Page 38 of The Moment They Can't Forget

“So getting back to my sister,” Sawyer said after they’d returned to the bar. “Do you think you could get her to tell you why she came home, JD?”

“No. We don’t even like each other very much,” JD said, which was a colossal lie. He liked a lot about Zoe Duke.

“What’s wrong with my sister?” Sawyer glared at him.

“She’s argumentative and rude to me for starters,” he said.

Sawyer’s glare turned to a smile. “Yeah, I love that about her.”

He should just go home, pack his things, and move to another state. Life after sleeping with Zoe Duke had become complicated, and one of those complications was his friend and her big brother, who trusted him. He felt like he was betraying him.

Life was so much easier in the city.

Chapter12

Zoe wandered down the main street of Lyntacky with Lil, stopping in front of Petticoat Homeware.

“Mrs. C, who runs this place, asked me to work here until she’s back on her feet. She’s thinking of retiring too,” Zoe said.

Lil looked in the window. “Is there room to walk about in there?”

“Not really. It’s jammed full of stuff. Petticoat is a one-stop shop for home decor. She orders all the supplies people need for their interiors and offers design advice.”

“Is she any good?” Lil asked.

“Surprisingly, yes. Although she is in a bit of a time warp. I used to spend hours in there with her, and that’s where I got my love of interior design. Sometimes she’d take me with her when she went to look at houses, and I’d watch her work out what should go where.”

“Do you want to stay here and work?” Lil turned her head to look at Zoe.

“I don’t know what I want.”

“If you have the money, you could buy it, then get someone to work for you. If you still think you need to leave and work in a big city, it will be here if you come back,” Lil said.

“I could do that.” Zoe mulled over what her friend said.

They started walking again. She’d taken Lil to the Do-Si-Do for a meal. Her friend had charmed both Frank and Linda, the owners, by lavishing compliments on them about the food.

“Why’d you leave, Zoe? One day you were there, and the next you were calling me to say you were leaving and heading home. I missed you, as did the other staff.”

“I don’t want to talk about it, Lil. You still work there.”

They walked, letting the cool night air settle around them.

“Because the reason is not a good one, and you didn’t leave because you wanted to?”

“Something like that.”

“I’m sorry that happened to you, but don’t you think if there is a bad egg in the company, then others should know?”

Zoe had thought about that too. She was sure the man who had forced her to leave the job she loved had targeted someone else with unwanted attention.

“Zoe—”

“Leave it, Lil. Nothing will change what happened, and I don’t want you involved.”

“I’m not really the ‘leave it, Lil’ type,” her friend said.

“No, really?”

---