Page 28 of The Moment They Can't Forget

“You’ve been working without help,” Zoe said, suddenly uncomfortable as people looked at her.

“Now, Zoe, she’s barely been coping,” Delores said. “Shame on you for saying she has to continue in her condition.”

“I didn’t.” Zoe ignored the snort from both JD and Sawyer. “Sorry, Mrs. C,” she then muttered when Bart leveled her with a hard look. “I was just saying you had coped until now.”

“So that’s settled then.” Bart nodded his approval.

“You just got told off,” Sawyer sang as he weaved in between her and JD

“You’ll get yours,” she hissed back.

“The old people in this town are terrifying,” JD said, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. “So why did you leave Chicago?”

“Shut up,” Zoe snapped.

“JD is talking about changing things up in The Gnat,” Nina said, dancing by with Jessie and Zack Tyler, an ex–pro football player who had a career-ending injury but still played for one of Lyntacky’s baseball teams.

“You getting your tips frosted, Zack?” Zoe teased him. His grin was slow and—she guessed—sexy, but he didn’t make her heart thud harder like JD, which annoyed her.

“I am. It’s time to change the interior. If you want to take a look, I wouldn’t be pissed off,” JD said.

“Which means what?” Zoe snapped. “That you’re not sure I’m any good, and you won’t commit to me being your interior designer until you’ve seen what I come up with?” She glared at the back of his head.

“Whoa there, little sister. How did you read all that in what JD said?” Sawyer asked.

“Sorry,” she muttered.

“Did you just apologize to me?” JD shot her a look over his shoulder.

“Don’t let it go to your head or get used to it. It will be the first and last time.”

Zoe had hated stopping everything to dance the grapevine twist as a teenager, but she’d soon learned it was way more than just putting life on hold briefly. All around Lyntacky in that moment, people who normally wouldn’t spend any time together did when they danced. For a brief window, everyone communicated with someone, and then they went on with their day, the better for it.

Yes, everyone grumbled, but they knew that this dance made those who lived in Lyntacky a tighter community.

“That fool Percy is bringing oven fries to bridge tonight,” Bart said. “They’ll be soggy before he arrives.”

JD was laughing at something Cill was saying when he turned in a move to face Zoe. The smile gave him a boyish look. He didn’t smile much. JD Hopper was the serious, suave rich business owner of The Gnat. He was now her ex–sex partner too; she was loath to say lover, as that meant the night they’d spent together meant something, which it absolutely did not.

“We got the Rattlers Saturday,” Sawyer said to JD. “Are you sure you can play?”

“I said I would, didn’t I?”

“Just checking. You big-city types never keep your word.” Sawyer smirked.

“He’s playing?” Zoe asked her brother. “Can he even throw a ball, let alone bat?”

“We use racquets, right?” JD asked.

“The big ones, not the racquetball type,” Zack said.

“We need to beat the Rattlers,” Zoe said. “They’re good, and it will be a hard game. We don’t need anyone on the team not carrying their weight.”

“Right! Because you already have my Jed,” Cill called. “Love my husband, but he’s hopeless and we all know it.”

No one disputed her words. There were two baseball teams in Lyntacky, the Lemon Levelers and the Lavender Leaders, because the sport was so popular. They played other towns in a competition. Some were a day’s drive away, and they often stayed overnight, and the league had been running since before Zoe was born.

Dukes always played for the Leaders. Their enemies the Kellers played for the Levelers, and home games between the two teams were just barely civilized.

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