Free Barely Bewitched by Kimberly Frost

of credit, for gumption at least. The belly full of tequila shots told me I should demand it.
    “It’s kind of embarrassing, huh?” I said. “Me running all over town, and you not being able to control me.”
    “Hang on a minute—”
    “No, you hang on. My life is a mess, but it’s my mess. Didn’t you see the note I left? We’re broken up.”
    “I saw it. You really think this breakup will stick when none of the others did?”
    “What I think is that you didn’t have to come looking for me tonight. I didn’t want you to.”
    He winced, but I stood my ground.
    “You can tell everyone I broke up with you again, and that you’re fed up. You’re washing your hands of me. Say it a few times, and people will believe it. Get yourself someone new.” It nearly choked me to say the words, but it had to be said. Zach probably wouldn’t be able to stand me living like I was, and I didn’t seem to have a choice about the direction my life was headed.
    “You want me to step aside?” He swallowed hard. “You think life as Bryn Lyons’s trophy wife would be better, is that it?”
    “This isn’t about him. I loved you first and best, but you expect me to do whatever you say, like when we were kids. And tonight, you threatened to take me back to Chulley! You really think I’d go along with that?” Furious tears filled my eyes. “The truth is I’ve got to be a lot tougher than I ever was, and I don’t think you’ll like it. Maybe it’s time you let me go before either of us gets more hurt than we already are.” I wiped the tears from my cheeks.
    “That sounds like real good advice, darlin’. Too bad I’m not ready to take it.” He clenched his jaw and walked around to the passenger door of his truck. He opened it and waited.
    I climbed in, partly relieved and partly dreading the fights that were sure to come over the next week. Zach closed the door and went to the driver’s side.
    I’d said my piece so I sat quietly as he drove us back to the main part of town. He skipped the turnoff to his place, but didn’t take the best road to get to my house either.
    “Where are we going?” I asked.
    “I gotta make a stop.” Then he turned onto Earl’s street.
    “I said I took care of him.”
    “I heard you.”
    “So what are we doing here?”
    “The way I heard it, you were screaming when he dragged you to the door of the Whiskey Barrel and threw you outside into the dirt.”
    “Oh.” If somebody had told it to Zach that way, there was nothing in the world that would keep Zach from confronting Earl. I couldn’t see any point wasting my breath on Earl’s account, especially considering that my throat was sore from screaming all night, most of which had been his fault.
    Zach pulled up to the curb and threw the truck in park.
    “Don’t kill him.”
    Zach tossed his gun on the driver’s seat and shut the door. I watched him walk to Earl’s front door and kick it in. I shut my eyes and tried not to think about them fighting. I tried not to think about anything.
    The tequila had helped numb my mind, but around the edges I still felt my anxiety. Starting in the morning, I’d be dipping into magic I couldn’t control. I didn’t want Zach caught in the cross fire, because, as tough as Zach was, he couldn’t protect himself from supernatural trouble. I’d seen that with the werewolf bite.
    I sighed. That darn WAM. I’d like to wham them.
    A few minutes later, Zach got back into the truck’s cab. His hair was mussed and his knuckles were scraped, but he looked fine. The splotch of blood on his shirt wasn’t his.
    At home, after I took a shower, he cleaned my cuts with peroxide and put Band-Aids on the deeper ones. I didn’t tell him that I got some of them from tiny little spears, and he didn’t ask for details.
    Then I put peroxide on his skinned knuckles and taped some gauze pads on them for the night.
    “You tired?” I asked. “I’m falling-down tired.” I crawled into my bed.
    He stripped