Page 11 of The Moment They Can't Forget

“Put the snark away,” he snapped. “What’s the deal with you, Zoe? What happened in Chicago, because we all know that something did,” Sawyer continued. He was relentless when he wanted something. It was how he’d become so successful in business.

“My life, my business.”

“Wrong answer.”

“It’s the only one you’re getting.”

He was now standing with both hands on the table, staring her down. Deliberately intimidating her. Zoe rose to do the same.

“Butt out, Sawyer. I don’t have to tell you everything, just like you didn’t tell us what was going on with you.”

They stared at each other.

“Sit,” their mother said. “For pity’s sake, Sawyer. We discussed this. Zoe will tell us what brought her back when she’s ready. You know she’s not intimidated by you.”

After a last glare, Sawyer sat and blew out a breath. “It’s only because we love you and are worried,” he muttered.

She sat too, all the anger draining from her body. “I know, and I promise I’m okay. I really don’t want to talk about what happened, okay?”

“But something did?”

She nodded.

“Was it criminal?” Sawyer asked.

“What? No!”

“So you weren’t dismissed from your job but left voluntarily?”

She wasn’t sure it was voluntary considering what she’d have had to do if she’d stayed, but she wasn’t telling her brother that. He and the rest of them would fly to Chicago and deal with the reason she’d left if Zoe let him.

“Of course.”

Sawyer pinched the bridge of his nose.

“When you say things in that tone, it usually means the opposite,” he said.

“Leave it now, Sawyer,” their mom said, placing a mug of steaming coffee before Zoe. “Like your sister said, you weren’t an open book about what made you come home either.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Zoe said.

“But I want to know.” Robyn Duke gave her daughter the parent look. “You loved that job, Zoe. Something had you leaving it, and it can’t be good.”

“What she said.” Sawyer jabbed a finger at his mother.

“Shut up, you’re curdling the milk,” Zoe said, pouring some into her coffee.

Thankfully he did, but she knew the respite would be brief.

Looking around the room she had spent years of her life in, Zoe thought that one day she’d want a kitchen just like this. White walls that rose to a tall wood-beamed ceiling. A long scarred table and chairs that they’d shared birthdays and celebrations over. There were also the memories of her mother and Uncle Asher lining up all five Duke siblings and reading them the riot act over something bad they’d done. Good memories.

I want to build memories in my kitchen, she realized. The thought was a shock, because settling down was not something she’d ever contemplated.

A vision of JD’s farmhouse kitchen slipped into her head, and she pushed it aside.

“What?” Sawyer demanded.

“What?”

---