Page 104 of The Moment They Can't Forget

“I can’t believe you said that,” Sawyer said. “We have a pact, Mom.”

“Which you made when you were teenagers,” Robyn Duke said in a hard voice. “Grow up, all of you. There are five of you Duke siblings, and you live in a small town. Chances are you’d end up liking one of your friends romantically at some stage.” She then took Ally’s hand and walked back inside. “Don’t be a blockheaded idiot like your aunt and uncles when you grow up, baby.”

“I won’t, Nana, I promise,” Ally replied.

Sawyer got back into the driver’s seat, and they drove to his house. The silence was so thick, she could swipe a hand through it.

What was JD doing now? Unlike her, he didn’t have family to talk to… not that she wanted to talk to her idiot brothers, but still she had her mom and uncle. JD had no one. Zoe hurt for him. He and Sawyer were like brothers, and now they were enemies, and all because she’d not wanted anyone to know about them.

She’d said she was leaving. Said nothing could come of what lay between them, but she hadn’t even tried. Zoe had treated what she and JD had done like a dirty little secret, and now she’d hurt him, her brothers, and herself.

“Let’s go,” Sawyer said after they’d parked at his house.

She got out because she wanted to, not because he’d told her. Walking inside, they found Birdie dressed in faded shorts and a T-shirt. The smile on her face fell away when she looked at her man. “What’s happened?” She hurried to Sawyer. “Your eye is swollen.” She shot Zoe a look.

“JD did it, not me.” Zoe walked out to the deck and gripped the railing. She inhaled and exhaled slowly as she looked but didn’t see the water below.

“Here.” Sawyer handed her a mug of coffee, and she turned to take it. “Sit,” he then barked.

“I’m not taking orders from you.”

“You—”

“Be quiet, Sawyer,” Birdie said, holding a mug of her favorite tea. “You both sit now, and you too, Ryder. No more barking at your sister. This will be a talk without raised voices.”

Sawyer muttered something but sat. Ryder did too.

“Now tell me what happened?” Birdie said.

“I found her kissing JD in his stable,” Sawyer said, his voice hard.

“The fuck you did,” Ryder snarled.

“He then fought with his best friend, and we left,” Zoe added, staring at the bruised knuckle on her big brother’s hand.

“Sawyer, you didn’t?” Birdie said.

“This is not about me. It’s about them. He’s my friend, and she’s my sister. This shouldn’t have happened.”

Sawyer had helped raise the rest of them. He was gruff and hardheaded, but Zoe never once doubted he took his duties seriously and loved all of them. But his biggest fault was being reasonable when it came to anyone he loved.

“He told us twice nothing was going on between you,” Ryder said. “He lied.”

“Right, because it would have been soooo easy to come clean with you bullheaded idiots,” Zoe snapped.

“JD is one of the best, kindest men I know,” Birdie said before anyone else spoke. “If Zoe and JD were kissing, I think that’s a wonderful thing, and to my mind, they are well suited.”

“What?” Sawyer shot her a look. “You have to be kidding me. That man has had more women than?—”

“You had before me? And what about your brothers?”

“I’m here!” The yell came from Brody, who was now running through the house if the thud of his feet was any indication. He appeared, looking worried. “What’s going on? I got this desperate call from Mom that I needed to come here before any blood was spilled.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Sawyer muttered.

“Where’s the emergency?” Uncle Asher called as he arrived next. “I came because Dan is on patrol, but he said I had to record everything.”

“Go away!” Sawyer roared.

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