He laughed and brought his hand out from behind his back He laid a wrist corsage of white and pink roses inher palm. "Will you go to the prom with me?"

"You hate school dances," she said through the crack"I know."

She brought the corsage to her nose and breathed deep. Her nose was clogged so it wasn't that deep. She bit herbottom lip to keep it from trembling. And as she looked at him, standing in the hail of her house, wearing a suithe hated and asking her to a dance he loathed, she fell helplessly in love with Jack Parrish. It expanded her heartand flooded her chest and scared her to death. All those years of fighting it faded away to nothing.

She'd fallen in love with Jack and there hadn't been anything she could do about it.

That night Jack kissed her for the first time. Or rather, she'd kissed him. During the dance, while she'd beenfailing in love for the first time in her life, he treated her as he always had, as a friend. While he made her wholebody feel hot and alive, he'd stayed cool. It had all been wonderful and awful, and after the prom, when hewalked her to her front door, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

At first he stood with his hands to his side. Then he grasped her shoulders through her coat and pushed heraway, angry.

"What are you doing?"

"Kiss me, Jack." if he rejected her, she was sure she'd just die right there. On the porch.

His grip tightened and he brought her forward and pressed his warm lips to her forehead.

"No, don't treat me like a friend." She swallowed hard past the ache in her chest. 'Please," she whispered as shelooked up at him. "I want you to kiss me like you do other girls. I want you to touch me like you do other girls,too."

He pulled back and his green gaze slid to her mouth. "Don't tease me, Daisy. I don't like it."

"I'm not teasing you." She ran her hand across the shoulder of his jacket to the side of his neck. "Please, Jack."

Then as if he didn't want to kiss her, but he couldn't fight it any longer, he slowly lowered his mouth to her. Thistime the touch of his lips stole her breath. She tilted her head back and sank into his chest. Until that moment,she'd thought she knew what it was like to kiss a boy. Jack showed her she hadn't a clue. The kiss was hot andwet and filled with so much hunger that it changed her forever.

Even now, after all these years, Daisy remembered standing on her mother's porch as Jack turned her worldinside out. She'd clung to him as he'd fed her those liquid kisses that had made her breasts ache and her bodytremble. His hands had never moved from her shoulders, but he'd made her crave his touch. She'd wanted himto touch her all over. Instead he'd walked away, leaving her stunned and wanting more.

Chapter Five

The next day, Daisy called Jack but he didn't pick up. The longer she put off telling him about Nathan, theharder it was going to get. She knew that, having already put if off for fifteen years. But what she hadn't realizedbefore she'd arrived was that the longer she put it off, the more memories of her life in this town would drag herback into the past. Before she'd arrived, the plan had been to tell Jack, give him Steven's letter, and deal with thefallout: if not easy, at least straightforward. Now, it didn't seem real straightforward either. But it had to bedone. She was leaving in seven days.

Before noon, she tried Jack's number two more times, but he didn't answer. She figured he was probably notanswering on purpose. She went to church with her mother, and afterward, they had an early dinner with Lilyand Pippen. Phillip "Pippen" Darlington was two and had a blond mullet because his mother couldn't bear to cutthe curls at the nape of his neck. He had huge blue eyes like Lily, and he loved Thomas the Tank Engine. Healso loved wearing his faux coonskin cap and shouting NO! loud enough to be heath into the next county Hehated food with texture, spiders, and his Velcro Barney sneakers.

Daisy looked at him sitting in his high chair at her mother's dinner table and tried not to frown as he pouredgrape Kool-Aid from his Tommy Tippy cup into his baked potato. Daisy's mother and Lily sat across the tablefrom her and didn't seem to mind that Pippen was making a disgusting mess.

"He's a rat bastard!" Lily was telling her, referring, of course, to her soon to be ex-husband, The Rat BastardRonald Darlington. "A few months before he ran off with his jailbait girlfriend, he took all the money out of ouraccounts and put it somewhere."

Louella nodded her head sadly. "Probably in Mexico." Growing up, if either had uttered the word "bastard" atthe dinner table, they'd have been sent from the room.

"What is your attorney doing about that?" Daisy asked"There isn't a lot he can do. We can prove the money was in the account, but not where it went. The judge canorder him to give me half, but that doesn't mean he will. And for years, Ronnie was paid under the table in orderto avoid paying the IRS, so it looks like he only makes twenty thousand a year instead of seventy-five." Lilysliced a piece of meat with a vengeance. Even though they were sisters and had grown up together, they weren'tvery close. Growing up, they'd mostly fought or ignored each other. Lily had been in middle school whenDaisy had moved away, and they'd never really maintained a relationship after that. Losing Steven had madeher realize how important her family was to her. She needed to work on her relationship with her sister.

"He said that if I tell the IRS about it," Lily continued, "he'll fight for custody of Pippen. What can I do?"

When both her mother and Lily stared at her, Daisy realized it wasn't a rhetorical question. There were darkcircles under Lily's eyes as if she hadn't had a good night's sleep in a long time. Her blond hair was cut short andframed her pretty face with soft curls, but at the moment, she looked anything but soft. No, she looked scared ashell. "You're asking me? How should I know?"

"Darien Monroe is a lawyer," her mother provided.

"Steven's father is retired and living in Arizona. And besides, he was a criminal defense attorney; Stevendesigned computer software programs. I know nothing about the family courts." She recognized the fear inLily's blue eyes. It was the fear of being suddenly alone with the responsibility of raising a child. But unlikeDaisy, Lily wasn't financially secure, nor did she have a career to fall back on. Not that Daisy's career had everprovided a huge income, but she was a good photographer and had connections. If she had to support herselfand Nathan on her income alone, she could. Lily had been a stay-home wife and a mom, which was admirablebut weren't marketable skills. She was terrified. "HI by to think up something," Daisy said, although she hadtroubles of her own and was only here for a week now.

Lily smiled, 'Thanks, Daisy."

"I ran into Darma Joe Henderson, the other day," her mother said as she dug into her okra, Lily's worriesapparently solved for the moment.. "You girls remember Darma Joe. She used to work at the Trusty Hardwareacross from the Wild Coyote. Her son Buck had that car accident a few years back, and they had to amputate hisleg below the knee. Well, he has a daughter who sings with the church choir. You girls might have noticed hertoday." Louella paused to take a bite before launching into, "She kinda looks like Buck, bless her heart, but shehas such a nice voice and a kind personality. She was dating the boy... oh, what was his name? I think it startedwith a G. George or Geoff or something like that. Anyway..."

Daisy slid her gaze from her mother to her sister. Lily's eyes were starting to glaze over and her head wasdrifting back. Things really hadn't changed very much since she'd been gone. She knew it would be useless toask her mother to get to the point, because she already knew there wasn't a point and there never was going tobe one.

Daisy started to laugh. Lily's eyes refocused and she looked at Daisy. She laughed too. Pippen threw hiscoonskin cap on the floor and broke in giggles as if he knew the joke. He was only two, but he'd been aroundhis grandmother enough that perhaps he did.

Louella looked up from her plate. "What are you girls laughing about?"

"That Darma Joe's granddaughter looks like Buck," Lily lied through a grin. "Bless her heart."

"It's unfortunate." Louella frowned. They continued to laugh and she shook her head. "Well, y'all have come offyour spools and taken poor Pippen with you."

After dinner, Daisy got up her nerve for the fourth time that day and called Jack; he didn't pick up, but she lefthim a message this time: "It's Daisy. I'm not going anywhere until you talk to me."

He didn't return the call, of course, so she phoned him the next day at work. She and Penny Kribs chatted aboutold times and she thanked her for sending flowers to Steven's funeral. Then she asked for Jack. "Don't tell himit's me on the line," she said. "I want to surprise him."

"He could use a good surprise," Penny said.

"He's in a nasty mood."

Great. Daisy was put on hold and after listening to about half of 'The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia,"

Jack came on the line.

"This is Jack Parrish," he said.

"Hi, Jack." He didn't respond, but he didn't slam the phone down either. "Surprise, it's me, Daisy."

"Don't hassle me at work, Daisy Lee," he finally responded, dragging out those vowels for all they were worth.

Yep, definitely in a nasty mood.

"Don't make me. Meet me later."

"Can't. I'm flying out for Tallahassee this afternoon."

"When will you be back?"

He didn't answer and she was forced to blackmail him. "If you don't tell me, I'll just call back every day. Allday." That didn't prompt a response either. "And night."