Page 74 of The Moment They Can't Forget

He knew as he watched the sway of her hips that what he felt for Zoe Duke was a lot deeper than anything he’d experienced before, and she was right that he didn’t want to get in deep with a woman right now… if ever. The problem was, he couldn’t be entirely sure he wasn’t there already.

Chapter21

After sleeping for a solid six hours, JD let his animals out into the paddocks. Potato, his cranky donkey, had tried to take a chunk out of his ass, but he’d run fast enough to avoid that happening.

Climbing into his car, he then headed to Lyntacky to see his brother. He wasn’t due into work till noon, so he had the morning off, and he needed to deal with whatever had brought Henry to town.

He wasn’t thinking about Zoe today. There was nothing he could do there for now, so he would shelve it and deal with his brother.

Driving down the main street, he raised his hand when someone waved and realized that he really did now think of Lyntacky as his home. He wasn’t sure when that happened. Opening The Gnat had been a solid business investment, he’d told himself. He could sell it when he was ready to move on. He’d not moved on.

JD had put down roots. His animals, the house he’d renovated, and the friends he’d made. This was his home. Did love and a family factor into that? He’d just never thought it was something that would come his way, and if it did, not for a while.

The first woman he’d shown any interest in—other than for mutually satisfying sex—and it had to be the sister of his friend.Not your best move, Hopper.

He should have turned right before the end of the street, but he didn’t, deciding to check on the work Ryder was doing at his cafe. One day soon, JD could walk here from The Gnat and buy good food and coffee, and hopefully the feelings of guilt that he’d slept with the Duke brothers’ sister would have eased.

Ryder was just getting out of his vehicle. JD raised a hand, intending to drive by, but Ryder gestured for him to stop.

Fuck.Did this mean he was getting another lecture?

Pulling alongside, he lowered the window.

“Morning,” Ryder said. Under his arm was a container.

JD thought of this Duke as the most easygoing of the lot. He smiled more and seemed to roll with the punches, until his brothers started something, and then he joined in. But after that confrontation with all the Duke male siblings in the Circle Left, he was nervous about how things would be between them now.

“Morning. You got donuts or muffins in there?” He nodded to the container.

“Muffins. Chocolate and caramel with apricot. It’s a new recipe.” Ryder leaned on his window. “I filled some with plain caramel and others with a mix of chocolate and apricot.”

“Do I have to beg?”

Ryder laughed, looking relaxed and not like he wanted to kill JD, so maybe Nina had kept her mouth shut. Or was he just the smiling assassin waiting to strike?

“Have at it.” Straightening, Ryder opened the container, and the scent of baked deliciousness wafted up JD’s nose.

“I’d marry you if I leaned that way.”

“Know it, and declined many similar offers from men saying the same thing after they taste my baking.”

He bit into the muffin and sighed. “These are good, bud. Real good,” he added as he tasted the apricot and chocolate.

“You like it?”

“It has my vote, but then so does the caramel filling. You put these on your menu, and I’ll buy them every day.”

“Then you’ll get fat and blame me when your Hugo Boss Robbie doesn’t fit,” Ryder said.

He took another bite and savored the flavors while he rolled his eyes.

“So you going to see Henry?”

JD nodded.

“What’s the deal with you two? In fact, what’s the deal with your family? Sawyer said you don’t talk about it, but your dad’s a dickhead?”

The thing about Dukes is they kept nothing a secret between them.

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