Page 24 of Karma (Deranged Drifters MC #23)

Chapter Twenty-Four

Griffin’s Beach Zane

“ D ad?” Margaret asks when she comes from her room for dinner. “What’s wrong? Did you burn dinner again?”

Shoving his hands into his pockets, Zane shakes his head. “Well, yeah, but I ordered pizza this time.”

“Thank God.”

They sit, and he lets out a long breath as he stares at the stack of pizza boxes on the table. His stomach flips as he tries to plan the best way to bring up the subject about his relationship status.

“Dad, are you planning to invite a group of teenage boys to join us for dinner?”

“What?”

“There are five large pizzas here!” she exclaims. “I’m a growing girl , not a teenage boy who eats everything in sight.”

He chuckles and honestly doesn’t even remember what he ordered on the app. “I wasn’t really thinking, I guess.”

“Seriously, what’s going on? You’re acting weird,” she says and pulls a slice of pepperoni from the top box. “Gross… You ordered one with just onions and peppers?”

“I have to talk to you about something.”

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?”

“Might as well get it over with since you’re freaking out. Just rip it off, Dad.”

“ D ad, relax,” Margaret says.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this? Because if you’re not—”

“Stop. Mom wants you to be happy and move on. She’s written it in many of the letters she wrote me. It’s okay.”

Many letters. And Lex has a stack more to give her throughout her life. Lane only wrote Zane two. It feels unfair.

No matter what happens, Lane will always be Margaret’s mother. She wants Zane to have another woman in his life to share it with, so he supposes he understands. It’s hard to move on if he has letters from his dead wife coming at him left and right. He just wishes she’d written him a couple more.

The doorbell rings, and Zane almost runs to the door. He feels like he’s fifteen again with his first girlfriend. Wiping his sweaty hands on his jeans, he opens the door. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Anne says, a bright smile on her face. “Is this still okay?”

“Yeah,” he says, his voice coming out breathless. “Come in. I’d like to introduce you to my daughter.”

She steps inside and takes off her sweater and purse, hanging them on the coatrack beside the door. The coatrack Lane was adamant they needed, even though he can’t remember anyone ever using it before now.

“Margaret, this is Anne Collier. Um, Dr. Anne Collier.”

Geez, can I be any more of a spaz? I’m a grown ass man, for fuck’s sake.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Margaret says and stands, extending her hand out to Anne. “I hope you like pizza. Dad seems to think we’re feeding a football team.”

Anne chuckles. “It’s nice to meet you, too. I’ve heard so much about you, and I love pizza. I also love having options.”

“Me, too.”

They sit down, and Zane can’t bring himself to eat. His stomach continues to jump as the woman he may or may not be dating sits at the table with his daughter. The table he shared with his late wife. This feels all sorts of wrong. But it also feels right.

“Do you go by Maggie?” Anne asks and accepts a plate from Margaret.

“Sometimes. I was named after my grandma, and I think that was her nickname. Not many people call me that.”

Zane frowns. “Do you want to go by Maggie?”

She shrugs and takes the slice she put back in the box when they invited their guest over. “I don’t really care.”

“Do you mind if I call you Maggie?” Anne takes a bite of the peppers and onion slice.

That’s why I ordered it. It’s her favorite pizza. Weird as hell, but completely subconsciously chosen.

“Go for it,” she says. “What kind of doctor are you?”

“Trauma. I’m pretty much the first face people see when they’ve had something terrible happen.”

“Like Grey’s Anatomy ? ”

Laughing, she nods. “Yeah, sort of.”

“Did you treat my Aunt Lex when she was brought in?”

She accepts the soda Zane gets up to grab for her and shakes her head. “I wasn’t working yet. I saw her afterwards, though.”

“Did you talk to her?”

God help me. Did they talk? Lex said it was about her meds, but she’s nothing if not a great liar to hide things.

“I did. Briefly. She was pretty doped up.”

“She’s pretty cool, huh?”

Anne shoots Zane a look over the soda can as she takes a drink. They both know it’s a test. “Yeah, she’s something else. A fighter, that’s for sure.”

“Oh, you have no idea. No one at school messes with me because their moms know my aunt, and they’re all scared of her.”

Laughing, she sets the drink down. “Is that right?”

“My sister has a… reputation,” Zane says, crinkling his nose. “And now she’s the wife of the President of the Deranged Drifters. She’s probably more powerful than the mayor. And a little more likable.”

“But she only uses her powers for good, not evil,” Margaret says and giggles. “Seriously, though, I’m just the first round of critics in the family. She’s much harsher than I am.”

Eyebrows raised, Anne looks at Zane with concern. “Really?”

“Yeah, if Lex doesn’t like you, you’re pretty much out. I heard she smashed Venom’s ex-girlfriend’s face into a table at the clubhouse before tossing her out.”

“She did?”

This is news to Zane, and he looks at his daughter with curiosity. He knows his sister’s a brawler, and he loves watching her fight. He’s not the biggest fan of Margaret having firsthand knowledge of it, though.

“To be fair, I heard Cinder punched Venom, and he doesn’t hit girls. He’s a little scary, but, like, in a good way. Like, no one messes with you if he’s with you, but if you don’t know him, he’s scary.”

She chuckles. “Well, I guess that’s good to know.”

“Lex isn’t that difficult to impress,” Zane says. “If Margaret likes you, Lex will, too.”

“So… Any kids, Anne?”

The interrogation tactic his daughter has makes Zane stare with wide eyes. She switches from sweet to detective in a split second, and he hopes Anne’s up for it.

“No, unfortunately, I can’t have kids of my own.”

This is also news to him, and he looks at her in shock. He’s talked about Margaret many times, but she’s never said a thing about this before.

“I’m sorry,” Margaret says. “My mom wasn’t supposed to be able to have kids because she had cancer when she was younger, but then I came walking into her life like it was always meant to be.”

She giggles. “I like that description. I had to have a partial hysterectomy when I was seventeen because of a bad car accident. I should have died, but it made me decide to become a trauma surgeon.”

“Because they saved your life?”

“Because it was really scary being in there with all those people. The lights are bright, there are strange sounds, you’re in pain, and surrounded by people you don’t know.

People you have to trust. There was one doctor who went out of her way to comfort me in the chaos, and I wanted to be just like her for other people. ”

Margaret nods. “I had an eating disorder, my mom died, and my dad disappeared for over a year. I’ve thought about going into therapy because I think I could relate.”

Her words stun Zane, and he just stares at her. What does he say to that? He can’t argue it. And it’s not like Anne doesn’t know. Well, except for the eating disorder. It just sounds so bad coming out like that.

“There’s a connection that happens when you can relate to someone who’s been through something you have. You understand in a way others can’t, and you’re able to help them navigate better because you’ve already done it.”

“I bet you’re a kick-ass doctor.”

Anne giggles. “I like to think so.”

They continue to talk, getting to know each other, and Zane just sits back and watches. There’s a comfortable air around them that continues to grow, and he relaxes. It feels as though a calming hand rests on his shoulder as his daughter and the woman he’s falling for connect.

Lane.

He’s comforted by the thought that Lane approves of Anne. Maybe this won’t be as difficult as he thought it would be.