I don't have a Lacy Dawn, but I do have a Lacy Parrish."

"That's it."

"Her mother booked a front table from six to seven-thirty."

"On Saturday?"

"No. Wednesday."

"Oh my gosh. I'm so glad! called. Thank you." So, Lacy Dawn was Lacy Parrish. Obviously Jack's niece, and he'd be back in town Wednesday.

She dialed Lily and didn't feel the least guilty for what she planned to do next. She'd warned Jack that she'd become his worst nightmare. At the time she'd been mostly bluffing. She wasn't bluffing now, and she wasn't going away. She didn't plan to tell him about Nathan at his niece's birthday party, but he needed to know that he wasn't going to get any peace until he agreed to meet with her.

When Lily picked up, she asked if she and Pippen would go with her to Showtime Wednesday night. Her sister wanted to know why, and she explained the situation.

"This will be good," Lily said. "Not only will Pippen be your cover, but I went to school with Billy and Rhonda.

Rhonda's sister, Patty Valencia, was your age."

"Was she a real pretty Hispanic girl with long black hair?"

"Yeah, they're both real pretty. Although, I hear Rhonda and Billy have been cranking out the kids, so she may look a little crazy these days."

"Probably." Daisy glanced at her mother's calendar of Texas landscapes. "Are you sure you want to do this with me? Mom told me Pippen screamed the paint from the walls last time."

"He doesn't do that anymore." She turned her mouth from the phone and said, "Pippen, you're a big boy now.

Aren't you Momma's sweet baby?"

"No!"

Great. Daisy hung up and spent the rest of the afternoon helping her mother pull weeds in her flower gardens.

She brought out her Nikon and knelt amid the pink flamingos, resting her elbow on her knee to steady the camera. She positioned herself toward Louella's shadow so that the sunlight hit one side of her face. She wished she'd loaded the camera with black-and-white film so that the vibrant pink of the flamingos wouldn't take on more importance than her mother. Or if she'd brought her Fuji digital, she could have loaded it on her computer once she got back home and made the image real high-impact.

She moved to her stomach and rested the weight of the camera equally on both elbows. She shot up at her mother, catching Annie Oakley in the background -

"Daisy Lee," her mother said through a frown, "don't take a picture up my nose."

She sighed and sat up. It had been a while since she'd felt the urge to bring out her cameras and get back into something she used to love. She'd had to quit working for Ryan Kent, an artistic photographer in Seattle, in order to take care of Steven.

She'd gotten into photography in high school, and when Nathan had turned four, she'd signed up for classes at the University of Washington. After four years, she'd received her B.A. and began interning with top photographers in the area. Her photographs hung in some studios and galleries around town. And a photograph she'd taken of a man standing on top of a crushed vehicle after the earthquake in Two-thousand and one, had been featured in a local magazine.

She'd thought that once things settled, she'd go back to work for Ryan, but lately she'd been thinking of opening her own studio. One of the most successful photographers she'd ever worked for had once told her that the key to success was finding a visible location and staying there for at least five years. Talent was important, but visibility was most important when starting out.

The more she thought about it, the more she thought that's exactly what she'd do. Once she put the past behind her, she'd be free to start over completely. Maybe she'd sell her house. Upon Steven's death, the home owner's insurance had paid off the mortgage. Maybe she'd sell it, and she and Nathan could move into a loft in Belltown.

She shrugged and focused her lens on an orange-and-yellow rose. "I'm thinking of selling my house once I get back," she told her mother as she snapped the picture.

"Don't get ahead of yourself," her mother warned. "Colleen Forbus sold her house soon after her husband, Wyatt, took his journey to heaven, and she's been sorry ever since."

Maybe she could wait a few more months just to be sure. She'd find out how Nathan felt about it first, of course.

But lately she'd started to feel as if too much of her past was tied to that house. She didn't have to decide today.

It was something to think about. Something to put at the bottom of her mental to-do list.

She placed her elbow on her knees and adjusted the aperture to bring the roses and flamingos behind Louella's head into focus, giving the photograph a nice rich texture and depth of field. She snapped the photo and thought how nice it would be if everything in her life could be made clear by the turn of a focus ring.

Jack was late. He'd waited until that morning to call Rhonda and ask what to get Lacy for her birthday. Rhonda told him she wanted something called a Kitty Magic. She told him to make sure it was a Kitty Magic and not a Fur Real Friends. According to Rhonda the latter didn't nurse her babies. Then she wished him luck finding it.

He'd called around to the few stores in Lovett that carried toys, and ended up driving into Amarillo. He'd spent the afternoon looking for the damned thing, and finally found it in one of the last stores he'd walked into.

He'd stood in the aisle, reading the back of the box, making sure he had the right one, and feeling the back of his skull tighten. The pink Mommy Kitty had long fur and two fluffy kittens. The three of them had toys and matching bows for their heads and god-awful heart-shaped sunglasses.

He'd kept reading and uttered, "For the love of Christ." According to the box the mother cat purred and said, "I love you" and made nursing sounds when one of the kittens was stuck to her side.

What the hell was a nursing sound? he'd wondered.

Jack had the present wrapped in bright pink paper with fairies on it. A big iridescent pink bow about the size of his head was taped on top. The bow was beyond frilly, but Billy's girls loved that kind of crap.

The kind of girl stuff that had been completely foreign to him and his brother growing up. They'd played with cars and BB guns and had set their army men on fire. They'd been hell on wheels, but as soon as Billy's first girl had been born, Billy had taken to baby dolls, Barbie sneakers, and pink tutus like a duck to water. He made it all look easy and natural while Jack was left watching and wondering where Billy's paternal instincts had come from. Jack didn't have any At least he didn't think he did. Although he was learning fast, he didn't know very much about little girls. Maybe because until Amy Lynn, he'd never been around little girls. Except Daisy, and if she'd played with dolls, and dressed up like a fairy princess as Billy's girls did, she'd done it with her friends that were girls. Not with him and Steven.

He pulled open the door to Showtime and stepped inside. He hadn't seen Daisy for four days. Hopefully she'd given up on her plan to pin him down and make him relive the past. Hopefully she'd left town.

The inside of Showtime was a collision of bright color and sound - of flashing arcade games directly at eye level, and those big plastic tubes that kids climbed through overhead. Of bells and sirens and screaming children. Jack had been here once before, on Amy Lynn's birthday, and he wondered how anyone worked here without going insane.

He moved to the dining room and discovered that it was relatively quiet-for now. He knew that would all change once the show started. He found his brother and Rhonda and the girls sitting at a round table near the stage.

And Daisy.

About ten feet from the table, he stopped in his tracks. Daisy Monroe had managed to get herself invited to his niece's party.

She'd tracked him down. She'd told him she'd become his worst nightmare. It hadn't been an idle threat. His anger rose but he pushed it back. Controlled it for now. She didn't belong here. With his family.

His gaze moved to the woman sitting next to Daisy. He recognized Lily, and he supposed the kid with the mullet belonged to one of them. The boy had some sort of pudding on his face like someone had been feeding him with a slingshot. He wondered if the kid belonged to Daisy and Steven.

"Uncle Jack!" five-year-old Amy Lynn yelled. She jumped up from her chair and ran toward him. The birthday girl, three-year-old Lacy ran toward him too. Lacy tended to watch her feet while she ran, and he picked her up with his free arm to keep her from head-butting him in the nuts. "Hey there," he said. "Someone feels like she's three years old today."

"Me," she said and held up three fingers.

"I'm still five," Amy Lynn told him and wrapped her arms around his leg.

As he approached the table with Amy Lynn on his leg and Lacy in one arm, Billy glanced up from the dark-haired baby on his knee and smiled. "Hey, Jack, look who's in town."

Daisy looked at him, her brown eyes sparkling. She'd pulled her smooth hair back in a ponytail and her full lips were a soft shiny pink. She wore a tight green tank top with the name Ralph Lauren in black across her breasts.

"You didn't tell Billy I was back in town," she scolded, as a smile curved that mouth of hers.

Jack stood Lacy in her chair. His brother didn't know his history with Daisy. Billy'd been too young and it wasn't something that Jack had ever wanted to talk about. Not even with his brother. Billy probably remembered her, though. Growing up, she'd been over at theft house a lot. He probably thought they were still friends. Probably thought Jack'd be slaphappy to see her. "It must have escaped my mind," he said as Amy Lynn let go of him and took her seat.

Daisy laughed, very amused with herself, and that bumped up his anger a notch. "You remember my sister Lily?" she asked.

"Of course. How are you?"

Lily came out from behind the table and gave him a big hug as he set the present on the table. "I've been better."

She looked a lot like Daisy, only with blue eyes. A lot like she had growing up, only for some reason she looked terminally pissed off now.

"How're you, Jack?"

He looked over her head at Daisy. "I've been better."

"This is Lily's son Pippen."

So, the kid belonged to Lily. For some reason, he was relieved that the boy with the mullet wasn't Daisy and Steven's. But he couldn't begin to understand why he should care.

Lily stepped back and shook her head. "You look as good as you always did."

"Thanks, Lily. You do too," he said, and meant it.

"Hey, Rhonda"- his sister-in-law had I haven't had sleep in five years smudges under her dark brown eyes _

"You okay, girl? Billy tells me you had a hard night."

"I was up most of it with Tanya. She has an earache, but we got a bottle of the pink medicine today, so she's feeling better."

Billy pulled the baby's sock up her pudgy leg.

We yanked the 'Vette engine while you were gone today."

He pulled out a chair between Lacy and Rhonda and across from Daisy and Lily. "Did you get a look at the clutch?"

"You were right," Billy said. "It needs to be completely replaced."

"I found one in Reno," he told his brother.

"How was Tallahassee?" Daisy asked him.

"When were you in Tallahassee?" Billy wanted to know.

"Last year."

Daisy's eyes rounded and her mouth fell open. "You lied to me."