'Not what you have in mind.'
From within the shadow of his hat, he finally looked into her eyes. 'What then?'
'Lunch.'
'Not interested.'
'No, ma'am.' He stepped off the curb and said over his shoulder, 'Come on, Buddy.'
Daisy watched him move across the parking lot to a classic black Mustang parked at one of the gas pumps. Tworazor-sharp creases ran down the back of his shirt and were tucked into the waistband of his Levi's. He wasn'twearing a belt, and his wallet made a bulge in his back pocket. Buddy followed and Daisy turned to her sister.
The red welt on Lily's cheek had started to fade.
'Are you okay?' Daisy asked as Lily moved toward her.
'I'm okay.' She reached for the Dr. Pepper and took a long drink. 'I think I'm going crazy.'
Really? 'Maybe a little.'
The two of them moved to Lily's Taurus and got inside. Lily spoke as she buckled her seat belt. 'I'm sorry aboutwhat I said about Steven. You're right. I was being an insensitive bitch.'
'I think I said you were a brat.'
'I know you did. Let's go home.'
Daisy started the car. 'How long do you think it will take for Mom to find out?'
'Not long,' Lily sighed. 'She'll probably try to ground us.'
Through the rearview mirror, she watched Jack's Mustang pull out of the parking lot.
'Daisy?'
'Yeah?'
'Thanks. You were really something going after Ronnie like that.'
'Don't thank me, just promise you'll stop stalking him and Kelly the skank.'
'Okay.' She took a drink of her cup. 'Did you see her butt, though?'
'It was huge.'
'And flabby.'
'Yeah, and you're a lot cuter and have better hair.'
Lily smiled. 'And breath.'
Daisy chuckled. 'Yeah.'
When they got back to their mother's house, Lily grabbed Pippen and lay down on the couch with him. Sheturned on a Blue's Clues video and nestled her nose in his little mullet. 'Love you, Pippy,' she said. Withouttaking his eyes from the television, he raised his face and kissed his mother's chin.
'Did you get the job?' Louella asked from the kitchen, where she was baking cookies and filling the house withthe smell of peanut butter.
'They said they'd call,' Lily answered, hiding her smile behind her son's head.
'Chicken,' Daisy whispered.
Lily was a mess, no doubt about it. Daisy had three days before she needed to return to her life in Seattle.
Nathan's last day of school was today, and she needed to call him and ask how it went.
She had a lot to do. She had three days to help straighten out her sister's life, give Steven's letter to Jack and tellhim he had a son. Then she could return home and get on with her life. She and Nathan could lie around on abeach somewhere, soaking up rays. She'd drink pina coladas while he watched girls in bikinis. Heaven for bothof them.
But right now, all she wanted was to take a shower, put ice on her hand, and take a nap. Her adrenaline spent,she was tired and achy, but if not for Jack, she was positive she would be feeling a lot more achy right aboutnow. Going after Ronnie like that hadn't been real smart, but she hadn't thought at all. She'd just reacted to himpushing Lily to the ground.
I think it's more likely that he'd kick yours. Then I'd have to step in and knock the shit out of him for laying ahand on you, Jack had said. He'd also said he would have come to the rescue of any woman. He'd told her not tomake too much out of it.
But now as she thought back with a clearer head, she doubted he would have held just any woman a little bitlonger than was absolutely necessary. Not like he'd held her, tight against his hard chest. And she really doubtedhe would have brushed just any woman's hand with his thumb. She also doubted he'd even known he was doingit.
She'd been so focused on everything else around her, she hadn't realized that Jack's touch had been a little morepersonal, lingered a second longer than just a Good Samaritan helping out any ol' woman.
She realized it now, and just the memory of his touch made her catch her breath. Her mother called out to her asshe moved up the stairs to her bedroom. 'Okay,' she called back, then shut the door behind her. She leanedagainst it as a hot little tug pulled at her abdomen and between her thighs. The warmth of it spread across herflesh and her breasts grew heavy with it. She hadn't felt anything like this in a long time, but she knew what itwas. Lust. Pent up sexual desire. Years of it pulling at her.
She closed her eyes. Maybe she'd imagined Jack's touch. Maybe it was all in her head, but she hadn't imaginedhow good it was to feel a solid healthy man again. So good to feel protected. So good to feel his chest againsther back and his arm around her waist. God help her, she missed that feeling. Missed it so much that she'dwanted to melt into Jack. She wondered what he'd have done if she'd turned and kissed the side of his neck. Runher tongue up his throat and her hands all over the muscles of his chest. Naked, like he'd been in his kitchen thatfirst night. Half naked with his jeans hanging low on his hips so she could slide her palms over his flat abdomenand sink to her knees as she pressed her face into his button fly.
Daisy's lids flew open. Jack was the last man on the planet she should be fantasizing about licking and touching.
The last man on the plant who should make her think of sex.
It's been a long time, is all, she told herself as she pushed away from the door. She opened a drawer and pulledout a pair of bikini panties and her bra. She was thirty-three, and before Steven's illness, they'd had a very activesex life. Daisy liked sex and she missed it. She supposed it had only been a matter of time before her desire forintimacy returned. It was just too bad it had returned right now. Today. And it was really too bad Jack had beenthe trigger.
For so many obvious reasons, sex between her and Jack was out of the question.
Daisy walked from her room to the bathroom down the hail. But sex between her and someone other than Jackmight be a possibility. She'd only been with two different men her whole life, maybe it was time to experiment.
She had two and a half days now before she returned to Seattle. Maybe it was time to live it up before shereturned home and was a mom again. Maybe she should add 'get laid' to her to-do list.
A little stab of guilt poked her conscience. Steven was dead, so why did it feel like she was contemplatingcheating on her husband? She didn't know, but there it was. Right in front of her, and she knew that her guiltwould probably keep her from actually doing it with anyone.
Too bad, because she probably would have liked some no-strings-attached sex. The kind where you just grabsomeone, do it, and never see them again.
She turned on the bathtub and held her hand under the running water. But maybe if she just did it, she wouldn'tfeel guilty anymore. Maybe it was like losing her virginity all over again. The first time was the most difficult.
After that, it got a whole lot easier. A whole lot funner, too.
Of course she didn't have a candidate. Maybe she should pick up some guy at a bat Someone who looked likeHugh Jackman or that one guy in the Diet Coke commercial. No, those men reminded her too much of Jack.
She should pick someone totally different. Someone like Viggo Mortensen or Brad Pitt. No, MatthewMcConaughey.
Oh yeah.
But it would never be Jack. Never. That would be really really bad.
Or, a little voice inside her head whispered, it would be really, really good. As she dropped her shorts andpulled her T-shirt over her head, she was afraid that if she wasn't careful, the little voice in her head was goingto get her
