Unforgettable You Page 2

  Unbelievable...

  “Yeah, maybe he’s just passing through.”

  “He could have come to see Aiyana,” Jada offered. Aiyana Turner had founded the boys’ ranch he’d once attended. Almost all of the students who went there adored her. She’d done a lot for troubled young men over the years and deserved the accolades. “There could be some sort of reunion going on,” she added, to bolster the argument. “After all, it is June, when schools are celebrating graduation.”

  A skeptical expression gave Tiffany’s true feelings away. “But does he know Aiyana that well? He didn’t attend New Horizons for even one full school year. And he went on to graduate from somewhere else.”

  “Still... You never know.”

  “That may be true.”

  Jada put up a hand to alert Tiffany to the fact that Atticus was wheeling his way back toward them.

  “Should we get anything else?” Atticus asked as he rolled up.

  Jada couldn’t help glancing around. “No, we’ve got enough. We should get going.”

  Atticus’s thick dark eyebrows jerked together above his milk-chocolate-colored eyes. While Jada had sandy-blond hair, her eyes were the exact same color, which was part of the reason everyone told them they looked just alike. “You’re done shopping? I thought we’d get a hot dog and a lemonade over at that stand.” He jerked his head to indicate what he meant.

  She didn’t dare risk running into Maddox, especially while she was with Atticus. How was her brother going to feel when he learned Maddox was back? While it was true that Maddox wasn’t directly responsible for putting Atticus in a wheelchair, he’d been very much involved in what went down that night. Nothing would’ve happened without him first setting those events in motion. And he’d immediately tried to protect his own brother, Tobias, who had been directly responsible.

  “I thought so, too,” she said, “but I feel a headache coming on. I should get home and take a painkiller so it can kick in before I go help Mom at the store today. Do you mind?”

  He lifted his hands. “I guess not.”

  Jada felt bad for cutting their excursion short. She and Atticus were just beginning to find common ground. He’d been so sullen and fatalistic since he lost the use of his legs. It’d been difficult to even talk to him while she was living in LA. Her mother complained that he wouldn’t come out of his room for days at a time, that he couldn’t seem to get on top of the depression that coincided with the loss he’d suffered. So Jada was glad he was finally starting to function more normally and live as well as he could. She hated to put a damper on his recovery, even by saying no to something as small as getting a hot dog together. But if he saw Maddox, she was afraid it would throw him into another tailspin, and he’d lose all the ground he’d made up. “Okay. We’ll be sure to get lunch next time we come,” she said and, with a quick wave to say goodbye to Tiffany, wheeled him out of the market.

  * * *

  Maddox Richardson couldn’t get away fast enough from the spot where he’d seen Jada Brooks. When he agreed to come to Silver Springs to become the principal of the brand-new girls’ school Aiyana Turner was opening right next to the original New Horizons Boys Ranch just outside of town, he’d been assured Jada didn’t live in the area anymore. Aiyana had told him Jada was married, with a child, and living in LA!

  So...had she and her little family moved to Silver Springs? Was he going to have to deal with the possibility of running into her whenever he was in town?

  Or was she just visiting?

  He stood behind the corrugated metal building that sheltered the vendors so he couldn’t be spotted and called his new boss.

  “You’re not going to believe who I just saw,” he blurted out the second Aiyana answered.

  “Maddox?” She sounded surprised by the lack of a hello or other lead-in. Or maybe she was reacting to the emergency in his voice.

  “Yeah, it’s me.”

  “Who did you see?” She didn’t give him a chance to answer before she added, “Please don’t tell me it was Atticus Brooks. He hardly ever leaves the house.”

  That was what she’d told him before! “It was Jada. But Atticus was with her.”

  There was a moment of silence.

  “Did she see you?” Aiyana asked at length.

  “I don’t think so. I slipped into the crowd as soon as I realized, but while I was trying to put some distance between us I almost bumped into that friend she used to hang out with all the time—Tiffany something.”

  “Tiffany Martinez.”

  “That’s the one. Jada might not have focused on me long enough to really see me, but Tiffany definitely recognized me.”

  “And she’ll tell Jada.”

  “No question. So...what’s going on?” When Aiyana had been encouraging him to accept the position, she’d told him that Jada’s father had died. She’d said Jada’s mother and brother were still in the area, but if he did his job and didn’t bother them, didn’t approach them at all, they probably wouldn’t even realize he was back. Not only had it been almost thirteen years since the terrible incident that had disrupted so many lives, including his own, he wasn’t the one who’d caused the damage! And the opportunity she was offering was simply too good to pass up, especially for someone with a checkered past, like him. It took a person like Aiyana to be able to see beyond the confusion and anger of his childhood to discover his potential as an adult.

  Besides, he owed her. She’d stayed in touch with him over the years, arranged a scholarship for his college education from a wealthy benefactor (he suspected it was the professional football player Hudson King, who did so much for the school, but the person writing the checks had chosen to remain anonymous). She’d also helped him get his first job at Westlake Academy in Utah by recommending him to her friend, who was in charge at the time. He’d been excited to come work for her, to take charge of the new girls’ school and do all he could to give back to her by giving back to them.

  But now... He was beginning to wonder if he’d made a mistake.

  “I don’t know what’s going on,” she said. “I’ll have to make a few calls.”

  “You haven’t heard anything about Jada moving back to town...”

  “No, but it’s not like that sort of thing would be reported in the paper. And I’ve been so busy getting the students here ready for graduation I haven’t been keeping in touch with what’s happening around me.”

  “She’s probably just visiting...”

  “That’s my guess, too.”

  “So it’ll be okay.”

  “I’ll call you as soon as I find out.”

  “I appreciate it.” He disconnected, scrubbing a hand over his face as he stared out toward the Topatopa Mountains. He’d already signed the lease on the house where he was living and taken the reins at the school. It wasn’t as if he could easily change his mind.

  But perhaps he was getting worked up for nothing. Since Jada’s mother and brother lived here, she was going to visit occasionally. And if she wasn’t here very often, maybe he could manage to avoid her.

  Letting his breath go in a sigh, he started toward the parking lot but had barely cleared the shade of the building and stepped into the sun when Aiyana called him back.

  “What’d you find?” He stopped walking and plugged one ear so he could hear above the throng of people chatting around him.

  “I think you’d better sit down,” she said.

  2

  “What are you doing here so early? Didn’t you go to the farmers’ market with Atticus?”

  Jada tried to set her fear and misgivings aside so they wouldn’t be revealed on her face. Her mother looked worn and tired. Jada knew part of it was the lupus. Flare-ups could be bad and the past few months had been rough. But Susan was also contending with her constant worry over Atticus. He was her baby, younger than Jada by six years,
and had always been her parents’ favorite, which made what Jada had done in high school that much worse. She’d allowed the “golden calf” of the family to be permanently damaged; Atticus had almost lost his life under her watch. “We decided to cut out a bit early today.”

  Her mother’s eyes widened. “You didn’t have an argument...”

  “No, of course not. I was getting a headache, that’s all.”

  “Oh.” Her mother didn’t ask if she was feeling better. Jada wanted to believe she would have, if Maya hadn’t interrupted by sticking her head into the front of the store from the bakery in back.

  “Hi, Mom! Come see! I’ve been baking chocolate chip cookies!”

  That she’d been baking something was apparent. She had a smudge of flour on her cheek and some in her hair. “On your own?”

  “Grandma said I could do it by myself this time.”

  At least her mother seemed to love Maya, despite the fact that she’d pushed and pushed for Jada to give Maya up for adoption and, when she wouldn’t, had refused to acknowledge her existence for the first two years of her life.

  “She knows how,” her mother said, almost defensively. “I’ve shown her.”

  “She’s a smart girl.” Maya was beautiful, too. She had her father’s thick dark hair, which she wore long, as well as her father’s big, dreamy Jake Gyllenhaal eyes. Maya was tall like him, too, but she didn’t have his thick frame. In that she took after Jada’s side. Maya reminded Jada of a gazelle, especially when she ran track, which was her favorite sport.

  “We just have to do the red velvet cookies,” Maya said.

  Jada slipped behind the counter. “Great. I’ll help you. You can head home and rest now, Mom.”

  A touch of regret entered her mother’s face as she glanced around the store. As difficult as it was to keep Sugar Mama profitable, she loved what she’d created and kept trying new marketing techniques, hoping to get the store to take off. That she didn’t make a lot of money hadn’t been a big deal when Jada’s father was alive and could help with the household bills, but now that he was gone, money was getting tight. That was another reason Jada hadn’t gotten her own place. She’d been staying at home so she could pay rent, a way to help without making her mother feel awkward or guilty for accepting the money. Problem was, now that she was spending so much time trying to relieve the pressure on her mother at the store, helping with the housecleaning and encouraging her brother whenever possible, she wasn’t able to make as much running her own business handling social media for a variety of companies. She’d already had to let two clients—the most time-intensive—go.

  “Are you sure?” her mother asked.

  “Of course. Maya and I can see to this place, can’t we?” Jada said to her daughter.

  “You know I’m good with the cash register, Grandma,” Maya piped up.

  “Yes. Yes, you are.” Her mother lowered her voice as she added in an aside to Jada, “Kids these days. They can handle a computer like nobody’s business.”

  Jada smiled.

  “Should I take Atticus something for lunch? Or did you eat at the market?”

  “We didn’t have a chance to eat. He said he was going to fix something at home.”

  “There’s not much in the fridge. I’d better call him.” She whipped out her phone as she left, and Jada let her smile slip away. Yes, Atticus was unable to walk, but he was more capable than her mother gave him credit for. Susan needed to quit babying him. Jada felt she was making him feel more disabled—and deserving of sympathy—which only dragged him down. He had to get beyond the self-pity and that sense of limitation to thrive.

  Jada couldn’t say anything, though. Not yet. She planned to do so at some point, when they were all on stable emotional ground. But with Maddox back in town, she wasn’t about to cause so much as a ripple between her and her mother and brother. She was just going to keep her head down and hope Maddox left without ever learning that she was in town, too.

  * * *

  Jada was back! In between the time Maddox had accepted Aiyana’s job offer and actually relocated to Silver Springs, she’d moved here to help take care of her mother, who’d recently been diagnosed with lupus, and her younger brother. Apparently, Atticus had graduated from an online college with a bachelor’s degree in computer science, but still lived at home and didn’t have a job.

  What were the chances she’d come back to Silver Springs right now? Maddox had known he was pushing his luck moving to where everything had gone so terribly wrong. But Aiyana had been nothing but confident and encouraging! He’d believed it would be okay because he’d wanted to believe it would be okay, wanted to take the helm of New Horizons for Girls. He could not have built the kind of life he’d built without Aiyana’s help. She’d reached out and made him feel as though he mattered, and she wouldn’t give up on him even when he tried to push her away. He longed to play that kind of a role in someone else’s life, make that kind of a difference, and she’d given him the perfect vehicle.

  Except that taking the job she’d offered now put him back in close proximity to the only girl who’d ever broken his heart. He hated that Jada blamed him for the night her brother was shot, but he knew she had reason. He was the one who’d talked her into disobeying her parents and taking Atticus to that party. Had he not pushed her into it, Atticus would still have the use of his legs.

  He tossed his keys on his desk as he walked into his office. New Horizons Boys Ranch, at the other end of the fifty-acre compound, was bustling with students milling about campus, playing basketball on the outside courts, football on the big field or watching movies in the gymnasium. They had a two-week summer break but many students stayed year-round. New Horizons for Girls, which was separated from the boys’ side by a tall fence, was completely empty. Maddox hadn’t officially accepted his first student yet. That wouldn’t happen for another two or three weeks.

  He breathed in the smell of new carpet and paint as he gazed around at the way he’d organized his office. He’d unpacked and settled in at home, too. Had that been a mistake? Should he go get some boxes and pack up again? Because he didn’t see how he was going to be able to stay here. He’d known it would be difficult if he ever ran into Atticus and hadn’t been looking forward to that moment. All the apology letters he’d sent over the years had gone unanswered. Honestly? He wished that bullet had hit him instead, but it hadn’t, and because he’d done all he could, he’d be willing to stand tall, look Atticus in the face and apologize again.

  It was different with Jada. His emotions were so complicated where she was concerned. She was right to blame him, and yet it had almost destroyed him when she had. He’d needed her forgiveness more than he’d ever needed anything, even though he hadn’t had the nerve to ask for it.

  God, life was complex, especially his life. Although he hadn’t been affected nearly as negatively as Atticus, he’d lost even more than Jada. He’d lost his best friend and only sibling for thirteen years! And everyone seemed to have the attitude that he got what he deserved, which was something he’d wrestled with ever since. Did he deserve what happened that night? He’d been a young, stupid kid who’d just wanted to go to a party. Maybe he’d been reckless in some of the things he’d done, far from perfect. But he’d had no desire to hurt anyone, hadn’t even touched the gun. So the punishment didn’t seem to fit the crime. That he was older than Tobias, even if it was only by a year, made matters worse. His mother, their teachers, everyone had expected him to keep Tobias out of trouble and therefore safe. But Tobias had a mind and will of his own. He would not, could not, be controlled. At the time, Maddox couldn’t even keep himself out of trouble. He certainly hadn’t been mature enough to be responsible for anyone else.

  He pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened his calendar. Tobias was due to be released July 20. Maddox couldn’t wait. At the same time, he was leery, afraid to find out exactly what spend
ing so many years behind bars had done to his little brother. Tobias had been put away when he was so young... Maddox couldn’t believe much “rehabilitation” had gone on. Tobias hadn’t meant to shoot anyone, least of all an eleven-year-old boy. He’d been hallucinating at the time, thought Atticus was some kind of monster attacking him. But that didn’t seem to matter to anyone, either.

  His phone rang while he was counting the days until Tobias’s release. It was his mother, Jill. She’d been calling him a lot lately. When he was young and needed her, she couldn’t be relied upon. She’d been too busy going from one man to the next, trying to fulfill herself. But now that he was an adult and could offer her some support, she was in almost constant contact.

  He was tempted to silence the ringer and send her call to voice mail. He was in no mood to talk to her. She was easier to take when she wasn’t using drugs, but given her track record, he couldn’t be sure she was as clean as she claimed. And she was so high-strung and emotional, if he didn’t answer she’d just call him right back—or leave a long, angry message laced with every swear word she could think of.

  With a muttered curse, he hit the talk button. “Hello?”

  “Have you decided?”

  He pressed three fingers to his forehead. She wanted him to take her when he went to pick up Tobias, but Tobias had specifically requested she not come. Maddox didn’t want to tell her what Tobias had said, but he couldn’t foist her on his brother the second the poor guy walked out of Soledad. Tobias deserved a chance to acclimate, at least to a degree, before having to deal with the one person who’d always been his biggest trigger.

  “I don’t think so, Mom. We need to give Tobias some space. Both of us.”

  “How are you giving him space if you’re the one picking him up?”

  “Someone’s got to do it.”

  “So are you going to bring him to my place after?”