Page 43 of Bitten By Zombie

“Like, I was there, but I wasn’t fighting for a place in his life. If he’d have walked away, I wouldn’t have followed. But my parents died in a boating accident, and I was lost and floundering. He was there for me, twenty-four-seven. Unwavering. Even though I hadn’t done my part to keep us going. He sprung his dad on me, and it felt so good to have my bonus dad back.”

She was learning a lot about the man she loved from his best friend.

“They convinced me to go see Linda. She was in the hospital and on the proper medication by then, and when she held her arms out for me, I practically ran into them. It was exactly what I needed. I still never forgave her. Don’t know if that will ever be in the cards for me, but you know what I did understand that day?”

“What?”

“I understood why Wayne forgave her. He couldn’t just throw out all the good between them without forgiving the bad. And in his fucking sunshine brain, the only way to do that was forgiveness.”

She leaned away from the shoulder she’d been taking comfort in. “So, you think I should forgive Stan?” She could hear the outrage in her voice, so no doubt the lawyer did too.

“No.” He pulled her back into his body. “That was his way of coming to terms with holding on to the good. Like I said, your response will be different but just as valid. Whatever you need to do to hold the good while not embracing the bad is what you do. For Zom, that just happened to be his path because his mom is still there. He sees her every week, if not every other day. If you must think of him as two different people, two brothers, do it. You had one that was shit and one that was good. Maybe you have dates. A date where he changed, an event you can use as a pivot point. Then do that. What you can’t do is hold on to self-loathing for your own damn feelings and let it rot you from the inside out.”

His words made sense and all the sudden it clicked. Like someone throwing a switch. Stan was two different people. The Ezekiel’s Children Stan was toxic, but the brother who sprayed the closet with clown repellent well into her teens, because, ugh, clowns, was the best. And she wasn’t losing him tonight. She’d lost him already. She’d lost him when her mom poisoned him with false religious ideology. That Stan was long gone.

There was someone else she needed to look at in a new light too.

Maybe she could swallow all the relationship phobias she was holding on to and go for it. What’s the worst that could happen? She gets heartbroken if it doesn’t work out? Hearts can mend, right? But not even trying seemed ridiculous.

“Thanks, Outlaw. I get it, and you helped me more than you’ll know.”

“You’re welcome, doll.” He’d dropped the brotherly persona and was back to the hopeless flirt.

“Do you think I could go to the hospital and see Sherry? I feel like she could use a friend, and while she may not see me that way, I’m better than nothing.”

Besides, if she planned on sticking around, they needed to call a truce and set some boundaries.

“I think I can arrange that, but um, you’ll have to play backpack. They have all the cages.”

“Not sure what that means, but okay?”

His laugh took her by surprise. Deep and rich. She’d heard him laugh before, but this time was a little different.

“What that means is Zombie is going to kick my ass, but it’ll be totally worth it. Here.” He tossed her a jacket, and they left the clubhouse.

CHAPTERTHIRTEEN

ZOMBIE

Tensions were high and had been since earlier in the day. It was all he could do to keep his head in the game.

Stan had finally arrived, and Santa showed him inside. He had two goons with him. One inside and one on point at the door.

It was not ideal. Not only was Santa outnumbered, but they also had to disable goon number two without a sound, or Santa would be a sitting duck.

One problem solved itself when Santa’s voice carried to where they hid. “Alright, man, shit. You didn’t tell me to wait outside. I thought we were cool?”

Santa was backing out of Heidi’s apartment with his hands in the air by his shoulders with Stan bumping his chest on the way out.

Such a fucking pussy, but he was playing brave with a defenseless drunk man, or so he thought.

“We are not cool or anything else. You got your payment; our association is over. Go back to the office and have another sip of whatever you’re soaked in and forget we ever existed.”

Santa hammed it up and shuffled off with his tail between his legs.

They watched through the external cameras and from their hidden locations as Stan nodded to goon number two to follow Santa as soon as he was out of sight. “Make it look like a robbery gone bad.”

Stan was ordering his goon to eliminate Santa. That man was out of control. Surely, he had to know the threads would start leading back to him soon. His sister, her temporary landlord, the prophet before him.

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