When she returned, she had a shoe box under one arm. "I have tons of pictures of Nathan; these are just a fewthat I thought you might like." She carried them to the breakfast nook and took a seat. Jack slid into the seatacross from her as she took off the lid to the shoe box. She pulled out a few photos and handed them to him.

"This is his hospital picture. He was kind of bruised up because they had to use forceps on him."

Jack gazed down at the photo in his hand of a tiny baby with a bruise on his cheek. His eyes were kind of puffyand his mouth was pursed as if he where about to kiss someone. The next picture was of Daisy as heremembered her looking in high school. Like the day she'd left him. Her hair was big, and she sat in a hospitalbed holding a baby wrapped up fight in a striped blanket. His baby boy. His girl. Only by then she hadn't beenhis anymore.

"I didn't know if you'd want that one because I'm in it," she said, "but I'm in all the pictures taken in thehospital." She dug out a few more. "Any of these you don't want, just leave them with me." This time when shehanded the photos over, she leaned across the table. "This was taken on Nathan's first birthday." She pointed toa baby standing on a kitchen chair. He had chocolate cake smeared on his face, clear up into his hair, and hewore a huge grin. The remains of a smashed cake sat on the table in front of him.

"I'd just made his cake and turned my back to wash the dishes," Daisy explained. "When I turned back, he wasstanding on that chair and had grabbed big hunks of cake. By the time I got my camera, he'd stuffed a bunch inhis mouth and rubbed it on the top of his head." Jack laughed and she looked up from the photo and smiled. "Hewas such a pistol," she said and returned her attention to the picture. His gaze slid to the side of her neck. Herbreasts were pressed against the table, pushing her cleavage over the top of her dress. If he leaned forward, hecould smell her hair. "That was about the time we had to start locking him in our bedroom," she said.

Jack leaned way back. "Why?"

She straightened. "Because that boy started crawling out of his crib when he was seven months old. We had toget him a little bed that was really low to the ground because we were afraid he'd hurt himself. Then one day, alittle after his first birthday, I was making his bed, and under his satin baby pillow, I found three screw driven."

She shook her head. "The only thing I could figure out was that he was roaming around the house after Stevenand I fell asleep. So that's when we had to lock him in our bedroom with us."

The three of them all in bed together. One big happy family. It should have been him. It should have been himwith her and with Nathan. But she'd chosen Steven.

She should have chosen him. It should have been him in that bed, but the harsh truth was that he couldn't blameher for her choice.

Not anymore. Not when she'd chosen Steven because she'd been eighteen and scared. But being eighteen andscared didn't excuse her from keeping his son from him. He didn't think he'd ever forgive her for that.

She spread some more photos out on the table. "I have a lot of photographs of Nathan through the years. He'smy favorite subject. I have some really nice black-and-whites of him that I took a few years ago when we wentclimbing around the rocks at the bottom of Snoqualmie Falls. Black and white just balanced everything aroundhim beautifully" Her lips turned up at the corners. "Color would have been too overwhelming, and he wouldhave been lost in the shot."

"You sound like you know a lot about taking pictures." He had one of those auto-everything cameras, and stillforgot to bring it to the girls' parties.

"I'm a photographer. It's what I used to do for a living."

He hadn't known that about her. Didn't know very much about her life in Seattle, as a matter of fact.

"It's what I plan to do again. I'm going to open my own studio. I've been checking into small business loans, andI talked to a realtor about leasing a space in Belltown, which is in the downtown area." She dug through the boxand handed him more photos. "It's going to be a little scary at first, but with the money I get from selling ourhouse, and the money I received from Steven's life insurance policies, we'll be okay"

She was moving on with her life. Moving forward while he felt as if he were firmly stuck in the past. Unable tomove.

Louella walked into the kitchen with Nathan trailing behind, wearing even more chains than usual and a blackT-shirt with a skateboarder on the front.

Daisy slid from behind the table and moved to meet them. "Nathan, Jack came over to talk to you."

Nathan's gaze met his over the top of Daisy's head. Jack set the photo on the table and stood. He turned hisattention to Daisy's mother. She had blue smudges beneath her eyes and her hair listed left. "Good evening, MizBrooks."

"Evening, Jackson."

"How are you?"

"I've felt better," she said. "Lily insists that she stay at her own home when it would be better if she stayedhere." She set her big black purse on the counter and moved to stand a few feet in front of him. "Last year TinyBarnett's youngest girl, Tammy, had woman trouble and had to have surgery. Did you hear what happened toher?"

Jack wasn't sure Louella was speaking to him. She was looking at him, but he didn't know anyone named TinyBamett or her daughter Tammy.

Evidently a reply wasn't necessary, though. "She died because she went home from the hospital early"

"Mom," Daisy said on a sigh, "Lily isn't going to die."

"That's what Tammy thought too. Left behind a little boy about Pippen's age. Left a husband too. He was aYankee fella from one of those eastern states, and when Tammy made her heavenly journey, he packed up thatbaby and left. Tiny hasn't seen hide nor hair of him since. And my is a good woman. She's stuck with HoraceBarnett all these years. And everyone knows that man was born tired and raised lazy. I don't think he ever didwork a job for more than a month straight."

She paused and it all came back to Jack in a flash. The reason he and Steven usually waited on the porch forDaisy. Fifteen years, and she hadn't changed. Louella Brooks could still talk water up hill.

"And he had that mentally retarded sister, bless her heart. She used to come by the diner and other gizzards,every now and again. I used to think that..."

Jack felt a pressure in the back of his skull and looked behind Louella to Daisy and Nathan. They stood inprofile, Nathan a few inches taller than his mother. He stared down at Daisy, his narrowed gaze communicatingsomething. Daisy shrugged as if to say, "What do you want me to do?" While Louella rambled on aboutgizzards and chicken filed steak, Daisy and Nathan carried on a whole conversation without saying a word.

Mother and son.

Nathan rocked back on his heels and slashed his finger across his throat. Daisy covered her mouth with her handand started shaking her head. They were a family. Just the two of them. Comfortable with each other. Relaxed.

He wasn't a part of it.

As if she felt his gaze on her, Daisy looked at Jack, then she burst into laughter.

"Goodness, Daisy. What's gotten into you?" Louella asked as she turned to look at her daughter.

"Just thought of something that happened today." She brushed her hair behind her ears and said, "Jack cameover to talk to Nathan, so maybe we should leave them to it."

"Actually, I was hoping that you and Nathan could walk me out to my car."

"Cool."

"Sure."

He turned his attention to Louella. "Good evening, ma'am. Give Lily my best the next time you see her."

"I will."

The three of them walked through the living room and out the front door, with Jack bringing up the rear.

"Why didn't you stop her?" Nathan asked as soon as the door was shut behind them.

They moved from the porch and down the sidewalk. The setting sun filled the night sky with blazing reds andoranges, fading in the distance to pink and purple. It seemed to catch in strands of Daisy's hair, turning it gold.

"No one can stop your grandmother once she gets started," Daisy answered.

"All the way home from Lily's she would not stop talking about someone named Cyrus."

"Cyrus is your great uncle who died when he was fourteen, bless his heart."

"And I give a crap because why?"

"Nathan!"

Jack chuckled.

"Don't encourage his bad behavior, Jack," she said as they came to the end of the sidewalk.

"Wouldn't dream of it." He turned to his son. "How do you feel about fishing?"

He shrugged. "My dad and I used to fish all the time."

Jack forced a smile. "I'm going bass fishing this weekend, and I wanted you to come along. I thought we'd leaveSaturday morning and come back sometime Sunday."

Nathan looked at Jack then turned to his mother.

"We don't have plans this weekend. Go ahead. You'll have fun."

Nathan didn't say anything and Jack spoke to cover the silence. He opened his mouth and heard himself say,"Daisy why don't you come along too?" And he couldn't believe it. The pressure in the back of his skull movedup and squeezed his brain. He'd just done the one thing that he'd gotten mad at Billy for even suggesting.

All he could do now was hope like hell she refused.

Chapter Fifteen

A slight breeze rippled across the surface of Lake Meredith while sunlight reflected off the water like bits oftinfoil. Birds circled overhead, fish jumped, and the heavy bass guitar and hard drum beats of Godsmackpounded the air like a fist.

Daisy sat cross-legged in the front of Jack's boat and gazed at Nathan through the lens of the Fuji digital camerashe'd brought with her when she'd returned from Seattle. She wore her white one-piece swimsuit beneath a redtank top and jean shorts. A big straw hat shielded her face from the sun.