Page 70 of The Moment They Can't Forget

“I said beer,” JD added, sounding exactly like Grill would have ordering a drink. Rude and surly. It should have been a warning to give him one. Everyone, including Frank, ignored him.

“Coming right up,” Frank said, putting the glasses before him and pouring the firewater into them.

No ice, JD noted. He liked his whiskey with ice but wasn’t about to mention that fact, because he’d never live it down.

“So that was real nice of you to look out for Zoe, JD,” Brody said after JD had taken his first sip of the firewater. He choked but got it down.

“What?” He shot the brothers a look. They all had the same hard expression in their eyes.

“You hit Beau Keller hard when he hurt her, and I saw you watching her tonight in here,” Sawyer said. “Plus all that shit out there.”

“What shit? I was stopping her from running at Grill.” JD was a big boy. In fact, he was a man and had been for some time. So why were his palms sweating? Is this what her brothers had put every man who showed an interest in Zoe through? No wonder she was as hot as she was and still single.

“You are not seriously coming at me with this crap?”

“Is there something between you and my sister? Because I’ll believe you if you say there’s not, and that had better be the answer, JD. Because I will be real pissed if it’s not. Dukes don’t date their siblings’ best friends,” Sawyer said.

“I’m not answering that, and she’s a grown-assed adult, and I thought we discussed your overprotective behavior where she was concerned the other night in the Rollaway.”

“Just answer the question,” Brody said.

“This is not the Wild West. You don’t have to point a shotgun at the head of every man who looks sideways at your sister.” He threw the rest of his drink down. “I’m going home, and you all need to stay out of my way.”

Thankfully, they didn’t stop him. Nancy had already told JD she’d given Henry her best room upstairs, so after he’d pulled his brother out of Sydney Jane’s breasts he marched him up the stairs. Finding his room key in his back pocket, because he was incapable of doing that, he opened the door and nudged him in. His brother fell flat on his face.

“Like I needed anything else to improve my day.”

“S-shorry” was all Henry could manage.

Pulling him up, he removed his shoes and pants, then wrestled him out of his shirt and put him to bed, leaving a glass of water on the nightstand. He then stood staring down at the man his little brother had become. One eye opened.

“Mished you, Julian,” Henry slurred.

“You too, Henry,” JD found himself saying.

When his snores filled the room, JD left, locking the door behind him and sliding the room key back underneath. He didn’t want Sydney Jane taking advantage of him.

Chapter20

JD was driven home by Red and Delores Heckler when he realized he’d had too much to drink. He spent the time in the back seat, while the Hecklers flirted in the front, thinking about Zoe and her brothers. He knew her family’s pact was more important than he could ever be. That she wouldn’t take a chance on him, them, because of it. And then there were her brothers. They’d warned him off going near their sister, and as far as they were concerned, that was likely that… and it should be.

After thanking the Hecklers, he’d walked into the barn with no answers and more questions. He checked on his animals, making sure they were fed and watered. JD then stood outside Potato’s stall as she glared at him.

“It’s not like I’ve done anything but be nice to you, you mangy little beast.” The donkey flattened her ears at him. “Women usually like me.” She turned her back on him and lifted her tail, freeing her bowels in a steady stream that made a loud plopping sound and had him laughing when, in fact, he had little to laugh about.

Henry was here. He wanted Zoe Duke far more than he should. Sawyer was his friend and would kill him if he knew he’d slept with his sister, and now he’d made an enemy of the local biker gang.

“My life is usually simple,” he muttered, heading back to the house.

After a shower, he was still too worked up to sleep, so he went to the kitchen for a drink.

“Everything is a mess, Velma,” he said when the duck waddled in after him, her little tail feathers shaking. He handed her a slice of apple. The dogs got a biscuit each.

Grabbing a bag of chips, JD headed back outside with his animals.

“I have this. I need nothing else,” he said out loud, hoping to convince himself that the life he’d loved before Zoe came back was still the only thing he needed.

Walking down to the water, he went to the hammock. Lying in it, he ripped open the chip bag and dived into the salty goodness as he looked up at the stars, hoping to find answers to the questions inside his head.

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