"Dancing bears?" The sirens quieted, then her mother stuck her head into the kitchen. 'The only place I know isShowtime."
"Is that a strip dub?"
"No it's a pizza place, but it also does little kids' birthday parties. Lily had Pippen's party there last year. Hewasn't quite old enough to understand that those big scary bears weren't going to hurt him. He screamed thepaint off the walls. Juanita Sanchez was there with her grandson, Hermie. You remember Juanita, don't you?
She lived down the road in that pink stucco, bless her heart. One day..."
Daisy didn't ask why living in a pink stucco deserved a "bless her heart," but she wasn't about to ask. She calledinformation and came up with a plan. She got the number for Showtime, and dialed it. After getting transferredaround by teenagers who didn't know anything, she finally got put through to the party planner. "Hello," Daisybegan, "I've lost my invitation to the birthday party of a little girl named Lacy Dawn. I'm not sure of her lastname, but if we miss that party, my daughter will be so upset. Could you please tell me what time it starts?"
The party planner sounded older than the teens working there, and it took her about thirty seconds to get backwith the answer. "I don't have a Lacy Dawn, but I do have a Lacy Parrish."
"That's it."
"Her mother booked a front table from six to seven-thirty."
"On Saturday?"
"No. Wednesday."
"Oh my gosh. I'm so glad! called. Thank you." So, Lacy Dawn was Lacy Parrish. Obviously Jack's niece, andhe'd be back in town Wednesday.
She dialed Lily and didn't feel the least guilty for what she planned to do next. She'd warned Jack that she'dbecome his worst nightmare. At the time she'd been mostly bluffing. She wasn't bluffing now, and she wasn'tgoing away. She didn't plan to tell him about Nathan at his niece's birthday party, but he needed to know that hewasn't going to get any peace until he agreed to meet with her.
When Lily picked up, she asked if she and Pippen would go with her to Showtime Wednesday night. Her sisterwanted to know why, and she explained the situation.
"This will be good," Lily said. "Not only will Pippen be your cover, but I went to school with Billy and Rhonda.
Rhonda's sister, Patty Valencia, was your age."
"Was she a real pretty Hispanic girl with long black hair?"
"Yeah, they're both real pretty. Although, I hear Rhonda and Billy have been cranking out the kids, so she maylook a little crazy these days."
"Probably." Daisy glanced at her mother's calendar of Texas landscapes. "Are you sure you want to do this withme? Mom told me Pippen screamed the paint from the walls last time."
"He doesn't do that anymore." She turned her mouth from the phone and said, "Pippen, you're a big boy now.
Aren't you Momma's sweet baby?"
"No!"
Great. Daisy hung up and spent the rest of the afternoon helping her mother pull weeds in her flower gardens.
She brought out her Nikon and knelt amid the pink flamingos, resting her elbow on her knee to steady thecamera. She positioned herself toward Louella's shadow so that the sunlight hit one side of her face. She wishedshe'd loaded the camera with black-and-white film so that the vibrant pink of the flamingos wouldn't take onmore importance than her mother. Or if she'd brought her Fuji digital, she could have loaded it on her computeronce she got back home and made the image real high-impact.
She moved to her stomach and rested the weight of the camera equally on both elbows. She shot up at hermother, catching Annie Oakley in the background -"Daisy Lee," her mother said through a frown, "don't take a picture up my nose."
She sighed and sat up. It had been a while since she'd felt the urge to bring out her cameras and get back intosomething she used to love. She'd had to quit working for Ryan Kent, an artistic photographer in Seattle, inorder to take care of Steven.
She'd gotten into photography in high school, and when Nathan had turned four, she'd signed up for classes atthe University of Washington. After four years, she'd received her B.A. and began interning with topphotographers in the area. Her photographs hung in some studios and galleries around town. And a photographshe'd taken of a man standing on top of a crushed vehicle after the earthquake in Two-thousand and one, hadbeen featured in a local magazine.
She'd thought that once things settled, she'd go back to work for Ryan, but lately she'd been thinking of openingher own studio. One of the most successful photographers she'd ever worked for had once told her that the keyto success was finding a visible location and staying there for at least five years. Talent was important, butvisibility was most important when starting out.
The more she thought about it, the more she thought that's exactly what she'd do. Once she put the past behindher, she'd be free to start over completely. Maybe she'd sell her house. Upon Steven's death, the home owner'sinsurance had paid off the mortgage. Maybe she'd sell it, and she and Nathan could move into a loft inBelltown.
She shrugged and focused her lens on an orange-and-yellow rose. "I'm thinking of selling my house once I getback," she told her mother as she snapped the picture.
"Don't get ahead of yourself," her mother warned. "Colleen Forbus sold her house soon after her husband,Wyatt, took his journey to heaven, and she's been sorry ever since."
Maybe she could wait a few more months just to be sure. She'd find out how Nathan felt about it first, of course.
But lately she'd started to feel as if too much of her past was tied to that house. She didn't have to decide today.
It was something to think about. Something to put at the bottom of her mental to-do list.
She placed her elbow on her knees and adjusted the aperture to bring the roses and flamingos behindLouella's head into focus, giving the photograph a nice rich texture and depth of field. She snapped the photoand thought how nice it would be if everything in her life could be made clear by the turn of a focus ring.
Chapter Six
Jack was late. He'd waited until that morning to call Rhonda and ask what to get Lacy for her birthday. Rhondatold him she wanted something called a Kitty Magic. She told him to make sure it was a Kitty Magic and not aFur Real Friends. According to Rhonda the latter didn't nurse her babies. Then she wished him luck finding it.
He'd called around to the few stores in Lovett that carried toys, and ended up driving into Amarillo. He'd spentthe afternoon looking for the damned thing, and finally found it in one of the last stores he'd walked into.
He'd stood in the aisle, reading the back of the box, making sure he had the right one, and feeling the back of hisskull tighten. The pink Mommy Kitty had long fur and two fluffy kittens. The three of them had toys andmatching bows for their heads and god-awful heart-shaped sunglasses.
He'd kept reading and uttered, "For the love of Christ." According to the box the mother cat purred and said, "Ilove you" and made nursing sounds when one of the kittens was stuck to her side.
What the hell was a nursing sound? he'd wondered.
Jack had the present wrapped in bright pink paper with fairies on it. A big iridescent pink bow about the size ofhis head was taped on top. The bow was beyond frilly, but Billy's girls loved that kind of crap.
The kind of girl stuff that had been completely foreign to him and his brother growing up. They'd played withcars and BB guns and had set their army men on fire. They'd been hell on wheels, but as soon as Billy's first girlhad been born, Billy had taken to baby dolls, Barbie sneakers, and pink tutus like a duck to water. He made it alllook easy and natural while Jack was left watching and wondering where Billy's paternal instincts had comefrom. Jack didn't have any At least he didn't think he did. Although he was learning fast, he didn't know verymuch about little girls. Maybe because until Amy Lynn, he'd never been around little girls. Except Daisy, and ifshe'd played with dolls, and dressed up like a fairy princess as Billy's girls did, she'd done it with her friendsthat were girls. Not with him and Steven.
He pulled open the door to Showtime and stepped inside.
He hadn't seen Daisy for four days. Hopefully she'dgiven up on her plan to pin him down and make him relive the past. Hopefully she'd left town.
The inside of Showtime was a collision of bright color and sound - of flashing arcade games directly at eyelevel, and those big plastic tubes that kids climbed through overhead. Of bells and sirens and screamingchildren. Jack had been here once before, on Amy Lynn's birthday, and he wondered how anyone worked herewithout going insane.
He moved to the dining room and discovered that it was relatively quiet-for now. He knew that would allchange once the show started. He found his brother and Rhonda and the girls sitting at a round table near thestage.
And Daisy.
About ten feet from the table, he stopped in his tracks. Daisy Monroe had managed to get herself invited to hisniece's party.
She'd tracked him down. She'd told him she'd become his worst nightmare. It hadn't been an idle threat. Hisanger rose but he pushed it back. Controlled it for now. She didn't belong here. With his family.
His gaze moved to the woman sitting next to Daisy. He recognized Lily, and he supposed the kid with themullet belonged to one of them. The boy had some sort of pudding on his face like someone had been feedinghim with a slingshot. He wondered if the kid belonged to Daisy and Steven.
"Uncle Jack!" five-year-old Amy Lynn yelled. She jumped up from her chair and ran toward him. The birthdaygirl, three-year-old Lacy ran toward him too. Lacy tended to watch her feet while she ran, and he picked her upwith his free arm to keep her from head-butting him in the nuts. "Hey there," he said. "Someone feels like she'sthree years old today."
"Me," she said and held up three fingers.
"I'm still five," Amy Lynn told him and wrapped her arms around his leg.
As he approached the table with Amy Lynn on his leg and Lacy in one arm, Billy glanced up from the dark-haired baby on his knee and smiled. "Hey, Jack, look who's in town."
Daisy looked at him, her brown eyes sparkling. She'd pulled her smooth hair back in a ponytail and her full lipswere a soft shiny pink. She wore a tight green tank top with the name Ralph Lauren in black across her breasts.
"You didn't tell Billy I was back in town," she scolded, as a smile curved that mouth of hers.
Jack stood Lacy in her chair. His brother didn't know his history with Daisy. Billy'd been too young and itwasn't something that Jack had ever wanted to talk about. Not even with his brother. Billy probablyremembered her, though. Growing up, she'd been over at theft house a lot. He probably thought they were stillfriends. Probably thought Jack'd be slaphappy to see her. "It must have escaped my mind," he said as Amy Lynnlet go of him and took her seat.
Daisy laughed, very amused with herself, and that bumped up his anger a notch. "You remember my sisterLily?" she asked.
"Of course. How are you?"
Lily came out from behind the table and gave him a big hug as he set the present on the table. "I've been better."
She looked a lot like Daisy, only with blue eyes. A lot like she had growing up, only for some reason she lookedterminally pissed off now.
"How're you, Jack?"
He looked over her head at Daisy. "I've been better."
"This is Lily's son Pippen."
So, the kid belonged to Lily. For some reason, he was relieved that the boy with the mullet wasn't Daisy andSteven's. But he couldn't begin to understand why he should care.
Lily stepped back and shook her head. "You look as good as you always did."
"Thanks, Lily. You do too," he said, and meant it.
"Hey, Rhonda"- his sister-in-law had I haven't had sleep in five years smudges under her dark brown eyes _"You okay, girl? Billy tells me you had a hard night."
"I was up most of it with Tanya. She has an earache, but we got a bottle of the pink medicine today, so she'sfeeling better."
Billy pulled the baby's sock up her pudgy leg.
We yanked the 'Vette engine while you were gone today."
He pulled out a chair between Lacy and Rhonda and across from Daisy and Lily. "Did you get a look at theclutch?"
"You were right," Billy said. "It needs to be completely replaced."
"I found one in Reno," he told his brother.
"How was Tallahassee?" Daisy asked him.
"When were you in Tallahassee?" Billy wanted to know.
"Last year."
Daisy's eyes rounded and her mouth fell open. "You lied to me."
He smiled as he leaned forward and poured himself a Dr. Pepper from a pitcher. She gave him that grow upglare like she had the other night, then she turned to his brother.
"Do you mind if I hold Tanya?"
"Not at all." Billy handed her over the baby, and Daisy stood Tanya in her lap. Jack half expected the six-month-old to start screaming, instead she laughed and pinched Daisy's cheek.
"Look, Pippen," Daisy said to the kid in the high chair beside her. "Isn't Tanya just a sweet little love muffin?"
"No!"
"Can I open my pez-ent from Uncle Jack?" Lacy asked in her tiny three-year-old voice.
"It's okay with me if it's okay with your Uncle Jack," Rhonda answered.
"Have at it kid," he said, although he would have preferred that Daisy wasn't sitting across the table when thatstupid cat present was opened. Why he should give a shit, though, he didn't know that either.
Lacy tore off the bow and chucked it behind her shoulder. She ripped the paper and gasped as she tossed theshredded remains on the floor. "Kitty Magic! My fav-rut thing in the world!"
"Hey, that's what you said this morning when you got your Barbie Power Wheels," Billy reminded her.
Lily leaned across the table, and she and Rhonda chatted about what they'd been doing since high school. WhileLacy and Amy Lynn took the cat and her kittens out of the box, the two women talked about kids and theftlives; and when Lily said something about "Ronnie the Rat Bastard," Jack took it to mean she was getting adivorce. It also explained why she looked terminally pissed.
He took a long drink of his Dr. Pepper and sucked an ice cube into his mouth. He glanced across the table atDaisy and Tanya and Pippen. Tanya still stood in Daisy's lap, blowing raspberries. The little boy laughed andDaisy laughed, too. His gaze moved to her hands and her blood-red fingernails. A thin silver bracelet circled herslim wrist and a tiny heart rested against her pulse. The bracelet sparkled in the light, and as if she felt his gazeon her, she looked at him over the top of Tanya's dark head. Her smile fell and her brows drew together slightly.
She stared at him through brown eyes that he used to think looked like melted chocolate. But that had beenwhen he'd been ten years old and thought chocolate was the best thing in the world. Then he'd gotten older anddiscovered something better. Something darker and richer in those eyes. A knot twisted low in his belly. Hewouldn't call it desire, but it wasn't disinterest either.
Billy plugged the mother cat with batteries and set it on the table. Lacy stood in her chair again, andJack turned his attention to his niece. She stuck the kittens on the mother's side, and damn if it didn't makeweird sucking sounds.
"It's a... well it's a nursing kitty." Daisy looked up from the pink Persian and laughter lit up her eyes. "Jack, whythat's so sweet."
"Are those nipples on that thing?" Billy wanted to know.
"It looks like she has hearts instead of nipples," Jack told him.
"How come?" Amy Lynn wanted to know. They had a real mother cat at home, and she knew mommy catsdidn't have hearts there.
Neither Billy nor Jack could think of an answer. Daisy looked at Amy Lynn and said, "Because hearts are cuterthan nipples."
If they'd been alone, Jack might have told her exactly why she was wrong about that. Instead, he bit his ice cubein half and pushed it to one cheek.
"And they got some sunglasses, Lacy," Amy Lynn pointed out.
The center curtains on the stage parted and three big mechanical bears sprung to life, dancing and pretending toplay instruments. A song about a happy frog filled the dining
room, and Lacy clapped her hands.
Lily's kid let out a scream at the top of his lungs.
Daisy handed Tanya back to Billy and she took the little boy from the high chair. She said something to Lilyand walked from the room with the boy still screaming. Jack's gaze slid down the back of her tank top to herbehind in those jean shorts.
"Did you see 'Monster Garage' the other night?" Billy asked over the music.
While Jack occasionally watched the show, Billy was a fanatic. "No, I missed that one."
"They turned a school bus into a pontoon boat?" he said, but the noise from the stage made it impossible for himto say any more.
Jack waited about five minutes before he followed Daisy and her nephew. He found the two of them in the playarea. She'd cleaned Pippen's face, and he was playing in a pit of multicolored balls surrounded by mesh thatwent clear to the ceiling. She stood outside the mesh watching him wade through the balls as if he were walkingupstream.
"How'd you manage to get yourself invited to Lacy's birthday party?" he asked as he came to stand beside her.
She glanced up into his face. "Lily and Pippen and I were already here when they walked in."
"And it was a complete surprise?"
She shook her head and her ponytail brushed her bare shoulders. "No. I knew you were going to be here, but Ididn't expect Rhonda and Billy to invite us to sit with them."
"What's it going to take for you to leave me alone?"
She turned her attention back to her nephew. He picked up a plastic bail and threw it. It missed a little girl byabout a foot. "You know what I want."
"To talk."
"Yes. There is something important we need to talk about."
"What?"
Sirens from a skeet-ball machine blared in the background. "Something too important to talk about in themiddle of Showtime."
"Then why are you here, tonight? Stalking me and my family?"
"I'm not stalking you. I just wanted to remind you that I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere until you talk tome." She glanced down at her feet. "I have a letter Steven wrote to you. I don't have it on me, though."
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