"You've been living up North too long, Daisy Lee." He pulled a pocket knife out of his front pocket and madewafer-thin pats. "Do you want some of this?" he asked Nathan.

Nathan nodded and Jack stabbed a few thin pats with the knife, then handed it over to him. Nathan laid them outon his rye bread and paused a moment to eye the knife before he handed it back.

"How about you, Daisy?"

"When was the last time you cleaned that knife?"

"Hmm." He finally sat down and pretended to think a moment "Last... no, the year before last. It was right afterI used it to gut an armadillo."

Nathan laughed as he took a big bite of his bread.

She was sure he was lying. Well, almost sure. "No thanks," Daisy answered.

"Pansy-ass," he said right before he sank his teeth into his bread covered in little squares of yellow butter.

She took a big bite of her salad. "Scardy-cat. Afraid of a little arugula and raspberry dressing."

"Hell, yeah," he said as thin creases appeared in the corners of his green eyes. "If a man eats stuff like that, thenext thing he knows, he's wearing pink and tying a sweater around his neck"

Nathan held up his hand and Jack gave him five.

"I thought you liked my raspberry salad."

"No," Nathan said. "I'm hungry."

Daisy didn't believe him. Jack was turning him into a traitor. A guy just like him.

"So what did you bring for dinner?" she asked.

Jack used his armadillo-gutting knife to cut his chicken. "Wild rice."

"That's it?"

"No, I brought some real lettuce and some bleu cheese dressing."

"We're having wild rice and salad?"

He stared across the table at her as if she couldn't possibly be so dense. "And the fish."

"You were that sure you'd catch our dinner, that you didn't bring anything else?"

"Hell, yeah. I wore my lucky shirt."

Daisy turned her attention to Nathan, who was highly amused.

Jack took a long drink of tea then set the glass on the table. "I coat the fish in flour, then fly 'em up."

"Sounds good," Nathan said.

Jack lifted a finger off his red plastic glass and pointed at his son. "It's the kind of meal that'll put hair on a guy'stea bag."

Her confusion must have shown on her face because Nathan cleared things up for her. "Gonads."

Gee, she probably could have gone all weekend without knowing that. "But," Daisy said weakly, "I'm not aguy."

"And you don't have a tea bag," her son pointed out needlessly.

She shook her head and placed a hand on her chest. "And I sincerely don't want a tea bag. Ever."

"That's what they all say before they try it," Jack said through a grin, then he and Nathan busted up laughing asif they got some secret joke that she didn't.

As she looked across the table at her son laughing, she felt left out. Left out of the guy club, but this was whatshe wanted, wasn't it? Since she'd flown down here weeks ago? Jack and Nathan to get to know each other? ForNathan to know his real father? Tea bag and gutting knife and all?

Yes, but not at her expense. She didn't want to be excluded. She wanted to be a part of the tea bag club, too. Itwasn't fair to be excluded because she didn't have the right equipment. Growing up, Jack had used the sametactic to exclude her from a lot of things.

"I know what you're doing, Jack," she said.

He looked at her.

"You're trying to exclude me like you and Steven used to when you didn't want me around."

His brows lowered but his smile stayed in place. "What are you talking about, buttercup?"

"Remember when you excluded me from your television club. You made a rule that in order to be a member, Ihad to pee on a tree while standing."

"I remember that, but I don't remember anything about a television."

She thought a moment. "It was the CBS club or something like that."

He thought a moment, then said, "Ahh. You mean the NBBC. I forgot about that." He grinned. "You thoughtthat was a televison club?"

"Of course."

He shook his head and chuckled. "Honey, that was the Nekkid Boobs and Butts Club. It's where we got togetherand looked at porn."

"Sweet."

"You guys had porn? You were in the sixth grade, for cryin' out loud." She was appalled. "You were little pervsand I didn't even know it."

His grin told her that she didn't even know the half of it.

Chapter Sixteen

After lunch, Daisy dragged a chaise longue to the shore and dropped her shorts. She wore sunglasses and herwhite one-piece swimming suit, cut high on the hips. It had a built-in bra top and thin straps. The boys had gonefishing again, and she'd opted to stay behind. She pulled out the latest issue of Studio Photography & Designand stretched out on the chaise. She read an article on the Hasselblad V-System and dreamed about thespectacular photographs she could take with it. Then she must have fallen asleep for real, because she dreamedshe'd won first place in a Kodak photography contest and she hadn't even entered. She dreamed she was up onstage, bluffing her way through a speech about a photograph she didn't remember taking, and Steven was in thefront row watching.

She dreamed about him often, and in her dreams, he always appeared as he had before his illness. Healthy andhappy and she was always glad to see him. He never spoke, he just gave her a smile that let her know that hewas okay, and that she was okay too.

The sound of an outboard engine woke her up and she opened her eyes. Her sunglasses where still on her face,but the trade magazine had slipped to the ground. She sat up and wondered how long she'd been asleep. Sheswung her feet to the side and took off her sunglasses. The sun was definitely lower, although it would be a longtime before it set. Her tan skin had a twinge of red; she would pay for falling asleep in the Texas sunlight.

She tossed her glasses and the magazine on the chair then stood. She moved toward the shore as Jack's boatcame toward her, parting the water with its pointed nose. Daisy raised a hand to her forehead and shielded hereyes from the sun. Jack stood at the bow; his cowboy shirt unsnapped, the edges fluttering against his bare chestand stomach. Nathan sat in the driver's seat, his intent gaze on Jack.

"Turn it off and raise the motor," Jack called out.

Nathan looked down and the sound of the engine got louder as it rose out of the water, then it stopped.

The boat drifted closer and gently bumped into the shoreline.

Jack looked over his shoulder as he spoke to Nathan, telling him what a great job he'd done. He turned back andwent down on one knee to grab a rope tied to the front of the boat.

"You got sunburned while we were gone," Jack said as he slowly raised his gaze to hers.

Daisy looked down at herself. She pressed her fingers to her chest above her suit. Her fingertips left white printson her pink skin. "I fell asleep."

He dropped the anchor over the side of the boat into shallow water, then he jumped down from the bow andstood in front of her, blocking the sun. "You burned your love bite."

Again she glanced down at herself. Visible just above the top of her swimsuit, her birthmark was a little darkerthan the rest of her skin. "What are you doing staring at my birthmark?"

The corners of his mouth slid upward into a slow, sexy grin. "Just making casual conversation, buttercup," hedrawled.

Asking about her love bite wasn't casual. The last time he'd commented on it, they'd both been naked. Theheated look in his eyes told her he was remembering that time too.

Daisy swallowed passed the sudden lump in her throat. She lowered her gaze from his mouth, past the thin lineof hair that ran down his chest and flat stomach to his navel. She recalled perfectly what his skin felt likebeneath her palms.

"Mom, guess what?"

Daisy returned her gaze to Jack's, to the desire he tried but failed to hide. "What?"

"I caught a bigmouth bass." Nathan jumped from the boat and landed next to Jack.

"It's a beauty," Jack confirmed and his gazed dropped to her mouth.

She turned her attention to her son. Whatever was between her and Jack was best left alone. "Show me."

Nathan jumped back up on the bow of the boat, then moved to the stern. Daisy walked passed Jack and wadedinto the water up to her hips. She held on to the outside of the boat as Nathan opened the live well and pulledout a stringer.

Jack watched his son as he held up the bass for his mother. It swung close to Daisy's face and she jumped back.

"You're such a girl," Nathan said through a teasing laugh.

Jack turned and moved up the shore toward camp. He and Nathan had had a good time fishing.

He felt closer to his son than he had before they'd come to the lake. While they fished, Nathan had talked abouthis life, and Steven had been a big part of that life.

"Before I quit, I was quarterback on my Optimist football team," he'd told Jack. "My dad told me you guysplayed football growing up."

His dad. Jack had been very careful not to show the slightest emotion. "We did," he'd said past the bitter taste inhis mouth. "I played quarterback until I quit my junior year."

Nathan had nodded. "That's what dad said. He said you had to quit to work for your dad, and that's how he gotto be quarterback his last two years of school and get all the good lookin' girls."

"Your dad was a pretty smooth guy. He never had any problems with the girls." The longer they talked aboutSteven, the easier it got. The easier it was to swallow the bitterness. Jack remembered what it was like to lose afather - the confusion and the loneliness. For a few hours, he was able to forget about anger and betrayal andtalk to Nathan about what it had been like to grow up with Steven Monroe.