Secrets in a Small Town Read Online Free PDF

of the boy she’d never truly known anyway to the state. And he’d landed in the care of Mama Jo, a petite black woman with more heart and wisdom than anyone he’d ever met.
    It’s also where he’d met his two foster brothers, Thomas Bristol and Christian Holt. He missed them all so much it was like a fire in his gut but he had a job to do here and he wasn’t about to walk away because it was easier.
    Thomas and Christian had thought he was nuts to return to the town where his name was associated with something so dark and shameful. But he’d needed to give people something positive to associate the Garrett name with and he figured the best way to do that would be to become a productive member of the community.
    To his dying day, he’d never forget Mama Jo’s advice to him as he broke the news that he was headed west.
    “They got trees right here in West Virginia,” she’d said when he’d told her he was going to go into commercial forestry in California.
    There’d been no sense in dancing around the truth— Mama Jo would see right through it anyway. She’d always had an uncanny sense about those things. It’d made it rough getting anything past her, which was probably why she’d managed to take three universally screwed-up kids and turn them into something useful to society.
    “I have to go,” he’d said quietly.
    “I know you do,” she’d said with a sigh. “I just wish you didn’t feel the need to prove yourself to a bunch of people who don’t matter anyway. All the people who know your heart are right here.”
    “It’s not about me. It’s just something I need to do for my dad. The Garrett name doesn’t need to be forever associated with something bad.”
    Mama Jo’s eyes had misted and for a second he’d felt like that lost eleven-year-old boy again. She’d cupped soft, careworn hands around his jaw as she’d said, “You’re a good son. You do what you feel is necessary to make it right for you. Your daddy is gone and it don’t matter to him none. You do this for you. And when you’ve done what you feel needs doing, you know where home is.”
    He’d choked up and Mama Jo had wrapped him in a hug that said as much as her words.
    Heading back to California, it’d felt as if he were going to battle.
    Just thinking of that day so many years ago caused tears to spring to his eyes and, if he wasn’t careful, he’d end up a slobbering, bawling mess at his desk.
    So when Mama Jo called, he always answered if he could.
    “Hello, Mama,” he said when she picked up the line. A smile formed at the sound of her voice as her face appeared in his memory. “I just got your message. What’s going on? Everything okay? Did you get that package I sent?”
    “Sure did. Never seen fruit arranged like that before. It was good, though Christian and Thomas wiped out the chocolate-topped strawberries before I could blink.”
    “Oh, Mama, you should’ve smacked their paws as soon as they tried reaching for them,” he grumbled. He loved his brothers but he’d paid a pretty penny to have the fresh fruit arrangement delivered across the states. The overnight cold-storage shipping had been nearly as pricey as the arrangement but Mama was worth it. “I just wanted you to have something different for your birthday.”
    “It was very thoughtful of you and I loved it, don’t you worry. But I wasn’t calling about the arrangement. I want to know if I can get a commitment out of you to come visit.”
    She always asked, but there was something else in her voice—an underlying urgency perhaps that gave him pause. “Everything okay?” he asked.
    “Does there have to be some kind of calamity for you to visit your family?” she joked, but it didn’t escape his notice that she’d sidestepped the question. A trickle of unease made his heart race. “It’s just time to come home for a visit. Don’t you think? It’s been years,” she reminded him.
    “It’s high time,” he agreed, but he was looking