The Davis Years (Indigo) (15 page)

“Southern girls,” Michael said, squeezing her to him and kissing the top of her head.

A thought struck Jemma and she said, “Yeah. What is it you used to always say about Southern girls? Something about sweet tea and charm?”

Emily Rose did her best impression of Julia Roberts’s Shelby accent in
Steel Magnolias
. That was her favorite movie and she’d long ago named herself an honorary Steel Magnolia. “Sweet tea, charm, and giggles. We have it all.”

They laughed. Carolina and Meg looked at each other and then turned their puzzled looks on Jemma and Emily Rose. Emily Rose turned to them to explain the inside joke. Jemma took a seat at the table next to her and across from Wendell. When Stephanie came down, she sat next to Wendell.

“Hi, Jemma,” she said with a sweet smile. Apparently, having it out with Wendell the night before had helped.

“Hi,” Jemma said, surprised by her mood change and grateful for it. Things were well on their way to normal when it came to Wendell, at least.

All through brunch, Jemma thought about Michael’s words. Especially what he’d said about love not being perfect. Davis had disappointed her, hurt her, yes. But what about second chances? Maybe there was a chance he wouldn’t do it again.

But did she want to take that chance? Even if he didn’t hurt her again, and that was a big “if” Davis was a reminder of a past she didn’t care to dwell on. Could she be with him and stay in Derring, without being haunted by that past? Probably not.

No, it wasn’t only about second chances. It was about finding a way to move on as well. She decided in that moment that she did want to see Smooth. Then, after meeting with the parole board, she would leave. There was nothing else to stay in Derring for any longer.

She looked at Wendell and Stephanie. Then at Michael and Em Rose. Both couples had something she and Davis lacked. Or she and Davis shared something the two couples lacked, depending on how a person looked at the situation.

Jemma was distracted with similar thoughts throughout the brunch. Emily Rose and the others had to call her name several times any time they wanted her attention. She barely touched her omelet and only picked at her fruit.

Eventually, Emily Rose turned to her and said in a low voice, “Do you even want to be here?”

“Of course I do,” Jemma said.

“I get the feeling—now don’t get me wrong, I’m forever grateful for what you did for me yesterday—but, sometimes I get the feeling you don’t really want to be around me.”

“No, Emily Rose.” She put her hands over her friend’s. “No, it’s not that.”

“Then what? Jemma, you’re not—it’s like we’re strangers now.”

Jemma’s heart sank. Emily Rose hit on one of the things that had been bothering Jemma since she’d arrived home.

Em Rose narrowed her brown eyes and leaned in closer. “Carolina keeps hinting that I really need to talk to you. Did you say something to her about me? What’s going on with you?”

She twisted her lips to the side for a moment before answering. “She’s right. We do need to have a long conversation about some things. Really talk. But not around everybody like this. Why don’t you come to Mary’s tomorrow afternoon?”

“What’s wrong with today?”

“Well, it’s your last day with Michael for a whole week. He goes back to New York early tomorrow morning. And you won’t see him again until you go back at the end of the week. I don’t want to take any of your time with him.”

Emily Rose still looked unsure, but she nodded. “Okay. But only if you promise to tell me what is really going on with you tomorrow.”

“I promise. We’ll talk about what’s happening between us,” Jemma said, choosing her words carefully.

Emily Rose turned back to Michael, interrupting a story he was telling about Emily Rose giving a homeless man a drunken serenade in Central Park. She shouted at him that he was telling the story wrong. Jemma had to do a better job of paying attention. She didn’t want the spotlight on her again.

Later that morning, when they were leaving the hotel, Jemma grabbed Carolina’s arm. “Can I talk to you for a second? Before you go?”

Carolina gave her a confused look but nodded and walked with Jemma to the parking lot.

“Emily Rose told me what you said about her and me needing to talk,” Jemma said.

“My big mouth always gets me in trouble. I’m sorry if I was butting in where I don’t belong, but Em Rose means a lot to me and she’s so sweet. This thing is getting to her, whatever it is going on between you two.”

Jemma nodded. “I know. You’re a good friend to her, I can tell that. And it’s good you said something. We do need to talk.”

“Good,” Carolina said. The two of them stood there for a moment, looking around the parking lot.

Finally, Jemma said, “We didn’t get off to the greatest start, huh?”

Carolina grinned. “Didn’t seem like it.”

“Sorry about that. I just wish we had more time to get to know each other. I start coming to my senses right before you leave.”

Carolina shrugged. “What about now? You need a ride anywhere? I don’t see that car you’ve been driving around.”

“Actually, I do.”

“Let’s go.” Carolina nodded in the direction of her rental.

“So what’s this audition for?” Jemma asked as they walked to the car.

“Comeback tour for a has-been pop star.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah, actually he used to be a pretty big deal. It’s a closed audition. I’m lucky to have it, I guess.”

“You don’t sound very excited about it.”

They got in the car. Carolina made a noncommittal noise and pulled out of her parking space. “It’s just—it might be my last audition.”

“Why?”

“Because . . . it’s probably time I got realistic about some things. I’ve been thinking about going the practical route and becoming an agent for a while. I’m not going to make very much money off a few dancing jobs here and there. Not enough to support myself.”

“Isn’t dancing what you went to school for?”

“Yeah, but I minored in economics and I know this guy who works for a dance company. As a business manager. He knows people. I’ve been thinking about the agenting thing for a while now.”

“But dancing means a lot to you, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, but I’ll be working with dancers and I’ll still dance, just not professionally. And nobody gets everything they want, right?”

That was certainly true. “I guess not.”

“And I figure that sometimes, you have to decide which dreams are worth fighting for and which dreams are just too unrealistic to hold on to. And then you have to make some hard decisions. Sometimes painful, but necessary, decisions.”

Jemma nodded and her thoughts immediately went to Davis.

Sunday evening, Davis picked Jemma up from Mary’s as soon as he got off work. They went to his house so that he could shower and change. He kept telling her he had a surprise for her, but he wouldn’t give her any hints. He’d only say that he wanted to do something special for her.

She tried to guess after he came into the living room with his black hair still wet and slicked back from his forehead.

“Is it food?” Jemma asked.

He sat down next to her and kissed her cheek. “No.”

“Is it in this house right now?”

“Uh-uh.” He kissed her throat.

“Are you taking me to get it?”

“I guess you could say that.” Davis kissed her shoulder over the strap of her tank top.

“We have to leave?” She pulled him closer and kissed his lower lip.

He grinned, pulling her onto his lap. “I went by the Bradens’ after I dropped you off for the brunch thing and before I went to work. To get this.” He pulled a brass key out of his pocket and showed it to her.

She didn’t get it. “A house key? Why?”

“I asked if we could borrow their lake house for the night. Up near Louisa.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Thought it’d be fun. What do you think?”

“When do we leave?”

“How about . . . right now?”

Jemma grabbed the bag she’d packed to stay at Davis’s that night and he told her he’d packed a duffel bag and put it in the trunk earlier. He took her bag and they headed out of the door. She enjoyed the feel of the heat of the early evening sun on her skin as they walked to the car. She was glad the sun had finally come out after the morning had been so gloomy.

***

Davis drove with one hand on the steering wheel and the other in one of Jemma’s.

He brought her fingers to his lips and kissed them before placing their hands on his lap. “How’s Mary?”

“Good, but the poor woman. She’s still in denial. She doesn’t think I’m really leaving.” She looked straight ahead while answering him.

“Oh.”

“But I am. My train leaves in less than three weeks. The movers have already picked up my stuff from South Carolina. They’re paying for my moving expenses. The job is, I mean. Did I tell you that?” It was like he’d asked her for hard proof she was leaving or something. Why did she think he needed to know all of that?

“Yeah,” Davis said. He didn’t want to talk about her job or anything that had to do with her upcoming move to Jacksonville.

“I never lied to you about it.”

He pulled his hand away from hers and dropped it onto the bottom of the steering wheel. “Yeah.”

“It’s for the best, Davis.”

“Man, this song is awful.” He fiddled with the knob on the car’s radio. “You bring any CDs?”

“I think I have a few in my bag,” Jemma said. She gave him a look, but didn’t try to change the subject back. Instead, she reached behind her and grabbed her purse off of the backseat.

“Good. Hopefully they don’t suck.”

“What? I have great taste in music.”

“Says the world’s number one Vixen Vengeance fan.”

“Hey, shut up about Vixen Vengeance or you won’t like the consequences.”

“Consequences?”

“It’s going to be a long and lonely night sleeping by yourself up at the lake house,” Jemma said, handing him the CD.

“Point taken. Lips sealed.” Davis slid it into the player.

“They better be until tonight.”

“That’s a promise.”

“’Cause I don’t make threats,” Jemma said, completing their old inside joke. It made him happier than even made sense that she remembered it. “I can’t believe you remember that. You’re full of surprises, huh?”

“I try to be,” he said.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Full of something, anyway.”

“Oh, Jemma, the impossible, c’mere,” he said, hugging her close.

She smiled, settling into the crook of his arm. If only he could keep her there. If only they never had to go back.

Jemma fell asleep, pressed to his side. He brushed a few stray braids out of her face and grinned down at her. He told himself not to get used to having her there, but he knew that wouldn’t stop him from doing so. Or from missing her when she left for Florida.

It wouldn’t be news to say he loved her. But it was amazing that he could fall in love with her all over again when he hadn’t thought it was possible to be more crazed over her than he already was.

“I love you and I don’t know how I’m going to be able to let you go,” Davis whispered. “But I have to. I know it’s what you need.”

He thought back to those midnight moments in high school. There was nothing he wanted more than to go back in time and shake some sense into that idiot version of himself. He had no idea how many times he’d had that thought. He’d had it even before his accident. And after his accident, the thought plagued him, haunted him until he wanted to reach into his brain and physically rip it out. He knew dwelling on the past wouldn’t do any good, but knowing wasn’t doing.

“I want you to stay with me, but more than that, I want you to be happy. I know you can never be happy in Derring. Especially with me,” Davis whispered. Then, he laughed at himself. “I never woulda seen this day coming six years ago. But who would have?”

He smiled, going back to his favorite memory.

She hadn’t known he was watching. He’d been at the Bradens’ house to pick Tara up for a date. Emily Rose’s door was cracked and he’d peeked into the crack out of curiosity. A flash of orange had caught his eye. She danced around to The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” in an orange tank top, laughing at her own tone-deaf singing. He’d watched, barely noticing that his lips had curved up with a slight smile.

At that moment, she hadn’t seemed like the heavily burdened, always-sad girl who was way older than him in emotional years although he was a year older than her in physical years. It really was just like heaven, being able to watch her dance around that room and sing loudly and out-of-key. That was the moment that he realized he was in love with her. And in that moment, he was too mesmerized to be scared. The fear would come later and screw everything up.

But in that moment, he could only see and feel love. Her warm brown eyes. The slight flush beneath the perfect brown of her cheeks. A long-fingered, slender hand reaching up to brush her hair out of her face. The swaying of her hips and arms.