by Kitty Parker
A little while later, after taking a shower and changing into fresh jeans and a tee-shirt, there's a knock on his door and he knows it's Matty before answering because it's a little lower on the door than someone else knocking.
"What's up, kid?" Jack asks once he opens the door.
Matty grins up at him. "Mama's making French toast for breakfast. Want some?"
Jack smirks and steps out into the hall, closing his apartment door. "Your mama's gonna make us both fat," he comments.
Matty just keeps grinning though. "I'll run it off," he says as if the kid ever has to worry about getting too fat.
Jack can't help but rub a hand over his stomach, trying to see if it's a little more pudgy.
…
It's Matty's birthday and the kid is seven and the party is at the farm again. This year, there's no question as to whether Jack is welcome or not. The theme, of course, is football and all of the Gators are invited and as if they don't play enough football, the kids start playing a game, separating into two teams, pulling Shawn and Nathaniel in with them even though Nathaniel is a little bit of a clumsy guy, he's still fast as hell and he winds up being the running back for the other team.
Daisy's makes cupcakes and has them decorated as little football players and Johnathan's grilled hamburgers and hotdogs for everyone and Jack helps with anything that needs to be done. The kid gets a lot of presents and they're not all football related – which is actually surprising to Jack – but the kid still loves dinosaurs and trains and he gets all sorts of stuff.
He opens Jack's present last. He doesn't know why he and Daisy like to save his present but they do and it's nerve-wracking because he puts so much time and thought into things he buys these two but they're still not good enough. He doesn't think whatever he gets them is ever really that special.
Matty rips away the paper and lifts the lid of the thin box. He gasps when he sees what it is because the kid is only seven but he already knows. It's a Cleveland Browns #32 jersey. Jim Brown – the greatest running back and one of the greatest players in NFL history. And Jack looks at Daisy and Daisy knows what it means, too, because she's smiling and there are tears in her eyes and Matty immediately tugs the jersey on over his head. It's way too big and hangs down past his knees but he just grins and all his friends are crowding around him to get a better look.
"Jack!" Matty breaks away from them and runs towards him. "Thank you, thank you!" The kid shouts over and over again and throws himself against Jack, hugging him from around the waist, and Jack smiles a little and wraps an arm around him in return.
Jack's not prepared to tell them how much time he spent into looking for the perfect present or how he, Casey and Adam had all driven into Atlanta to some sports store that Adam knew about to buy the jersey once Jack had gotten over the price sticker.
Johnathan claps a hand on his back and Annette is smiling at him, too, and then Daisy's there and without a word, she stands on her toes and puts her arms around his neck and hugs him as tight as she can. And Matty's still there, hugging him, and now Daisy is hugging him, too, and Jack finds himself hugging both of them.
He has no idea what's going on or if this is even really happening and he can hardly believe that this is even his life but he keeps hugging them and hopes this doesn't stop right now.
…
Despite how close he is to Daisy and Matty – and how close he seems to just keep getting to them with each passing day – Jack still likes to be by himself. It's just who he is. So every Sunday morning – when they're at church and before he goes off to visit Cletus – he takes his crossbow and goes off into the woods. He doesn't want to get lazy. He's serious about Daisy's cooking and baking making him feel like a tub. And he doesn't want to let his skills slip. He's a damn good hunter and tracker and he's going to stay that way.
He'll walk in the woods for hours – until the sun overhead is telling him that it's noon and he needs to start heading over to the penitentiary a couple of hours away for his visit. He'll hold his crossbow and sometimes, he'll hunt and sometimes, he'll just track without taking a shot. He looks at the changing leaves and feels the bite of winter coming in on the wind and it's so quiet out here, he loves being with Daisy and Matty but he loves this quiet, too.
Sometimes, he'll bring back a rabbit or a deer and he'll bring it back to the Ames' house where Casey has no problem with him using the backyard to cut up and clean the animals.
He likes taking the meat home to Daisy. Likes the way she smiles as if he's just handed her a diamond crown and she'll soon be on her laptop, researching recipes though Jack's never done anything with the meat except fry it up and he tells her that. And sometimes, she'll do just that but sometimes, she'll add onions and mushrooms to the deer meat and he'll tell her it's the best damn thing he's ever eaten and it's always the truth.
…
She decides on Daisy's Bakery.
And as soon as she does, Jack goes to the hardware store to buy everything he needs. Daisy's been spending her days, cleaning and purchasing materials and going down to the town hall for licenses and permits and this sign is really the last thing she needs before she can open the next week like she's been planning.
Casey lets him use the garage. The man has every tool Jack needs – and Jack's not too sure why he does because Casey's not exactly the handy sort of guy but he'll never tell the man that. He spends his entire Saturday there – only taking a break to go to Matty's football game before coming back. Tana gives him glasses of iced tea and sandwiches and she smiles every time she comes out into the garage to see his progress.
"This is so perfect, Jack," Tana says as she looks over what he has so far and then she takes a sip of her iced tea. "She's going to love it."
Jack takes a step back and looks at the sign himself when he sips his own iced tea. "Yeah?" He asks because it's important that Daisy does. This is for her very own cupcake store. He's known her for a year and she's been talking about it since then and dreaming about it since long before then. This is what she's been working towards forever. This has to be perfect.
Tana smiles and nods. "Definitely. It's perfect," she says again, still staring at it.
It is just a simple rectangular sign and from the wood, he has carved out Daisy's Bakery. He has gotten a stencil of a cupcake with a cherry on top and has spent the past two hours carving it to perfection between Daisy and Bakery. He still has to sand it and paint it and get it carefully to the store. Adam is going to be helping him with the lights and even though Casey has no idea what he's doing, he's going to help out, too.
Jack lets out a breath. "I jus' wan' it to be perfect for her, you know?" He looks to Tana and she looks at him, giving him a soft smile.
She reaches out and puts a hand on his back. "I know," she assures him and then after kissing his cheek, she heads back into the house.
…
It's not really a surprise that Daisy loves it but it's still a relief to him.
He gets it over to the store in the back of his pickup truck and Daisy is inside, finishing the painting job she had started that afternoon, and with the help of Adam and Casey, they get the sign mounted above the awning that hangs over the front door. He then rigs up the two lights, pointing them at the sign and he and Adam wire them and Casey stands on the ground, ready to flip the switch when they give him the word.
Daisy comes out and she stands on the sidewalk, looking up at them.
"A'right, Casey!" Adam calls down to him and from inside the store, Casey flips the switch.
The lights come on and the sign is lit and Daisy gasps as soon as she sees it. Jack and Adam carefully climb down and Jack comes to look at Daisy. She's still standing there, staring up at the sign and Jack can see the tears pooling in her eyes. He knows she loves it. She doesn't have to tell him but it's still important for him to hear. He works hard on cars and works hard at hunting but he's never worked this hard on something like this for someone.
And this isn't just someo
ne. This is Daisy and damn it, he knows he'd probably do any damn thing this girl wants him to do for her.
"So, you like it?" Jack grunts, wiping his hands on the red bandana from his back pocket.
"Jack, it's…" she tries to say but her voice is watery and she can barely get the words out. She shakes her head rapidly and then she looks at him. "You made me a sign," she then states and then she shakes her head again and the first tears start streaming down her cheeks. Jack doesn't hesitate in reaching his hand out and brushing his thumb across her cheek, wiping the tears away. She sniffles. "I love you so much," she says and she turns her head and tilts it back up towards the sign, staring at it.
But Jack just keeps looking at her.
…
He spends the night almost every night now. He eats dinner with them and then Matty and Daisy go to football practice and he comes back over when Matty is in bed and he and Daisy are reading a story before he goes to sleep. The kid has a Roald Dahl set and after finishing with The Witches, they've started reading The Twits, another totally fucked up book in Jack's opinion but he sits on the couch and listens as Matty reads from it.
And then once he's asleep, Daisy comes out to the living room and she always smiles at him as if she has had no idea that he'd be there. They sit on the couch and watch television and Jack is pretty happy just having her there in his arms and smelling her hair. And then they're in bed and she's back in his arms and he's smelling her hair again.
"Your bed is so damn soft," he mutters one night as he's just about to drift off.
Daisy laughs softly. "My bed is one of my favorite places in the world."
"Can see why," his arms tighten around her a little bit more. "Feel like I could stay in here for days."
"With me?" She asks and his eyes are closed but he can hear the smile in her tone.
"Course with you. Not lookin' to be sharin' a bed with anyone else."
She doesn't say anything to that but she moves closer to him and he feels her nose brush against his jaw. "I think you should do something," she whispers.
"Wha'?" He grunts and finally cracks an eye open to look at her.
Daisy smiles faintly and she doesn't say anything. She keeps staring at him and in the darkness of the bedroom, Jack can see the blush of her cheeks and she doesn't say anything but he knows. At least he thinks he knows. He's not going to make a move though. He meant what he swore to himself. He's not going to make a move until she looks him right in the eye and tells him that she wants him to.
She smiles faintly. "I think you should stay through the alarm."
He stares at her. That definitely isn't what he has been expecting her to say and he's suddenly so relieved that he didn't even think about making a move on her.
"I think you should stay here and be here so Matty can see you in the morning." Jack keeps staring at her and in the darkness, her blush darkens. "I just think it's the next step."
"Next step?" He echoes gruffly.
"Yes. I just think that you're here every night and it's not like we're doing anything. So when Matty asks what you're doing here, we can honestly say that you're just sleeping over," she explains and he's very aware of her finger drawing random patterns on his chest.
Jack is quiet for a moment, thinking that through though he guesses that there isn't much to think through. It's definitely getting harder for him each morning to pull himself out of this bed and not just because it's soft and warm. It's getting harder to pull himself away from Daisy and he wants to tell her that but he's never said anything like that before and he can't even think of words to say something like that.
"Do you mind? If Matty sees you here tomorrow morning?" She asks, shifting a little closer to him. "If you're not comfortable with it, I don't want to force you-"
"You ain't," Jack cuts her off. "If you want the kid to see me here tomorrow morning, he can see me."
"But what do you want?" Daisy asks, watching him closely.
He swallows because his throat is feeling too dry. He's feeling too hot all of a sudden and he wonders if it's the goose-down comforter or Daisy's body being so close to his that is making his body temperature spike.
He finally nods. "Yeah. Matty can see me here tomorrow. Pro'bly gonna be seein' me here eventually," he then adds and that seems to be exactly what Daisy has been wanting to hear – though he doesn't know why – because she bursts into a smile so bright, it lights the bedroom and she pushes herself forward, pressing her lips against his.
…
She doesn't know why she's feeling nervous. There's absolutely no reason to feel that way. Matty has already seen them kiss and has seemed perfectly fine with that. He smiled when he saw it and that night, as Daisy tucked him into bed, he had asked if she and Jack were dating now. She had smiled and said yes – even though she supposes that technically they haven't been on an actual date yet – and Matty had smiled at that in return.
There's no reason to be nervous this morning. It's just any other morning. She just doesn't set the alarm clock and when she wakes up at six, Jack is still there.
She knows it sounds ridiculous because it's only been a week but she's not sure how she ever slept without Jack in her bed with her. No matter how many blankets she had on the bed with her, she always felt so cold and would oftentimes wake up in the morning, curled into a little ball. But now, she has her own personal furnace in the form of this man. And she really loves when she wakes up to find that they're touching in some way. Her head on his arm or his chest or his body right up against hers and his arm over her hip.
That way's a little torturous as well though because she can feel his morning erection pressing into her butt and she has to bite her lip because she wonders when he'll make a move. She still has the most vivid dreams about him and her together but she can't bring herself to make a move. She doesn't even know how to do such a thing and she looks at Jack and he just doesn't seem interested in that at all. He seems perfectly fine with just kissing and sleeping and doing nothing else.
And then, of course, her mind will wander off to why he doesn't seem to want more with her. He doesn't seem to have a problem with sleeping with women if Carolina is any indication. He just doesn't want to sleep with her and there must be a reason why he won't even hint to her that he wants to make a move.
Daisy thinks that if Jack is to ever make a move, she'd be ready to have more with him.
When the alarm goes off at six as it does every morning, Jack is still there except the blaring from the clock instantly wakes him up. He's on his back and his eyes snap open and Daisy's hand is quick to turn the awful sound off. She then looks at him for a moment and she can't help but feel so happy already because he's still there and Matty will see him and it may not seem like it but this is such a huge moment for all of them.
"Want coffee?" She asks him quietly, her voice still tired.
And he doesn't say anything – just nods and yawns – and she smiles.
She pulls herself from the bed and tugs on a pair of pajama pants – because even though she gets cold at night, she can't seem to sleep with anything around her legs – and opens the bedroom door just as Jack is sitting up in bed and Matty is coming out of his room, rubbing a hand over his eye.
All three of them stop and stare at one another for a passing second.
Daisy gains herself first. "Matty, Jack spent the night here last night," she tells her son, knowing that the best way to talk with him is just to be completely straightforward and honest. Her son may be young but there's no reason to beat around the bush.
Matty frowns a little. "How come?" He asks.
"Your mama's bed is a lot more comfy than mine," Jack speaks in that rough voice of his that she knows by now isn't actually rough at all. It can make her shiver with pleasure.
Daisy looks to Matty to see what the little boy thinks of that statement and Matty clearly seems to be thinking it through. He then nods and lets out a small yawn.
"It is a really comfy bed," he agre
es and then turns and goes into the bathroom.
Daisy lets out a little breath of relief and she turns her head to smile at Jack, finding that he's already smiling a little himself.
…
She thinks she's going to be sick but she swallows it down and guzzles water and tells herself that throwing up right now is not the way she wants to open for the first time.
She has a chalkboard sign on the sidewalk outside that her mom has tied balloons to that says that Daisy's Bakery is now open. The windows are clean, the walls are freshly painted, the cash register has plenty of change in it and the case is filled with freshly baked cupcakes. She's ready. She's done everything she can to be ready for today. She's been dreaming of this day for her entire life and now, just like that, it's here and she doesn't care how prepared a person wants to tell themselves that they are. No one is actually completely prepared when a moment like this arrives.
She has decided the store hours to be ten until four, open Monday through Friday. After football season, she'll be able to be open on Saturdays, too, if she chooses, but since it's just her and being a single mom on top of that, she has to keep hours for herself that won't drive her to the point of exhaustion or have her miss a single moment that Matty needs her.
On Sunday, she has been able to do a lot of the prep work so on Monday, after walking Matty to school, it's just a little before eight and she's able to get to her shop and start baking and decorating and getting the cupcakes loaded into the case. Her shop. She wonders if she'll ever get used to calling it that even with the Daisy's Bakery sign hanging and the cupcake painted on the glass of the door and the walls inside white and a light purple. Everything about the shop is her but she still can hardly believe that it is hers.
"You ready?" Annette asks with a smile at 9:59. She's been able to come and help Daisy out for the day in case she needs it but Daisy thinks her mom is just being optimistic. There's no way that the shop will be that busy. It's just a tiny cupcake shop in a small southern town. There are so many other bakeries around.