Last Girl Standing by Lisa Jackson & Nancy Bush

Author:Lisa Jackson & Nancy Bush [Jackson, Lisa & Bush, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zebra Books
Published: 2020-05-26T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Zora watched the midday news with her mouth dropped open. It took her a few moments to actually shut it. Amanda had called her and told her about Tanner, and she’d asked for help getting in to see him. Zora had said she’d do what she could, although Brian could be such a butt about asking his friends for favors, it was doubtful; then she’d scoured the Internet for bits and pieces of information about Tanner, still in a state of disbelief. The live newsfeed had made it all seem so real.

It is real, she reminded herself. It is.

She was perched on the white leather chair in Brian’s den. He’d wanted black or espresso, but she’d insisted upon white, and as ever, he’d given in to her. Brian was a sweet man, but he was kind of a wimp. His father’s death had knocked him down, for sure, but she realized now he’d always sort of been that way. He’d only been happy teaching, it seemed, but when he’d inherited his father’s estate, Zora had told him those days were behind him.

“Let’s have a baby together,” she’d exclaimed almost as soon as they’d started dating.

“What?” he’d responded, boggled.

“I think we could make beautiful children together.”

She’d dragged him, bemused and laughingly protesting, to the bedroom on their third date. She would have tried on their first, but that had been the night of the reunion, and he’d spent most of the time concerned about whether he should have left Anne Reade and Clarice Billings and Principal Kiefer at the event. Coach Sutton hadn’t made an appearance at the reunion, which Brian had said was because a lot of the blame for Carmen’s death and other kids’ injuries had been laid unfairly on him by the parents.

“Dean never got over it,” Brian told her that night. “He’s been teaching phys ed at Montgomery in Clackamas. I talked to him about the reunion, but he didn’t feel right about coming.”

Zora had wanted to talk about other things, more personal things, and she’d steered the conversation as best she could. She’d been only partially successful, but she had managed to catch a ride home with him that night and had thanked him profusely. She’d pretended she didn’t think she should drive, when in reality she hadn’t consumed enough to get a buzz on, but he’d complied.

He’d dropped her at her doorstep, and she’d fervently clasped his hand before climbing out of the car. “Can we do this again?” she asked. “I really could use someone to talk to. Max and I have been separated for years (a lie, but one she made good on as soon as possible); our relationship has been over a long time. Practically from the get-go. Sometimes you make a mistake, and it just takes a while before you have the courage to make it right.”

She could tell Brian fell for her story hook, line, and sinker, so she picked a fight with Max the very next day and moved out by the end of that week.

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