"What are you going to do?"
He unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it from the waistband of his pants. "Talk to Daisy."
"I thought you just said she was an evil bitch.""She is. I'm not even going to ask you if you want to be a part of Nathan's life, because I know You. I knowhow you are. I know that you're hurt and angry, and you have every damn right to feel that way. But she's hismama and she could just pack him up and take him away."For years he'd pushed it back and locked it away. He'd walled up all the pain and anger. Since Daisy had beenback, it had seeped out a little. But nothing like this morning. This morning the walls he'd built were blown allto hell.
"Jack, promise you won't go medieval?"
He wasn't promising a damn thing.
Chapter Twelve
Daisy laid Pippen on her mother's bed and partially closed the door behind her. His little world was chaotic andhe'd been so tired and cranky for the past few days. Daisy had taken him to the hospital to see Lily this morning,and he hadn't wanted to leave. He was scared and upset and had cried all the way home, finally falling asleep asthey pulled into the driveway. Her mother was still at the hospital with Lily, waiting for news from the doctorsas to when Lily might come home.
Daisy changed into her dark green tank top and khaki shorts. She swept her hair up off the back of her neck andsecured it with a big black claw. She was exhausted and in serious need of caffeine. She might have curled upbeside Pippen, but Nathan wasn't home and she didn't want to be asleep when he returned.
She moved down the stairs to the kitchen and grabbed a Coke out of the refrigerator. Nathan had stuck a note tothe refrigerator door with a little magnet in the shape of Texas. He wrote that he was out riding his skateboard.
The note didn't say when he'd be back, though. She had wanted to remind him that he needed to estimate whenhe'd be back, so she wouldn't worry so much.
This was Lovett, she reminded herself. There really wasn't that much to worry about. There weren't that manyplaces he could get into trouble, but if there was one thing she'd learned from having a boy, it was that if therewasn't trouble, they'd invent it. If there was a puddle, they'd jump in the middle of it. A rock, they'd throw it. ACoke can, they'd smash it. A bird, they'd pretend to shoot it. A handrail on a set of five or more cement steps,they'd ride it on a skateboard, fall and need stitches.
The doorbell rang as Daisy popped the top to her Coke. She took a long drink as she moved through the livingroom. A bowl of glass fruit sat on a wooden end table and she placed the can next to it. She opened the door andhalf expected to see Nathan playing a silly joke by making her answer the door. He was like that sometimes.
Wanting to be treated as an adult, yet at times acting like her little boy. But it wasn't her son.
Jack stood on her mother's porch, sunlight overhead. The shadow of his straw cowboy hat concealed the tophalf of his face. A little flutter tickled her chest and before she could think better of it, the corners of her lipsturned up. "Hey there."
"Are you alone?" he asked, and her smile fell at the flat tone in his voice and grim line of his mouth.
He knows, was her first thought, but just as quickly she dismissed the thought. He couldn't know. "Pippen's herebut he's asleep."
"Where is Nathan?"
Oh, God. The fluttering in her chest picked up a notch or two. "He's riding his skateboard."
He didn't wait for her to invite him in. "No. He's not," he said as he walked into the house, bringing with himthe scent of a warm Texas morning on his skin. He handed her Nathan's board as he passed.
She took it from him and held it against her breasts. A ribbed T-shirt hugged the muscles of Jack's arms andchest and made him appear bigger and badder than usual. "Where is he?"
He turned and looked at her for several nerve-racking moments before he said, "I don't know."
"How did you get this?"
"He came to see me this morning."
"He did?" Nathan's going to the garage wasn't a coincidence. It was a surprise, but not a real shock. Nathan wasthe kind of kid who jumped into things first and thought later. A lot like Jack had been.
"He left the board on his way out."
She didn't think that he'd said anything to Jack about being his biological child. Of course, it hadn't occurred toher that he'd ever show up at the garage on his own either. "What did he say?"
"He talked about Steven and about 'Monster Garage.'"
Maybe he doesn't know. Maybe he was being a hard-ass for a totally different reason. This was Jack, after all.
The king of hard-asses. "That's it?"
"I think he really came by to get a good look at me." He pushed up the brim of his straw hat and she got a goodlook at him. If the glittering rage in his green eyes hadn't removed all doubt about what he knew or suspected,the next words out of his mouth did. "I read Steven's letter."
Now she was shocked. "How did you get Steven's letter?"
"You left it Saturday."
Had she? She didn't remember. A lot had happened Saturday. "You just read it today?"
"I didn't want to read it at all." His voice was deadly calm when he said, "Tell me, Daisy. I want to hear you sayit. After all these years."
His veneer of calm did not fool her for a second. His anger rolled off him like heat waves rolling across asphalt.
Her speeding heart fell right to the pit of her stomach. She'd waited fifteen years for this moment. Knew it hadto happen at some point, and there was no other way to say it but, "He's your son, Jack."
His expression didn't change. "Does he know?"
"Yes. He's known most of his life."
"So, I'm the only one who wasn't told."
"Yes."
"Do you have any idea," he said in that same awful calm tone, "what I'd like to do to you?"
Yes, she had a pretty good idea. She didn't think Jack would hurt her, but she took a step back. "I was going totell you."
"Is that so?" One brow lifted up his forehead. "When?"
"The first night I saw you. I came to your house to tell you, but Gina was there. I told you I needed to speakwith you about something important. I told you that night and the night of Shay's wedding, and at the pizzaplace, and at Slims." Her face felt hot, and she took another step back and tossed the skateboard on her mother'sblue floral couch. "I came to the garage to tell you Saturday, but then ... Lily ran her car into Ronnie's livingroom. Which is why I guess I forgot all about leaving Steven's letter." She pulled the claw from the back of herhair and took a deep breath. He had a right to his anger. She should have told him years ago. She was a coward.
"That's why I'm in town. I'm here to tell you that you have a son."
His gaze locked with her. "He's fifteen."
She swept her hair back up, twisted it, and secured it once more. "Yes, he is."
"You're telling me fifteen years too goddamn late. You should have told me when you missed your first period."
He thought a moment then added, "Unless you didn't know whose it was back then."
"I knew." Now he was just being mean. "You were the first person I was ever with. How could you think such ahorrible thing?"
"Maybe because up until a few days before you married my best friend, you were having sex with me. How do Iknow that you weren't doing us both at the same time?"
"You know I wasn't. You're just being ugly now."
"You don't know ugly," he said and his temper finally rose to the surface. He took a step toward her and stareddown into her face. His eyes narrowed and the line of his jaw hardened. "You did the lowest thing a womancan do to a man. You had my child and kept him from me. I should have been there when he was born. I shouldhave been there to see hint To see him take his first steps and ride his first bike. I should have been there to hearhis first words, but I wasn't. Steven was, though. Steven got to hear him say Daddy, not me." He was deadserious when he added, "It's a good thing you're not a man, because I'd beat the hell out of you. I'd enjoy it, too."