Page 62 of The Moment They Can't Forget

They all wore Leaders shirts and caps.

“We talked about you putting your fingers up my nose, Ruby,” JD said to the little girl in his arms. She was six months old and the cutest kid, with a mop of brown hair and big brown eyes that often just stared at you like she could read your every thought. Right then, he was enjoying having her solid little body in his arms.

In the old days, they would call this circling the wagons. His friends had somehow sensed he was on edge over Henry’s arrival and come to support him. It was humbling, weird, and yet cool all at once.

“Henry is my brother,” he said to those who didn’t already know. That information would reach all corners of Lyntacky by nightfall.

“What does theJin JD stand for?” Nina asked.

“Nope,” JD said, glaring at his brother. He turned it on Zoe.

“Do you know?” Cill demanded.

Zoe shook her head. But no one was convinced. Dukes kept their word. JD remembered hearing that over his time in Lyntacky.

“Oh, hell no,” Sawyer said as the grapevine twist music started on the speakers in the Circle Left.

“He’s got to be kidding,” Zoe said.

“I thought we’d covered this, Tripp!” Sheriff Dans’s voice was loud enough to carry to where the mayor was just walking out the doors. “No dancing on game day!”

There was no reply, as he’d disappeared. “Olive, we have to dance,” Nina said, following the wave of people behind their mayor with Cill’s other daughter.

“Oooh, I get to do it again. Goodie!” Zoe’s friend Lil shrieked.

“Well, fark,” Sawyer muttered. “Come on, Henry. I hope you can dance.”

Henry, like JD, had learned young, but he definitely didn’t know how to square dance.

“What’s happening?” his brother asked, looking even more confused. That had been JD’s constant state when he’d come to Lyntacky, so he had some sympathy for his brother.

“Not enough hours in any day to explain that, bud. You just take my sister’s hand, and she’ll look after you,” Sawyer said.

“I’ll pay you with two free massages, and I’ll come into Petticoat and vacuum twice if you tell me what theJstands for,” Cill said to Zoe as she followed.

“I don’t know,” Zoe lied, towing Henry outside.

“Come on, baby girl. It looks like you and me are going to dance,” JD said, following. And when it was done, he was taking his brother somewhere quiet and getting the truth out of him as to why he was here, even though he was pretty sure he knew the answer.

Chapter18

Zoe hurt. Her ribs ached and so did pretty much every other muscle in her body. She’d need to head home soon and take a long, hot bath. Right now, she had to dance with JD’s little brother, who he was not pleased to see.

When Henry Hopper approached, she’d felt the tension in JD. Watched his jaw muscles bunch and his fists clench at his sides. While she didn’t want to get close to the man, he was her brother’s best friend, and yes, she guessed he was her friend too. She’d stood and moved to his side to support him, as had the others who’d walked up.

JD was standing across from her now in the circle, with Ruby in his arms. The little girl had her head on his shoulder, and he was swaying slightly. Zoe had never really thought of him as child friendly, and yet clearly he was. In fact, there were many more layers to JD Hopper than she’d realized, or maybe never wanted to see.

“You all good, little sis?”

“Yeah, I’m a bit sore but okay, Brody. Hey, Ally,” she said to her niece, who was holding her daddy’s other hand.

“You wouldn’t lie to me, would you?”

She sighed. Her brothers loved her, and she had to remember that. This one had raised his daughter with help from the rest of the family while she’d been in Chicago.

“Of course I would lie to you and constantly do,” Zoe added.

“Ha-ha.”

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