Moonshine & Magnolias by Jamie Farrell

Author:Jamie Farrell
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781940517070
Publisher: Jamie Farrell

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Zack woke up with a crick in his neck, sticky cotton in his mouth, and a knocking in his ears. Took him a minute to process where he was. Not unusual—he’d slept in his deployment bunk more nights than in his own bed this year—but crashing on a couch was something he’d given up in his twenties. This morning, his body was more than happy to remind him why.

The knocking came again, and he shoved up and stumbled across Shelby’s tan carpet to peek out the peephole on the front door.

A honey blonde and a dark-haired major were on the doorstep. Jackson and Anna from Shelby’s team.

Zack ran a hand over his buzz cut, then flipped the lock and opened the door.

A matching set of raised eyebrows greeted him.

Anna’s smoothed out into a knowing smile, but Jackson did exactly what Zack would’ve in his shoes.

He gave Zack the silent bro code for Don’t make me kick your ass.

“Well, this is a surprise,” Anna said. She smiled too widely and innocently at Zack. “For your sake, I hope Shelby’s okay that you’re here. You wouldn’t be the first guy Jackson’s beat up for me.”

She was still smiling when she stepped around him. “I’ll go check on her quick.” She went into the dining room and hung a left toward Shelby’s bedroom, leaving Zack alone with Jackson.

“Your bed broken?” Jackson said.

Zack crossed his arms. The other man outranked him, and Zack would give him the requisite amount of respect, but his personal life wasn’t any of the major’s business.

Not this morning, anyway. Zack hadn’t done anything wrong. Zack wouldn’t have done anything wrong. Not with Shelby in the shape she’d been in.

Soft, indistinguishable voices drifted through the wall to Shelby’s room.

Jackson lifted a brow and quirked a grin. “Nothing good ever comes of them talking. You got about two minutes before Anna Grace comes barreling out of there with a plan to fix whatever you broke.”

“Only thing broken is her water pipes,” Zack said.

“She got a plumber on the way?”

“Have you met Shelby?”

Jackson grinned. “You catch on pretty quick for a Yankee.”

“Jackson Davis, you hush,” Anna said from the doorway. She wagged a finger at Zack. “And you too. What were you thinking, letting her into the moonshine?”

Yep. No winning with these folks. Zack ignored them both and passed Anna to knock on Shelby’s door. “My shower works if you need it,” he called through the wood.

He wanted to bang the door down and see for himself that she was fine, but that had too many shades of relationship written on it. Neighborly was one thing. Overprotective was another.

“Honey, Southern women always smell like roses, but that’s mighty nice of you to offer,” Shelby called back.

And now he wanted to both hug her and throttle her. She was back to normal, but she was shutting him out.

Which was a good thing.

He didn’t have anything to offer her. Tough as she acted, she wasn’t a one-night stand kind of girl. She’d made that abundantly clear.

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