Wait,” Julia said as she turned onto Daisy’s street. “Run that last part by me again.”
The night’s events had hit Daisy full force once she’d gotten into Julia’s rental, and words had been hard to come by. She was a sloppy mess of tears and snot, and her throat still burned. She was pretty sure she wasn’t making much sense either.
“TJ is Jack, and Jack is TJ.” Daisy closed her eyes against the fresh assault of pain. “They’re one and the same. He’s been lying to me all this time.”
“Pastor Jack is TJ—your online guy?”
“Yes!”
“But . . . he’s a pastor,” Julia said as she pulled into Daisy’s drive and shut off the ignition.
“I know, right?” Daisy sniffled and wiped her face with the soggy tissue. “I’ve taken the ugly cry to a whole new level.”
“Who can blame you? Are you sure about this? How’d you find out?”
She told Julia about TJ offering to pass the performance contract to a friend and about Joe Connelly’s comment to her tonight.
“Well, I’ll be darned,” Julia said.
“I thought I knew him. I trusted him. Why would he do this to me?”
“But how did you not know it was him? There were pictures on his profile—you showed them to me.”
With trembling fingers Daisy jabbed the Flutter app button and opened Jack’s profile. “Sunglasses. Ball cap. A year of facial growth! Is it any wonder I didn’t recognize him?”
“Oh.” Julia studied the images. “Yeah, I see where you might’ve missed that. But what about his bio? What did he say about himself?”
“Well, let me just read it to you.” Daisy read it off, mocking the carefully worded description of his profession.
“Oh brother,” Julia said when Daisy was finished.
“Very clever, Jack. Or TJ, or whoever you are,” Daisy mumbled, closing the app and staring out the windshield.
“He actually managed to create his entire profile without even once lying,” Julia said.
“But he didn’t exactly tell the truth either, did he?”
“No, he did not. TJ . . . the J is probably for Jack, right? He must’ve used his initials.”
“I guess so.” Here she’d been torn between two men, and they were one and the same. Her prospects had gone from two to zero in a matter of seconds.
“I feel like such an idiot. I told TJ things I’ve never told anyone. I made myself vulnerable to Jack without even knowing it was him, and that is so not fair. I was falling for TJ, Julia—and he doesn’t even exist.”
“Oh, but, honey . . .” Julia brushed Daisy’s hair off her shoulder. “He does exist.”
“Not as far as I’m concerned. Not anymore. I trusted Jack, and he betrayed that trust.” Daisy sniffed. “Why would he do this to me, Julia?”
“I don’t know. Have you talked to him yet?”
“No. But he knows I know. He saw Joe talking to me, and he could see it on my face. He tried to apologize after the concert, but there wasn’t time.”
Julia shook her head. “Maybe there’s some kind of reasonable explanation.”
“What could possibly excuse this kind of deception?”
“I don’t know.”
“Maybe he’s some weirdo who gets his kicks out of deceiving women online. Maybe he’s talking to a dozen other women just like me. I’m such an idiot!”
Julia squeezed her hand. “Forgive me, but I have to ask . . . Are you more upset about losing TJ? Or more upset about losing Jack?”
Daisy’s heart gave a heavy thump, and she pressed her palm against it. She’d fallen for both of them. That much was obvious now.
“I honestly don’t know,” she admitted with a heavy sigh.
“Listen . . .” Julia pulled her keys from the ignition. “I’m going to come in with you, all right? I’m not leaving you alone tonight.”
As good as that sounded, someone needed to take Daisy’s place at cleanup. “That’s sweet, Julia, but what about—”
“No buts. I know someone needs to take your place in town, and I have just the right person in mind.” She gave Daisy a saucy look, holding out her hand. “Now give me your phone.”
Daisy gave her a speculative look as she complied.
Julia touched the screen a few times, and a couple seconds later she spoke into the phone. “No, Jack, this isn’t Daisy. It’s her sister, Julia. Listen, Daisy needs someone to take over the cleanup crew tonight and—Uh-huh . . . all right.”
A smile tilted Daisy’s mouth as she mopped up the last of her tears. It felt good to have someone taking care of her. To have a sister on her side.
“She’s fine. Yes, she’s right here, in fact.” Julia listened a few more seconds, then mouthed to Daisy, Do you want to talk to him?
Daisy was emphatically shaking her head no before she even finished. Good grief, he was the last person she wanted to talk to right now.
“Now’s not a good time, Jack . . . All right. I’ll tell her.”
Julia hung up the phone, and Daisy held her breath waiting to hear what he’d said.
Julia gave Daisy a sympathetic look. “He sounded awfully hopeful when he answered the phone. He’s obviously worried about you. He saw the interview.”
Daisy’s breath drained from her body. “Great. Why shouldn’t he witness my humiliation? The rest of the country did.”
“Aw, it wasn’t that bad.”
Daisy gave her a rueful smile. “Liar.”
“He asked me to tell you how sorry he is and said he hoped you’d give him a chance to explain.”
“Explain,” Daisy huffed. “What possible explanation could there be?”
“I don’t know.” Julia carelessly tossed her keys into her purse. “But what I do know is that we’re going into that house, and we’re going to talk or watch a movie or eat a tub of double fudge swirl—if you’re up to it—and Pastor Jack will be on trash duty till the sun comes up. Now, let’s go have some girl time.”