Her toes touched the snowy peak as higher and higher she soared. Out of control like a helium balloon, up andup she went, and she was terrified because she knew there was only one outcome. She was going to fall. It wasinevitable, and it was going to hurt like hell.
Then just as she was about to break through the Earth's atmosphere, gravity sucked at her feet and yanked herback down. Down past Mount Rainier and the tops of the trees, and she knew she was going to die.
Before she hit, her eyes popped open and she realized two things at once. One, she wasn't going to go smack,and two, she was holding her breath. Morning light filtered across her bed and she let out a sigh of relief. Buther relief was short-lived as the events of the prior evening came back to her all at once.
Smack.
The humiliation she hadn't felt last night brought her fully awake like a bucket of cold water. Now in the lightof day, she recalled every excruciating detail. Jack's slick warm mouth, the feel of his bare chest and the touchof his hands on her.
She groaned and covered her face with a pillow. The memory of her legs wrapped around his waist wasespecially painful. She hadn't behaved like that since... since... since she'd pulled Jack into a closet their senioryear in high school. Back then she'd been young and naive. She was neither of those things now.
Now she was an idiot.
Last night she'd wanted to lick Jack. Today she had to tell him about Nathan. How could she look him in theeyes after she'd kissed him and touched him. "Oh God," she said as she recalled in detail her confession that shehadn't had sex in two years. How could she face him after that?
She didn't have a choice, that's how.
She tossed the pillow off her head and got out of bed. Dressed in the same shorty pajamas as in her dream, shemade her way downstairs. After Jack had left her against the wall at Slim Clem's, she'd gone back into the bar,pleaded food poisoning, and made Lily take her home. She hadn't seen Jack and, for that at least, was thankful.
Her mother sat at the breakfast nook in the kitchen wearing a pink nylon nightgown. One side of her blondcotton-candy hair looked a little flat.
Last night, Pippen had been sound asleep when Lily dropped her off, so he'd spent the night. He was in his highchair next to his grandmother, eating cereal and drinking juice from his Tommy cup. He wore his coonskin cap,his Blue's Clues jammies, and a Cheerio was stuck to his cheek. "Good morning, Mom," she greeted as shepoured herself a cup of coffee. "How's it going, Pip?"
"Watch 'toons," Pippen answered.
"You can watch cartoons after breakfast," Louella told him, then she glanced over at Daisy and used the tone ofvoice that let Daisy know she was very disappointed. "I heard what happened. Thelma Morgan called thismorning and told me everything."
Daisy felt her cheek catch fire. "Thelma Morgan saw me?" Where had she been hiding? Behind the Dumpster?
It was only eight in the morning, and the day was already shaping up to be pure hell.
"She pulled into the Minute Mart for a cup of coffee and a bear claw, and she saw the whole thing."
What? "Oh." Daisy let out a huge sigh of relief and laughed. "That."
"Yes that. What where you and Lily thinking?
Making a fuss in public?" Louella took a bite of her toast. "For cryin' all night loud in a bucket."
"We were getting a Dr. Pepper at the Minute Mart," Daisy explained and purposely left out the part about Lily'sstalking her soon to be ex. She walked across the kitchen and sat at the nook with her mother. "You-know-who," she paused and glanced at Pippen, "and Kelly pulled into the parking lot, and one thing led to another.
Then you-know-who shoved Lily"
Louella pursed her lips and set her toast back on her plate. "You should have called the police."
Probably. "I didn't think. I just saw him push her and I lost my mind. Without giving it a thought, I slugged himin the eye and kneed him between the legs." She still couldn't believe she'd behaved like that.
One corner of her mother's pursed lips turned up. "Did you damage him?"
Daisy shook her head and blew into her cup. "I don't think so."
"That seems a shame." She pushed her plate aside. "Have you seen Jack?"
Yeah, she'd seen him. His naked chest and slick abdomen. His eyes at half mast and his lips moist from kissingher, but that wasn't what her mother wanted to Wow. "I haven't told him about Nathan yet," she answered andtook a drink of her coffee. "I'm going over there this morning to talk to him."
One brow rose up Louella's forehead. "You've certainly put it off until the last moment."
"I know." She looked down at the bright yellow tabletop. "I used to be so sure I'd done the right thing. I used tobelieve that not telling Jack aboutNathan and moving to Washington had been best for everyone."
'It was."
"I'm not so sure now." She brushed her hair behind her ears and took a deep breath. "Before I came back totown, I was sure. I was sure moving away with Nathan was the best choice, even for Jack." She looked back up.
"We always meant to tell him, Mom. We wanted to give Jack a few years to get his life together, and then weplanned to tell him."
Pippen dropped his empty cup on the floor and Louella bent to pick it up. "I know you did." She set it on thetable.
"But the longer we put it off, the harder it got. Months and years passed and there was always an excuse whywe couldn't tell him right then. I was trying to get pregnant with Steven's baby or Nathan was happy and wedidn't want to disrupt his life. It was always something. Always an excuse, because how do you tell a man hehas a child he doesn't know about?" She leaned forward and crossed her forearms on the table. "Now I'm not sosure I did the right thing all those years ago. I'm beginning to think I never should have left without telling him."
"I think you're afraid and now you're questioning everything."
"Maybe."
"Daisy, you were young and scared and you made the right decision at the time."
She'd always thought that too. She didn't know anymore. The only thing she knew for certain was that she'dbeen wrong to wait so long. How was she ever to make it right?
"Jack wasn't ready to be a father," her mother insisted. "Steven was."
"You always liked Steven more than Jack."
Her mother was quiet a moment than said, "That's not really true. I just always thought Steven was the stabler ofthe two. Jack was more wild. You can't blame a person for what's in his nature, but you can't rely on him either.
Your daddy was reckless like that, and look what happened to him. To us."
"Daddy didn't die and leave us on purpose."
"No, but he did. He left me with two children, a busted-up Winnebego and three hundred dollars." Louellashook her head. "When it came to taking care of you and a baby, Steven was better prepared."
"Because his family had money."
"Money is important." She held up her hand as if Daisy were going to argue. "I know love is too. I loved yourdaddy. He loved me and he loved you girls, but love doesn't put food in your children's mouths. Love doesn'tbuy a winter coat or school shoes." Her mother reached across the table and grabbed Daisy's hand. "But even ifyou made the wrong decision all those years ago, it can't be changed now. Nathan has a good life. Steven was awonderful father. You did the best thing for your child."
Listening to her mother, made it all sound so logical. Daisy wasn't so sure anymore that the choice should havebeen left up to logic. Being young and scared explained why she hadn't told him fifteen years ago. It didn'texplain why she hadn't told him until now.
"Look at Lily," her mother said just above a whisper. "Her life was chaotic long before you-know-who finallymoved out. He was always running around on her. Always doing crazy things. She never should have marriedthat wild boy, and Pippen is paying the highest price. He doesn't talk as well as he should, and he is no wherenear ready for potty training. He's actually been back sliding in his behavior."
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.
"The garage sure is different," she said into the silence. "You should be proud of yourself, Jack."
He looked back up into her face and his arms fell to his sides. "You didn't come here to tell me that."
"No."
He pus
hed away from the doorframe and moved toward her, the thud of his boot heels a menacing echo as hestepped into a long patch of light. She grasped one red fin on the rear of the car to keep from backing away fromhim.
"I told you what would happen if you came over here today," he said.
She didn't have to ask what he was talking about. She knew, and her failing heart pounded in her throat. "I camehere just to talk."
"Then you shouldn't have worn that outfit."
She looked down at her mother's dress. "This?" She laughed despite the dog in her throat. "Jack it's ugly."
"Exactly. It needs to be taken off and burned." He stood so close that Tigger and Winnie the Pooh were almosttouching the front of his T-shirt.
She looked over his shoulder at a poster of a half-naked woman sprawled out on the hood of a beefed-up Nova.
"We should talk right now."
His fingertips touched her chin and brought her gaze back to his. "Not now." His thumb swept her jaw, and helowered his face until his nose touched hers. "Even in that stupid dress, you turn me on." Her stomach clinchedand she could hardly breathe. "You're even more beautiful than you were growing up. And you were sobeautiful back then you made me ache." His lips brushed hers, and he kissed the corner of her mouth. "Allmorning, I've been half hoping, half dreading seeing you walk through that door." His lips touched her cheek.
"You shouldn't have come back, Daisy Lee. You should have stayed gone, but you didn't. You're here and Ican't think of anything but getting inside of you. Deep inside where you're hot and wet and want me too." Thetip of his tongue touched her earlobe and her purse fell to the floor. "The first night I saw you again, I toldmyself this wasn't going to happen. But it is, Daisy."
The warmth of his breath swept the side of her neck and across her flesh. Desire tightened her nipples andpooled between her legs, and she had to stop him now, or she was a goner. "Jack listen -"
'This was inevitable the second you stepped foot in town. I'm tired of fighting it," he interrupted, as his handmoved to the side of her head, his thumb stroking her temple as if he were trying to soothe her. "Tell me youfeel it too. Tell me you want it as much as I do."
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