Page 108 of The Moment He Saw Her

“Turn down the volume, Tripp!” someone yelled.

“Run fast,” Sawyer said to his brothers.

“Is that it? No pep talk about doing this for the Duke name and pride in ourselves or some shit like that?” Dan asked.

Sawyer ignored him and headed off down the street with Ryder and Brody. His brothers stopped in their places until he reached the end of the street.

“Ugh, I blame you,” his sister said, stumbling toward him. She then leaned her head on his chest. Ryder wrapped his arms around her and felt her sigh.

“What did I do now?” He continued to scan the street, looking for Libby, while his sister got herself together.

“We had girls’ night, and while it was already planned, the Libby and you quandary, as we’re now naming it, called for talking well into the night.”

“Quandary?”

“It’s a fancy word for dilemma, according to Cill.”

“Right.” He wanted to ask about Libby. How she’d been and what she’d said, but then Zoe would ask him about what he felt for her, and things would escalate.

“Where is she?”

“Running the third leg since June Matilda had a last-minute issue with regards to the winners’ certificates she needed to deal with.”

“We get certificates?” Ryder whistled. He’d see Libby soon because he was running the fourth leg, as was Zoe, who Libby was passing the shoe to.

“Bart got a new printer, apparently.”

“Nice.”

Ryder rested his head on Zoe’s while around them competitors all lined up and waited for their turn to run. He saw the man standing on the sidewalk, his eyes scanning the scene before him. Dressed in a black overcoat, tartan scarf, and trousers, he looked out of place surrounded by others in more casual dress.

“On your marks!” Bart roared.

“At least when I kick your ass today, you’ll have an excuse.”

Zoe pushed off him and glared through her squinty eyes.

“I could beat you on one leg,” she snapped, suddenly all business.

“You’ve never beaten me.” Ryder looked at the guy again. His eyes were scanning the street.

Ryder’s leg was from his cafe to the Gnat, and he was running against Zoe, Bart, who obviously didn’t need to use the new printer, Luca, and a few others he didn’t know because they weren’t local. Beau Keller was also lined up.

“You Dukes are going down!” he yelled. “Hi, Zoe.” He then blew her a kiss. Ryder watched his sister raise a middle finger and smiled.

“Get bent, Keller!” Ryder said, giving him the same gesture.

“I haven’t heard that in a while,” Bart said as he did a stretch that shaped his body into a pretzel.

“What does it mean?” Luca asked.

“Basically get lost,” Zoe said.

“Nice. I might use that,” the boy said.

“Don’t tell your father it came from a Duke,” Ryder said. “He put so much hot sauce on my pizza the last time I pissed him off, my mouth was on fire for days.”

He looked at the man again and saw he was standing with Samuel Caldwell, and Ryder just bet he knew exactly who he was now and didn’t like that he was in Lyntacky one bit.

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