Page 19 of The Moment They Can't Forget

“Okay.” He stood and watched as she struggled to move it. “How about now?”

“No,” she gritted out.

Being raised with all those brothers couldn’t have been easy, and JD got independence as much as the next person… maybe more so, but he didn’t get stubborn stupidity. The woman would pull a muscle if she kept it up. Not that he minded watching her. Those shorts did nice things to her ass, and the inch of sweaty skin he could see above the waistband wasn’t hard on the eyes either.

“Now?”

She made a growling sound deep in her throat that he was pretty sure he’d heard on the night of her brother’s engagement party. Pushing that thought aside before he became aroused, he moved closer. Bending, JD lifted one side of the chair.

“Where to?”

“I said I had it.” She looked at him for the first time since he’d entered. Her brown eyes flashed with pissed-off-ness.

“Sure you do, but Birdie said she wants to finish her run before midnight.”

“Go away,” she muttered.

Today her thick dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail and tied with a blue satin band. Her shorts were a deep blue, and her tank top peach. On her feet were an expensive pair of running shoes. The woman always looked put together, unlike her brothers.

“Love to, but your brother would make me pay if he heard I’d let you carry this alone. And you know small towns. Word always travels.”

“Fine. We’re putting it in that space.” She pointed, he grunted, and they moved in the direction she indicated.

“So, we good?” he asked. This, what happened between them, had the power to make life difficult for both of them. He didn’t want that. His business and life were here, and so was her family, so they had to make this work.

“Peachy,” she snapped, and then she sighed. “Sorry, yes, we’re good. It’s done with, and now we forget it.”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon.” He lowered the chair, and they stood facing each other over it. He couldn’t stop his eyes from moving down her body.

“Eyes up here.”

“The problem is, as I see it, I remember what’s under those clothes. What we shared was good, better than good, Zoe.” He raised a hand when she opened her mouth. “But I know it’s not happening again, because neither of us want that. All I’m saying is, I’m not forgetting it but also not repeating it.”

She picked at the braiding on the top of the chair. It was a hideous color that he could only describe as snot green.

“It was good.” She looked at him then. “But you’re right. We won’t be repeating it. So we’ll just carry on the way we have been.”

“Better than good,” he said, his voice now deeper.

Their eyes held as they remembered what they’d shared.

“Stop that,” she hissed.

“What?”

“That smoldering look.”

“I have never smoldered a day in my life,” JD said.

“We’ve just said it’s a onetime thing. You can’t go checking me out or smoldering. Someone may see.” Her outraged look had him smiling.

“You don’t get to tell me what I can or can’t do, pretty girl.”

“Do not call me that or do that.” She flicked her fingers at him, clearly uncomfortable. Zoe Duke was never uncomfortable. She was confident, sassy, with a smart mouth.

“That?”

“You’re flirting with me,” she whispered loudly. “Stop it. We’re not friends or… or?—”

---