Daisy thought Lily could have done a lot more to protect and nurture Pippen, but she didn't say so. She hadn'tbeen the perfect mother and wasn't about to cast aspersions on anyone else's parenting. "I'm going to callNathan and remind him what time I'll be home tomorrow." She stood. "Then I'm going to Jack's," she said, andif she'd had any other option, she would have used it. He'd told her not to come to his house, and he'd given herthat warning about fainting. Now, when she showed up, would he think she came there looking for sex?
Probably.
She took her coffee to her bedroom and called Nathan.
"I can't wait for you to get home," he said as soon as he picked up. "I can't wait to get away from Michael Ann."
"Come on now, she's not that bad."
"Mom, she still plays with Barbies. Last night, she tried to get me to be Ken."
"Isn't she a little old for Barbies?"
"Yeah, and Offie tried to make me play dolls with her," he said, his voice cracking with pubescent indignation.
"I hate it here."
"Well, this is your last night." She set her mug on the bedside table and pulled Steven's letter from the drawer.
"Tomorrow they'll take you home, and I'll be there around three or three-thirty"
"Thank God. And Mom?"
"Yeah, sugar lump?"
"Promise you won't ever make me stay here again."
Daisy laughed. "I promise if you promise to get a hair cut."
There was a long pause and then he said, "Deal."
After she hung up the telephone, she took a shower and thought about the night before. Jack was probably overhis anger by now. More than likely he'd found some willing woman to take home. While she'd been dreamingabout flying, he'd probably been having wild sex and was no doubt relieved this morning that she'd stoppedthings between them before they'd gone too fat Now that the fever of the night before had passed, he probablywouldn't even remember that he'd threatened her.
Funny, though, the thought of him with another woman bothered her more than it should and more than shewanted to admit. The thought of him touching someone else made a lump in her stomach that hadn't been therethat first night when she'd seen him and Gina together in his kitchen.
Daisy dressed in her black bra and panties and tried to understand how her feelings had changed so much insuch a short time. She pulled a plain black T-shirt over her head and figured that the more she was around Jack,the more she relived the past. It was inevitable, really. She'd always loved Jack as a friend, then she'd fallen inlove with him. She'd fallen so hard and so deep, and despite what she'd said the night before, sex had been a bigpart of their past. Being close to Jack brought up all the old feelings. All the old lust and obsession and jealousy.
She'd thought she could breeze back into town, tell Jack about Nathan and not have to deal with the rest of it.
She'd thought it was buried and long gone.
She'd been wrong. It hadn't gone anywhere. No, it had been waiting for her right where she'd left it.
She pulled a pair of shorts out of a drawer. If there was a consolation to this whole confusing mess, it was thatonce she was back home, it would all be over. No more secrets. No more confusion. No more kissing JackParrish.
"Daisy, if you show up at my house tomorrow, I'm going to give you what you really want," Jack had warned.
"I'm going to fuck you till you faint."
His warning had intrigued her last night, this morning it gave her pause. She definitely didn't want him to thinkshe was showing up at his house to "faint." No, that was the last thing she wanted him to think.
She shoved the shorts back in a drawer and walked to her mother's bedroom. She riffled through the closet untilshe found a sleeveless dress made of heavy denim. It was so loose it didn't have buttons or a zipper Tigger andWinnie the Pooh were sown on the bodice and around the hem. It was the antithesis of sexy: like a kindergartenteacher, and it could in no way be confused for a dress that inspired "fainting."
She pulled her hair into a ponytail and wore her black flip-flops. She couldn't bring herself to go out of thehouse without makeup, and applied a coat of mascara, blush, and pink lip gloss. She looked herself over one lasttime in the mirror and determined that she looked very drab and would not inspire interest, let alone lust, in anyman. Especially a man like Jack.
She shoved Steven's letter in the side pocket of the dress and grabbed her mom's car keys. All the way to Jack's,she had to fight the urge to turn around. She didn't have to guess or wonder how he would feel about Nathannow. She'd seen him with his nieces, and she knew.
She turned onto Jack's street and her fingers turned white on the steering wheel. Her mother was probably right,she'd done what she'd thought best at the time. What everyone else had thought best, too. Everyone except Jack.
Jack would have a different view, and by the time she pulled her mom's Caddie behind Parrish AmericanClassics, her stomach was in knots and she felt physically ill.
Jack's Mustang sat in front of the house, and she parked beside it. Her black flip-flops slapped her heels as shemade her way across the yard and up the sidewalk. The house was still the same white color she rememberedfrom her childhood. The same green shutters. The same yellow roses, although they weren't as well attended asthey'd once been. Now they grew more wild, except for where someone had hacked at them next to the frontporch.
Daisy knocked on the screen door as she had a week ago and hoped Jack was alone this time. That if he hadpicked up a woman, she'd left by now.
No one answered and she stuck her head inside and called out. The hum of the air-conditioner was the onlysound filling the dark interior. She looked over her shoulder at Jack's Mustang and noticed that a light frominside the garage was on. Old elm trees towering overhead cast lacy shadows on the asphalt, and a slight breezeblew her ponytail as she moved to the back of the business. As quiet as possible, she opened the door andslipped inside. Sunlight from the windows high above her head threw rectangular patches of light on five classiccars in different stages of restoration. Some had theft engines suspended on racks, other looked to be torn downto their frames. Along the walls, and hidden in the deeper shadows of the garage, were huge pieces ofequipment, work benches, a tool chest taller than she was, and shelving that looked to hold car parts. She movedbetween a gutted Corvette and a shiny red-and-white land yacht that seemed to stretch out forever. The fourtaillights of the classic car stuck out like silver tubes of red lipstick.
She half expected to see buckets of oil and grease and metal shavings on the floor. She didn't; the garage wasvery clean and smelled like pine. It was a lot cleaner than it had been when Jack's father had been alive.
Despite the odds, Jack had made something of himself. Something better than what he'd been given. Certainlysomething more than anyone ever expected of him, and in spite of her apprehension at seeing him today, shewas proud of Jack.
She looked up at the doorway to the offices and stopped in her tracks beside the rear end of the red and whitecar. Jack stood with his arms folded across his chest, one shoulder shoved into the door jam, watching her.
"Surprise," she said, her voice a little shaky as he'd just about given her heart failure.
Flourescent lighting shone from the room behind him and made his T-shirt appear incredibly white. A scowlturned the corners of his mouth downward and a lock of dark hair fell across his forehead. "Not really. Thoseshoes you're wearing make a lot of noise."
She looked down at her red toenails then back up at him. "Are you hiding from me in here?"
He slowly shook his head. "Not hardly." He looked completely at ease, but the tension that lay between themwas anything but easy. His gaze on her was hot and intense, almost tangible as it lowered from her face to thefront of her dress. One corner of his mouth lifted.