Page 73 of The Moment They Can't Forget

“I have to go home, JD.”

He eased off her and got out of the hammock. His legs felt unsteady, but he stayed upright. He then helped her out. Now the sex was over, he could feel the distance growing between them again.

“Zoe—”

“We can’t do this, JD, because of my brothers, Nina, and anyone else who might find out. We can’t just have an affair in Lyntacky.” She was pulling on her shorts so fast, she stumbled. He grabbed her arm to steady her. “I’m leaving, and you’re not into long-term relationships?—”

“You don’t know what I want.”

She looked at him then. “You want to be in a relationship with me?”

“I didn’t say that. But?—”

“Exactly. It terrifies you.”

“Stop putting words in my mouth,” he snapped.

“Look.” She tugged on the rest of her clothes. “We’ve got this out of our system now, so let’s move on.”

“You are not that dumb.” He grabbed her shoulders. “I don’t know what’s between us, but something is, and you are definitely not out of my system.”

“There can’t be anything between us. I’m leaving, and you sleep with lots of different women.”

That pissed him off. “You don’t know shit about me.”

Her shoulders slumped. “No, you’re right. I’m sorry. That wasn’t very nice. The problem is, I can’t think straight around you, and the fact that Nina thinks there is something between us is freaking me out. Plus, I don’t want my brothers turning on you.”

She looked so small and defeated standing there, it made JD’s chest ache.

“We’re adults, Zoe. We can do this if we want to. Your brothers don’t need to know if you don’t want them to. But if they do, then we deal with it.”

“We have the pact, and you and Sawyer are best friends. I don’t want to jeopardize that, and an affair with you would do that.”

He ran a hand through his hair. JD usually knew what he needed to say and which direction to take. Zoe Duke messed with that.

“This is 2024, and we are adults. People have sex all the time. One-night stands. Two-, three-, and four-night stands,” he said. “To hell with your Duke pact.”

“My family is everything to me,” she said solemnly. “After Dad died, we had each other, and I would never do anything to damage that. Being with you would do that.”

And he could never make her choose, because he wasn’t even sure what he needed from this woman.

“I’m leaving, so we just have to stop this now.” She slashed a hand through the air. “I need to go.”

He grabbed her and kissed her. “We weren’t wrong about what we felt that night, were we, Zoe?”

She laid her head on his chest. “No, and that terrifies me.”

“Me too.”

“I don’t think either of us wants to get in too deep right now, JD, and something tells me that could happen if we keep this up. My life is a mess, and I’m not sure where it’s going. I don’t want any more complications.”

“And I’m a complication?”

“You could be.” She stepped back and out of his arms, and he missed her instantly.

“What happened in Chicago, Zoe?”

She shook her head. JD then watched as she kissed her hand and pressed her fingers to his lips before walking away.

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