by Kitty Parker
As he and Jack are nearing the end of their meals, Martinez's cell begins to ring and he excuses himself to go and answer it, leaving Jack and Daisy alone at the table.
"So, no idea why Dale wants to see you?" Jack asks.
Daisy shakes her head, swallowing a sip of Coke she has just taken. "It can't be to offer me a job. I waitressed here once in high school. It was a disaster. I ended up owing Dale more money than I actually made."
Jack's lips twitch in a smile at the image of that and she smiles, too.
"Sorry 'bout dinner last night. I was out and didn't get home 'til late," he tells her.
"You don't have to apologize, Jack. You have a life other than having dinner with me and Matty," she gives him a small smile and a shrug of her shoulders and Jack is almost wanting to tell her that while he may have that, it's not much of a life. Dinner with them is usually the highlight.
"You can come over for dinner tonight if you'd like," she then offers.
"Yeah," he immediately agrees. "'ll wanna hear all 'bout your meetin' today," he says and the smile she gives him is almost the old kind of smile she used to give.
He does his best to ignore the lightness in his chest that he feels just from the sight of it.
…
"Jack!" Matty exclaims as soon as he knocks on the door a little after five and the kid swings it open with a wide grin. "Mama's making lasagna!"
"That a good thing?" He asks as he steps into the apartment though it definitely smells like Daisy making lasagna is a very good thing.
"She only makes it for special reasons!" Matty continues to exclaim, brimming with excitement, and Jack is wondering if this lasagna is the best stuff in the world for the kid to be acting like this over having it for dinner tonight.
Daisy is smiling as they come into the kitchen. "He's making too big of a deal of it," she says but the smile never leaves her face as the oven timer beeps and she puts on her mitts, opening the door and pulling out what looks to be a heavy tray from the rack. There is tin foil covering it and Jack watches as she slowly peels it back, releasing warm air from within, and she reveals to him the most delicious thing he's ever seen.
His stomach grumbles on sight.
"So, the meetin' with Dale went good?" He asks as Daisy gets plates from the cabinet.
She hasn't stopped smiling, he notes.
She nods. "Very good. His niece was the one who's bridal shower I baked the cupcakes for. His wife took one home for him to try and now he wants me to bake cupcakes for the diner." Her smile is growing wider as she says all of this and Jack feels himself smiling, too.
"Congratulations," he offers, still smiling because so is she.
In fact, her smile seems to only be getting bigger.
"Thank you," she says, handing the plates to Matty to set the table. "Do you know what this means?" She then asks him, handing him three forks and three knives. "A steady paycheck."
"Guess this means 'm gonna be goin' to the diner a lot more now," Jack comments.
Daisy laughs as she carries over the pan of lasagna and sets it in the middle of the table on the hot-pad she had already set down. Her laugh really is the best thing he's ever heard.
…
And Matty's right. It's the best damn lasagna he's ever tasted.
When Daisy hands him a container of some of the leftovers, he doesn't care how eager he seems over it. She's been smiling the whole night and his reaction as she hands him the plastic container doesn't make her stop. It only makes her smile that bright beautiful smile of hers.
When he's back home, and a couple hours later, he's lying in his bed, staring up at the ceiling and wondering what it'd be like to kiss her. He wonders if it would make her smile; if she would want that from him. It's not the first time he's thought of kissing his across-the-hall neighbor but it's the first time where he finds himself really entertaining the idea of actually going through with it.
…
Stepping out of his truck, Jack crosses the apartment building's parking lot, heading towards the front doors, taking his time so he can make his cigarette last.
There's someone sitting on the porch steps – a man – and the closer he gets, he sees that it's Spencer. He's sitting there and holding a bouquet of flowers between his knees. Jack almost stops walking at the sight of him but he pushes himself forward, trying to ignore the feeling of everything freezing inside of him at the sight of the man.
Spencer lifts his head and stands up when he sees him coming. "Hey," he says.
Jack grunts something – some sort of reply – but even he's not sure what it's supposed to be. "You goin' to see Daisy?" He asks, exhaling his smoke. Instead of turning his head away whenever Daisy and Matty are near, he blows it right towards Spencer. It's petty but he wants to make his suit stink.
"Trying to. I've been sitting here for fifteen minutes, trying to figure out what to say to her," Spencer admits. He looks back to the building doors behind him and then back to Jack. "How is she doing?" He asks. "I always mean to check on her but at the hospital… she seemed pretty done with me."
Jack shrugs. He doesn't know what Daisy wants and he can't pretend that he does. "She's doin' good," he says honestly because in his opinion, she's doing real good. "Wasn' for a while but now, she's doin' good."
"I don't know if she wants to see me," Spencer says, looking down to the flowers in his hand. "You think she'd want to see me?"
Jack shrugs and exhales his smoke again. "Prob'ly not."
He actually has no idea if Daisy would want to see the pretty boy lawyer so he should feel wrong for answering for her and telling Spencer something that might not be true. Because the truth is – for him – is that he doesn't want Spencer anywhere near her again. When Spencer is around, Daisy is able to look at him and think of how different – how much better – someone like Spencer is for her rather than a guy like him.
And isn't that what Jack wants? Isn't that the reason he pushed her away in the first place? So she could go out and find a guy who is actually worthy of her?
He reminds himself all of this but it still doesn't make him tell Spencer to go up and see her.
…
When Spencer leaves, he hands the flowers to Jack. "Throw these out or whatever," the guy says as he walks to his car.
Jack stares down at the flowers and there's really only one thing to do with them now. He heads upstairs and knocks on Daisy's door. And when she answers, she gives him that small smile and without a word, he thrusts the flowers out for her to take.
Her mouth falls open, clearly surprised and having no idea what to say, and he turns without saying a word either, heading into his apartment, letting her think that he's the one who was actually thoughtful enough to get her flowers.
She's the kind of girl who should always get flowers. He needs to remember that.
…
Casey and Tana have one final barbecue before the kids start up school again and when Jack gets there, he's a couple of hours late and everything in the backyard is in full swing.
His eyes scan for Casey, expecting to see him at the grill, but instead, Adam's standing there, manning the burger patties and hot dogs and standing by his side is Daisy. The man is saying something to her and whatever it is, he says it with a grin and it makes Daisy laugh. She's actually laughing. Because of Adam. Jack honestly doesn't know how the guy doesn't have an STD for as many and different women he seems to constantly have hanging around.
And he tells himself not to. He tells himself to just head into the house and find Casey but something about the scene in front of him makes his hands curl into fists. Daisy needs to find a guy who isn't him, yes, but not Adam Hersh. He doesn't really have a problem with Adam. They get along. They're more alike than either of them would probably want to admit. But he knows what kind of guy Adam is and that's not the kind of guy that belongs with Daisy.
Before he can stop himself, he finds himself heading across the grass towards the grill.
"
Hey, Belton," Adam grins at him. "Wan' a burger?"
Daisy looks at him and smiles and she's wearing a blue dress and her hair is braided and pinned up like when she wears it like that, he admits that that's his preferred look for her. She's wearing a light coat of makeup and he can tell because he can hardly see her scar. Not that he really sees it anymore. She thinks it's terrible but in truth, he's seen a lot worse and that scar doesn't do anything to keep him from thinking how pretty she is.
"Hi," she greets him in her sweet voice.
And now that he's here, Jack has absolutely no idea what to do. He's acting like some jealous boyfriend and what the hell right does he have, ever acting like that around her?
Snap out of it, Belton! He yells at himself and he tries to imagine things Cletus would be shouting at him right now.
"Yeah. Burger," he finally grunts.
"Got one jus' 'bout burned for you," Adam grins and he grabs a plate, flipping the patty onto it and then handing it out for Jack to take.
Jack is looking at Daisy and he can't stop and Daisy is looking at him, too.
"How was work?" She then asks, clearly trying to break the silence between them.
"Was fine," he answers but he still doesn't know what the hell is going on.
Why the hell is he feeling so jealous? He doesn't get jealous but then he met Daisy and it seems like all he is anymore is jealous. This girl does nothing but twist him up inside and it pisses him off because she doesn't even know she's doing it. It's not like she's being vindictive or trying to make him jealous. With the way he's treated her in the past, she probably thinks there's nothing she could ever do that would make him jealous.
The corner of his eye catches Adam and Adam is just standing there, grinning. Grinning like an absolute idiot and Jack knows why. Adam knows. He knows Jack's jealous over the fact that Daisy is standing with him and laughing with him and Jack just wants to growl and walk away and be done with this whole damn thing.
Adam knows but Daisy has no clue.
And he's both angry and relieved at that at the same time. It's not as if he wants her to know that he's jealous because she's laughing with some guy but he almost does because maybe if she knows he's jealous, she'll… she'll what? Declare her love for him and tell him that she wants to be with him and only him? And then what? He starts dating her and have her kid start calling him daddy?
He immediately hates himself for those thoughts. Matty's a really cool kid and he really likes him and it's obvious that the kid has no relationship with his own dad so would it be the worst thing in the world if Matty started to look at him like that?
He almost sighs heavily. There's so many thoughts going on in his head right now and all he wanted was to come over to Casey's for some food and some beer.
He grunts something then. He's not even sure what. Maybe a parting. And without another word or look towards Daisy, he turns and walks away, heading to go get a bun and then a bottle of beer and he scopes out the backyard, trying to decide where he can sit where Daisy Greene won't be in his line of sight.
…
"You're afraid of her," Casey says later, looking rather gleeful, and Jack just looks at him, chewing on a potato chip and wonder how much trouble he would get for punching the man. Yes, Casey's a Sheriff but he's off duty right now.
"I ain't afraid of nothin'," Jack says, bored, and it's the truth. Nothing in this world scares him. Except for Daisy. And damn it, now Casey and Adam know it, too, and it just makes him take another potato chip and bite down on it, grinding it between his teeth, his jaw tensing.
Casey's eyes lose some of their amusement, taking in Jack's reaction. "It's alright to like her," he then tells him.
Jack just smirks and shakes his head. "No, it ain't," he says and why is he the only one who gets this? Sardines and peanut butter. That's all he and Daisy are. Friends who can't be anything more because they don't belong together like that.
"And just because she was laughing with Adam doesn't mean she's with him," Casey continues and Jack's very aware that the man is watching him closely as if he's got him in an interrogation room or something.
Jack frowns at him. "I know that. What the hell? Just 'cause a girl smiles at a guy doesn' mean they're engaged or the girl owes him somethin'."
Casey smiles a little. "I sometimes forget how evolved you are than what people expect."
Jack snorts at that and doesn't say anything else as he pops another chip into his mouth. He knows Daisy is at one of the tables, talking with Tana. He knows exactly where she is. And that makes it easier for him to keep his eyes from going in that direction.
…
When he's leaving a couple of hours later, he finds himself finally looking towards Daisy. She's standing near the playground set where Matty has been the whole time Jack's been here. Jack sees him now, propelling himself across the monkey bars, and he can't stop himself from heading across the yard to stand beside Daisy.
Sensing his presence, she turns to see who it is and is visibly surprised to see it's him.
"You walk here?" Jack asks even though he already knows the answer. Daisy doesn't drive anywhere anymore unless it's absolutely necessary.
"It's a really nice walk," she answers.
Jack's not sure why but her answer makes him want to smile. He's able to control himself but he does feel his lips twitching. And they've been spending enough time together lately for Daisy to know that that's his definition of a smile and seeing his lips twitch now, she smiles, too, looking at him for another moment before her eyes float back to Matty.
"Want a ride home?" He then asks.
She turns her head and tilts it up towards him and her smile is the only answer he needs.
And that's what Daisy does. She smiles. She smiles at everyone and just because she smiles at someone of the opposite sex, that's not grounds for him to get jealous. He doesn't own her. People don't own people. And she owes him absolutely nothing so even if her smiling at Adam did mean something, it wouldn't be able to mean anything to Jack.
He just hopes Daisy is smart enough to know that wanting something serious with Adam is more of a dead end than wanting anything with him. But she is smart enough because there's no way she's interested in Adam and she seems to no longer be interested in him either. And Jack tells himself that he's relieved with that.
…
She's been dreading that piece of blue paper. She knows exactly what it is even though she's never had any experience with it. She thinks that every parent in their town knows what that piece of blue paper is whether they've ever actually seen it or not.
After he finishes his first week of first grade, Matty runs out of the school and Daisy is waiting for him by the bike rack and she sees the blue paper in his hand. He's beaming by the time he reaches her and without a word, he holds the blue piece of paper out for her to take. Daisy does so – almost reluctantly because she doesn't know if she wants to see this.
"I'm six now," Matty informs her with a grin and that's all he has to say.
He's six, holding a piece of blue paper, and in their town, those things only mean one thing.
He's old enough now for youth football league.
…
Shawn doesn't see the big deal and fully supports his nephew playing in youth league but that's because he's Shawn Greene and his name is still hanging in their high school for records he set on the football field that haven't been broken yet. And Daisy knows that their family is a football family because of that but she remembers the way her mom had cringed through most of the games, wincing with each tackle and crash of bodies and she usually stood in the stands, watching the games with her fingers crossed the whole time that Shawn was playing, hoping he would walk off the field, unscathed.
Football is sacred in the south and Daisy supposes, in the back of her mind, that Matty wanting to play football has always been a strong possibility and in a way, she should have just always been expecting that.
"Did you ever play?" D
aisy asks Jack when he's over for dinner and she's asking not because she needs help making her decision but because she is just genuinely curious. She wishes she knew so much more about this man than she actually does.
"Nah," Jack shakes his head. "Never really interested in it and no town would want a Belton on their team even if I was."
That's all he says and it doesn't explain anything whatsoever but she doesn't ask anything else. She continues loading the dishwasher with the dirty dinner plates and cooking pots and she can hear Matty in the living room, talking with Morris and he explains the plot to The Land Before Time that he is watching on the television. And he sounds like such a little boy and that's what he is. He's only six. How can she put pads on him and watch him slam into people and get slammed?
He's still her little boy.
"'s jus' football," Jack says, obviously able to read her mind.
She smiles a little. "Not if you're a Greene male."
She puts in a soap tablet and then closes the dishwasher, locking the door and starting the cycle. She then goes to the freezer and pulls out a box of ice cream sandwiches. She pulls one out and holds it out to Jack, who takes it after a moment with a smirk. She leaves the kitchen and gives one to Matty, who grins up at her, and she can't stop herself from leaning down and kissing him on the head before going back into the kitchen.
She looks at Jack as he leans against the counter, eating his ice cream sandwich, and she takes one for herself before putting the box back into the freezer.
This man used to give her such butterflies and for a while, she had been able to get them to stop. She had been able to pull herself away from him and convince herself to just try and forget him. She thinks of the kiss in the hospital on the night Matty got sick and when she saw him coming down the stairs in the morning with Carolina or Carolina coming over to her apartment in the morning, wearing his tee-shirt and asking for butter because he said that she should have some. She thinks of all of the ways he's ignored her or hurt her and trying to forget him just seemed like the best thing to do.
