Daisy's Back in Town (28 page)

Jack rose and moved out of the pool of light to his truck. He grabbed his Jean jacket out of the cab, then walked to the fire pit. Stars crammed the big Texas sky as he stirred the coals. He threw a few logs in the pit and took a seat in one of the folding chairs he'd placed around the pit. He stretched his legs out in front of him and watched the wood catch fire. He thought about their sleeping arrangements and wondered if he should have borrowed another tent from Billy. Sleeping in the same tent wasn't going to be easy. Jack had never slept in such close proximity to a. woman when they both weren't naked. This would be a first, and thank God Nathan would be between him and Daisy. Because lately his thoughts were definitely carnal where she was concerned, and he'd hate to fall asleep and wake up face-first in her cleavage.

"It's been a long time since Nathan and I got to get away and just relax," Daisy said and sat in a chair next to him. "Thanks, Jack."

"You're welcome." He threaded his fingers together over his stomach, crossed his booted ankles, and pushed all thoughts of Daisy's cleavage from his brain. The fire cracked and popped. In between comfortable silences, Daisy told him more about her plans to sell the house she'd shared with Steven, and more about opening her own photography studio. She was ready to get on with her life and eager to start.

They talked about Billy and his family, and she filled him in on the latest with Lily. Lily's divorce was to be final in a few days. According to Daisy,

Lily was finally getting herself together. Jack had his doubts, but he didn't mention them.

"Being back here in Texas brings back a lot of memories for me," Daisy said. "Most of them good." He could feel her gaze on him and he looked across his shoulder at her. Firelight danced in her hair and across her face. It touched her mouth and drew his gaze to her lips. "Remember when you and I and Steven made that time capsule out of a coffee can and buried it in your backyard?" she asked.

Yeah, he remembered that, but he shook his head and glanced up at the sky crammed with stars in the inky black night. He hoped she'd let it drop. He should have known better.

"We put our most valuable treasures in a coffee can, and we were supposed to dig it up in fifty years."

She laughed and Jack returned his gaze to her profile.

"I can't remember what I put in there." She thought a moment then snapped her fingers. "Oh, yeah. A fake diamond ring you'd won for me at the fair. A pink fuzzy barrette Steven had found someplace and given me.

You put some Matchbox cars in there, and Steven put some of those green army men." She looked over at him and a frown creased her brow. "There had to be more."

"Your diary," he said.

"That's right." She started to laugh, but it died on her lips. "How did you remember that?"

He just shrugged and rose to stir the logs on the fire. "Good memory, I guess."

"Did you dig it up?" He didn't answer and she moved to stand next to him. "Jack?"

He pushed a log with the toe of his boot. It snapped and shot red embers up into the darkness. "Me and Steve."

"When?" she asked.

"About a week after we buried it. We had to know what was in your diary. It was killing us."

She gasped. "You guys invaded my privacy. Abused my trust. You were horrible!"

"Yep, and as I recall, your diary was boring as hell. Steven and I thought we were going to read all kinds of juicy stuff. Like who you had a crush on or if you'd kissed a boy. Or what really goes on at those girly slumber parties you were always going to." He shoved his hands in the front pockets of his Levi's and shifted his weight to one foot. "As I recall, it was mostly filled with stuff about your damn cat."

"Mr. Skittles?" Her mouth fell open and she grasped his arm through his jacket and turned him to face her. "You read my private thoughts about Mr. Skittles?"

"I hated that cat. Every time I walked into your house, he hissed at me."

"That's because he could tell you were up to no good."

Jack laughed and looked down into her face as the firelight danced across her cheeks and nose. Where Daisy Lee was concerned, he'd always been up to no good. He grabbed her hand to remove it from his jacket, but he held it instead. "You don't even know the half of it."

"Sylvia told me she showed you her bottom in the fifth grade."

He had seen quite a few bottoms by the fifth grade. "It wasn't as good as yours." He brought her hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. He looked into her eyes. "Your bottom was always the best."

She blinked once and her lids lowered to half-mast. Her lips parted. She wanted him every bit as much as he wanted her. It would have been so easy to slide his other hand behind her head and bring her mouth to his.

Desire twisted in his groin and urged him to grab her up and hold her against him. He dropped her hand.

"I've missed you, Jack," she said. "I didn't even realize how much until I came back." She took a step forward and raised onto the balls of her feet. She ran her palms up his jacket to the sides of his neck. "Did you ever miss me?" She placed her soft lips against his, then asked, "Even a little?"

He stood completely still, staring into her dark eyes. His chest burned as he breathed in her exhaled breath.

"Even when you didn't want to miss me?"

The dull throb of desire settled heavy in his groin, and he grabbed her shoulders and pushed her away. "Don't do this, Daisy."

She looked up at him. "Matt Flegel asked me out."

Shit. "Bug?"

"He never liked when you called him that."

"Are you going to go out with him?"

"Do you care?"

He looked right into her eyes and answered as if he didn't want to punch Flea in the face. "No. I don't care what you do."

"Then I'll probably go out with him." She turned on her heels and bid him goodnight over her shoulder as if she hadn't just tried to kiss him and get something going. He watched her disappear into the tent and he turned back to the fire.

She could do whatever she wanted, he told himself as he took a seat. So could he. He hadn't had sex since he'd had it with her on the back of the Lancer. Maybe that was his problem. Maybe he needed to get laid to get her out of his head.

He waited until the coals burned to ash before he entered the tent. When his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he discovered that Nathan had taken the sleeping bag on the far side, which left Daisy asleep in the middle. What she thought of sleeping so close to Jack, he didn't know. She seemed okay with it because she was out.

Jack took off his boots and jacket and crawled into his sleeping bag. He put his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling of the tent. He could almost hear her breathing. Almost hear a soft hush of breath pass her lips.

He turned his head and looked at her through the darkness. Her back was to him and her blond hair spilled across her pillow. He'd made love to her. He'd made a child with her, but he'd never spent the night with her.

Never seen her sleep.

His last thoughts as he fell asleep were of her, wondering what she'd do if he hooked his arm around her waist and pulled her into his chest.

When he woke, the ceiling of the tent was awash in predawn light. He figured he'd gotten about five hours as he grabbed his jean jacket, shoved his feet in his boots, and headed out of the tent. Early morning shadows clung to the campground and the buttes surrounding the lake. He built a fire and put coffee on to percolate. The sun rose over the water as he poured his first cup. Nathan was the first to join him. His son's hair stuck straight up in back, and he wore a big blue sweat shirt, jeans and his sneakers. Nathan grabbed a bottle of juice and a bag of Chips Ahoy and the two of them walked to the shore.

"Today before we leave," Jack said as he blew into his coffee, "we'll go after some channel cats."

"My dad and I went deep-sea fishing once." Nathan ripped open the bag and held it toward Jack, offering him a cookie. "Have you ever done that?"

"Thanks." Jack took one chocolate-chip cookie and bit into it. "I try to fish in the Gulf at least once a year. Next time I go, maybe you can come along."

"Tight." Nathan stuck the bag under one arm and polished off two cookies before he spoke again. "My dad and I used talk about stuff."

Jack took a drink and looked out over the lake, at the morning sun lighting up the surface like glass. He wondered if Daisy had told him that she had a hot date with flea. It wasn't his place to ask. "What kind of stuff?"

"Stuff a guy can't talk to his mom about."

"Like?" he asked and ate his cookie.

"Girls."

Ah. "Do you have something on your mind?"

Nathan nodded and took a drink of his juice.

"Maybe I can help you out. I've known a girl or two.”

He looked at his toes and his cheeks turned pink. "Girls are complicated. Boys aren't that complicated."

"That's true. Girls are contrary as hell. They tell you one thing and expect you to get the meaning to something else."

He turned and looked up at Jack. "You said you and dad used to look at porn. So, what I want to know is..."

blinked a few times then asked, 'Where do you touch girls? I saw a diagram in health class, but it was confusing. Boys aren't confusing. Everything we have is just hanging out there."

Whoa. "We're not talking about a girl's emotions are we?"

He shook his head. "My friend stole his mom's book about sex. It sounds like you have to touch a girl everywhere at once."

Nathan looked so serious. And he'd come to Jack. Not Daisy. "Any girl in particular you're thinking about touching?"

"No. I'd just like to have it all figured out before my first time."

"You want to be an expert right out of the chute?" Jack thought Nathan was a little young to be worrying about sex. Then he thought back to the NBBC and he realized Nathan wasn't too young at all.

"Well, yeah. It's going to be scary enough the first time without worrying about sucking at it."

Jack rocked back on his heels and weighed his words. He really didn't want to screw this up. Warmth spread through him and tightened his chest like a fist around his heart. Suddenly, for the first time in his life, he felt like a dad. His son had come to him with questions about sex, just like countless other sons had gone to their fathers. Just like he had. "The first thing you have to know is that any fool can have sex, but it takes a real man to make love. If you don't feel something for a girl, then you have no business unzipping your pants."

"Yeah."

"You have to wear a condom. Always. If you're not mature enough to protect yourself and the female, then you're not mature enough to have sex." As he spoke, he wondered if Nathan got the irony of this conversation.

He waited for him to point out that Jack hadn't always practiced what he was preaching, and he took a drink of his coffee as he figured out a good response. He'd obviously have to admit that he hadn't always been responsible, but that -

"I know about safe sex," Nathan said, interrupting Jack's thoughts.

Jack swallowed. "That's good." He smiled at his son, vastly relieved that there would be no hard questions about his own sex life.

"What I want to know is..." stole a look back at the tent. "Where is the clitoris exactly?"

Jack's smile fell and he opened his mouth. No words came out so he closed it.

Nathan had no problem forming his words, though. "And what the heck is a G-spot?"

Chapter Seventeen

Driving wasn't as easy as Nathan thought it would be. On his second day of driver's education, he got to drive a Saturn. Not exactly his idea of a hot car, but the other class had to drive a station wagon. By the third week, he'd mastered the Saturn and figured he was ready to take his new dream car for a spin. Jack's Shelby Mustang. Jack didn't know it yet, but Nathan wanted to drive that car. Bad.

After the first week, he'd made a few friends with some of the other boys in his class. They didn't ride horses or listen to crap-ola music. Some of them did chew tobacco, though, which was cool with Nathan.

On the day of classes, his mom dropped him off in front of the high school. He usually walked to Jack's afterward because it was only a few blocks away. He'd been in Lovett for a month now, and he guessed it wasn't as bad as he thought it was the first few days he'd been here. He liked working in Jack's garage. He liked shooting the bull with the other mechanics, he thought as he walked to the back of the school.

Jack had shown him the business side of running Parrish American Classics, and it looked pretty cool. Maybe he could come here and work next summer too; and when he graduated from high school, he could work with Jack and Billy full-time.

That'd be tight, but his mom would have a fit. She wanted him to go to college like his dad. She talked about it as if he had no say in it at all. She was trying to run his life like he was a little kid.

Nathan picked up a rock from the blacktop and threw it at the basketball backboard like he had that day he'd first met Jack. The rock fell to the ground and he kicked it.

He didn't know what to call Jack anymore. Calling him Jack felt weird, but he couldn't call him dad. His dad was Steven Monroe, but Jack was starting to feel like his dad too. They got along pretty good now. Sometimes after work, they just hung out and talked about cars and stuff. He'd gone over to Billy's and met the rest of the family, too. Billy's little girls screamed and giggled a lot, and the middle one ran with her head down and you had to watch out for her.

Jack usually invited his mom to come along, and it was kind of like they were a family, but not. Sometimes Nathan caught Jack looking at his mom like he loved her. Then he'd blink or look away or say something and Nathan would think he was imagining things. If Jack was in love with his mom, Nathan really didn't know how he felt about that. Maybe it was okay since Jack was his dad. Sort of.

Jack had only made him mad one time. Nathan had gotten angry at his mom on the Fourth of July, and he'd yelled at her because she wanted to know where he was going and what he was doing. Jack had given him a really hard look and said, "You don't talk to your mother like that. Now apologize."