Page 92 of The Other Fork in the Road

Jax extended his hand. “You must be Zoey. I’m Jax.”

Zoey shook his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“Now, what in the hell did you girls do here? Pulling over in the mud after all that rain last night may not have been the best idea.” Jax looked under the car while I observed his fine ass. Never miss an opportunity, I say.

“Madison made me pull over so she could take a picture of a cloud.”

Gasp. “Zoey!”

She shrugged. “What? It’s true, isn’t it?”

Jax’s eyes shot to me.

It came out quietly. “Well, it was a cloud shaped exactly like a pepper.” His eyes confirmed I was insane. “Like, a really rare cloud.”

Zoey’s phone dinged inside the car, and she rushed to get it. Jax’s eyes narrowed, and his brows lifted.

“Madison, you’ve got to be kidding me. Clouds?”

“You’ve seentonsof red flags when it comes to me. It’s not my fault you thought I was normal. That’s on you.”

Zoey walked back over to me. “Well, our screaming forest insta post has fifteen thousand likes and made Mom call to make sure we weren’t dead.”

The passenger door on Jax’s truck opened, and Austin got out, clearly tired of waiting. Zoey grabbed my hand as tall, dark, and handsome number two approached, wearing hisNot Todayt-shirt, jeans, sunglasses, and work boots.

She whispered. “Whatis that?”

Austin pulled off his sunglasses and eyed Zoey. “Hey.” He did that chin lift thing arrogant men had in common.

A long pause, then a devilish grin slid across Zoey’s lips. “Who the fuck are you?”

A shocked Jax looked over at me, and I just shrugged.

Austin laughed and tilted his head. “Who the fuck areyou?” He extended his hand, and Zoey shook it, the two of them yanking each other's arms like a tug-of-war power play.

I stepped forward. “Zoey, this is Austin. Daisy’s other adopted son. Austin this is Zoey.”

My eyes flew between the two, and I was pretty sure a stick of dynamite wasn’t going to break that handshake.

While I was known to make shitty decisions when it came to men, resulting in my heart being trampled on more occasions than I’d like to admit, Zoey couldn’t get her heart broken because she never gave it away.

When she dated, even men who didn’t want a relationship, always ended up gaga for Zoey. That was always her cue to cut and run. She’d loved once and was left barely recognizable when it was over. That was the one time I carried her though, knowing she’d never go down that path again.

Jax clapped his hands together. “Okay, let’s get this thing back on the road.”

Five minutes and a tow-rope later, the filthy car was back on the highway.

Austin leaned against Jax’s truck. “I say we get this car washed, drop it off at the house, and then we go play a little paintball. You gals already look dirty.

Zoey grinned. “You have no idea.”

My eyes rolled.

“I probably need to get back to Grant.” Jax threw his tow rope in the back of his truck.

Austin pulled his phone out of his pocket, dialed, and put it on speaker.

“Hello?” I could hear Daisy’s smile.

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