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
