“Right,” Silas agreed. “The only thing we’d have causing excitement would the zombies, and they’re not the fun kind of trouble.” There were always the what-ifs in his head. Like what if he didn’t make it long enough to see EJ old enough to conspire with, or what if EJ couldn’t stand him? It put him off balance to realize that he cared what EJ would think about him and of him. Rae was everything to him, and by extension EJ was too, but there was still a lot of baggage that came with being with a woman that had a kid that he still wasn’t sure how to address. He didn’t want to be a replacement daddy to Rae’s son; didn’t feel equipped to be that, given the examples he’d grown up with. A grandfather who he’d always been disappointed in him and a father that had never been present, not even for a minute.
He shook off all the deep thoughts and smirked at Rae. “What makes you think you’ll be our target?” he countered. “Hell, I figure I’ll get him to prank Reg and Brandon. The two of them would never retaliate on a kid.”
Fuck, that probably meant he’d need to start watching his mouth around the kid. Rae would probably be less than pleased if EJ’s first word was profanity. “Thanks babe,” he replied as he took the mask off before EJ could go for it again. “And that depends,” he answered with a smirk, laughing under his breath at her eyebrow wiggle. “If it’s article of clothes on you, then yeah.” It was a little too cold for that to be an actual thing, but it was amusing to joke about.
“Yeah, yeah,” he muttered in response, making a face at the fact that she’d been able to read him well enough to catch the sarcasm in his tone. “Forgive me if I’m not so forgiving of my own flaws.” He wasn’t going to make it a thing. Not tonight. “Like the sound of that though, Rae’s guy, even if it makes me sound like you own me.” Horror movies weren’t usually his first choice, but the thought of watching a marathon with Rae was too good to pass up. “If you want to. I’ll try not to get bored when I guess the whole damn plot in the first five minutes, or the first time the sorority girl goes running for the stairs,” he said. “Or, if I get bored if the first ten minutes we should just make a deal to make out instead,” he suggested shamelessly.
He still hadn’t shaken all the disbelief, even after Rae confirmed that the bike was his. It was a beauty, the kind of bike he would’ve gotten for himself it he’d been able to scrape enough money together for it. Without consciously doing it, he drifted closer to the motorcycle and ran his free hand over the cool metal of the tank.
“I think you’re fucking amazing and it’s fucking amazing,” he answered. “And Reg and Stone are dead men for keeping this from me.” Especially since they both knew how much he’d love the thing. “Those rats.” The words had less bite than if he’d been serious; it was hard to be really annoyed with the two of them when they’d done so much for him in the last couple weeks. “C’mere,” he said, beckoning Rae closer to him.