Page 76 of The Moment They Can't Forget

He nodded again.

“Are you going back to see your folks and get tested?” Ryder asked.

“I don’t know, but maybe. I haven’t thought it through yet. What do you want my advice on?”

“Why not?” Ryder asked, coming to stand beside his brother.

“It’s complicated.”

“What did your dad do that had you leaving home and not going back?” Sawyer asked.

“Did you bring me in here for advice or not?” JD snapped.

“Not. I talked to Henry last night before June Matilda drank him under the table,” Sawyer said. “He won’t tell me anything either.”

“Fuck!” JD looked at the ceiling. He’d thought they were going to climb into him again about Zoe. He’d thought wrong.

“Just spill. You know we’re good for it,” Ryder said.

“You’re the worst gossips in Lyntacky!”

“Only with unimportant stuff,” Ryder said.

JD sighed. He then pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to pinpoint the exact moment his life had spiraled out of control. He came up with the night he first slept with Zoe.

“My father embezzled money from friends and family, and then he used his high-profile lawyer and money to get out of what he’d done while the people he’d bled dry were left suffering. Henry and my mother took his side. I didn’t. You happy now that you’ve dragged that shit out of me?” He glared at the brothers.

“I’ve never seen him really angry before. Like vein-bulging, red-in-the-face, ugly angry,” Ryder said, tilting his head as if to get a better look at JD.

“I’m deliriously fucking happy that your father is a shithead who hurt you. Can’t you tell by my face?” Sawyer asked, scowling. “You needed to share this shit because it was festering inside you, man.”

“Right, because you, the man who was once closed up tighter than a camel’s ass in a sandstorm,” JD said, “were the definition of an open book.”

“Ha, good one,” Ryder said.

“All that shit that went on with you in LA, and you told no one about it until your bitch from the past came calling,” JD continued, on a roll now. “You don’t get to come at me about stuff festering.”

“Birdie told me it’s not healthy to bottle things up. We do this meditation?—”

“I don’t even know you anymore,” JD said, cutting his friend off. “First all that vegetable growing for the entire family shit, and now you’re meditating.”

“I mean, he’s not wrong, bro,” Ryder said. “It’s an adjustment. You were our grumpy Duke, and to be fair, you still are, but there’s this whole other side we’re getting used to.”

Sawyer shrugged. “You do shit for love, and I gave you vegetables too,” he said to JD.

“Hand me something to puke in,” JD snarled.

“I think he’s tense from last night too,” Ryder said.

“Yeah, about that. No hard feelings over what we discussed at Circle Left, bud,” Sawyer then said. “Glad we cleared it all up. I know you’d never do anything with Zoe because we’re friends. Just like she wouldn’t do anything to damage our pact. Sorry if we came on strong.” Sawyer held out his hand, and JD shook it because he had to. Even if his gut clenched over the fact he was lying. He then shook Ryder’s hand.

“Now give me a muffin and never speak of it again,” Sawyer said.

“You are the craziest family I’ve ever known,” JD said as the acid in his gut continued to churn over the deceit.

He didn’t have feelings like this… well, not since all that stuff with his father went down. He’d deliberately avoided emotional entanglements since for that very reason. Get too close, and shit turns bad.

“Yes, we are.” Ryder grinned. Opening the container of muffins again, he handed one to his brother and another to JD, who would probably choke on it if he ate now.

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