Daisy's back in town lt-1

by Rachel Gibson

  "There won't be a fight."

  "I want to know my son."

  "You can get to know him. I want you to. And when we leave -"

  "When you leave," he interrupted. "He stays."

  "That's ridiculous. He's not staying here with you. His home is with me. In Seattle."

  "We'll see about that."

  "I know you're angry. I don't blame you."

  "Nice to know you don't blame me." He released her and turned to the door.

  "I should have told you about Nathan years ago, but don't punish him because you're mad at me." She followedclose behind him to the front porch. "He's been through so much. He lost his dad and now this."

  Jack turned around so fast she almost ran into his chest. "He didn't lose his dad. Steven Monroe wasn't hisfather."

  Daisy wisely didn't point out that Nathan thought of Steven as his dad and had loved him. "Nathan's beenthrough a lot in the past few years. He needs a little peace. Some calm in his life." She didn't add that sheneeded it too. "I'll talk to him. See what he wants to do, and I'll call you."

  "I'm not going to wait around for you to call me, Daisy Lee." He moved down the steps toward his Mustangparked at the curb. "After I talk to Nathan, I'll tell you how it's going to be," he said as he walked away, themorning sun shining down on his straw hat and his wide shoulders.

  "Wait." She ran down the steps after him. "You can't talk to him alone. I'm his mother. He doesn't know you."

  He walked around the front of the car then stuck his key in the driver's side door. "Whose fault is that?"

  She looked at him from across the top of the car. "I should be there."

  He looked back at her and laughed. "Like I should have been there for the past fifteen years?"

  She grabbed the door handle to jump in his car but the door was locked. Then she remembered Pippen andrealized she couldn't go even if she forced her way into his car. "Nathan is my son. You can't exclude me."

  "Get used to it."

  "We can work this out. I know we can." She didn't know anything of the sort, but she was determined to keepthings from getting too ugly. "I should have told you. I know that, and except for handing over my son, I'll tryand make it up to you."

  "How? On the trunk of a car?" He unlocked the Mustang's door. "Not interested."

  So much for keeping things from getting too ugly.

  Nathan sat with his back against the basketball pole at Lovett High. The backboard and hoop cast an oblongshadow on the court to the free-throw line.

  He gazed across the football field to the tennis courts. He didn't like it here. He didn't know what he expectedTexas to look like, maybe like Montana. He and his dad had been to Montana once, but Texas wasn't like that.

  Texas was flat. And hot. And brown.

  Texas was nothing at all like Seattle.

  He pushed with his feet and slid up the pole until he stood. He adjusted the chain around his neck and glanced atthe high school behind him. "High school," he scoffed. It wasn't even as big as the grade school he'd gone too.

  They probably all wore cowboy boots and rode horses to school. Probably all listened to crappy country andwestern music and chewed tobacco. Probably nobody rode skateboards or listened to Korn or Weezer or playedSniper Fantasy for XBOX.

  Nathan pulled up his pants and hardly noticed when they slipped back down his hips. Problems bigger than hisbaggy pants occupied his thoughts. He'd dropped his skateboard at Jack Parrish's garage, and then he'd run awaylike a big scared baby.

  He really wished he hadn't done that, but the way Jack had grabbed his arm had freaked him out. And the wayhe'd looked and swore at him, too. One second they'd all been laughing, and in the next, Jack had grabbed himand stared at him so intensely, he'd about capped his pants. Nathan didn't know if Jack had figured it out in thatmoment, but by the look on his face, he thought maybe he had. Then before Nathan had even realized what hewas doing, he ran away like a little kid.

  Jack probably thought he was a dork.

  With a shrug of his shoulders he told himself he didn't care. His dad had told him lots of stories about Jack. Hemade him sound real cool, like someone Nathan would really like. But he didn't think he liked Jack. He likedBilly, though. Billy watched "Monster Garage." Billy was cool.

  He picked up a rock and threw it hard against the backboard. It made a satisfying thwack, rebounded and almosthit him in the head. Obviously, his mom hadn't told Jack yet. Nathan had just assumed that she'd told himalready or he never would have walked into that garage today. After all, that's why she was here. To tell Jackabout him. At least, that's why she'd said she was coming here.

  He moved back across the field toward the opening in the chain link fence. He was pretty mad at his mom, andfeeling really stupid. Plus, he had to figure out a way to get his board back. Maybe he'd just let Jack keep itbecause he really didn't want to walk back into the garage and ask for it back. Not now.

  The grass beneath his black skater shoes squished and he figured the sprinklers had been on that morning.

  Water droplets collected on the leather toes of his shoes and he watched them roll off. His mom should be backfrom the hospital by now. He had to tell her where he'd been. She'd probably get mad at him, but he didn't reallycare. The more he thought about it, the madder he got at her. If his mother had told Jack, or at least told Nathanthat she hadn't, he wouldn't have gone to the garage and made such a dick weed out of himself.

  When he looked up, he noticed a girl walking toward him a few feet away on the other side of the fence.

  Through the links he could see that she had shiny dark hair and smooth tan skin like she spent time sunbathing.

  They met at the opening at the same time, and he stepped aside to let her go through first. Instead, she stoppedand stared at him.

  "You're not from around here. I know most everyone, but I've never seen you," she said with a definite Texastwang, drawing out her words. She had big brown eyes, and beneath one arm she held poster board andconstruction paper.

  "I live in Washington," he told her.

  "Washington, D.C.?" She said it like his mother and grandmother did. Like there was an r in the word "wash."

  She wore a blue T-shirt with the words Ambercrombie and Fitch in silver glittery letters. She was a prep, and hedidn't like preppie girls. Girls who shopped at Ambercrombie and Fitch and The Gap. Goodie-two-shoe girls.

  "No. State."

  "Are you here visitin' someone?"

  No, he had no use for preppie girls... but she had the kind of lips that made him think of kissing. Which he'dbeen thinking about a lot lately. "Yeah, my grandma, Louella Brooks, and my aunt Lily." He'd kissed one girl inthe sixth grade, but he didn't think that counted.

  A frown pulled at her brows. "Lily Darlington?"

  "Yep."

  "Ronnie's cousin Bull is married to my aunt Jessica." She laughed. "We're practically related."

  He doubted that made them related at all. And what the heck kind of name was Bull? "What's your name?"

  "Brandy Jo. What's yours?"

  Despite being a prep and having a drawl, Brandy Jo was hot. The kind of hot that made his stomach feel fuzzyand his chest feel heavy and made him think about how complicated girls were. And it was at these times, whenhe was thinking about girls, that he missed his dad the most "Nathan," he answered. A guy just couldn't ask hismother about certain stuff.

  She studied him a moment and her gaze lowered to his lip. "Did that hurt?"

  He didn't have to ask her what she was talking about. "No," he answered and hoped his voice didn't crack. Hehated when that happened. "I'm getting a tattoo next."

  Her big brown eyes rounded and he could tell she was impressed. "Your parents will let you?"

  No. He'd have to get it without his mother knowing somehow. A few months ago they'd made a deal, he couldkeep his lip ring if he promised to never get a tattoo as long as he lived. He'd promised, but he figured he onlyhad to keep his word until he was eighteen and old enough to g
et one himself. Tattoos were cool. "Sure."

  "Where?"

  He pointed to his shoulder. "Right there. I don't know what I want yet, but when I do, I'm definitely getting atat."

  "If I could get one, I think I'd get a little red heart on my hip."

  Which Nathan thought was pretty lame and really girly. "That'd be cool." He dropped his gaze to the posterboards beneath her arm. "What are you doing with that stuff?"

  "I'm gonna teach city-rec art classes to little kids this summer. It's gonna be a lot of fun, and I'll get paid five-seventy-five an hour."

  Teaching art to little kids didn't sound like a lot of fun to Nathan, but getting paid five-seventy-five an hour wassweet. He quickly did the math in his head and figured that if a kid worked five hours a day, five days a week,he could make around five hundred and seventy dollars in one month. He could buy a lot of CDs or new boardtrucks with that kind of money.

  A black Mustang pulled alongside the curb on the other side of the fence, and Nathan watched Jack Parrish getout. He pushed his cowboy hat up his forehead and gazed at Nathan over the top of the car. "You forgot yourboard at the garage."

  Jack didn't look so scary this time, but the fuzzy feeling in Nathan's stomach got worse. Like when he rode theZipper too many times at the Puyallup fair. "Yeah."

  Brandy Jo looked from Nathan to Jack then back again. "See ya around."

  Nathan glanced at her. "Okay, see ya." As she walked away, he returned his attention to the man both his momand dad said was his biological father. As far as Nathan could see, he didn't look much like Jack.

  "I took your skateboard to your grandmother's."

  Nathan stepped through the opening in the fence and stood next to the passenger door. If the feeling didn't goaway, he was afraid he'd get sick. And he really didn't want to do that. "Was my mom home?"

  "Yes. She and I talked." He rested a forearm on the top of the car "She said you've always known that I'm yourfather."

  "Yeah." He swallowed past the lump forming in his throat. He didn't know why he felt so weird. It wasn't likehe cared what Jack thought. He'd gone to the garage earlier out of mild curiosity. That was it. He didn't carewhat anyone thought. "I've known."

  "Well, I'm glad that at least she didn't he to you." Jack looked at the watch strapped around his wrist and tappedhis fingers three times on the top of the car. "Do you want a ride home?"

  "Okay." Nathan waited for Jack to unlock the door, then he climbed inside. He sat in the soft beige leather seatand his stomach churned a little bit more. He didn't know what this car was worth, but a lot more than hismom's stupid minivan back in Seattle. That's for sure. "Is this a Shelby?"

  "Yep. It's a nineteen-sixty-seven GT 500."

  Nathan didn't know that much about Mustangs except that if you were going to have one, this was the one.

  "What's the engine?" he asked as he shut the door.

  "The original 428 Police Interceptor"

  "Tight."

  "I like it." Jack shifted, glanced behind him, then pulled back out onto the street.

  "How fast will it go?"

  "A hundred and thirty-two. Of course that's nothing compared to the Daytona. How fast did you say it wasclocked on the closed course?"

  "Two hundred on the closed course. One-eighty right out of the showroom in nineteen sixty-nine."

  Jack laughed and moved his hand from the steering wheel to shift again. "You know, Billy could use some helpwith that Barracuda that's in the shop. Since you're here for a while and going to own a Daytona someday, youmight want to give him a hand with that Hemi."

  Was he kidding? Nathan would crap all over himself just to touch a Hemi. "That could be cool, I guess. But Idon't know how long I'm gonna be in town."

  Jack looked over at him, the shadow of his hat fell across his nose. "We'll talk to your mom and see how longyou're going to be here." He turned his attention back to the road and shifted the big engine into third. "Ofcourse, just 'cause you're family doesn't mean we can pay you more than the other guys."

  Pay? As in earn money working on a Hemi? He'd crap all over himself twice. Nathan looked down at the chainhanging from one loop of his pants. He cleared his throat and bobbed his head a few times. "Sweet."

  "We'll start you out at seven-fifty an hour"

  He tried to do the math in his head, but something that usually came pretty easy to him was impossible at themoment. "Okay."

  "Nathan?"

  He looked back across the car at Jack. "Yeah?"

  "I should have known about you before today," he said, but he kept his gaze on the road.

  Nathan agreed, but he didn't say so.

  "If I had known, I would have been in your life. No one could have kept me out."

  He didn't know what to say to that, so he kept quiet.

  "Maybe while you're here, we could get to know each other."

  "Cool"

  "And if we don't get on each other's nerves too much, you could think about staying the summer."

  The whole summer? In Loserville? No way.

  "When the 'Cuda's done, I'm going to need someone to test-drive it for me. You think you could do that?"

  He bit the inside of his lip ring to keep from smiling. Oh man! "I could do that."

  "You got your driver's license, right?"

  His excitement plummeted. "No, I'm only fifteen. You gotta be sixteen."

  "Not in Texas. You can get it when you're fifteen."

  "Really?"

  "Yep. You have to have your license to test-drive the 'Cuda for me. It's company policy for insurance purposes.

  That means you'd have to sign up for driver's education. That might take half the summer."

  Since before Nathan could remember, he'd dreamed of the day he'd get his driver's license.

  "You don't have to give me your answer today. Think it over and let me know."

  If he stayed in Texas for the summer, he could get it early. Plus work on a Hemi and make serious bank. Headjusted the chain around his neck. "I'll have to ask my mom." And she wasn't going to like it one bit. She wasalways telling him no. She didn't want him to have fun or grow up. She wanted him to be bored and stay a littlekid forever. "I'll talk to her for you." "You would?" "Oh yeah." His smile showed his white teeth. "It will be mypleasure."

  Chapter Thirteen

  You remember Azelea Lingo, don't you?"

  "No," Daisy answered absentmindedly as she stared out her mother's front-room window.

  "Sure you do, she's the one who bought Lily half a vacuum when she got married," Louella continued as ifDaisy had been at Lily's wedding, which she hadn't.

  "How does a person buy half a vacuum for a wedding present?" Daisy asked, although she really didn't give adamn at the moment. It had been over an hour since Jack had come and gone. Over an hour and she hadn't seenhide nor hair of him or Nathan.

  "She put it on layaway and Lily had to pay to get it off. Cost her fifty bucks for a ninety-dollar vacuum. Andyou know, Azelea isn't poor. She's so big she has to sit down in shifts, so it isn't like she can't afford a wholevacuum."

  Daisy had started to leave a dozen times only to decide that staying put was the best course.

  "Anyway, Azelea's husband, Bud, left her a few years back and married a gal from Amarillo. Only the gal inAmarillo doesn't know that Bud's been sneaking back to Lovett the whole time for a little lovin' on the side withAzelea."

  Daisy massaged the deep crease that had formed between her brows. Her head was going to explode.

  "What is it, darlin'?" Louella paused in her story to ask Pippen. "Oh, you want your hat? Daisy, honey, where'sPip's hat?"

  Daisy was so tense it felt like she had to,unlock her jaw to speak. "Probably in your bedroom."

  "Go check grandma's bed."

  "You go," Pippen demanded in his tiny voice.

  "We'll go together."

  Daisy kept her gaze out the window as they left the mom. She grabbed a handful of her mother's dark bluevelvet drapes and pressed her
forehead to the glass. Since Nathan hadn't returned, she figured Jack had foundhim, and all sorts of scenarios ran through her head. Ranging from the two of them sitting somewhere talking toJack kidnapping Nathan and heading some place where she'd never find them. The last scenario she didn't reallythink was likely, but with Jack she never knew.

  She opened the front door, and stuck her head out to look up and down the street. There was no sign of either ofthem.

  "You're letting all the bought air out. Shut that," her mother said as she entered the room. Daisy glanced behindher, at her mother dressed in a pink blouse with fake pearls sown on it and a denim prairie skirt. Pippen stoodbeside her, wearing his coonskin cap and a pair of Big Bird pull-ups.

  "This afternoon as I was leaving the hospital, they brought in Bud Lingo," her mother continued where she'd leftoff. "Appears he had heart failure while he was with Azelea. I couldn't stay at the hospital, but I am powerfulcurious to know what's gonna happen when Bud's wife gets her tail up here from Amarillo." Louella walked tothe cabinet where she kept her VHS tapes and opened it up. "And their youngest girl, Bonnie, was there too.

  She's the one who had that real ugly baby last Valentine's Day. Lord, when I picked the blanket off the baby'sface in church, I 'bout had heart failure myself. It was all bald and pink and skinny like a newborn rat, bless herheart. Of course, I lied and told her it was precious. You remember Bonnie, don't you. Short. Dark hair..."

  Her mother was determined to make Daisy's head explode. Daisy stepped out onto the porch and shut the doorbehind her. She sat on the first step and rested her temple against the white post that supported the roof. Hernerves were frazzled. Her head pounded, and her patience had deserted her awhile ago. It was barely oneo'clock in the afternoon, and she knew the day was bound to get worse. Jack hated her now, and he was going tomake her life a misery, just as he'd promised the first night she'd seen him. While she understood his anger ather, she couldn't let things get ugly. If they did, the one person who was totally innocent would be the one tosuffer the most. Nathan.