She lay on her stomach on blue sheets. The rest of the bedding was in a tangled heap by her feet. Jack lay halfon top of her; his arm around her waist, one leg between hers. His groin pressed into her behind and hip. A lampflooded the bed with warm yellow light, and the only sound in the room was of heavy, spent breathing. Theirskin was glued together and a warm fluttery afterglow settled on her flesh. She hadn't felt this happy andcontent in a very long time. Jack loved her. She loved him. Things were going to work out for them this time.

She thought Jack had fallen asleep until he moaned. "My God, it just keeps getting better. I didn't think anythingcould top the chair."

Daisy smiled.

"Damn, did you just come twice?"

"Yes. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

His hand stirred at her waist, as if he tried to lift it but didn't have the energy. Carefully, she turned onto herback and looked at him. His hair was stuck to his forehead and his eyes were closed.

"What time is it?" she asked.

His lids fluttered open and he lifted his arm from across her stomach. He looked at his watch and said, "Early."

She grabbed his wrist and looked at the digital face. "I have to get going before Nathan gets home."

Jack rolled on his side and spread his fingers wide on her stomach just below her breasts. "Don't leave," hemurmured as he kissed her shoulder.

"I have to." She sat up and pushed the hair from her face. "But I'll come back for breakfast."

"Don't leave Lovett." He lay on his side and raised onto his elbow. "You and Nathan should move here."

She'd been thinking along those lines too. She just hadn't known he had also. "When did you decide this?" sheasked and looked down into his green eyes.

"Probably when we were fishing, but I got serious about it yesterday when we were swapping spit in yourmomma's front yard and I didn't care who was watching." He sat up and took her hand in his. "I wanted peopleto watch. I wanted people to see us together. I wanted people to see us kissing today. I want everyone to knowthat you're mine." He kissed her fingertips. "I want a life with you and our son."

It was exactly what she wanted too. Hearing him say it made it less scary.

"I love you, Daisy Lee. I've loved you all of my life."

She looked into the pain and passion in his gaze. "I love you too, Jack." But, a little voice in her head wondered,was it enough this time? It hadn't been last time.

She excused herself to go to the bathroom, and when she returned, Jack had pulled on a pair of jeans. Whileshe'd been in the bathroom, he retrieved her dress and panties and they lay on his rumpled bed. She stepped intoher panties and he helped her with her dress.

"So, what are you going to feed me for breakfast?" he asked as he adjusted a strap on her back.

"I'll think of something good."

"Something with whipped cream?"

She fled the strap at her side. "And a cherry"

He placed his arms around her and pulled her back against his chest. "I love cherries," he said against the side ofher neck.

His bare chest warmed her skin and she had to fight the urge not to turn and kiss his neck. If she did that, shewouldn't make it home before Nathan. "Jack, I want this to work between us this time."

He squeezed her tight. "It will."

He sounded so confident she almost believed hint "Let's talk to Nathan about it together."

"Whatever you want."

"I don't know how he'll feel about moving to Lovett, and I don't want him to think we're moving too fast." Shestepped out of his embrace and smoothed her hands over the wrinkles on her dress. "It hasn't been a year sinceSteven's death, and I don't want him to be uncomfortable with you and me together." She looked about the floorto see if he'd remembered her shoes. "I don't care what other people think, but! don't want Nathan to think we'retogether just to replace his dad." Her shoes must still be in the kitchen, and she returned her attention to Jack.

The loving man who'd just held her and assured her everything would work out this time turned to stone rightbefore her eyes. His shoulders straightened. His jaws clenched and his gaze hardened.

"What's wrong?"

He walked across the room, passed the yellow light that spilled into the gray shadows. "How long do we have tocall Steven 'Nathan's dad'?"

Daisy watched his bare back and said, "I thought you might be getting over that."

"I thought so too." He yanked open a dresser drawer and pulled out a T-shirt. "But I don't think I'll ever get overwhat that bastard took from me."

She closed her eyes for several painful heartbeats. "Don't talk about Steven like that."

He laughed without humor. "That's rich." He shoved his arms through the short sleeves. "You defending StevenMonroe to me."

"I'm not defending Steven."

He pulled the shirt over his head and down his stomach. "Then what are you doing?"

"I loved Steven for most of my life. He was not only my husband; he was my best friend. We laughed and criedtogether. I could talk to him about anything."

"Could you talk to him about how you felt about me?"

She'd almost had it this time. Almost, but it was slipping through her fingers like sand.

"Deep down the pit of your stomach where it gets tight at just the thought of being with me." He stalked backacross the room and stopped just inches from her. "Did you tell him that?"

"No, but he knew." She looked up into his face, at the passion and bitterness in his green eyes. At the samepassion and bitterness she'd seen the first night she'd seen him. "Being with Steven wasn't at all like being with you. It was different. It was...

"What?"

"Calm. It wasn't scaly. It didn't hurt. I could breathe around him. I didn't feel like if I didn't touch him, I woulddie. Like a part of something inside of me belonged to someone else."

"Isn't that the way it's supposed to feel? Isn't it supposed to feel like I want to smash you against my chest sohard I can still feel you after you leave?" He grabbed her shoulders and slid his hands to the sides of her face.

"Breathe the same breath. Feel the same heartbeat as you melt inside of me?"

Tears stung her eyes and she didn't even try to stop them. Her heart was breaking and her dreams had justslipped through her fingers. Again. "It's not enough. It wasn't enough last time. And it isn't enough this timeeither."

"What does it take, then? I love you. I've never loved any woman the way I love you."

She believed him. "Forgiveness," she said as the first tears spilled from her eyes. "You have to forgive me, Jack.

You have to forgive me and you have to forgive Steven, too."

He dropped his hands from her and took a step back. "That's asking a lot, Daisy."

"Too much?"

"Where Steven is concerned, yes."

"And me?"

He looked at her and his silence was her answer.

"How can we be together if you can't forgive me of the past?"

"We won't think about it." He grabbed his boots and shoved his feet inside.

"For how long? For how long won't we think about it before it comes up again? Tomorrow? A week from now?

Next year? Do you really think we can live with that between us?"

"I love you, Daisy," he said without looking at her. "It's enough."

"You also hate me."

"No." He shook his head and his gaze met hers. "No, I hate what you did. How could I not hate that you keptmy son from me?"

"What I did was wrong." She wiped her tears from her face. "I admit that. I should have told you about Nathan.

I was scared and a coward. One day turned into one year. One year into two, and the longer I put it off, theharder it got. There is no excuse." She held out her hand to him, then dropped it to her side. "You have tounderstand. Steven -"

"Oh, I understand Steven," he interrupted. "I understood him the night y'all stood in my front yard and told meyou were married. I understood that he loved you as much as I did and when he saw an opportunity to take youfrom me, he took it. He took my son too. And what you have to understand is, I can't just forget something likethat."

"I'm not asking you to forget, but if you and I are to have a future, you have to get past it."

"You say it like it's easy."

"It's the only way."

"I don't know if I can. Especially where Steven is concerned."

"Then we can't be together. It would never work."

"Just like that? You get to decide?" He pointed a finger at her and slashed his hand through the air. "You get tosay 'get over it' or get out of my life? You get to tell me how to feel?"

She shook her head and gazed at him through the blur of her tears. She breathed past the searing pain in herchest. She knew Jack felt it too. It was there in his raw gaze, and just like the last time, there was no way to stopit. "No. I'm telling you that you have a right to your anger. You have a right to it for the rest of your life. But itseems to me very lonely company when you can have so much more if you could somehow let it go."

Chapter Twenty

On the drive to Daisy's, neither of them spoke. The deep purr of the Shelby's engine was the only sound withinthe dark interior of the Mustang. Jack pulled the car next to the curb, and Daisy looked at him through the inkydarkness one last time. Giving him one last chance to change things that he could not change. To say the wordsthat he could not say.

How could she ask him to forget and forgive? As if it were that easy. As if it hadn't eaten a permanent hole inhis gut. As if it wasn't always there, right below the surface.

So he watched her walk away. Into her mother's house, and he slid the Shelby in gear and drove home. Hehadn't tried to stop her this time. There would be no fight. No one to hit.