Page 22 of The Moment They Can Never Forgive
“What?” Jay demanded when he reached them. He did a chest bounce and hand slap with all of them, and then sniffed the air like a hound. “That coffee smells good, Rye.”
“Of course it’s fucking good. I have to make you one now too?”
“Appreciate it,” Jay said, going to the display cases. “Put it on my tab,” he added, taking out a wedge of cake.
“At least you actually pay yours,” Ryder muttered.
“How’s the hand, and how was your trip? You going to be an even more kick-ass deputy with all this new stuff you’ve learned?” Jay asked after he’d swallowed a large bite.
“Hand is fine, and I’m not sure I can be any more kick ass, but I learned a few things,” Dan said, feeling the tension ease inside him after seeing Leah and making a dick of himself ease.
He’d need to apologize to her, and that made the mouthful of food in his throat form a hard lump. No one liked apologizing, but more than that, it would make him have to get close to her again, and one thing he’d realized in the minutes he’d just spent in Leah’s company was that woman still made his heart beatjust a little faster, and that was a bad thing because there would never again be anything between them.
Chapter 7
She took a deep breath as the rage slid into panic, holding it for four seconds before letting it go. Thankfully Zoe had been serving a customer when she’d walked into Petticoat Homeware, which gave Leah time to calm down.
Not now. I do not need to panic now.
She focused on her breathing. Focused on the fact she was back where she knew the landscape and the people.Lyntacky isn’t a threat to you. Home.She’d reconnected with all the people in her life who mattered here. Not Dan, but the friends she’d had when she left, were still that for her.
Leah had always been the confident sibling, while her sister had been shy. She’d looked out for her when people had come at them for being one of those Reynolds. The loser family who had nothing and were no good… or so people told them. She’d learned young to be tough. Learned to take nothing from anyone.
She didn’t want Dan Duke’s sister seeing her like this. Close to tears and shaking with anger.
He’d accused her of running away while pregnant with his child. That hurt, even as she’d told herself he could never hurther again.Bastard.She’d felt the panic slither into her body then. Leah hated that feeling.
When you were raised as she had been, control was important, but ever since Cassie’s death, panic had slithered into her body when she least expected it. She handled it with breathing. Sometimes it worked, and at others it didn’t.
Looking at the large shelf before her, she focused on the bedcovers all stacked in a neat pile, counting each until she felt calmer. When Leah heard the door close, she was ready to face Zoe Duke. Leah had become good at hiding her feelings.
In the days since she’d been back, her old friends had folded her into their lives as much as she’d let them. Unlike when she lived here before, Leah put distance between herself and them now. She wasn’t the same person she’d always been. Leah was also now a single parent, which had changed her life forever.
“Leah?”
Turning at that voice, she found Birdie was in the store too.
“Birdie,” Leah said, moving closer to examine the sweet little girl in the stroller. Blond like her mother, she had on a cute purple onesie and was chewing furiously on a plastic ring.
“Hey there, Sadie,” Leah said, bending to kiss a soft cheek. “How are you doing, sweet girl?”
“She kept me awake all night, so she’s not so sweet right now,” Birdie said around a yawn.
“No way. You wouldn’t do that to your mom, would you, baby?”
It still shocked her that her friend was married to the oldest and grumpiest Duke brother. You couldn’t get two more different people.
“Bring my niece up here right now!” Zoe yelled.
Birdie rolled her eyes. “Dukes. What can you do?”
“True that,” Leah said.
Leah had changed, as had her friends, and there were big gaps in what they knew about each other now. Perhaps they’d always be there? But at least here in Lyntacky, she had people she could rely on if she needed to, which she likely wouldn’t, but it made her feel better as Hudson’s guardian.
Birdie and Leah walked to the counter, where Zoe stood rolling up a bolt of fabric.
“What’s up?” Zoe had her hands braced on the counter now and was studying Leah.
