The doorbell rang as Daisy popped the top to her Coke. She took a long drink as she moved through the livingroom. A bowl of glass fruit sat on a wooden end table and she placed the can next to it. She opened the door andhalf expected to see Nathan playing a silly joke by making her answer the door. He was like that sometimes.

Wanting to be treated as an adult, yet at times acting like her little boy. But it wasn't her son.

Jack stood on her mother's porch, sunlight overhead. The shadow of his straw cowboy hat concealed the tophalf of his face. A little flutter tickled her chest and before she could think better of it, the corners of her lipsturned up. "Hey there."

"Are you alone?" he asked, and her smile fell at the flat tone in his voice and grim line of his mouth.

He knows, was her first thought, but just as quickly she dismissed the thought. He couldn't know. "Pippen's herebut he's asleep."

"Where is Nathan?"

Oh, God. The fluttering in her chest picked up a notch or two. "He's riding his skateboard."

He didn't wait for her to invite him in. "No. He's not," he said as he walked into the house, bringing with himthe scent of a warm Texas morning on his skin. He handed her Nathan's board as he passed.

She took it from him and held it against her breasts. A ribbed T-shirt hugged the muscles of Jack's arms andchest and made him appear bigger and badder than usual. "Where is he?"

He turned and looked at her for several nerve-racking moments before he said, "I don't know."

"How did you get this?"

"He came to see me this morning."

"He did?" Nathan's going to the garage wasn't a coincidence. It was a surprise, but not a real shock. Nathan wasthe kind of kid who jumped into things first and thought later. A lot like Jack had been.

"He left the board on his way out."

She didn't think that he'd said anything to Jack about being his biological child. Of course, it hadn't occurred toher that he'd ever show up at the garage on his own either. "What did he say?"

"He talked about Steven and about 'Monster Garage.'"

Maybe he doesn't know. Maybe he was being a hard-ass for a totally different reason. This was Jack, after all.

The king of hard-asses. "That's it?"

"I think he really came by to get a good look at me." He pushed up the brim of his straw hat and she got a goodlook at him. If the glittering rage in his green eyes hadn't removed all doubt about what he knew or suspected,the next words out of his mouth did. "I read Steven's letter."

Now she was shocked. "How did you get Steven's letter?"

"You left it Saturday."

Had she? She didn't remember. A lot had happened Saturday. "You just read it today?"

"I didn't want to read it at all." His voice was deadly calm when he said, "Tell me, Daisy. I want to hear you sayit. After all these years."

His veneer of calm did not fool her for a second. His anger rolled off him like heat waves rolling across asphalt.

Her speeding heart fell right to the pit of her stomach. She'd waited fifteen years for this moment. Knew it hadto happen at some point, and there was no other way to say it but, "He's your son, Jack."

His expression didn't change. "Does he know?"

"Yes. He's known most of his life."

"So, I'm the only one who wasn't told."

"Yes."

"Do you have any idea," he said in that same awful calm tone, "what I'd like to do to you?"

Yes, she had a pretty good idea. She didn't think Jack would hurt her, but she took a step back. "I was going totell you."

"Is that so?" One brow lifted up his forehead. "When?"

"The first night I saw you. I came to your house to tell you, but Gina was there. I told you I needed to speakwith you about something important. I told you that night and the night of Shay's wedding, and at the pizzaplace, and at Slims." Her face felt hot, and she took another step back and tossed the skateboard on her mother'sblue floral couch. "I came to the garage to tell you Saturday, but then ... Lily ran her car into Ronnie's livingroom. Which is why I guess I forgot all about leaving Steven's letter." She pulled the claw from the back of herhair and took a deep breath. He had a right to his anger. She should have told him years ago. She was a coward.

"That's why I'm in town. I'm here to tell you that you have a son."

His gaze locked with her. "He's fifteen."

She swept her hair back up, twisted it, and secured it once more. "Yes, he is."

"You're telling me fifteen years too goddamn late. You should have told me when you missed your first period."

He thought a moment then added, "Unless you didn't know whose it was back then."

"I knew." Now he was just being mean. "You were the first person I was ever with. How could you think such ahorrible thing?"

"Maybe because up until a few days before you married my best friend, you were having sex with me. How do Iknow that you weren't doing us both at the same time?"

"You know I wasn't. You're just being ugly now."

"You don't know ugly," he said and his temper finally rose to the surface. He took a step toward her and stareddown into her face. His eyes narrowed and the line of his jaw hardened. "You did the lowest thing a womancan do to a man. You had my child and kept him from me. I should have been there when he was born. I shouldhave been there to see hint To see him take his first steps and ride his first bike. I should have been there to hearhis first words, but I wasn't. Steven was, though. Steven got to hear him say Daddy, not me." He was deadserious when he added, "It's a good thing you're not a man, because I'd beat the hell out of you. I'd enjoy it, too."

One of the hardest things she'd ever done was stand there toe-to-toe with Jack and not take another step back orlook away from his angry eyes. "You have to understand that we never meant to hurt you. We both loved you."

"Bullshit."

"It's the truth."

"If that's what you do to people you love, I can't imagine what you have in store for people you hate."

Her head began to pound and she put a hand to her brow, but she didn't remove her gaze from his. "You have toremember what it was like between you and me back then. We were fighting and making up all the time. Thatfirst month, I was so scared, and I told myself I was just late. Then the second month I told myself not to thinkabout it, but by the third month, I had to face it." She dropped her hand. "Your parents had just died and youwere going through such a bad time. The night I came to tell you I was pregnant, you said you needed a breakfrom me. I didn't think you loved me anymore. I didn't know what to do." The backs of her eyes stung but sherefused to give in to tears. "I didn't have anyone to talk to about it but Steven. I went to him and he asked me tomarry him. He said he'd take care of me and my baby."

"You keep forgetting that the baby was mine. That I should have been told about it before the two of you ran offto Seattle."

"We talked about telling you, but we thought that if you knew, you'd want to marry me out of obligation, butJack, you were in no position to take care of me and a baby. You were only eighteen and already dealing withso much. It seemed like the only solution."

"No, it was the easy way out for you. Steven had money and I had nothing."

"That's not why I married him. You know that I always loved Steven. If you weren't so angry, you'd rememberthat you loved him too." She placed her hands on his bare arms. Jack might never forgive her, but she had tomake him understand. "I married him because I was scared. You didn't love me anymore, and I didn't knowwhat to do."

"How did it feel, Daisy?" His voice lowered, got rough and smooth at the same time. "How did it feel to getback at me for not loving you? Did taking my child make you feel good? Did it satisfy your revenge?"

"It wasn't about revenge."

He grabbed her wrists and removed her hands from his arms. "Did lying with Steven Monroe get me out of yourhead. Your heart? When you were with him, were you thinking of me??

"No!"

"Remembering how it used to be between us?" His voice lowered even further and he pinned her wrists behindher back. "How good it was." He pulled her up against his body and said against her temple, "How good it stillis."

The brim of his hat touched the top of her head. "Stop it, Jack."

"All those years, were the two of you laughing it up over what you'd done to me?"

"No, Jack. It wasn't like that. No one was laughing." Her heart knocked in her chest and she swallowed hard.

"Believe me. I know I should have told you sooner."

His voice got real quiet next to her ear when he asked, "Who's listed as daddy on that boy's birth certificate?"

"Steven."

He pulled back far enough to look into her face. "Goddamn you, Daisy."

"We thought it would be easier for him in school. I'm sorry"

"I don't give a flying fuck how sorry you are. Because it's not half as sorry as you're going to be."

"What do you mean?"

He set her back on her heels and slid his hands to her shoulders. "All those years ago when you chose Stevenover me because I was just a poor kid with grease on my hands, working in my daddy's garage that's not howthings are now. I'm not poor anymore, Daisy I can afford a real good lawyer, and if I have to, I'll fight you."

"There won't be a fight."

"I want to know my son."

"You can get to know him. I want you to. And when we leave -"

"When you leave," he interrupted. "He stays."

"That's ridiculous. He's not staying here with you. His home is with me. In Seattle."

"We'll see about that."

"I know you're angry. I don't blame you."

"Nice to know you don't blame me." He released her and turned to the door.