Page 14 of Nashville Lights

Jed and I designed the house together. Once Daisy came along and Jed and Laney bought their own property, he got busy fixing up his own house and I worked away on mine, but we’d often help each other out. It took me almost three years from start to finish, but even I can admit it turned out better than I imagined it.

I was glad I’d worked so hard on it, every spare minute I had. The month after I put the finishing touches on the house, it became Daisy’s as well as mine.

With Luke and Leo’s help, I boxed up most of Jed and Laney’s stuff, put it in one of our storage sheds, and rented out the house. When Daisy’s older, she can decide what she wants to do with it.

I brought home all the stuff I thought she might want close to her. Her toys, all the photos we could find, and a few keepsakes of her parents’ I thought might make her feel like their memories were still very much with us.

In the six months since then, we’ve made the front guest room Daisy’s own. Ma and Dakota and Tobias helped decorate and they didn’t hold back. They told me what to do and I built it, painted it and put it together.

Daisy’s got pink walls, a pink four-poster bed, a hand-built two-story princess’s castle, a tent full of pillows and blankets, along with stars and photos that hang from its pitched roof, two comfortable pink velvet reading chairs in a reading corner next to the window, a built-in pink bookshelf, a stocked closet full of (you guessed it, pink) princess and cowgirl outfits, and a window seat that catches the sun and looks out over the view.

For all that pink, it could be gaudy as fuck, but Dakota and Tobias know how to decorate. It’s tastefully done, like something out of a decorating magazine.

When she’s a little older and has had more time to process everything, I’ll show her the details of our house that were her dad’s ideas. And there were plenty of them.

If only it hadn’t been raining that night. If only they hadn’t been in such a rush to get home and see their little girl. If only I’d kept him busy just a little longer, and they’d canceled their date night, like they so often did because of all the work that always needed doing.

None of the regrets will bring them back.

The driveway of the farmhouse is, as usual, full of pick-up trucks.

I pull up alongside Luke’s and kill the engine.

The sound of laughter and the clinking of dishes drifts out the screen door and the open windows and, for a moment, I allow myself the simple pleasure of being back where things make sense.

There’s another truck parked next to Leo’s that gets my attention.

It’s Kade’s old truck. Aqua and white. It still has that old pair of horns he stuck on the grille back when we were lean, sun-bronzed kids.

The exact same truck he gave to his little sister the day she turned sixteen.

Before I can even think about this too hard, the door bursts open and Daisy bursts out, all strawberry blond curls and boundless energy, charging toward me like I’m the finish line of her favorite race. “Uncle Nate!”

I crouch down just as she leaps into my arms, her tiny body full of a warmth and trust I’m not sure I’ll ever deserve.

“Hey, Daze,” I murmur. She smells of sun and home and the apple pie she must have been tasting as she helped bake it. “Did you miss me?”

“Uh-huh,” she nods. “Uncle Nate,look.” She’s unusually animated tonight. Daisy points to her lips, which are barely painted with a dab of pink lipstick. “It’s called Pink Kisses. My new friend let me wear some. And she let me wearthis.” It’s a tiny gold butterfly necklace.

“Your new friend, huh.” Let me guess. Just thinking of her being here feels like a jolt directly to the heart. We haven’t seen each other in years. I’ve seen her once since that day…almost eight years ago now.

“Did you have your meeting in the city?”

“Sure did,” I reply, straightening up with her in my arms and walking us toward the house. “But the whole time, I wascounting the minutes ‘til I could get back to my favorite girl.”

I carry Daisy up the wide front steps I helped my dad build when I was around Daisy’s age and I pull open the screen door. With Daisy’s arms wrapped around my neck, I take in the scene—Ma serving up fried chicken and homemade cornbread, Luke and Leo in from the hayfields arguing and drinking beer, Dakota and Tobias setting the food on the table.

And there she is.

Sitting at the far end, sipping a glass of white wine.

Roxie Tucker.

Our eyes meet, and there’s that jolt again, but a thousand times stronger now that she’s actuallyhere. In the very same room. Breathing the same air and filling it with that special brand of electricity she always seemed to carry around with her.

How’d she get so fucking beautiful?

She’s always been beautiful, butHoly Mother. She’s bloomed into a full-blown goddess, sophisticated and citified but still with that country girl edge.

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