Page 30 of The Moment They Can't Forget

“I think that you’re running scared,” Nina said, ignoring her, “but no one is sure why you came home.”

“Nina—”

“What happened in Chicago?”

“Nothing.”

“That’s a lie.”

“Nina, leave it alone.”

“I’m not really the leave it alone type, which means I will get it out of you. The surprise is your brothers haven’t.”

“Ouch!”

“Sorry. Like I said, you’ve got a forest up here, and it’s taking time to harvest.”

“You harvest crops, not trees or brows,” Zoe pointed out.

“She done?” Sawyer said from somewhere above her.

“Nearly.”

“That’s got to hurt,” he said. “Did she tell you why she came home yet?”

“Nope, but I tried.”

“You go on, Sawyer. I’ll see you at home. I’ll walk,” Zoe said. “And don’t talk about me like I’m not here.”

“I’ll wait,” he grunted. She then heard his large feet stomp away.

“It’s still a miracle to me that he and Birdie fell in love. You couldn’t get two more different people.”

“I know, but it works for both of them.” Thinking about her brother and Birdie always made Zoe smile.

Sawyer had come home to Lyntacky running from the hell that had been his life in LA, and he and Birdie had fallen in love. It was a beautiful thing.

“Right, that’s you done then, and your brows look amazing,” Nina said, raising the chair Zoe was sitting in. “We’re having drinks soon, and you’re telling me what’s going on with you, girl.”

Zoe sighed. Her choice to not tell people what had sent her home from Chicago wasn’t deliberate. It was just that if she talked, her brothers would find out and then want to fly there and kill the man responsible.

A small voice still niggled in her head that she should have spoken up when it happened, because surely there were other women the man had targeted. But he’d been too powerful, and no one would have believed anything she’d said.

“It will fester if you don’t talk,” Nina said.

“I’m leaving,” Zoe said, walking away. Her brother was waiting for her in the reception area. He was sitting on Birdie’s desk, and JD was standing behind it looking at the monitor.

“Take him away so my administrator can actually do some work,” he said. “They’re doing that eye thing that makes me want to puke.”

“It’s called love, shithead,” Sawyer said. He then kissed his girl, and they left.

Zoe didn’t look at JD. She just raised a hand and walked out the door.

His fingers had only brushed the skin of her arm and she’d wanted more, and Zoe needed to remember that. Remember he wasn’t a man to back off if she taunted him. If she didn’t want anyone knowing what they’d done and wanted to put their relationship back where it was, she needed to keep her distance from JD Hopper.

“In you get,” Sawyer said, opening the door to his pickup.

He then climbed in the driver’s side and started the engine, but he didn’t drive away. Instead, he stared out the windshield.

---