by Kitty Parker
He almost shakes his head at the mental image.
He needs to get the hell out of there.
"Would you like to come over for dinner again?" Daisy asks before he can make his great escape. He's half-turned away from her and he dares to glance at her. She's still smiling but it's a small one. A shy one. Just like the smile she had given after kissing his cheek. "It can be tonight or any night you're free. I try to cook dinner for me and Matty every night."
Of course she does. Jack almost wants to snort at that. Who the hell is this girl? Jack swears she has to be Betty Crocker reincarnated or something like that because she's just too damn perfect. Who the hell is this girl?
"You don't gotta feed me," he says and he's frowning but he's not entirely too sure why.
"I don't mind," Daisy shakes her head. "It's nice to have someone over for dinner."
Yeah, it was real nice eating dinner with them, too. An actual dinner at a kitchen table. He's pretty sure that he had never had that in his entire life. But even though he had done it once, that doesn't mean that he would want to do it again. He can't. He's just not the kind of guy to go over to a pretty girl's place and eat dinner with her and her kid.
Maybe if he was someone else. Maybe if he had grown up any other way than the way he did. Maybe, then, he would be the kind of guy for that. But he's not and that's the way it is.
"I'll let you know," he grunts noncommittally, having no plan on doing anything of the kind.
…
"No!" He steps into the apartment building lobby and hears the shout from the second floor. It's a kid shouting it and he knows that it's Matty without seeing.
"Matty, stop." And then there's Daisy voice, gentle yet firm and sounding watery as if she's upset with her son throwing a fit.
"I don't wanna go!" He shouts.
"Daisy, I have Alicia waiting in the car. We have to go." A male voice this time and Jack pauses at the bottom of the stairs. He wonders if he should get up there.
"No! Mama!" Matty shouts again.
"Matty, you have to go with your daddy. It's his weekend," Daisy is saying. "Go, Jimmy."
Jack sees a young man appear at the top of the stairs with a bag slung onto his shoulder and Matty in his arms. Jack is surprised the man can hold up the kid with those skinny arms. The whole of the man is skinny. Long arms and legs and a baby face and Jack wonders how this kid can be Matty's dad because it looks like he's never left puberty.
Matty is crying in his arms and Daisy comes to stand at the top of the stairs, her own eyes wet as she watches the man – Jimmy – come down the stairs. Jack steps aside so he can pass and Matty doesn't even notice him, crying with his face buried in his dad's shoulder. He watches them walk out and then his eyes move up the stairs to Daisy.
Her eyes meet his for just a second before she turns and a moment later, he hears the door of her apartment close. Jack's not too sure what to do but then he reminds himself that he doesn't have to do anything. It has absolutely nothing to do with him. They're just his across the hall neighbors. Not much more than that.
…
Martinez has given him Saturday off and it's a shitty day out – cold and rainy – so Jack knows that getting any hunting time in isn't going to happen. So instead, he stays inside, trying to get his apartment as clean as he had seen Daisy's. He doesn't see Daisy all day. The walls are kind of thin so he can hear when someone opens or closes their door and he doesn't want to but he finally admits to himself that he's listening for her.
For dinner that night, he orders himself a pizza and as soon as it's delivered and the delivery guy has his money and tip and is heading down the stairs again, Jack takes a deep breath and cross the hallway to door number seven. He knocks quickly and then waits.
He's not sure how long he waits and he almost knocks again but then he hears the turn of the lock and Daisy opens the door. He's not sure what he was expecting. He was expecting her to look like a mess – red eyes and tear-stained cheeks and disastrous hair. But instead, she looks fresh and pretty like she always does. But her smile is small.
"Hi," she says in a soft voice.
"Hey," he grunts. "Got some pizza. Was wonderin' if you wanted to eat dinner wit' me."
Her face melts into a bigger smile then. "That's really sweet," she comments and he feels the back of his neck flush again. "My place or…"
Jack looks over his shoulder back at his place. He doesn't know why but he feels embarrassed at the idea of her seeing his apartment. It's nothing like hers. All bright and clean and smelling sweet.
"Might be easier if we go in yours. If that's a'right with you," he adds quickly. "My place…" he swallows then. "It's not fit for company."
Daisy just smiles though. "I'm sure there's nothing wrong with your place," she tells him but she steps back and opens the door wider for him to enter. Even on a rainy, shitty day like this, her apartment just seems so much brighter than his.
He sets the box on the kitchen counter and Daisy goes to the cabinet to get them plates and napkins. She had been cleaning, too, and none of Matty's toys are out on the floor.
"He see his dad a lot?" Jack hears himself ask even when he reminds himself that it's none of his damn business and he doesn't care.
But he watches Daisy closely as she turns back towards him, handing him one of the plates.
"One weekend a month," Daisy answers. "Or really, whenever Jimmy feels like it." She then shakes her head. "Jimmy's not a bad dad," she's then quick to say though from what little she has just told him, the guy doesn't sound like he's a great one either. Daisy then shrugs. "We were just so young, you know? Jimmy just never got the hang of it like I did."
"Hmmm," Jack says but that's all he says because that's not an excuse. Pretty weak-ass excuse if you ask Jack. Daisy had been young, too, and she had been the one to actually give birth to the kid. And she seems like she's an amazing mom.
Not your business, Jack's thought echoes in his mind.
The pizza is sausage and green pepper – his favorite – and he almost asks if Daisy likes it but then he sees her smile and he figures she must. She puts a large triangle slice on her plate and instead of sitting at the table, she goes into the living room and sits on the couch. Jack follows her, wondering if he should take off his shoes or something, but she doesn't stop and tell him to, so he doesn't.
He sits down on the couch, placing himself down on the end, a cushion between them. He sees there's a program on the television, paused in mid-scene. He takes a bite of his pizza slice and Daisy picks up the remote, pressing play, beginning the show once more. She brings her legs up and tucks them underneath herself and Jack tries not to notice that her toenails are painted a dark color.
He has no idea what he's watching – some calm cooking show with contestants and challenges and baking and everyone is British. When one episode ends, the next begins and he sees the title card. Great Britain Bake Off. He's never heard of it but that's not a surprise. Unless it's a show on cars or some sort of wildlife, he doesn't watch it.
But he finds himself watching this baking show with Daisy, eating pizza as he sits on her couch, and they don't talk but he can't imagine himself having a more relaxing night.
…
"I know why you came over here tonight," Daisy says as they stand at the door and she has handed him a container with the leftover pizza in it. He had tried to leave it for her but she had just smiled and shook her head and said that it was his pizza since he bought it.
Jack looks at her. "Why'd I come over here?" He asks, playing stupid.
But Daisy won't let him. She just smiles and shakes her head and then stands on her toes, kissing his cheek with more confidence this time than when she did the first time. "Thank you," she then says to him in a soft voice that almost damn near makes him shiver.
Now he can feel both of his damn cheeks tingling.
…
The rain stops early Sunday morning and Jack is grateful for it, planning on getting a few hours of hunting in. An
d just as he's leaving his apartment, his crossbow slung across his back, Jimmy is dropping Matty off. Daisy and Matty act as if they've been apart for years, the little kid clinging his arms around her neck and holding her tight and Daisy peppers his head with kisses, all the while telling him how much she missed him.
And the scene is all just a little ridiculous but Jack can't help but smile to himself as he heads down the stairs.
…
He has no idea what he's doing here but it's too late to leave now. Matty's here and he's met Daisy's mom and dad and her older brother, too. Her sister was supposed to come, too, but there had been some last minute emergency at work so now, it's just Daisy's brother-in-law.
Daisy has invited him in a roundabout way and Jack still can't figure out why the hell he had ever said anything that sounded like an agreement to coming to this thing. But he had and he isn't the kind of guy who goes back on his word once he makes it.
The Christmas cupcake baking contest takes place in the Peachton Christmas Carnival – under one of the tents where there are ten contestants, standing behind the two dozen cupcakes they made – all decorated for the holidays – and two judges and the audience watching with soft murmurs as the judges take a bite of every cupcake on that table.
Matty is on her brother's shoulder and Shawn has told him more than once to quit pulling his hair but his tone has no bite in it and he squeezes Matty's ankles, telling him that he's a little nervous, too.
Jack has found himself standing next to her dad, Johnathan, though he's pretty sure that the man did that on purpose, wanting to size up the fella who came to support his daughter. Jack supposes he can't blame the man for being a little overprotective. It makes sense after Daisy getting pregnant at seventeen and all. Jack's almost tempted to tell the man that he has no interest in impregnating Daisy but he figures that won't do him any favors.
"Why are they taking such a darn long time?" Annette asks in a hushed whispers, her hands clasped so tightly together, her knuckles are practically white.
"They just want to be thorough," Johnathan explains diplomatically to his wife. "They can't give that much money to someone who hasn't earned it."
"Jack, can you see my mama?" Matty hisses to him and he seems to be truly concerned that the tall man can't see over the other heads of the people in the tent.
"Yeah, I see her," Jack gives his head a nod. In fact, he hasn't really looked at anything else since getting there.
She is standing behind her cupcakes at the table, her hands clasped in front of her, a festive apron of gingerbread men tied around herself and he can see from where he's standing just how nervous she is. Jack wishes the judges would just hurry and make their decision. He can't believe how nerve-wracking a cupcake contest can be because the longer he looks at the Daisy, he begins to start feeling a little nervous, too.
"What are they gonna do with all of those cupcakes when they're done judging?" Nathaniel, the brother-in-law, asks thoughtfully and is promptly hushed by both Annette and Matty.
Jack almost smirks. It doesn't surprise him at all that Daisy comes from a family like this. A kind family who clearly supports one another. Jack's heard of families like this. He's just never really witnessed one for himself.
"Ladies and gentlemen," one of the judges speaks into a microphone, tapping it a few times and everyone cringes as it screeches throughout the tent. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have come to a decision. Third place, for a prize of $2500, with her cinnamon gingerbread and red velvet cupcakes, please help me congratulate Tonya Macon."
Jack doesn't clap along with everyone else. His arms remain crossed over his chest and he can't take his eyes off of Daisy. He finds himself hoping – actually hoping – that she wins something. She's too good of a person to not win anything. Aren't good people supposed to be rewarded in this life?
"In second place, for a prize of $5000, with her chocolate peppermint and banana peanut butter cupcakes, please help me congratulate Daisy Greene."
And that's all Jack hears because there is an explosion of cheers – mostly from her family – and Jack finds himself smiling and clapping, too, and he watches as Daisy, smiling and laughing, steps around the table to collect the check, shake hands with the judges and get her picture taken.
After that, he doesn't hear who wins the grand prize. It really doesn't matter. Daisy hurries over to them and to show them the check and Matty practically throws himself from Shawn's shoulders into her arms. Everyone is hugging her and kissing her head and telling her how proud of her they are. Jack hangs back, not too sure what to do. He still doesn't even really know what he's doing there.
But then Daisy turns her head and looks right at him and gives him that smile of hers.
Yeah… real big mystery as to what he's doing here.
…
He goes home after declining the Greene family's invitation to celebrate with them. He figures the less time he has to spend with them, the better, because they've just met him and they're too damn friendly to him already. What do they know about him? Nothing. Not even Daisy knows that much about him. And they all make him uncomfortable with how willing they are to let him into their lives.
Later that evening, he hears a knock on his door and he takes a peek through the peephole, not really surprised to see that Daisy is standing there, a small box in her hands. She waits a moment and knocks again and Jack holds his breath in case she knows he's standing on the other side of the door, watching her, not answering for her.
After another moment, he watches as she places the box down and turns, going back into her apartment. Jack doesn't open his door for another hour and when he does, he does as quickly as he can, picking up the box and pulling it inside. Setting it on the kitchen counter, he flips the lid open, revealing her two cupcakes from the contest that afternoon, one decorated with green icing and sprinkles to look like a Christmas tree and the other decorated with red and white icing to look like Santa's hat. And there is a note, too.
I can't tell you how much it meant to me that you were there today. Thank you. Love Daisy
Jack reads the card twice through with his eyes focused on one word.
Love.
And he's not sure why – or maybe he knows exactly why – but he takes the note, crumples it in his fist and tosses it into the trash.
He does eat the cupcakes though. Both of them. And they're the best cupcakes he's ever had. In fact, they might be his first cupcakes ever. They're worth $10,000 to him.
…
He wonders where Cletus is and finds himself missing him. He wonders when he'll show up again because even though Jack usually dreads when his brother pops into his life again, this time he needs him to. This time, Jack needs the distraction.
Cletus used to hook up with women who had had kids before but he always made sure it was a one-time thing before he moved on, not getting with them again.
"All those women, they're after jus' one thing, baby brother," Cletus would tell him with a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other. "A daddy for their kid. And I ain't lookin' to be a daddy to any kin who ain't mine by blood."
And Jack had always nodded his head because he usually did when Cletus said something whether he agreed with it or not. And about that, he didn't know if he agreed or not. He had never had any experience with it before.
But now, there's Daisy and she's a single mom and she's so nice to him all of the time.
And he hears Cletus's words echoing in his ears.
Is that what Daisy is doing? Is she just looking for a daddy for her son? He tries to shake his head; to tell himself that Daisy's not like that.
But just like she doesn't know that much about him, he supposes that he doesn't know that much about her either because he's having these thoughts and he's beginning to think they're not that far-fetched and maybe that's exactly what Daisy's doing.
…
Daisy hasn't seen him in a few days but she's telling herself that she doesn't care. Why should she
care? It doesn't matter. They had spent some time together but they are nothing. Just across the hall neighbors. She can't miss him when she doesn't even know him. She tells herself this every time she leaves her apartment and hopes he's leaving, too, or coming home and they are able to have a brief interaction in the hallway.
But it doesn't happen and Daisy tells herself to just forget it. It's not important anyway. She'll run into him eventually and she has more important things to see to right now.
Christmas is coming and she always tries to give Matty the best Christmases she can.
"Thank you for meeting me," she says with a small, polite smile.
Jimmy smiles as he settles himself down in the chair across the table from her. "You don't have to sound so polite, Daisy," he says and she laughs a little, her cheeks blushing with embarrassment. "What's up?" He asks as he opens the restaurant's menu.
"I wanted to talk with you about Matty's Christmas present this year," she says as she also opens her menu but she doesn't look down at it.
"What did you have in mind?" He asks.
"Well, he keeps talking about this Little Tikes Cozy Truck," she says. "It's about ninety dollars and I think I'm going to get that for him."
"That'll work in your apartment?" Jimmy asks, lifting his eyes to look at her.
Daisy shrugs. "We'll make it work. He really wants it." She picks up her water glass and takes a sip. "Do you have any idea what you're going to get him this year?"
And like every other year, Jimmy shakes his head.
Daisy meant what she said to Jack. Jimmy isn't a bad father necessarily. He just struggles because he doesn't get that much experience. He tries to take Matty as often as he can but unfortunately, he married a woman who isn't interested in playing stepmom and she doesn't like Jimmy with a son who's not theirs. Daisy, at first, had been so angry. He was choosing a woman over his own son but after cooling down, she let the anger pass. It was Jimmy's choice. She couldn't force him to be a father and they were both so young when she got pregnant and Matty was born.
Jimmy had never bonded with Matty. He had volunteered to skip college, to stay behind and help, but Daisy had told him that he didn't have to. She knew how hard he had worked to get into school and she didn't want him to give that up. She was determined to not let this baby ruin the rest of their lives.
