Jack didn't remember that one, but if he'd yelled at her it was probably because he had a little crush on her anddidn't know what to do about it.

Steven gave me a sticker for my bike. It's a rainbow. He says it's too girly for his bike. Jack said it looked weird.

Sometimes he hurts my feelings. Steven says he doesn't mean to. He doesn't have sisters.

He'd never known she was so sensitive. Well, yeah, he guessed he'd known that. But he'd never known she'dgotten upset over stuff like saying a sticker was weird.

Yesterday was Halloween. My mom made me be Annie Oakley again 'cause I haven't outgrown the stupidcostume from last year. Jack was Darth Vader and Steven dressed up as Princess Lea. Steven had big cinnamonbuns over his ears to look like her. I laughed so hard I about wet myself.

Jack chuckled. He remembered that costume, but he'd forgotten most of the other things Daisy had writtenabout. He'd also forgotten that Steven loved to tell jokes. A lot of them Daisy had jotted down in her diary. He'dforgotten that Steven was a pretty funny kid and that they'd spent hours together laughing about Mrs. Jansenwalking her old dog, or their favorite episode of "The Andy Griffith Show."

I don't know why they talk about that show so much, Daisy had written. It's stupid. "The Love Boat" is soooooomuch better.

Yeah, and Jack remembered he and Steven laughing about "The Love Boat" behind Daisy's back.

The more Jack read, the more he laughed out loud at some of the things they all used to do. The more helaughed, the more he felt some of his anger subside which surprised the hell out of him.

The more he read, the more he saw a pattern of Daisy turning to Steven when she was upset about something, orwhen Jack had unknowingly hurt her feelings. Last Sunday night, she'd told him that Steven was not only herhusband, but her best friend. She'd said she could talk to him about any thing. That she and Steven had laughedand cried together.

Jack wasn't the type of guy who cried. Instead he stuffed everything deep until it disappeared. Only it didn't.

Daisy had been right. They couldn't be together if he couldn't get past his anger. Yes, he had a right to it, butbeing right was very lonely.

Jack shut the diary and looked out over his backyard. He had two choices. He could live the rest of his life witha chest full of anger and bitterness. Alone. Or he could move on. Like Daisy had said. At the time she'd said it,it hadn't seemed possible. Now he felt the glimmer of something in the pit of his soul.

Yeah, Daisy and Steven had kept his child a secret. Yeah, that sucked, but he couldn't let it eat at him anylonger. He had to let it go or he was afraid he'd die a bitter and lonely old man. He hadn't known Nathan for thefirst fifteen years of his life, but Jack figured he had a good fifty or so ahead of him. And he had to decide howhe wanted to spend those years.

He stood and shoved everything back into the old coffee can. He walked back into his house and took the letterSteven had written him from the drawer he'd tossed it in. This time when he read it, he read something he'dmissed the first time. Steven wrote about the two of them and how much he'd missed Jack over the years. Hetalked about loving Daisy and Nathan. He ended by asking Jack's forgiveness. He asked Jack to let go of hisbitterness and to get on with his life. And for the first time in fifteen years, Jack was going to try to do just that.

He didn't have a plan. He just thought of his life, and he didn't try to stop the memories. Good or bad. He didn'ttap them down or shut them out.

He felt every damn one of them.

Friday after work, he asked Nathan to follow him into his office. They stood next to each other as he pulled outthe coffee can and handed Nathan the switch comb. "This was your dad's when he was in sixth grade," he saidwithout a trace of anger. "I thought you might like to have it."

Nathan pushed the button on the handle, and surprisingly it sprang open. He combed the side of his hair.

"Sweet." Nathan took the Star Wars figures but decided against the green army men.

"You're getting your license Monday, right?"

"Yeah. Mom says I can drive her Caravan sometimes." He frowned. "I told her, no way."

"It's hard to be cool in a Caravan." Jack tried and failed not to smile. "Hard to burn 'em off."

Nathan shook his head. "She just doesn't get it."

Jack grabbed the coffee can and wrapped an arm around Nathan's shoulders. Together they walked from theoffice. "And she won't either."

"'Cause she's a girl."

"No, son. Because she's not a Parrish." At least not yet.

"Mom! Guess what?" Nathan said the second he walked into the back of the house. "Jack let me drive theShelby. Sweet!"

Daisy was up to her elbows in cake frosting. She was throwing a party for Pippen, who'd gone three dayswithout peeing in his pull-ups. "What? You'll kill yourself."

"He was very safe," Jack said from the doorway. "He even reminded me to put on my seat belt."

At the sight of him standing there in a pair of khaki pants and a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, herheart seemed to squeeze and swell all at the same time.

His gaze met hers and something hot and vital simmered in his eyes. When he spoke, it was low and sexy.

"Good evenin', Daisy Lee," he said, and the velvet in his voice seemed to reach across the distance and touchher.

There was definitely something different about hint tonight, but before she could respond, Lily hobbled into thekitchen on crutches. "Hey, Jack. How's it goin'?"

He turned to Lily and whatever had been betweenDaisy and Jack evaporated like a heat mirage. "Hey,Lily. Hot enough for ya?"

"Shoot. It's hotter than a honeymoon hotel." She moved to the counter and looked in the mixing bowl. "Did youdrop by for Pippen's potty party?" Lily stuck her finger into the cake frosting, then licked it dean.

"Yes, Jackson, you have to stay," Louella insisted as she walked from her bedroom into the kitchen. "Webought coonskin hats for everyone, and we'll eat off Thomas the Tank Engine plates."

Nathan moaned as if in severe pain and Jack looked at his son as if he sympathized. But he said, "I'd love tostay, Miz Brooks. Thank you." He moved to the counter next to Daisy, and the sleeve of his shirt brushed herarm as he tasted her frosting. He licked it off and looked down into her gaze.

"Mmm, that's good, buttercup." Then he bent down and whispered into her ear, "I wanna lick this off yourthighs."

"Jack!"

He chuckled and grabbed her hand. "If y'all will excuse us for a few minutes, I need to talk to Daisy." He pulledher behind him out the back door. As soon as the door shut behind them, he drew her against him and loweredhis mouth to hers. The kiss was sweet and gentle and so heartbreaking she pulled away.

"I've missed you, Daisy," he said.

"Jack, don't. This has been so difficult for me."

He pressed his finger to her lips. "Let me finish."

He dropped his hand to the side of her neck and looked into her eyes. "I'm in love with you. It feels like I'vebeen in love with you my whole life. You're it for me, Daisy. You always have been." His thumb lightlybrushed her jaw. "Over the Years, I've held on to a whole stomachful of anger and bitterness. I blamed you andSteven for everything, when the truth is, I had a hand in what happened to us. I still don't like that I wasn'taround when Nathan was growing up, but I just have to believe things happened the way they did for a reason. Ican't fight it or argue with it or hold on to it. I'm just letting it go. Like you said."

"Are you sure you can do that?"

"I'm tired of being mad at you," he said as if he meant it. "And I'm tired of being mad at Steven too. I lovedSteven when we were kids. We were buddies. In the letter he wrote to me, he asked if I ever missed him." Jacktook a deep breath, then cleared his throat. "I've missed the Steven I grew up with every day He's gone, and Jcan't hate a dead man." His paused and his gaze skimmed her face. "Remember the first night you came to myhouse and I told you I'd make your life a misery?"

She smiled. He'd broken her heart, and now he was fixing it. "Yes."

"I want you to forget I ever said that, because I want to spend the rest of your life trying to make you happy" Hefished around in his breast pocket and pulled out a cheap little ring. The gold was chipped off the band and theglass "diamond" had dulled. He reached for her hand and placed it in her palm. "I gave you this ring when wewere in the sixth grade. If you'll have me, Daisy, I'll buy you a real one."

Her mouth fell open. "This is the ring I put in the time capsule."

"Yeah. I dug it back up the other day. I have your diary too." His fingers brushed the side of her throat. "Marryme, Daisy Lee."

She nodded. "I love you with all my heart, Jack Parrish. I have always loved you, and I believe it is my fate tolove you forever."

He let out a pent-up breath like there had been a doubt. He pulled her into a hug that lifted her off her feet.

"Thank you," he said and pressed his smile to her lips.

The back door opened and Nathan stepped out. "Mom, you have to come inside. Grandma-" He stopped whenhe realized what was going on.

Jack set Daisy on her feet and she turned to face her son. Jack wrapped his arms around her middle and pulledher back against his chest. Nathan looked from one to the other until his gaze stopped on Daisy.

"Your grandma is what?" Daisy asked.

"She's rambling on about people I don't know and don't give a crap about again," he answered, distracted by thesight of the two of them. He raised his gaze to Jack. "What's going on?"

"I asked your mother to marry me."