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

Jemma hoped it was his concern about his tip that made him not look completely disinterested in her.
    Davis took the others’ orders and came around to her last. When he stood by her chair, she grinned up at him. “So, you coming to the rehearsal dinner with me tonight?” she asked.
    “I guess.” Davis narrowed his blue eyes at her in a look of confusion. “This is the first I’m hearing of this, though.”
    “Oh, I guess I forgot to mention it to you.” Jemma put her hand on his arm.
    “Yeah, I’ll go,” Davis said. He looked at her hand and then into her eyes. She supposed her sudden friendliness was kind of unexpected.
    “Good.”
    Davis smiled warily as if he wasn’t sure if he was being tricked or not. “So . . . what are you, um, what do you want to order?”
    “Surprise me.”
    Davis seemed thrown off for a moment by her change in behavior from the last time they’d talked, but it warmed him up to her. One side of his mouth curved in a lopsided smile.
    “I can do that,” he said. The words sent a thrill through Jemma. Her ears burned as if he’d said something intimate and inappropriate to her in front of a table full of people. His stare reinforced her feeling that he had.
    “I’m glad.” She rested her chin on her hand after putting her elbow on the table.
    “Me, too.” He continued to hold her eyes with his as he said this.
    Jemma wasn’t sure what they were talking about, but she was pretty sure it was no longer food.
    An attractive Latina much shorter than Davis tapped him on the shoulder and told him that he was wanted in the kitchen. That was what it took to break the spell that had fallen over them. There seemed to be a tension between Davis and the woman, but she was gone before Jemma could be sure if she’d imagined it or not.
    “I have to go put this in the kitchen. Give it to the cook.” He cleared his throat, eyes darting after the petite woman. “I’ll be back to check on y’all.” He strolled toward the kitchen.
    Jemma turned back to the table as Davis walked away. She noticed for the first time that all conversation had stopped. She cleared her throat and took a sip of her water. She felt their eyes on her, but pretended like she didn’t.
    “So, you know him?” Carolina asked.
    Jemma almost laughed. Did she? “Yeah.”
    Carolina’s mouth dropped open and her eyes filled with realization. “Wait, is that wedding date Davis? The Davis? Davis Davis?”
    “Yeah. We’re uh—good friends. He’s my date to the wedding, that’s right.”
    “Oh, sorry girl, I didn’t know. Shoot, you go. He is fine,” Carolina said.
    “It’s cool,” Jemma lied with a shrug. “Like I said, we’re just friends.”
    “Sure you are.” Carolina’s wink was followed by her braying laugh. “I wish I had a friend like Davis, then.”
    “I’m leaving in a couple of weeks, give or take. We wouldn’t have time to be anything else to each other.”
    “It don’t take weeks, honey. It only takes one night,” Carolina said.
    “Trust me. There’s nothing going on between us.” Jemma wondered who she was trying to convince—herself or Carolina.
    Later, Davis and the Latina server came back to the table with the first of their entrees. Her name was Rosa according to her gold plated nametag. Davis couldn’t stop stealing glances at Jemma, and neither of them could stop grinning. Rosa slammed down Jemma’s plate and left the table, mumbling something about checking on the rest of the food.
    “You know,” Carolina said to Davis, “we were just talking about you.”
    Davis stood still, his hand in mid-air after putting Carolina’s Cobb salad in front of her. He raised an eyebrow. “Oh really?”
    Jemma could feel her ears burning and readied herself to do damage control in case Carolina said something outrageous—something she’d be completely capable of from what Jemma had seen.
    “Yeah,” Carolina said. “It’s nice to be able to see old friends, huh?”
    Davis looked at