"I don't know what I can do to make him more comfortable," Jack said as he raised the bottle to his lips andtook a drink.
"For starters, you can stop staring daggers at his mother when she comes and picks him up, like you did today."
That afternoon was the first time he'd seen Daisy since they'd had it out in her momma's front yard. She'd beenin Seattle for a few days and he hadn't known she was back until she showed up. Just as he hadn't known helooked at her any certain way.
"And when he brings up his dad," Billy continued, "you can quit getting so pissed off."
"Steven isn't his dad." Jack looked at his brother and said, "I never say anything bad about him."
"You don't have to. Whenever Nathan brings him up and you're around, your eyes get hard and you make thatsound through your teeth like you're an air hose." Billy sat forward and yelled across the yard. "Lacy, don't walkin front of your sister like that when she's swingin'. She's likely to kick you in the head again."
Jack set his bottle on the arm of the chair. "Does Nathan talk about Steven when I'm not around?"
"Yeah." Billy sat back. "It sounds like before Steven got sick, they used to do a lot together!"Jack caught himself making that air-hose noise Billy was talking about. He was jealous. Jealous of a dead manand jealous of his own brother. He didn't like the feeling one bit.
"I know you're angry; and you have every right, but you need to remember that Nathan loved Steven. Right orwrong, sounds like Steven was a good daddy to him."
"Steven didn't have the right to be good, bad or indifferent. He and Daisy took off together. They got marriedand kept my son from me for fifteen years."
"Which are you more pissed off about? That Daisy didn't tell you about Nathan, or that she chose Steven andnot you all those years ago?"
"That she took Nathan." Of course that was worse, but the two were so connected, he couldn't separate them.
"You look at her like you hate her now, but I saw the way you were looking at her at Lacy's birthday party. Youwere eye-eatin' her the second you sat down."
Had he? Probably "I used to have a real thing for her, growing up," he confessed as he watched Amy Lynn jumpfrom the swing and land on her feet.
"I read Steven's letter, and it sounds to me like you both had a 'thing' for Daisy Brooks. Sounds like you bothloved her."
There was no use denying it. "Since about the eighth grade, I guess. Maybe even before that." As he watchedAmy Lynn get back in her swing, he thought back to before the night Steven and Daisy had married. "Beingwith her was like... racing down the old highway pushing a hundred and fifty. You know that feeling you getwhen you're balls-to-the-wall? Your heart's up in your throat and adrenaline is crawling across your skin andmaking your hair stand up?"
"Yeah, I know."
"It was like that." Jack shook his head, then reached for his beer. He'd never talked to anyone about Daisybefore. "I was crazy about her, but we used to fight a lot. She was so jealous, and I would throw a fit if anyother boy even looked at her"
Billy leaned forward in his chair again. "Amy Lynn, don't swing so high." He sat back and said, "Well, youmust have made up a time or two or else she wouldn't have ended up pregnant."
Jack recalled with perfect clarity the many limes he'd made love to her in the backseat of his car, standing upsomewhere with her legs around his waist, or in her bedroom while her mom worked late. "I think we used tofight just so we could make up in the backseat of my Camaro."
"Sounds like teenage hormones," Billy said, looking over at Jack though his clear blue eyes as if things hadbeen that simple.
"It was more than just hormones." He'd been with girls before Daisy, but with her, it had been more than justgetting off. Last Saturday on the back of the Custom Lancer proved that she could still make him feel that way.
After all these years. Of course, that had been before he'd found out about Nathan. Now all he felt for her was abiting anger. He took a drink, and rested the bottle on the top of his right thigh. "I thought she was it for me.
She's all I used to think about."
"If you were in love with her, why did you break up with her?"
"How do you know that I broke up with her?"
"It was in Steven's letter."
"It was?" He recalled little about the letter other than the mention of Nathan. "Mom and dad had just died and Iwas dealing, or trying to deal, with all of that." He lifted a finger off the bottle and pointed at his brother. "Youremember what pure hell that was."
"Sure."
"About that same time Daisy got even more possessive and emotional than usual. It seemed like she was alwayshanging on my neck, and the more I tried to get her to loosen her grasp, the more she choked me. I just couldn'thandle it, so I told her we needed time apart. The next thing I knew, she'd married my best friend."
"Pregnant women get really weird. Believe me, I've been through it three times now."
"I didn't know she was pregnant."
"True. She told Steven and not you because you'd dumped her."
"I didn't dump her." Christ, Billy was starting to piss him off. "I just needed some time to think. If I'd known, Iwould have done the right thing."
"I know you would have."
Finally, a little support from his family"But she felt dumped all the same, and she went to Steven and he helped her out instead of you."
"What the hell? You're my brother. You're supposed to be on my side."
"I am. Always. But you're so angry, I just don't think you can see things clearly, is all. I understand how youfeel, but someone needs to point out to you that you had a hand in Daisy marrying Steven."
"Maybe," he conceded for the sake of argument, but he wasn't sure he believed it. "But that doesn't excuseeither of them from not telling me about my son. I'll never forgive Daisy for that."
"Well, you know what Tim McGraw says about never?"
He didn't give a shit what Tim McGraw had to say about anything. Tim was married to Faith Hill, and Faithhadn't run off with his babies and kept them a secret for fifteen years.
Billy took a long pull off his beer and told him anyway. "Old Tim says something about the trouble with neveris never never works. I think there's some wisdom in that."
And Jack thought Billy needed to slow down on the Lone Star. "I was thinking that maybe I'd grab the boat andtake Nathan to Lake Meredith fishing," he said purposely directing the conversation away from Daisy. "Maybecamp out for a night."
"Rhonda and I took the girls and camped out at the lake last summer. We stayed at that Stanford-Yake campsiteright thereby the marina. It had a real nice comfort station for the girls."
"I don't care how nice the toilets are." Billy cared because he had to live with four females who'd bitch about it.
"I thought you might want to ask Nathan's momma to come along."
Jack stood and walked across the patio. "What's gotten into you?" He wanted to get to know his son withoutanyone else around. Now that he knew about his reaction whenever Nathan brought up Daisy or Steven, hecould control it. "Are you being contrary just to piss me off?"
Billy laughed and stood also. "No, I just thought Nathan might be more comfortable with her there. He mightopen up more."
Maybe, but sleeping with Daisy in the same tent was not going to happen. It wasn't even an option. And it hadnothing to do with sex and everything to do with him maybe putting a pillow over her head while she slept. Hemoved to the Rubbermaid garbage can by the side of the house, opened the lid, and tossed the bottle inside.
"We'll be okay alone." He secured the lid down tight. "We'll catch some walleye and maybe a few largemouthbass."
"Sounds good."
"Hey, you two," Jack called across the yard. "Get over here and give me some sugar so I can leave."
Lacy slid down the yellow plastic slide, and a few seconds later Amy Lynn jumped off the swing. They both ranacross the lawn. Lacy with her head down as usual - Jack knelt on one knee, safely removing his nuts fromhead-butting level.