"You know how." He lowered his gaze to her mouth. "And make it good."

She ran her cold hands up his wet chest and shoulders and through the side of his hair. She lifted her face andslid one hand to the back of his head. She touched her mouth to his and she felt her heart expand. It filled herchest and made breathing difficult and there was no denying it for exactly what it was. She'd felt it before. Onlythis time it was stronger. Less confused. Like turning the camera's focus ring until it was very clear.

She was in love with Jack Parrish. Again. Her heart had won this round.

The thinnest slice of sunlight separated their mouths. They both held their breaths; their gazes locked. Waitingfor the other to make the first move.

Daisy gave him a sweet little peck. "Is that good?"

His lips brushed across hers as he shook his head.

"Try again."

"How about this?" Her lips parted and she touched the seam of his mouth with the tip of her tongue.

He sucked in a breath and his voice was rough when he asked, "Is that the best you can do?"

She raised a hand to the side of his face and brushed her fingers against the stubble of his jaw. "No, but don'tthink you can handle the best I can do."

"Try Me."

Daisy's eyes drifted shut and she melted into him just a little. The tips of her breasts brushed the front of hisshirt and her nipples puckered from more than the cold. Warmth spread across her flesh and settled between herlegs. She pressed her open mouth to his and kissed him. At first she gave him soft teasing kisses that had Jackchasing her tongue for more. A frustrated groan rose from his chest, and he tilted his head to one side andturned up the heat. He forced her mouth open wider and took over.

With their lips locked together, he wrapped his arms around her and took a step back. He grabbed her behind inhis big hands and pulled her onto the tips of her toes.

He drew back and looked into her face. "You feel good." Very slowly he let her body slide down his, then hepulled her back up. "No one has ever felt as good as you." His mouth covered hers again. Cold water from thehose ran across her toes as the kiss turned hot.

Behind her, Daisy heard someone clear his throat, a split second before Nathan's voice penetrated her lust-filledhaze. "Ah, Mom?"

Jack raised his face, and she dropped onto her heels and spun around. "Nathan!" It took a few dazed momentsfor her to realize that he wasn't alone. A teenaged girl stood next to him. Nathan looked from her face to Jack'sand his cheeks turned deep red.

"How long have you been standing there?" Jack asked, his voice calm and collected for a man who'd just hadhis hands on Daisy's behind, sliding her up and down his body.

"We saw you from down the street." Nathan returned his gaze to Daisy. He didn't say anything more and shecouldn't tell what he was thinking.

Daisy forced a smile on her face and said, "Are you going to introduce your friend?"

"This is Brandy Jo." He pointed toward Daisy. "That's my mom and Jack."

"It's a pleasure to meet y'all."

Daisy moved to take a step forward but Jack's hand on the waistband of her shorts kept her in front of him. Shelooked up over her shoulder at him, he raised a brow, and the light dawned. Jack was using her for cover. Shefelt heat creep up her neck to her cheek. Just like Nathan. The only person who didn't seem embarrassed wasJack.

She turned her attention to Nathan and Brandy Jo.

"Do you live close by?" she asked, to cover the awkward silence.

"Over on Taft." Brandy Jo glanced up at Nathan. "The first day Nathan and I met, I told him that we're kind ofrelated. My aunt Jessica is married to Ronnie Darlington's cousin Bull."

Well, at least she wasn't a blood relative to Ronnie. "Lily and Ronnie's divorce was final a few weeks ago."

"Oh. I didn't know that." She smiled and said just above a whisper, "Ronnie's a dog and no one could figure outwhat Lily ever saw in him."

Brandy Jo was obviously a smart girl.

"I came by to talk to you about that football game tomorrow night," Jack said.

"And you couldn't find anything to do until I got here, so you decided to make out with my mom in the frontyard?"

Daisy's mouth fell open.

Jack laughed. "It seemed like a good way to pass the time."

Daisy turned around and looked at him.

"What?" he said through an evil grin. "You thought so too."

Chapter Eighteen

Daisy had lived in the Northwest for fifteen years, but she'd never forgotten how seriously Texans took theftfootball. Be it the Texas Stadium in Dallas, a high school field in Houston, or a small park in Lovett, footballwas considered a second religion and was worshiped accordingly.

Amen.

What Daisy hadn't known was that this particulargame was an annual event. A yearly meeting where grown men gathered to sweat, ram into each other, andcompare battle wounds. There were no yardline markers. No referees. No goalposts. Just two sidelines and endzones marked off with DayGlo orange spray paint, and someone with a stopwatch. Jack's team wore redpractice jerseys, the other team wore blue.

Each team brought grit and spit and a desire to tear each other's heads off all in the name of fun.

This was football in its rawest, purest form, and Nathan Monroe was going to be the only player who wore padsand a helmet. A fact that angered him to no end.

Daisy tried to talk him out of his anger by pointing out that he was fifteen and he was playing against men whowere all a lot older and bigger. He didn't seem to care that he'd get hurt, only that he'd looked like a wuss.

"Nathan, I paid over five thousand dollars for your straight teeth," she'd told him. "You're not going to get themknocked out."

It wasn't until some time later, when Brandy Jo showed up at the park and told him she liked the way he lookedin pads and helmet, that his mood seemed to brighten a bit.

She and Nathan caught a ride with Jack to the park, and as the three of them moved closer to the playing field,Jack took a closer look at her dress. "That doesn't look like your cheerleader outfit," he said when Nathanwalked over to Billy to get his red-mesh jersey.

Daisy had ignored Jack's suggestion that she wear her cheerleader skirt and sweater, and had chosen instead apeach apron dress that crisscrossed down the back. She looked down at the hem of the dress just above herknees. "Too long?"

"And it doesn't have a back."

"I guess I won't be doing any of those toe-touch jumps that you were apparently so fond of in high school."

His gaze scanned the members of his team assembled in the center of the field. "In the dress you got on, you'dprobably hurt your pom-poms. And that would be a true shame."

"You don't need to worry about my pom-poms." She stopped at the red sideline. "They're fine."

"They certainly are," he said over his shoulder as he continued toward his team.

Daisy stared after him and smiled. He wasn't wearing anything beneath his mesh jersey, and his tan skin showedthrough the tiny holes. Her gaze slid down his back to his tight, butt-hugging football pants. Jack Parrish wasmighty fine himself. His pants encased his legs to just below his knees, and he wore black football socks andcleats. He moved as if he hadn't a care in the world. As if he wasn't about to spend the next hour or so gettingrun over and the stuffing knocked out of him.

Tucker Gooch called her name and waved to her from the middle of the blue team. She waved back to him andnoticed a lot of faces she'd gone to school with. Cal Turner and Marvin Ferrell. Lester Crandall and Leon Kribs.

Eddy Dean Jones and several of the Calhoun boys, Jimmy and Buddy included. She wondered if Buddy knewthat after he'd had sex with Lily, she'd gone crazy and driven her car into Ronnie's front room.

Probably not.

She recognized a lot of other faces too. The people she'd grown up with in Lovett. Penny Kribs and little ShayCalhoun. Marvin's wife, Mary Alice, andGina Brown.

Jealousy knotted Daisy's stomach. She wondered if Gina and Jack had been together in the past month. Theyprobably had. Jealousy moved up from her stomach to twist her heart. She knew the feeling and was familiarwith it. She'd felt it fifteen years ago when just the thought of Jack with someone else used to torment her,sending her emotions bubbling up over the top.

But Jack wasn't hers and she wasn't a kid anymore. She knew what to do with jealousy now. She didn't fight itor pretend it didn't exist. She felt every prickly thorn of it. Then she let it go as best she could.

Her head won this round over her heart, and she sat in a folding chair next to Rhonda and the girls on thesidelines. All three little girls wore red cheerleader outfits and jumped about like their legs were made ofsprings.

"Last year Billy tore a groin muscle," Rhonda told her as she pulled off Tanya's socks so the baby could wiggleher toes. "He whined about it for three weeks."

"Marvin broke his thumb last year," Mary Alice added as the leaned forward in her chair.

Groins and thumbs weren't covered by padding and helmets. Daisy stood, ready to drag Nathan away from theteam huddle, then she sat back down. He would never forgive her if she did that. So she crossed her fingersinstead.

The game kicked off at seven-thirty. It was ninety degrees in the shade and sweat poured off the players. Jackwas the quarterback for the red team, and Daisy had forgotten how much she liked to watch him play. Everytime he drew his arm back to drill that ball down the field, his jersey pulled up and Daisy was treated to a viewof his flat stomach and navel just above the waistband of his pants. When he got knocked flat, she got a glimpseof his chest.