by Brenda Novak
Tiffany looked as conflicted as Jada felt. “I wonder what he’s like now…”
“I can’t imagine prison has improved him. I have no idea what the past twelve years have done to Maddox, either.”
“You two have had no contact?”
“None whatsoever. You know that. But I thought I saw him, too, a few minutes ago. I’d just talked myself out of it when you came up.”
Tiffany looked back over her shoulder. “I’m sorry. You can’t be happy about this.”
Jada was facing the opposite direction. She could see that her brother was still paying for the onions. Maddox was nowhere in sight. “I’m not,” she said. And yet there was a small, rebellious part of her that was feeling an unwarranted rush of excitement and expectation. What did Maddox look like these days? What was he up to? Had he gotten married? Was he happy?
She’d often tried to look him up, had been dying—for years—to catch a glimpse of him or find out the smallest detail of what was happening in his life. But he wasn’t on social media.
“What will you say to him?” Tiffany asked.
Jada had no idea. What could she say to him? If she’d never gotten involved with him, her brother would be a fully functioning adult. “I’m going to avoid him, if I can.” Because of Maya, that was the smartest way to handle the situation. If she drew Maddox’s attention, he might figure out the truth—if something or someone hadn’t tipped him off already.
“That’s probably for the best,” Tiffany agreed. “The mountains and hills that close off this area make Silver Springs feel like such a small town. But there are seven thousand people here. That’s not so small that everyone knows everyone else. You might get lucky and never cross paths with him.”
That wasn’t very likely. She was running her mother’s cookie store downtown much of the time. They’d at least see each other. Unless…
“Hopefully, he won’t be staying long,” Jada murmured, but she couldn’t be totally committed to wishing him gone. She’d loved him so much, hadn’t felt anything even half as powerful since, which was a sad testament to what her marriage had been like. She’d screwed up her life in so many ways—dating the boy her parents had warned her not to get involved with, getting pregnant at seventeen, marrying the wrong man while rushing to find the same kind of all-consuming love she’d lost. And now, just when she was putting the past into perspective and settling in to rebuild—slowly and with some caution this time—Maddox popped up in Silver Springs?
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 f
or 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.
Copyright © 2019 by Brenda Novak, Inc.
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ISBN-13: 9781488051975
That One Night
First published as A Baby of Her Own, by Harlequin Books S.A. in 2002
This edition published in 2019
Copyright © 2002 by Brenda Novak
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