Page 4 of The Moment They Can't Forget

“Of course he’d have a problem. He and the others have a problem if I go on a date and they don’t know about it. Once they tracked me down at a bar with some friends, and a man was leaning over me helping with a pool shot?—”

“You don’t buy men doing that, surely?” JD interrupted her. “They’re just trying to touch you.”

“Anyway,” she said. “My four brothers scared the poor man so much he embarrassed himself.”

“How’d he do that?”

“He wet his pants!” Zoe snapped.

“If he wasn’t strong enough to stand up to those four, then clearly he wasn’t the guy for you. We’re adults, Zoe, and besides, I didn’t kill him when I learned he was with Birdie, and she’s like a sister to me.”

“But the point is, you wanted to,” Zoe countered. “I know you threatened him, so multiply that by four, and then maybe add one more for Uncle Asher. I don’t want to discuss this anymore, JD. Never speak of it again.”

They left the town and headed to where she lived.

“Stop at the beginning of the driveway,” Zoe said. It was long, and in each of the houses would be members of her family still sleeping.

Please let them still be sleeping.

“Please, JD,” she added, because manners were important when your life turned to hell.

He did as she asked, pulling over to the side. Zoe hesitated before getting out. Turning to look at him, she thought it was the first time she’d seen him looking less than his usual immaculate self. Image was a big deal to JD. But the T-shirt he’d thrown on was inside out. His long legs were in the jeans he’d worn last night, and he had no shoes on.

“If you say thanks for the fuck, Zoe?—”

“Real crude, JD.”

His eyes caught and held hers. The black depths were unreadable as they studied her. “Maybe, but you just said that’s all it is.”

“Don’t lie to me that I was ever a name in your little black book, JD, because we both know we’ve never liked each other. This was a mistake?—”

“Pretty fucking awesome one.” His words came out a growl.

“It doesn’t matter what it was. We’re never speaking of it again.”

He added nothing, just looked at her with an unreadable expression. Being raised by four brothers, Zoe had the handbook on how to understand men and their moods memorized, but she couldn’t tell what JD was thinking at that moment.

“Bye,” she said when nothing else came to mind.

“Yeah, see you round, Zoe Duke,” he said.

She got out, and then he was driving away from her slowly. Anyone that she called family wouldn’t hear the soft hum of his engine. He could have been a real ass and roared away in that V8, but he hadn’t.

Running down the long drive, she passed her uncle’s house and skidded to a halt when she saw him seated outside on the deck with coffee.

“Hey, Zoe.”

“Ah, hi, Uncle Asher.” Her uncle was one of the best men she knew and was the father she’d never known. He was the sheriff in Lyntacky and respected by just about everyone.

“You want some coffee, or do you need to get inside before any other members of your nosey, overprotective family see you?”

“That,” she said, not bothering to lie.

“All right then, and I won’t mention I heard a car drop you off, little girl. But if you need me, you know where I am.”

“I know, and thank you.”

Why his words made her want to cry, she had no idea. Uncle Asher had always been there for all the Dukes. He’d moved home to help his sister care for her kids after the death of her husband.

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