Page 72 of Karma
Setting the slice down on her plate, Margaret rests her elbows on the table and looks at him. “Okay…”
“Um… Now, if you get upset or angry, or you need to yell and scream, that’s okay.”
“Not really the best way to start a conversation.”
He swallows. “When I was… gone… I laid down my bike. Did a good number on myself and was in the hospital for a while. While I was there, I met someone. A woman.”
Her eyebrows lift. “A woman?”
“She was my doctor,” he says. “She learned I really had nowhere to go, and I reeked of alcohol. As you can about imagine, that was how I wrecked, and let it serve as a lesson about drinking and driving.”
“You stayed with her?”
“She somehow convinced me to stay in her guest room while I recovered. And sobered up. With a broken leg, it was difficult to hobble to the liquor store, so I quit.”
Jaw dropped, Margaret stares. “Drinking? For good?”
“Not for good, but I’m not drinking to get through life anymore.” Zane chuckles, his nerves kicking back up. “Anyway, we kind of, sort of…”
“Had sex?”
Hearing his daughter say the word sex makes his skin crawl. In his mind, she’s still three and should know nothing about the topic. “It was more than that.”
“Eww.”
“No, not like—”
“I’m kidding,” she says and rolls her eyes. “You dated her.”
Studying her, he tries to determine how she feels. Gauge it accurately. But if she’s upset or angry, she gives nothing away. Just like Lane. “Yes.”
“Are you still dating her?”
“Once I got a handle on myself again, I told her I had to come back to Griffin’s Beach. To you. I’d spent too much time away, and I thought that was it. Our time together came to an end.”
Sighing, Margaret closes her eyes and rubs her temples with her fingertips. “Please don’t tell me you have a stalker. Because that’s kind of Lex’s job in the family, and it’s kind of overdone at this point.”
He laughs, some of his tension disappearing. “Is that right?”
“You don’t have a stalker, right?” Her eyes pop open, and she stares at him.
“No, but she did transfer to the hospital here. She wasn’t ready to be done with me, I guess.”
“Are we happy or upset about this?”
Zane swallows the lump in his throat. It never occurred to him he’d ever have to talk about his love life with his daughter. “Both,” he admits. “I feel a lot of guilt because of your mom, but I also think it’s best for me to try to move on. As long as you’re comfortable with it.”
“Well, if she works at the hospital, she can’t be a club bunny. Which Mom would come back and haunt you for if you ever brought one in the house.”
Chuckling, he remembers the letter Lane wrote him. “No, she definitely is not a bunny.”
“Is she working tonight?”
Shaking his head, he takes a slice from the box.I seriously ordered just onion and peppers?“I don’t think so.”
“Invite her over. We have enough pizza to feed us for weeks, so I think another mouth to feed will actually help me still like pizza.”
He chokes on the bite he takes. “You want to invite her over… tonight?”
