Page 110 of The Moment He Saw Her

I have a nickname in this town.

Brody winked at her as he sprinted up first and handed the black shoe with a red heel to Sawyer.Why isn’t he angry with me for hurting his brother?

“Libby, focus!” Cill said, arriving next. She carried a blue shoe with pink silk laces. She thrust it at Libby, and then she was off and running.

“Go, Libby!” Klaus and Lea Becker yelled. She waved to them.

At least the street didn’t appear icy.

“Faster, Libby!” Delores called out to her.

She started pumping her arms harder just as Sawyer elbowed someone, and the man stumbled sideways and fell to his knees in front of her. Libby hurdled him and kept moving. Someone drew level and tried to pass her, and she saw it was Jett Hyland.

“Hey, Libby.”

“Jett,” she gritted out as her lungs protested. The man wasn’t even breathless.

She saw Ryder then, standing tall beside Zoe. Beau Keller was there, too, and others. But it was Ryder she was focused on. She had to make him forgive her. Had to make him understand why she’d lied to him.

“Run, Libby!” Zoe yelled.

The distance wasn’t great but felt like a marathon to someone who hadn’t run faster than a jog in a long while. Ryder took the shoe his brother handed him, and his eyes met hers briefly before he turned and ran.

“Here.” Libby handed hers to Zoe, and she followed her brother.

Libby then tried to fill her lungs with air while she watched the tall body of the man she cared about run away from her. She really hoped that wasn’t a sign of her future and Ryder would at least talk to her again.

“Libby.”

She spun too fast and stumbled into Sawyer, who was breathing as hard as her.

“A-Andrew. What are you doing here?”

“Is he that asshole you were engaged to?” Sawyer whispered into her ear.

She nodded, her eyes on the tall, elegant man walking toward her.

They’d known each other for years, and their relationship and subsequent engagement had seemed a natural progression once, but not now. Now she knew what else there was to experience in life. Now she’d lived in Lyntacky with all its wonderful, warm wackiness and Ryder. Now she knew how to love.

“What are you doing, Libby?”

Andrew was a gentleman who, she realized now, did exactly what his parents and hers told him to. Like Libby, he had allowed himself to be controlled and manipulated.

“I-I just ran in a relay,” she got out of her still-heaving lungs. Libby could feel Sawyer’s large body beside her and wondered why he hadn’t gone to the finish line.

“We need to talk now, Libby.” Andrew was eyeing the eldest Duke nervously.

“I don’t think she’s got anything to say to you,” Sawyer said. “She said it all when she walked out on your wedding.”

Libby felt someone else move to her side then and saw it was Sydney Jane.

“Hurry, Andrew, I don’t want to stay here longer than I need to.”

“You brought your mother with you?” Libby asked, watching Dianne Lucas walk to her son’s side, looking immaculate as always in a head-to-toe rust-colored wool suit and matching overcoat. The woman was beautiful, and she had always made Libby nervous. With her was Simone, her driver and bodyguard. Large and intimidating, he stood at her back, as he always did. Andrew’s family had as much wealth as Libby’s, if not more.

“After your father gave me your location, Mother decided to come and help work out the logistics of our next move. We must ensure going forward there is no further scandal that will affect our families,” Andrew said, like this entire thing was a business deal, and she hadn’t run out on their wedding.

“There are no logistics to work out. I’m not marrying you, and I’m definitely not going back with you,” Libby said.

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