Page 24 of The Moment They Can't Forget

“You are really irritating.” He jabbed a finger at her.

“Well, duh,” she said, resting her weight on one hip. “It’s my best quality.”

Sawyer snorted.

“You don’t get a show with that tattoo.” JD glared at him.

“Maybe we should rehome Dedra,” Nina said.

“No. She chose to live here, so she stays,” JD said. “I’ll get rid of the rat, because after all, I’m not the boss and I don’t pay your fucking wages.”

Nina smiled. “There you go being my awesome employer again.” She then made a square shape with her fingers.

Unlike other towns who used the heart symbol to indicate love, Lyntacky used a square because of its infatuation with square dancing.

JD felt a need to roar, so he walked away, but he could hear the murmuring behind him. They would discuss his attitude, which normally wouldn’t bother him because he was rarely anything but exactly who he’d been since he walked away from his family. A rich, arrogant asshole.

“You need to cut this shit out, Dedra,” he said, now in Nina’s room with a dustpan and brush. There was a bed, chair, and a whole load of product. It smelled of the rose-scented candles she loved. “Because while I know you’re doing this to show me what a good hunter you are, it’s upsetting for the clients to see rodent entrails on the floor.”

The stray tabby cat who’d wandered in and stayed the day they opened The Gnat’s doors eyed him and then began cleaning herself.

“I wish my life was that simple.” Dropping to his knees, JD stroked her soft head.

He loved animals and always had. He’d wanted to be a vet, but his father hadn’t allowed it. In fact, animals were not permitted in the Hopper household. He’d changed that as soon as he’d left.

“Oh, sorry. I was looking for Nina.”

And she was just what he needed to improve his day.

“She’s with your grumpy brother in my room,” JD said to Zoe without looking at her.

“Thanks, I’m her next client. Is that a rat?”

She moved closer, and the toes of her white leather sneakers came into view.

“It is, thanks to Dedra.”

“What a good girl you are, Dedra,” she said, bending to pat the cat. “Yes, you are,” Zoe added in that voice people used when they talked to animals and small humans. The cat purred as she scratched it behind an ear. JD had purred when she’d run her hands over him.

“She never purrs.”

“Animals like me.”

“Lucky you. Now, how about you leave so I can remove the rat?” he said in a voice that was harsher than it should have been.

“I don’t get squeamish.”

As if he needed another reason to like this woman. She’d just given him one. All his employees were squeamish. Scooping the rat into the pan, he rose and headed out the back door without another word or making direct eye contact with her. She beat him and opened it.

“Thanks. Go tell Nina her room’s clear.”

“Welcome. What’s crawled up your butt?”

“Nothing. Go back inside, Zoe. I think we established we’re going to carry on with the status quo. Annoy and avoid each other.”

“This is me acting like the other night did not happen, and things are exactly as they were before,” she said.

“What a big grown-up girl you are, then.” He walked to the bank and lowered the rat. Picking up the shovel he put there for just such an occasion because Dedra was nothing if not a prolific rodent killer, he began to dig a hole.

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