Unforgettable You Read online

  “No. I told you before. He’s met someone. They’ll be living together.”

  “Here in LA, though, right? Not in Silver Springs.”

  “Of course in LA. He could never move to Silver Springs.” The only reason Maddox had been able to accept Aiyana’s job offer and come to Silver Springs himself was because his brother had another place to go. Tobias had been with the same woman—the sister of a cell mate—for the past year. But letters and visits weren’t quite the same as living with someone 24/7, so Maddox was skeptical as to whether the relationship would last. He hoped it would. If she kicked him out before Tobias could find work, Maddox would be left trying to figure out how to help him, which meant he might have to quit the job he’d just accepted even if he decided not to do it because of Jada.

  “So if he’s coming to LA, anyway, why can’t you swing by?”

  Because he doesn’t want to see you! He’s planning to start over, and you make him want to put his fist through a wall. “Because he’s eager to see his girlfriend.”

  “After being in prison for thirteen years, he’s not eager to see his mother?”

  If she was so keen to be with him, she could’ve driven to Soledad a lot more often than she did.

  “I’m sure he’ll visit soon,” Maddox assured her. “He’s been through a lot—let’s give him a chance to warm up to life on the outside, to heal a little, before we start making demands.”

  “How is wanting to see my son making any demands?”

  She didn’t like to be denied. She probably had reason to be offended at this, but she took offense at everything. That was part of the problem.

  Maddox opened his mouth to say something that would pull her back from the brink of freaking out—he could hear that high pitch to her voice—but she didn’t give him the chance.

  “God, you kids are ungrateful!” she snapped and hung up.

  Maddox scratched his head. He tried to give her the benefit of the doubt. Especially these days. Life hadn’t been easy for her, either. At least she’d stuck around, more or less, and kept a roof over their heads. It was their father who’d really let them down. He’d split when they were so young they barely remembered him.

  But emotions weren’t always fair and they weren’t often logical. It was still difficult to forgive her for her indifference and selfishness, which left Tobias and him on the streets at loose ends until late in the night, hanging out with the wrong kind of people, when they were only twelve and thirteen. There’d been no one to care what they did, especially if their mother was drinking or using or if she had a man in the house.

  He told himself he should call her back. That would be the nice thing to do. But he couldn’t make himself. Not today.

  He shoved his phone back in his pocket and pulled out the profiles for the students the state hoped to send them. His mother would be back in touch—just as soon as she needed money.

  * * *

  “Do you like living here in Silver Springs?” Jada sent her daughter a sideways glance as they slid the cookies they’d finished onto the rack in the display case side by side.

  “I do.” Maya sent her a confused look. “Why? Don’t you?”

  “Yeah, I do,” she said, but considering what Tiffany had seen at the farmers’ market—or rather who Tiffany had seen and Jada had briefly spotted herself—Jada was beginning to wonder if it’d been a mistake to come here, if perhaps they should return to LA.

  Maya wiped her hands on her Sugar Mama apron and straightened as Jada put the last cookie in place. “So...why are you asking me like that?” she asked. “As if you regret coming here? Don’t tell me you’re thinking about leaving. Grandma’s been nice so far. Hasn’t she?”

  “She has. I’m not thinking about leaving necessarily. It’s just...this place is very different from LA. I wanted to be sure you like it.”

  “It is different, but I like it better. We can’t leave, anyway. Who’d help Grandma?”

  Maya made a good point, but she wasn’t aware of the bigger picture. Maya knew that Eric, Jada’s ex-husband, wasn’t her genetic father. Jada had made that clear from the onset. Maya didn’t even know her father was alive. Jada had told her that he’d been killed in a motorcycle accident before she was born to protect her from ever feeling rejected, or wondering where he was, or insisting they search for him. Maybe it was wrong to lie. There were moments when Jada felt a tremendous amount of guilt. But the truth would only cause more problems.

  For the same reason, Jada hadn’t told her that it was her father’s brother who’d hurt her uncle Atticus or that she was the one responsible for bringing Atticus to the place where he’d been shot—only that he’d gone to a party where there was a scuffle and someone, while on drugs, squeezed off a few shots, after which Atticus had been found bleeding on the floor.

  “We’ll stay and help Grandma,” Jada said. “I was just checking.”

  “It’s so hard to go to a new place. I don’t want to do it again,” Maya said. “I’ve already started to make friends here. I wouldn’t want to leave Annie.”

  Maya’s best friend was a nice girl. Still, Jada was surprised Annie seemed to matter more than Eric. She’d grown up with him as her stepfather! But when she thought more about it, she decided it was sort of understandable. They’d never been that close. Eric wasn’t abusive or unkind in any way; he was just gone a lot. And when he was home, he was preoccupied, emotionally inaccessible. If he’d been more open, loving and engaged, maybe she could’ve made the marriage work.

  She put a hand on her daughter’s back to reassure her. “Okay. Don’t worry.”

  Maya smiled in relief but didn’t have a chance to say anything before the bell went off over the door and they both turned to see Aiyana Turner, a petite woman with golden-brown skin, long black hair she almost always wore in a braid, bright clothing and lots of turquoise jewelry.

  Normally, Jada would’ve been thrilled to see Aiyana. Everyone loved her. Jada guessed they’d probably put a statue of her in town after she died; she was that admired. But that she would stop in today of all days, when Jada hadn’t yet seen her since she’d been back, made Jada uneasy. Did Aiyana know about Maddox and why he was in town? Had she kept in touch with him over the years?

  It’d be like her. She’d adopted eight of the students from her school and finished raising them, had placed who knew how many others into good homes and worked to support them all long after they left for college, arranging financial help, jobs, anything she could do to help them build productive lives.

  “Hello!” Maya chirped. She didn’t yet know Aiyana, so she saw only a much-needed customer and went directly into “sales” mode, as she’d seen her grandmother do. “We just finished frosting some of our popular red velvet cookies. Would you like to try one?”

  They often put a plate out on the counter with various cookies cut into bite-size pieces for sampling.

  “No need to bother with taste-testing for me,” Aiyana said with a wink. “I know how good they are. That’s why I’m here.”

  “You save a few dollars if you get a whole dozen...” Maya informed her.

  Jada couldn’t help chuckling at the twinkle that entered Aiyana’s eyes as she played along. “Then that’s what I’ll do. I always like a bargain.”

  Excited to have achieved a sale—even an “up” sale, as her grandmother called it, where she talked a customer into ordering more than she otherwise would have—Maya hurried to grab a box.

  “It’s very nice of you two to help Susan the way you are,” Aiyana said to Jada while Maya carefully packaged the cookies. “I bet she’s grateful.”

  If she was grateful, she didn’t show it. But Jada suspected her mother still hadn’t forgiven her for Atticus and probably never would. “She’s had a rough year.”

  “Yes. I am so sorry about your father. I caught a glimpse of you at the funeral but didn’t
want to intrude on your thoughts.”

  Jada battled the lump that suddenly swelled in her throat. “Thanks. It was very sudden.” And very unexpected. She hadn’t had the chance to make things better between them. That was what hurt the most.

  “So sad. He was still young.” Aiyana waited patiently as Maya finished with the cookies and rang her up, but then she took the bag and said, “I was wondering, providing Maya here feels comfortable manning the store for just a few minutes alone, if you and I could step outside and have a brief chat?”

  Jada felt her stomach muscles tighten. Aiyana knew something, all right. She’d bought cookies to have the excuse to stop in, not the other way around. “Um, sure. Okay. You can watch the store for a second, can’t you, Maya?”

  “Of course. I just showed you I can do the whole thing,” she said proudly.

  Maya was clearly eager for the opportunity, so Jada took a deep breath and followed Aiyana outside.

  Aiyana turned to face her when they were just a few steps from the door but still beneath the overhang that connected most all the stores downtown. “Jada, it’s so good to have you back.”

  Jada felt Aiyana was sincere in that sentiment. Aiyana was sincere about everything. But she could also hear the reservation in her voice. “But I’m not the only one who’s back. That’s why you’re really here, isn’t it?”

  A sheepish expression revealed the truth before Aiyana even responded. “I’d be lying if I said otherwise. But when I offered to hire Maddox to run New Horizons for Girls, I honestly had no idea you’d be moving back to town, too. This is as much a surprise to me, and to him, as it is to you.”

  Jada let her breath seep slowly out. “So that’s why he’s here? To run the new school?”

  “That’s why.”

  Oh God. Not only was he staying, he had a good job. “Then he’s not just passing through...”

  “No. At least, I hope he won’t leave. I need him.”

  Jada shaded her eyes from the sun slanting beneath the overhang. “You need him? Are you sure? I mean...is he even qualified to run a school?” Her parents had always said he’d never amount to anything, and she’d had to admit, at least to herself, that they were probably right. Most young men in his situation never did.

  “As a matter of fact, he is,” Aiyana told her. “He has a master’s—finished his schooling in record time once he settled down—and has spent the past three years helping to run a private school in Utah. Not only is he qualified, that school has provided him with a glowing recommendation. I don’t think I could find a better candidate. And I know him and like him, which makes working with him even more appealing.”

  Jada rubbed her forehead. “What about my brother?”

  “I’m sorry if hiring Maddox seems insensitive of me. I feel terrible about what happened. I hope you believe that. But Maddox didn’t pull the trigger. As far as I’m concerned, he’s as much a victim of that night as anyone else. You were all hurt to some degree—your poor brother worst of all, of course, but that doesn’t mean he’s the only one who deserves some consideration.”

  Jada stared at the cement beneath her feet. It wasn’t as though she could tell Aiyana not to hire Maddox. There was no law against his return. She’d always felt a little torn when it came to what her parents had done after the shooting—going so far as to pay his mother to petition the court and have him moved. He had as much right to be here as anyone. “Where is he living?”

  “I plan to have a house built on school grounds, but there have been more important places to put those funds in this start-up phase, so I haven’t gotten around to that yet.”

  “Which means...”

  “He’s renting the back house on Uriah Lamb’s property.”

  Jada knew Uriah. His wife used to teach her piano, not that she’d kept up with it. His property wasn’t even as far out as the school. Jada could easily run into Maddox, especially because she couldn’t imagine a man his age staying in all weekend. That meant if she wanted to get out, too... “When is his brother being released from prison? Or is he out already?”

  “He’s not out yet, but that will be happening soon, from what I understand. I can’t give you the exact date off the top of my head. It’s next month sometime. But I can assure you that Tobias won’t be coming here.”

  Thank God for small favors. “Where will he go?”

  “To LA. His mother still lives there, with a roommate these days to help pay the rent, a woman who works at the same bar. From what Maddox has told me, Tobias has a girlfriend who is also in LA. He’ll be staying with her.”

  “I see.” There were so many questions Jada wanted to ask, but one more than all the others. “Is Maddox married?” Although this question had nothing to do with the situation with Atticus, if Maddox was involved with another woman, if he had a child or children with someone else, he’d be much less likely to pay much attention to her—or, more important, Maya.

  “No.”

  Jada hated the sympathy in Aiyana’s eyes, but there was no fooling her, no pretending Maddox hadn’t meant a great deal to her. Aiyana was far too intuitive for that.

  “He’s never been married,” Aiyana added. “Never had any kids.”

  A trickle of fear ran down Jada’s spine. Aiyana didn’t know it, but there was a lot more at stake than upsetting Atticus—although, considering Atticus’s situation, that was enough. Maddox did have a kid. He just didn’t know it. And now Jada wasn’t sure how she’d keep him from finding out about Maya.

  3

  On Monday, after Maddox had read the profiles of the students he’d likely be taking on in August, he’d spent the afternoon making staffing decisions and going over his fall budget, seeing if there was any way to nip a bit here or there to give more somewhere else. Aiyana cared more about girls who needed a good place to live than she did about getting paid, so he knew he’d face more financial constraints here than he would at many other jobs. But she did what she did for the right reasons, and that was what made New Horizons so special, why he wanted to be involved. He’d just have to overcome the challenges her generosity created by helping her run fund-raisers, contact alumni who might be willing to contribute and/or cultivate relationships with those wealthy enough to help. The state paid for the students it sent but at a significantly reduced rate—something Aiyana had negotiated to make it more viable for them. She said she hesitated to ask for too much lest New Horizons never receive the students who needed them most—those who’d been bounced around the foster care system or even the court system.

  He’d managed to get a few things done today, but he wasn’t at his most productive. He hadn’t been able to concentrate. He kept thinking about Jada. Since he’d been back in Silver Springs, it’d been difficult not to think of her. Every sight, smell, sound seemed to dredge up those days when they were both so innocent and in love. But now that he knew she was close by, it was even worse. He wondered how she was doing, what her marriage had been like, how old her child was, what had caused her divorce.

  Most of all, he wondered if she’d ever forgiven him...

  “I thought I might find you here.”

  He glanced up to see Aiyana poking her head into his office. It was after seven, but there wasn’t anywhere else he needed to be. Now that Jada was in town, he felt like he couldn’t even go out to dinner or for a drink somewhere.

  “Just trying to get prepared.” He pretended he was staying late because it was absolutely necessary, but he hadn’t done anything here he couldn’t have done at home. He just hadn’t been interested in staying in his empty house for that long. At least when he’d lived in Utah, he’d had Paris to come home to. He’d broken up with her before he left, but there was still some question as to whether they might get back together. She’d been hitting him up lately, asking if she could come out and see him.

  Maybe if he let her come, he’d be able t
o forget Jada. Except...he wasn’t in love with her, and it wasn’t right to say yes if he knew it wasn’t going to go anywhere.

  “Do you have a minute?” Aiyana asked.

  He stood and indicated the chair on the other side of his desk. “Of course.”

  She gestured at the stack of files near his elbow. “How are things going so far?”

  “Not bad. There’s a lot yet to do, but we’ll get there.”

  A small smile quirked her lips. “Does that mean you’re not going to give me notice?”

  “Give you notice?”

  “Now that you know Jada is living here, too.”

  He drew a deep breath as he sank into his chair. “I’m tempted.”

  “I talked to her on Saturday.”

  To avoid eye contact, he started straightening his desk. She had the uncanny ability to see through anyone. “About...”

  “I wanted to let her know you weren’t aware she was living here when you accepted the job, and I wasn’t aware she was here when I extended it.”

  He couldn’t help stopping what he was doing so he could look up, after all. “Would you have thought twice had you known?”

  “Probably, but only because I would’ve expected you to refuse.”

  She was right. That would’ve been a game-changer. “And? What did she say?”

  “Not a lot. She’s worried about how her brother might react when he learns you’re back. But you and I have already talked about Atticus. He needs to let go of what happened that night and move on. As hard-hearted and insensitive as it might be to say, given what he’s been through, there is no other choice, not if he wants to lead a happy life.”

  She’d told him similarly harsh truths over the years. He remembered one call in particular where she told him to quit feeling sorry for himself and get his ass in gear. He’d needed her tough love as much as her unconditional love. He could see that now. Without her, without that one person who kept checking in on him and holding him accountable, he could easily have chosen a much less productive path. “Was she terribly disappointed that I’m breathing the same air?”