The Davis Years (Indigo) by Nicole Green Read Free Book Online

gotten back to Derring. Enough of that.
    But there was another problem with being back in Derring. That problem was the other reason she’d come home.
    She slowed to a walk as she entered Mary’s driveway.
    Jemma had bought her train ticket to Jacksonville at the same time she bought one to Derring. She’d scheduled her departure date for the day after her interview with the parole board. She wanted to be out of town before Smooth’s interview with the parole examiner.
    The parole board had notified her of his upcoming hearing because she’d signed up to receive notice of changes in his parole status. Any concerned citizen could do it, and she’d felt she qualified since she was the daughter of his dead girlfriend. She’d seen and heard a lot of things back then and felt like she definitely had something to say that the board needed to hear. In fact, she’d been called to testify against him at his trial based on things she’d seen and some of the things he’d said to her. She hadn’t seen him since the day of his sentencing hearing.
    She remembered the day she’d gone to the mail room near her dorm and found the other letter in her mailbox. Every time she thought of that day, she went cold all over again, but it was especially bad now that she was back in Derring, so close to that apartment and the graves she hadn’t visited since the funeral.
    Smooth had sent the letter to her aunt’s house and her aunt had forwarded it to her at school. He knew that she’d gone to South Carolina to live with Lynette’s sister after Lynette and Demonte died. The letter had been short and to the point. He’d told her he assumed she’d been notified about his parole hearing, and asked her to come visit him at the prison before her interview with the parole board if she was going to set one up. Or to come visit even if she didn’t set one up. Of course she was going to do an interview with the parole board. What she didn’t know was whether she ever wanted to come face-to-face again with the man who’d taken her family away.
    Out of all the mistakes Lynette had dated, Smooth had been the worst. He’d taken sub-par Lynette down even lower by introducing her to crack. Jemma had wanted out, but she had to stay for her little brother. If not for him, she would have emancipated herself and left. None of that had mattered in the end. An apartment fire took Demonte away from her. He was only four. Just a scared four-year-old boy and she hadn’t been there to help him—to save him.
    Jemma had shouldered all the responsibility while Lynette drank, went out with her friends, and spent way too much time with her boyfriends. This had been especially true after Jemma’s sister, Patrice, had run away from home. Lynnette took every cent Jemma earned. She claimed the money belonged to her until Jemma turned eighteen. At least Lynette left her enough most of the time to do groceries and take care of the most important bills so they’d had light and heat. But all that changed in the time it took an unconscious Lynette to drop a lit cigarette from her fingers into a pool of spilled bourbon on the carpet.
    She didn’t know if she was going to see Smooth or not. Part of her wanted to go and show him that he hadn’t destroyed her after all he’d done to her family. The other part of her was sick at the thought of him.
    She had some time to think about it, though. Her interview was almost two weeks away. She had a full day of wedding prep ahead of her, she had to find something to like about Carolina, and she had a bachelorette party to attend that night.
    After coming in from her run, Jemma showered, put her hair up, and pulled on slacks and a bright blue T-shirt. Then, she started cooking. By the time Mary got home from work, Jemma had the table loaded down with scrambled eggs, sausage, pancakes, freshly squeezed orange juice, and grapefruit halves. There was bread stacked by the toaster just in case Mary wanted toast instead of the