Page 86 of The Moment They Can't Forget

“You should get a dehydrator. It’s cheaper,” Zoe said, still in the singsong voice.

“Do I look like someone who would spend time peeling turnips and dehydrating them?”

“I didn’t think you looked like an animal lover, but seems I was wrong there too.”

“JD, can you help me with Pumpkin’s cover buckle again? It’s stuck!” Vi called from somewhere.

“Are all your animals named after vegetables?” Zoe asked.

“Maybe. Don’t let her eat you. I’ll have to tell your brothers and likely leave town,” JD said.

“’Kay.” She sounded like Ally as he walked away.

He found Vi and Ally in the stall that housed three goats. Pumpkin was black with white patches, and Parsnip was ginger. Vi had named them. Both girls had their heads lowered studying something when he entered the stall.

“Step aside and let me see,” JD said. “Big strong man here to help.”

“But that’s all we need you for,” Ally said. “Women can do most things.”

Vi smiled at that. Just small, but it was a smile. He wrestled the buckle for them and made a mental note to get it fixed.

“I’m going to let them into the paddock now, JD,” Vi said. “Ally is going to help me.”

“Sweet. I’ll just check if Potato hasn’t eaten your aunt yet,” he said.

“She won’t. It’s just you she doesn’t like. Besides, my daddy says Aunt Zoe is like an animal whisperer. There isn’t one that doesn’t love her. He says she’s got this way about her. He can’t understand it because she’s the most impatient person he knows with people, especially him and my uncles, but with animals, she’s different.”

“That’s cool,” Vi said, which surprised him. She rarely spoke unless necessary. Clearly she liked Ally and didn’t feel threatened by her like she did with adults.

JD left the girls and headed back to the stable in case he needed to staunch blood flow after Potato ate a piece of Zoe Duke, and it would be a damn shame for any of that lovely skin to be damaged.

“There you go, sweet girl,” Zoe was crooning as he arrived. “You’re not a bad girl at all, are you? Just misunderstood.”

“Said millions of women everywhere,” JD said as he looked in the stall.

Potato had her head pressed into Zoe’s chest and was allowing her to scratch her behind her ridiculously long ears.

“You have to be shitting me. So it really is just me she doesn’t like,” JD said.

“Potato likes to be scratched behind the ears. Don’t you, sweetie?”

“I can’t get close enough to her to do that.”

“Come in here,” Zoe said in a soft voice. “Slowly. Don’t stride in all macho.”

“I never stride anywhere, macho or otherwise,” JD said.

“Right. Of course you don’t. Soften your voice. It’s too deep and scares her.”

“How the hell do you know that?”

“Is she good for Vi?”

“Yes.”

“And pretty much everyone else because they use that animal voice when they talk to her?”

“Maybe,” he admitted.

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