Daisy's back in town

Chapter Fourteen

Jack watched his son as Billy showed him how to remove the crankshaft from the Hemi 426. Since he'd pickedNathan up at the high school that first day, he'd been trying not to stare. He didn't want to scare the kid again,but after three days of him working in the garage, he was finding it more difficult not to study him. Even withhis hedgehog hair and lip ring, Nathan resembled the Parrish side of the family even more than Jack didhimself.

Jack rolled up his sleeves, grabbed a socket, and removed the few remaining bolts. He didn't work on actualrestoration as much as he used to. Mostly he spent his time making deals or chasing parts all over the country.

Running the business side while Billy was in charge of the labor side, but for the last three days, he'd beenspending a lot more time in the garage with the mechanics.

"The lobes are retarded," Billy said as he inspected the camshaft. "Just like we thought."

"What does that mean?" Nathan asked.

"It means they're warped," he answered.

"And it means that the valves stay open too long or not long enough and the engine loses power," Jack added.

Nathan looked up at him from across the big V8, and there was a hesitance in his eyes that Jack hated to seethere. He kept his gaze on his son as he spoke, "The replacement should be here by the time you and Billy areready to rebuild."

My son.

Billy handed the shaft to Nathan, and he held it up to study the lobes. "What do we do with this old one?"

"Toss it in the scrap-metal Dumpster I showed you outside," Billy told him.

As Jack watched Nathan move from the garage, his blue coveralls baggy in the butt, he thought he should feelmore than he did for the boy. Something more than a lump in his throat and an avid curiosity. He should feel aconnection to Nathan. A connection like he'd had with his own father, but he didn't.

Nathan was connecting with Billy, though. He'd watched them work side by side all week. Nathan seemed tofeel comfortable with the other mechanics who worked in the garage, too. But around Jack, he was more quietand reserved.

That night over a bottle of Lone Star in Billy's backyard, he talked to Billy about it.

"I don't think Nathan likes me much," he said as he watched Lacy and Amy Lynn play on the big jungle gymBilly had built for them last summer. It was around seven o'clock and shade from two oaks crept halfway acrossthe lawn to the patio where he and Billy sat. "He seems to like you a lot more than me."

"I think he's just more nervous around you."

The two brothers sat on Adirondack chairs, legs stretched out in front of them, their cowboy boots crossed at theankles. Jack wore a jean shirt with the arms cut off while Billy had on a wife-beater. Rhonda had taken the babywith her to some sort of makeup party and had left Billy in charge of the older girls.

"I don't know what I can do to make him more comfortable," Jack said as he raised the bottle to his lips andtook a drink.

"For starters, you can stop staring daggers at his mother when she comes and picks him up, like you did today."

That afternoon was the first time he'd seen Daisy since they'd had it out in her momma's front yard. She'd beenin Seattle for a few days and he hadn't known she was back until she showed up. Just as he hadn't known helooked at her any certain way.

"And when he brings up his dad," Billy continued, "you can quit getting so pissed off."

"Steven isn't his dad." Jack looked at his brother and said, "I never say anything bad about him."

"You don't have to. Whenever Nathan brings him up and you're around, your eyes get hard and you make thatsound through your teeth like you're an air hose." Billy sat forward and yelled across the yard. "Lacy, don't walkin front of your sister like that when she's swingin'. She's likely to kick you in the head again."

Jack set his bottle on the arm of the chair. "Does Nathan talk about Steven when I'm not around?"

"Yeah." Billy sat back. "It sounds like before Steven got sick, they used to do a lot together!"Jack caught himself making that air-hose noise Billy was talking about. He was jealous. Jealous of a dead manand jealous of his own brother. He didn't like the feeling one bit.

"I know you're angry; and you have every right, but you need to remember that Nathan loved Steven. Right orwrong, sounds like Steven was a good daddy to him."

"Steven didn't have the right to be good, bad or indifferent. He and Daisy took off together. They got marriedand kept my son from me for fifteen years."

"Which are you more pissed off about? That Daisy didn't tell you about Nathan, or that she chose Steven andnot you all those years ago?"

"That she took Nathan." Of course that was worse, but the two were so connected, he couldn't separate them.

"You look at her like you hate her now, but I saw the way you were looking at her at Lacy's birthday party. Youwere eye-eatin' her the second you sat down."

Had he? Probably "I used to have a real thing for her, growing up," he confessed as he watched Amy Lynn jumpfrom the swing and land on her feet.

"I read Steven's letter, and it sounds to me like you both had a 'thing' for Daisy Brooks. Sounds like you bothloved her."

There was no use denying it. "Since about the eighth grade, I guess. Maybe even before that." As he watchedAmy Lynn get back in her swing, he thought back to before the night Steven and Daisy had married. "Beingwith her was like... racing down the old highway pushing a hundred and fifty. You know that feeling you getwhen you're balls-to-the-wall? Your heart's up in your throat and adrenaline is crawling across your skin andmaking your hair stand up?"

"Yeah, I know."

"It was like that." Jack shook his head, then reached for his beer. He'd never talked to anyone about Daisybefore. "I was crazy about her, but we used to fight a lot. She was so jealous, and I would throw a fit if anyother boy even looked at her"

Billy leaned forward in his chair again. "Amy Lynn, don't swing so high." He sat back and said, "Well, youmust have made up a time or two or else she wouldn't have ended up pregnant."

Jack recalled with perfect clarity the many limes he'd made love to her in the backseat of his car, standing upsomewhere with her legs around his waist, or in her bedroom while her mom worked late. "I think we used tofight just so we could make up in the backseat of my Camaro."

"Sounds like teenage hormones," Billy said, looking over at Jack though his clear blue eyes as if things hadbeen that simple.

"It was more than just hormones." He'd been with girls before Daisy, but with her, it had been more than justgetting off. Last Saturday on the back of the Custom Lancer proved that she could still make him feel that way.

After all these years. Of course, that had been before he'd found out about Nathan. Now all he felt for her was abiting anger. He took a drink, and rested the bottle on the top of his right thigh. "I thought she was it for me.

She's all I used to think about."

"If you were in love with her, why did you break up with her?"

"How do you know that I broke up with her?"

"It was in Steven's letter."

"It was?" He recalled little about the letter other than the mention of Nathan. "Mom and dad had just died and Iwas dealing, or trying to deal, with all of that." He lifted a finger off the bottle and pointed at his brother. "Youremember what pure hell that was."

"Sure."

"About that same time Daisy got even more possessive and emotional than usual. It seemed like she was alwayshanging on my neck, and the more I tried to get her to loosen her grasp, the more she choked me. I just couldn'thandle it, so I told her we needed time apart. The next thing I knew, she'd married my best friend."

"Pregnant women get really weird. Believe me, I've been through it three times now."

"I didn't know she was pregnant."

"True. She told Steven and not you because you'd dumped her."

"I didn't dump her." Christ, Billy was starting to piss him off. "I just needed some time to think. If I'd known, Iwould have done the right thing."

"I know you would have."

Finally, a little support from his family"But she felt dumped all the same, and she went to Steven and he helped her out instead of you."

"What the hell? You're my brother. You're supposed to be on my side."

"I am. Always. But you're so angry, I just don't think you can see things clearly, is all. I understand how youfeel, but someone needs to point out to you that you had a hand in Daisy marrying Steven."

"Maybe," he conceded for the sake of argument, but he wasn't sure he believed it. "But that doesn't excuseeither of them from not telling me about my son. I'll never forgive Daisy for that."

"Well, you know what Tim McGraw says about never?"

He didn't give a shit what Tim McGraw had to say about anything. Tim was married to Faith Hill, and Faithhadn't run off with his babies and kept them a secret for fifteen years.

Billy took a long pull off his beer and told him anyway. "Old Tim says something about the trouble with neveris never never works. I think there's some wisdom in that."

And Jack thought Billy needed to slow down on the Lone Star. "I was thinking that maybe I'd grab the boat andtake Nathan to Lake Meredith fishing," he said purposely directing the conversation away from Daisy. "Maybecamp out for a night."

"Rhonda and I took the girls and camped out at the lake last summer. We stayed at that Stanford-Yake campsiteright thereby the marina. It had a real nice comfort station for the girls."

"I don't care how nice the toilets are." Billy cared because he had to live with four females who'd bitch about it.

"I thought you might want to ask Nathan's momma to come along."

Jack stood and walked across the patio. "What's gotten into you?" He wanted to get to know his son withoutanyone else around. Now that he knew about his reaction whenever Nathan brought up Daisy or Steven, hecould control it. "Are you being contrary just to piss me off?"

Billy laughed and stood also. "No, I just thought Nathan might be more comfortable with her there. He mightopen up more."

Maybe, but sleeping with Daisy in the same tent was not going to happen. It wasn't even an option. And it hadnothing to do with sex and everything to do with him maybe putting a pillow over her head while she slept. Hemoved to the Rubbermaid garbage can by the side of the house, opened the lid, and tossed the bottle inside.

"We'll be okay alone." He secured the lid down tight. "We'll catch some walleye and maybe a few largemouthbass."

"Sounds good."

"Hey, you two," Jack called across the yard. "Get over here and give me some sugar so I can leave."

Lacy slid down the yellow plastic slide, and a few seconds later Amy Lynn jumped off the swing. They both ranacross the lawn. Lacy with her head down as usual - Jack knelt on one knee, safely removing his nuts fromhead-butting level.

Billy moved across the patio and threw away his bottle. "Maybe next week sometime, we should have Nathanover so he can meet his cousins."

"To meet your two yard babies?" Jack asked as he grabbed Lacy and set her on his knee.

"I'm not a yard baby," Amy Lynn protested, but she wrapped her ants around his neck and kissed his cheek.

"What are you, then? A yard bird?"

"What's that?"

"A chicken"

"Swear to God. That's what your grandma Parrish called chickens. 'Course, she was raised on a farm inTennessee and they really did have chickens in their yard." He gave Lacy a kiss, then set her back on her feet.

He stood with Amy Lynn's arms still around his neck.

"Don't go," she protested.

"Got to." He tickled her armpits and she giggled and dropped to her feet. "I have to make some big fishing'plans."

"You'll have fun," Billy predicted as he scooped up Lacy and followed Jack to the gate at the side of the house.

"Nathan's a good kid. You can tell he's being raised right."

Jack glanced over his shoulder at Billy. "You saw the way he looks. That ring though his lip and that hair.

Those dog chains and his pants down around the crack of his ass."

"That's the way some kids look today. Doesn't mean he wasn't raised right."

True, but Jack wasn't in the mood to give Daisy credit for anything, especially since Billy seemed determined toplay devil's advocate. "When he was three, he wanted a Porsche 911."

Billy stopped dead in his tracks. "He's a Parrish."

Finally, he'd made his point.

Jack raised his hand and knocked twice on Louella Brooks's front door. The sun was beginning to set, washingthe porch in dull gray light.

The door swung open and he came face-to-face with Daisy. Her hair was down around her shoulders, kind ofmessy as if she'd just got out of bed. She wore a pink dress that tied behind her neck and laced up between herbreasts. Her feet were bare and she was sexy as hell. A contrary mix of anger and desire pulled low in hisabdomen.

"Hi, Jack."

"Hey. Is Nathan around?"

"Nathan left with my mother, but..." ...Her brows lowered and she licked her lips. "What time is it?"

He looked at his watch. "A little after eight."

"Oh. Well, Mom and Nathan went over to Lily's to help her with dinner."

"How's your sister?"

She brushed her fingertips beneath her eyes. "Better. She went home from the hospital two days ago."

"Did I wake you up?"

"I guess I nodded off during 'Frasier' reruns." She gave hint a warm, sleepy smile. "Nathan should be backanytime."

"Do you mind if I wait for him?"

"Are you going to be nice?" She drew out the word niiiiiice. Daisy Lee had found her accent.

"Reasonably."

She thought about if for a moment, then stepped back. "Come on in."

He followed her through the darkened living room. The technicolor light from the televison flashed white andblue patches across her bare shoulders and back. She led him into the kitchen and flipped the switch.

It had been a long time since he'd been in Louella Brooks's kitchen.

"Would you like something to drink? Tea, Coke, water?" She smiled back over her shoulder at him. "Bourbon?"

"No thanks."

She raked her finger through the top of her hair as she opened the refrigerator and pulled out a blue bottle ofwater with her free hand. Her fingers combed through her hair to the ends, then she twisted the top off the bottleand knocked the door shut with her hip.

"How was your trip?" he asked.

"It was real sad." The silk strands of her hair slid back in place, and she leaned a shoulder into the refrigeratorand looked up at him. "I finally packed up most of Steven's things. Junie came over and got what she wanted.

Good Will came and got the rest"

Jack saw the sadness in her brown eyes and told himself he didn't care. She lifted the bottle to her lips and tooka long drink. When she lowered it again, a clear drop of water rested on her top lip. "I have some photos foryou." The droplet rested there for several long moments before it slid down and disappeared into the seam.

"What photos?" If they were pictures of her and Steven and Nathan living it up in Seattle, then she could keepthem.

"The photo taken in the nursery when Nathan was born, of him riding his trike, blowing out birthday candles,playing football. Stuff like that." She held up a finger. "I'll be right back."

He didn't want her to be reasonable. Giving him photos went beyond pretending to be nice in public. He didn'twant her to be nice at all. He didn't want to watch crystal drops of water slide between her pink lips. He didn'twant to watch her leave, his gaze slipping down her back to her behind and the bottom of the dress where ittouched the backs of her thighs.

When she returned, she had a shoe box under one arm. "I have tons of pictures of Nathan; these are just a fewthat I thought you might like." She carried them to the breakfast nook and took a seat. Jack slid into the seatacross from her as she took off the lid to the shoe box. She pulled out a few photos and handed them to him.

"This is his hospital picture. He was kind of bruised up because they had to use forceps on him."

Jack gazed down at the photo in his hand of a tiny baby with a bruise on his cheek. His eyes were kind of puffyand his mouth was pursed as if he where about to kiss someone. The next picture was of Daisy as heremembered her looking in high school. Like the day she'd left him. Her hair was big, and she sat in a hospitalbed holding a baby wrapped up fight in a striped blanket. His baby boy. His girl. Only by then she hadn't beenhis anymore.

"I didn't know if you'd want that one because I'm in it," she said, "but I'm in all the pictures taken in thehospital." She dug out a few more. "Any of these you don't want, just leave them with me." This time when shehanded the photos over, she leaned across the table. "This was taken on Nathan's first birthday." She pointed toa baby standing on a kitchen chair. He had chocolate cake smeared on his face, clear up into his hair, and hewore a huge grin. The remains of a smashed cake sat on the table in front of him.

"I'd just made his cake and turned my back to wash the dishes," Daisy explained. "When I turned back, he wasstanding on that chair and had grabbed big hunks of cake. By the time I got my camera, he'd stuffed a bunch inhis mouth and rubbed it on the top of his head." Jack laughed and she looked up from the photo and smiled. "Hewas such a pistol," she said and returned her attention to the picture. His gaze slid to the side of her neck. Herbreasts were pressed against the table, pushing her cleavage over the top of her dress. If he leaned forward, hecould smell her hair. "That was about the time we had to start locking him in our bedroom," she said.

Jack leaned way back. "Why?"

She straightened. "Because that boy started crawling out of his crib when he was seven months old. We had toget him a little bed that was really low to the ground because we were afraid he'd hurt himself. Then one day, alittle after his first birthday, I was making his bed, and under his satin baby pillow, I found three screw driven."

She shook her head. "The only thing I could figure out was that he was roaming around the house after Stevenand I fell asleep. So that's when we had to lock him in our bedroom with us."

The three of them all in bed together. One big happy family. It should have been him. It should have been himwith her and with Nathan. But she'd chosen Steven.

She should have chosen him. It should have been him in that bed, but the harsh truth was that he couldn't blameher for her choice.

Not anymore. Not when she'd chosen Steven because she'd been eighteen and scared. But being eighteen andscared didn't excuse her from keeping his son from him. He didn't think he'd ever forgive her for that.

She spread some more photos out on the table. "I have a lot of photographs of Nathan through the years. He'smy favorite subject. I have some really nice black-and-whites of him that I took a few years ago when we wentclimbing around the rocks at the bottom of Snoqualmie Falls. Black and white just balanced everything aroundhim beautifully" Her lips turned up at the corners. "Color would have been too overwhelming, and he wouldhave been lost in the shot."

"You sound like you know a lot about taking pictures." He had one of those auto-everything cameras, and stillforgot to bring it to the girls' parties.

"I'm a photographer. It's what I used to do for a living."

He hadn't known that about her. Didn't know very much about her life in Seattle, as a matter of fact.

"It's what I plan to do again. I'm going to open my own studio. I've been checking into small business loans, andI talked to a realtor about leasing a space in Belltown, which is in the downtown area." She dug through the boxand handed him more photos. "It's going to be a little scary at first, but with the money I get from selling ourhouse, and the money I received from Steven's life insurance policies, we'll be okay"

She was moving on with her life. Moving forward while he felt as if he were firmly stuck in the past. Unable tomove.

Louella walked into the kitchen with Nathan trailing behind, wearing even more chains than usual and a blackT-shirt with a skateboarder on the front.

Daisy slid from behind the table and moved to meet them. "Nathan, Jack came over to talk to you."

Nathan's gaze met his over the top of Daisy's head. Jack set the photo on the table and stood. He turned hisattention to Daisy's mother. She had blue smudges beneath her eyes and her hair listed left. "Good evening, MizBrooks."

"Evening, Jackson."

"How are you?"

"I've felt better," she said. "Lily insists that she stay at her own home when it would be better if she stayedhere." She set her big black purse on the counter and moved to stand a few feet in front of him. "Last year TinyBarnett's youngest girl, Tammy, had woman trouble and had to have surgery. Did you hear what happened toher?"

Jack wasn't sure Louella was speaking to him. She was looking at him, but he didn't know anyone named TinyBamett or her daughter Tammy.

Evidently a reply wasn't necessary, though. "She died because she went home from the hospital early"

"Mom," Daisy said on a sigh, "Lily isn't going to die."

"That's what Tammy thought too. Left behind a little boy about Pippen's age. Left a husband too. He was aYankee fella from one of those eastern states, and when Tammy made her heavenly journey, he packed up thatbaby and left. Tiny hasn't seen hide nor hair of him since. And my is a good woman. She's stuck with HoraceBarnett all these years. And everyone knows that man was born tired and raised lazy. I don't think he ever didwork a job for more than a month straight."

She paused and it all came back to Jack in a flash. The reason he and Steven usually waited on the porch forDaisy. Fifteen years, and she hadn't changed. Louella Brooks could still talk water up hill.

"And he had that mentally retarded sister, bless her heart. She used to come by the diner and other gizzards,every now and again. I used to think that..."

Jack felt a pressure in the back of his skull and looked behind Louella to Daisy and Nathan. They stood inprofile, Nathan a few inches taller than his mother. He stared down at Daisy, his narrowed gaze communicatingsomething. Daisy shrugged as if to say, "What do you want me to do?" While Louella rambled on aboutgizzards and chicken filed steak, Daisy and Nathan carried on a whole conversation without saying a word.

Mother and son.

Nathan rocked back on his heels and slashed his finger across his throat. Daisy covered her mouth with her handand started shaking her head. They were a family. Just the two of them. Comfortable with each other. Relaxed.

He wasn't a part of it.

As if she felt his gaze on her, Daisy looked at Jack, then she burst into laughter.

"Goodness, Daisy. What's gotten into you?" Louella asked as she turned to look at her daughter.

"Just thought of something that happened today." She brushed her hair behind her ears and said, "Jack cameover to talk to Nathan, so maybe we should leave them to it."

"Actually, I was hoping that you and Nathan could walk me out to my car."

"Cool."

"Sure."

He turned his attention to Louella. "Good evening, ma'am. Give Lily my best the next time you see her."

"I will."

The three of them walked through the living room and out the front door, with Jack bringing up the rear.

"Why didn't you stop her?" Nathan asked as soon as the door was shut behind them.

They moved from the porch and down the sidewalk. The setting sun filled the night sky with blazing reds andoranges, fading in the distance to pink and purple. It seemed to catch in strands of Daisy's hair, turning it gold.

"No one can stop your grandmother once she gets started," Daisy answered.

"All the way home from Lily's she would not stop talking about someone named Cyrus."

"Cyrus is your great uncle who died when he was fourteen, bless his heart."

"And I give a crap because why?"

"Nathan!"

Jack chuckled.

"Don't encourage his bad behavior, Jack," she said as they came to the end of the sidewalk.

"Wouldn't dream of it." He turned to his son. "How do you feel about fishing?"

He shrugged. "My dad and I used to fish all the time."

Jack forced a smile. "I'm going bass fishing this weekend, and I wanted you to come along. I thought we'd leaveSaturday morning and come back sometime Sunday."

Nathan looked at Jack then turned to his mother.

"We don't have plans this weekend. Go ahead. You'll have fun."

Nathan didn't say anything and Jack spoke to cover the silence. He opened his mouth and heard himself say,"Daisy why don't you come along too?" And he couldn't believe it. The pressure in the back of his skull movedup and squeezed his brain. He'd just done the one thing that he'd gotten mad at Billy for even suggesting.

All he could do now was hope like hell she refused.