Daisy's Back in Town (27 page)

"You've been living up North too long, Daisy Lee." He pulled a pocket knife out of his front pocket and made wafer-thin pats. "Do you want some of this?" he asked Nathan.

Nathan nodded and Jack stabbed a few thin pats with the knife, then handed it over to him. Nathan laid them out on his rye bread and paused a moment to eye the knife before he handed it back.

"How about you, Daisy?"

"When was the last time you cleaned that knife?"

"Hmm." He finally sat down and pretended to think a moment "Last... no, the year before last. It was right after I used it to gut an armadillo."

Nathan laughed as he took a big bite of his bread.

She was sure he was lying. Well, almost sure. "No thanks," Daisy answered.

"Pansy-ass," he said right before he sank his teeth into his bread covered in little squares of yellow butter.

She took a big bite of her salad. "Scardy-cat. Afraid of a little arugula and raspberry dressing."

"Hell, yeah," he said as thin creases appeared in the corners of his green eyes. "If a man eats stuff like that, the next thing he knows, he's wearing pink and tying a sweater around his neck"

Nathan held up his hand and Jack gave him five.

"I thought you liked my raspberry salad."

"No," Nathan said. "I'm hungry."

Daisy didn't believe him. Jack was turning him into a traitor. A guy just like him.

"So what did you bring for dinner?" she asked.

Jack used his armadillo-gutting knife to cut his chicken. "Wild rice."

"That's it?"

"No, I brought some real lettuce and some bleu cheese dressing."

"We're having wild rice and salad?"

He stared across the table at her as if she couldn't possibly be so dense. "And the fish."

"You were that sure you'd catch our dinner, that you didn't bring anything else?"

"Hell, yeah. I wore my lucky shirt."

Daisy turned her attention to Nathan, who was highly amused.

Jack took a long drink of tea then set the glass on the table. "I coat the fish in flour, then fly 'em up."

"Sounds good," Nathan said.

Jack lifted a finger off his red plastic glass and pointed at his son. "It's the kind of meal that'll put hair on a guy's tea bag."

Her confusion must have shown on her face because Nathan cleared things up for her. "Gonads."

Gee, she probably could have gone all weekend without knowing that. "But," Daisy said weakly, "I'm not a guy."

"And you don't have a tea bag," her son pointed out needlessly.

She shook her head and placed a hand on her chest. "And I sincerely don't want a tea bag. Ever."

"That's what they all say before they try it," Jack said through a grin, then he and Nathan busted up laughing as if they got some secret joke that she didn't.

As she looked across the table at her son laughing, she felt left out. Left out of the guy club, but this was what she wanted, wasn't it? Since she'd flown down here weeks ago? Jack and Nathan to get to know each other? For Nathan to know his real father? Tea bag and gutting knife and all?

Yes, but not at her expense. She didn't want to be excluded. She wanted to be a part of the tea bag club, too. It wasn't fair to be excluded because she didn't have the right equipment. Growing up, Jack had used the same tactic to exclude her from a lot of things.

"I know what you're doing, Jack," she said.

He looked at her.

"You're trying to exclude me like you and Steven used to when you didn't want me around."

His brows lowered but his smile stayed in place. "What are you talking about, buttercup?"

"Remember when you excluded me from your television club. You made a rule that in order to be a member, I had to pee on a tree while standing."

"I remember that, but I don't remember anything about a television."

She thought a moment. "It was the CBS club or something like that."

He thought a moment, then said, "Ahh. You mean the NBBC. I forgot about that." He grinned. "You thought that was a televison club?"

"Of course."

He shook his head and chuckled. "Honey, that was the Nekkid Boobs and Butts Club. It's where we got together and looked at porn."

"Sweet."

"You guys had porn? You were in the sixth grade, for cryin' out loud." She was appalled. "You were little pervs and I didn't even know it."

His grin told her that she didn't even know the half of it.

Chapter Sixteen

After lunch, Daisy dragged a chaise longue to the shore and dropped her shorts. She wore sunglasses and her white one-piece swimming suit, cut high on the hips. It had a built-in bra top and thin straps. The boys had gone fishing again, and she'd opted to stay behind. She pulled out the latest issue of Studio Photography & Design and stretched out on the chaise. She read an article on the Hasselblad V-System and dreamed about the spectacular photographs she could take with it. Then she must have fallen asleep for real, because she dreamed she'd won first place in a Kodak photography contest and she hadn't even entered. She dreamed she was up on stage, bluffing her way through a speech about a photograph she didn't remember taking, and Steven was in the front row watching.

She dreamed about him often, and in her dreams, he always appeared as he had before his illness. Healthy and happy and she was always glad to see him. He never spoke, he just gave her a smile that let her know that he was okay, and that she was okay too.

The sound of an outboard engine woke her up and she opened her eyes. Her sunglasses where still on her face, but the trade magazine had slipped to the ground. She sat up and wondered how long she'd been asleep. She swung her feet to the side and took off her sunglasses. The sun was definitely lower, although it would be a long time before it set. Her tan skin had a twinge of red; she would pay for falling asleep in the Texas sunlight.

She tossed her glasses and the magazine on the chair then stood. She moved toward the shore as Jack's boat came toward her, parting the water with its pointed nose. Daisy raised a hand to her forehead and shielded her eyes from the sun. Jack stood at the bow; his cowboy shirt unsnapped, the edges fluttering against his bare chest and stomach. Nathan sat in the driver's seat, his intent gaze on Jack.

"Turn it off and raise the motor," Jack called out.

Nathan looked down and the sound of the engine got louder as it rose out of the water, then it stopped.

The boat drifted closer and gently bumped into the shoreline.

Jack looked over his shoulder as he spoke to Nathan, telling him what a great job he'd done. He turned back and went down on one knee to grab a rope tied to the front of the boat.

"You got sunburned while we were gone," Jack said as he slowly raised his gaze to hers.

Daisy looked down at herself. She pressed her fingers to her chest above her suit. Her fingertips left white prints on her pink skin. "I fell asleep."

He dropped the anchor over the side of the boat into shallow water, then he jumped down from the bow and stood in front of her, blocking the sun. "You burned your love bite."

Again she glanced down at herself. Visible just above the top of her swimsuit, her birthmark was a little darker than the rest of her skin. "What are you doing staring at my birthmark?"

The corners of his mouth slid upward into a slow, sexy grin. "Just making casual conversation, buttercup," he drawled.

Asking about her love bite wasn't casual. The last time he'd commented on it, they'd both been naked. The heated look in his eyes told her he was remembering that time too.

Daisy swallowed passed the sudden lump in her throat. She lowered her gaze from his mouth, past the thin line of hair that ran down his chest and flat stomach to his navel. She recalled perfectly what his skin felt like beneath her palms.

"Mom, guess what?"

Daisy returned her gaze to Jack's, to the desire he tried but failed to hide. "What?"

"I caught a bigmouth bass." Nathan jumped from the boat and landed next to Jack.

"It's a beauty," Jack confirmed and his gazed dropped to her mouth.

She turned her attention to her son. Whatever was between her and Jack was best left alone. "Show me."

Nathan jumped back up on the bow of the boat, then moved to the stern. Daisy walked passed Jack and waded into the water up to her hips. She held on to the outside of the boat as Nathan opened the live well and pulled out a stringer.

Jack watched his son as he held up the bass for his mother. It swung close to Daisy's face and she jumped back.

"You're such a girl," Nathan said through a teasing laugh.

Jack turned and moved up the shore toward camp. He and Nathan had had a good time fishing.

He felt closer to his son than he had before they'd come to the lake. While they fished, Nathan had talked about his life, and Steven had been a big part of that life.

"Before I quit, I was quarterback on my Optimist football team," he'd told Jack. "My dad told me you guys played football growing up."

His dad. Jack had been very careful not to show the slightest emotion. "We did," he'd said past the bitter taste in his mouth. "I played quarterback until I quit my junior year."

Nathan had nodded. "That's what dad said. He said you had to quit to work for your dad, and that's how he got to be quarterback his last two years of school and get all the good lookin' girls."

"Your dad was a pretty smooth guy. He never had any problems with the girls." The longer they talked about Steven, the easier it got. The easier it was to swallow the bitterness. Jack remembered what it was like to lose a father - the confusion and the loneliness. For a few hours, he was able to forget about anger and betrayal and talk to Nathan about what it had been like to grow up with Steven Monroe.

In the end, he was surprised to discover the more he talked about Steven, the more he got to know Nathan. And the more he got to know his son, the more he wanted to know. He still didn't feel like a father, although he wasn't even sure what a father was supposed to feel like.

Jack poured some water into a basin and washed his fishy hands with liquid soap. He glanced up as Nathan tore off his shoes and shirt and jumped into the lake next to Daisy. She hollered his name as he splashed her.

It was very clear to Jack how Nathan felt about his mother. He might bitch that she babied him, but he loved her. He might have hedgehog hair and a ring through his lip, but Billy was right. Daisy and Steven had done a good job raising Nathan. He was a good kid.

And Jack had nothing to do with it. He grabbed a towel and dried his hands. He tried not to let the bitterness he'd hidden from Nathan rise up and eat a hole in him. He succeeded in keeping it tapped down, right next to the burning ache in his gut that wanted Daisy Lee so bad it was driving him half crazy.

How could he still want her? Want to touch her as he sealed his mouth to hers? To feel the golden strands of her hair tangled around his fingers and the warmth of her skin against his palms? To smell her neck and to look into her brown eyes as he made love to her? How could he want that and at the same time want to shake her and hurt her as much as she'd hurt him? It didn't make a bit of sense to him.

Jack hung the towel on one shoulder and watched Nathan dive at Daisy. She screamed and he pulled her under.

Jack smiled despite himself. Daisy had a way of making him laugh when he didn't want to. Of making him remember things that brought a smile to his lips before he even realized what she was doing. Of reminding him that they'd had a lot of good times together in the past, before things had gotten so fucked up.

If he closed his eyes, he could remember back to what she felt like in his arms. The weight of her body as she leaned into him. The texture of her hair as he rested his chin on the top of her head. The sound of her voice saying his name in anger or in ecstasy. The tastes and textures of Daisy Lee. He remembered it all and wished like hell he didn't.

Jack started charcoal burning in the fire pit and got out a cookstove. He put some Jimmy Buffet on the portable CD player and mixed flour, salt and pepper for the fish. While Jimmy sang about fins circling around, Jack couldn't seem to keep his eyes off a certain white swimsuit jumping around and diving into the lake. Coming back up and looking almost transparent, but not quite.

When he and Nathan had returned this last time, Jack had stood on the bow of the boat and watched her walk toward the water. Toward him, looking like she was an underwear model wearing one of those one-piece teddies that was cut up real high on her hips. Sexy as hell. Like a living, breathing wet dream. And for a few seconds he'd wondered what it would be like if this was really his life. To return from a day out with his son and have Daisy waiting for them. To grab her up and hold her against him. To touch her all he wanted. Anytime he wanted. Anywhere he wanted. For a few brief seconds, the thought of that life nearly sent him to his knees.

But that was not his life. Not reality, and he had no business even thinking about it.

Jack rolled the fish in the flour, then started the rice on the cookstove. Daisy and Nathan returned from the lake and took turns changing in the tent. When Daisy emerged, she wore a soft blue pullover sweat shirt with GAP

on the front, matching sweat pants, and white Nikes with a blue swoosh. Her hair was pulled back in one of those claw things. She set the picnic table while Jack cooked the fish in a skillet over the coals. They ate dinner together like a family. Talking and laughing. Jack had to remind himself that it wasn't real.

After dinner they played poker with wooden matchsticks. When it got dark, Jack got out the lanterns and they played until Nathan yawned and announced that he was going to bed.

"It's early," Jack pointed out and tossed in his cards.

"I'm a tired camper," he said as he headed toward the tent.

"He does this sometimes. A few days ago, he went to bed right after dinner and slept clear through till breakfast," Daisy informed Jack as she gathered the cards and stuck them in the box. "I think he's growing so fast, he just gets worn from the inside out."