He disconnected and put the phone in his pocket. 'What do you want, Daisy?'
'Nothing. Just being friendly.'
'I don't want to he 'friendly' with you.' He straightened away from the wall and took his hand from his pocket.
'I thought I made myself clear last night.'
'Oh, you did.' She took a drink of her wine, then asked, 'How's Billy?' All she remembered of Jack's brotherwas a pair of shiny blue eyes and sandy blond hair. Other than that, she couldn't recall much about him.
He looked over her head and said, 'Billy's good.'
She waited for him to elaborate. He didn't. 'Married? Kids?'
'Yep.'
'Where's Gina?' His gaze met hers and, in that suit, his eyes appeared more gray than green.
'At Slim Clem's, I imagine.'
'She's not here?'
'I don't see her.'
She took another sip of her wine. She was going to be pleasant if it killed her. Or him. 'You didn't bring herwith you?'
'Why would I?'
'Isn't she your girlfriend?'
'Whatever gave you that idea?'
They both knew what had given her that idea. 'Oh, maybe because she was wearing your shirt last night, andnothing else.'
'You're wrong about that. She was wearin' a black lace thong.' One corner of his mouth slid up, purposelyprovoking her - the jerk. 'And a satisfied smile. You remember that smile, don't you, Daisy?'
She would not lose her temper and give him what he wanted. 'Don't flatter yourself, Jack Parrish. You weren'tthat memorable.'
'What? I was talking about Gina's smile last night.' The other corner of his mouth slid up and laugh linesappeared in the corners of his eyes. 'What were you talking about, buttercup?'
They both knew he hadn't been talking about Gina's smile. 'You haven't changed since high school.' She gavehim a withering glance and walked away before she lost her temper and said something she might regret. Likethat he should grow up.
Jack watched her go. His smile flat-lined, and his gaze slid from her blond hair, all slick and smooth, down theback of her red dress to her behind and the backs of her thighs. Who the hell was she to judge him? She'dscrewed around with him, said she'd love him forever; then married his best friend the same week he buriedboth his parents. In his book, that made her a hardcore hitch.
She disappeared into the banquet room, and Jack waited a few moments before he followed. At thirty- three,Daisy was even more beautiful than she'd been at eighteen. He'd seen it last night. In his kitchen, and he saw itnow So much about her was different, yet the same. Her hair was still the same shiny blond, but it wasn't bigand curly and sprayed stiff. Now it was smooth and sexy as hell. She'd grown an inch maybe two, to what hefigured was about five-foot-five, but she carried herself like she was still queen of the Lovett Rose Festival. Herlarge eyes were still the color of rich mahogany, but they'd lost the innocence and passion that he'd once foundso fascinating.
He walked down the hall and entered the dark banquet room. Marvin stopped him to talk about the '67 FordFairlane he'd just bought.
'It has its original 427,' he said while Jed and the Rippers sang a Tim McGraw song about a girl in a miniskirt.
Like a magnet, Jack's gaze found Daisy. She stood at the edge of the lighted floor across the room, chatting withJ. P. Clark and his wife, Loretta. Daisy's red dress hugged the curves of her body without looking too tight. Sheclearly hadn't gone too fat. Didn't have thick ankles or a droopy butt. Which was too bad, as far as Jack wasconcerned.
For years he'd forgotten about her and Steven. He'd buried them in the past and got on with his life. Now hereshe was, dredging it all back up again.
Cal Turner approached her and she followed him to the middle of the dance floor. Everyone knew Cal was ahorny bastard and would naturally take all those buttons on the side of that dress as an invitation to let hisfingers do the walking. Maybe that's what she wanted. To get something going with Cal. Didn't matter, though.
It was none of Jack's business.
'Tile vinyl roof needs to be replaced,' Marvin said, then rambled on about the interior.
Cal wrapped an arm around Daisy's waist and she smiled up at him. Light from the crystal ball slid along hercheek and got caught in her hair. Her red lips parted and she laughed. Daisy Lee Brooks, the fantasy of everyhorny guy at Lovett High, was back in town, turning heads and leading guys on with a smile.
Some things never changed.
Only she wasn't Daisy Lee Brooks. She was Daisy Monroe and she had a kid. A son. A baby with Steven. Hedidn't know why that surprised him. It shouldn't. Of course they'd had a kid. When he thought about it, it wasmore surprising that they'd just had the one.
Unexpected and unwanted, the memory of her flat stomach flashed across his brain. His mouth tasting her bareskin just above her navel as he gazed up into her face. At the hot drowsy passion in her eyes as he worked hisway down. Hcr lips moist and abraded from his kiss.
'Excuse me,' he said just as Marvin was getting all hot about the Ford's dual carhs. He walked toward the exitsign and out the doors. He moved down the hall and out the front doors of the country club. The warm Junenight touched his face and throat. The sound of insects was thick in the air. There was some sort of pond toJack's right and lightning bugs blinked like white Christmas lights on the golf course beyond. A memory ofcatching lightning hugs with Steven and Daisy flashed across his brain. That had been back before insecticidesreduced their numbers, and they were still easy to catch in Mason jars. He, Steven and Daisy would smear thebugs on their arms, making fluorescent streaks that lasted a good ten minutes.
He pulled a cigar from his breast pocket and walked to a stone bench just beyond the lights of the club. He satand slid off the cigar hand. He stuck it in the corner of his mouth and patted his pockets, searching for the boxof matches he'd picked up in the tobacco store. He didn't smoke that often, but he did occasionally enjoy anexpensive cigar.
His pockets came up empty and he stuck the cigar back in his breast pocket. A bank of windows from therestaurant threw watery light on the pond. He ran his fingers through his hair, leaned his head back against thebuilding, and stared out at the night. His life was good. He had more business than he could handle and wasmaking more money than he needed. He'd taken Parrish American Classics and made it bigger and better thanhis father had ever dreamed. He owned his home and his business. He drove a Mustang worth seventy grandand a new Dodge Ram truck to pull his twenty-one-foot boat.
He was content, so why did Daisy have to show up now and dredge up old memories that were better left longburied? Memories of him and her. Of him and Steven. Of the three of them.
From almost the first day in grade school, he and Steven had both been a little in love with Daisy Brooks. It'dstarted out innocent enough. Two boys looking across the playground and seeing a little girl with gold hair andbig brown eyes. A girl who could play baseball, swing on the monkey bars, and outrun them. The attraction hadbeen pure and naive.
In the third grade, when Daisy had worried about who she'd marry when she grew up, they'd all three decidedthat she would marry the both of them. They'd all live in the tree house they planned to build, and Jack wouldget rich and famous driving NASCAR. Steven would become a lawyer like his dad, and Daisy a beauty queen.
They'd never heard of polygamy, and neither he nor Steven had thought of Daisy in a sexual way. Not that heand Steven hadn't talked about sex. They just hadn't thought about it in relation to Daisy.
But all that changed the summer going into the eighth grade. Daisy had gone away to work on her aunt's ranchin El Paso, and by the time she'd come hack, she'd popped out a pair of perfect breasts. She'd left looking likethe girl they'd always known, skinny and flat-chested, but she came back changed. Her legs longer. Her breastsbigger than his hands. Her hips fuller. Even her hair had seemed shinier.
Back then, his body had never needed a reason to get an erection. It was just something that happened to
