Friend Zone Series Box Set

by Nicole Blanchard

  She paused in pulling on a pair of my favorite yoga pants, and I frowned as her creamy legs disappeared behind the fabric. “You don’t have to do that.”

  “Shut up.”

  We were at the door, and I was making a list on my phone of places to track down, when Ember’s phone rang. Her face drained of all color when she saw the number on the screen. She practically collapsed to the couch. Her hands were visibly shaking as she brought the phone to her ear.

  “Hello?” She bit her lip. “Yes, this is Ember Stevens.” I went to her side and took her free hand in mine. She clenched onto my fingers like they were a lifeline. “You do? Oh, my God. Yes, I’m home. That’s correct. Thank you, Officer. Thank you so much. I’ll be here.” She ended the call, and her hand fell to her lap. When she looked at me, a kaleidoscope of emotions raced across her face: anger, fear, relief. “They were found at a restaurant in the mall. They said Mom told them I was going to pick them up. What a fucking bitch.”

  “They’re bringing them here?”

  “Yes. I don’t want to cry. I’ve been crying so much lately.”

  “Baby, you don’t have to be afraid to cry on me.” I pulled her onto my lap. “You don’t ever have to be afraid of that. At the center of everything, you’re my best friend, Em. I’ll always be here for you, whatever you need. Tears, orgasms, tacos. I’ve got you, babe.”

  That made her laugh, and then I just held her. When the officer arrived to take Ember’s statement, I held the twins. After the officer left with a promise to send social services for a checkup, I held all three of them. Then they all curled up on the couch together while I made them canned chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese. We ate it while watching the first Harry Potter movie. The only thing that was missing was a big old fluffy puppy at our feet and a cranky cat on the back of the sofa.

  Ember fell asleep first, and I told the girls how glad I was that they were okay. They cried some more, and then they snuggled up on either side of Ember and fell asleep holding hands. I was pinned to the couch by the three of them. I couldn’t have imagined a better place to be.

  It wasn’t lost on me how different my last night had been, and even though today had been rough on us all, I couldn’t help but think these girls made it all worth it.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Ember

  “Mm hmm, look at all those big…bats,” Charlie said with a wicked grin. Her dirty-blonde hair whipped in the humid air. She was effortlessly beautiful in a dark t-shirt and skinny jeans kind of way. One black Chuck-covered foot was propped on her knee. She’d say she was a tomboy, but I always thought she was simply comfortable in her own skin.

  She’d become even more so now that she and her best friend, Liam, had stopped dancing around each other and had started dating and living together. It was like he gave her the space to comfortably be herself. Truth be told, I envied them.

  Layla giggled and smacked her on the arm, causing Charlie’s drink to wobble precariously in her hands. “You have a boyfriend!”

  “So do you,” Charlie retorted. “Besides, it doesn’t hurt to look. Liam doesn’t care what I do as long as I bring it back to him at the end of the day.” She tilted her head, studying the away team as they swung their bats at the plate, readying for some practice hits. “Do you think if I got him a pair of baseball pants, he’d dress up for me?”

  “Dash had a kilt from Halloween a couple of years ago. When I found it, he let me talk him into wearing it. I never knew a man in a skirt could be so sexy.”

  Despite my preoccupation with what I needed to tell Tripp, my head jerked in Layla’s direction. Layla, the one who’d been a virgin up until the year before. Layla, the studious bookworm who never put a toe out of line. Dash must have changed her in more ways than one. Charlie and I shared a look. It was sweet of them to try and distract me from thinking about how much of a complete and utter piece of crap my mom was. They’d voted to put a hit out on her, but I’d convinced them putting a curse on her was enough.

  “What?” Charlie shrieked. “Dash wore a kilt?! How did you not tell us about this?” Her voice took on a high-pitched tone. “When your boyfriend wears a kilt, you should be taking pictures. For…bribery purposes. And research. But mostly to share with your best friends!”

  Layla’s smile turned mischievous. “I was too busy doing other things to take pictures.”

  That stunned the indignation right out of Charlie’s expression. When she could speak, she said, “It’s like I don’t even know you. Who are you, and what did you do with our friend?” Charlie demanded.

  Layla blushed prettily and sipped her beer with an elegance I never seemed to be able to imitate. “My lips are sealed,” she said.

  “Ohh, no, you don’t. You can’t say something like that and then not give us the juicy details. Spill.”

  Their banter faded into the background as our team swarmed the field, their garnet practice jerseys drawing my eye. I drank thirstily from my soda, suddenly parched. I wished it was a beer, then remembered I couldn’t have those, which only made my stomach churn more. I found Tripp almost immediately, his number three like a beacon. My heart sped up at the sight of his dirty blonde hair glinting in the bright afternoon sunlight. Charlie wasn’t wrong. The sight of him in baseball pants wasn’t one to be ignored.

  Not that I’d been able to ignore him at all lately.

  “—and then he did this sexy little dance, and I jumped him,” Layla was saying when I could focus back in on their conversation. I was being an awful friend, but I couldn’t seem to think of anything other than the positive pregnancy test I had hidden under the sink in my bathroom.

  “You dirty bitch!” Charlie exclaimed with bright eyes. “You’ve been holding out on us. Em, can you believe it? Our little girl is growing up.”

  Layla rolled her eyes, then glanced at me. “What’s up with you? You’ve been very quiet. Is everything okay?”

  I was too hollow to cry and too tired to lie, so I settled for something sort of in between. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

  Charlie sobered, her gaze sharpening as she studied my face. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. I thought you and Tripp were great. ‘Having fun’ is what you said. Did he fuck something up? I’ll kick his ass.”

  “No, he didn’t do anything.” He found me from his place on the pitcher’s mound and lifted his hand in a wave. For some reason, I felt the gesture deep inside my chest. I waved in return. “He’s been great. Much better than I deserve.”

  “Oh, shut up. You deserve the best. And if he isn’t giving it to you, well, then we need to have a talk with him.”

  “Yeah,” Charlie agreed. “Or we’ll kick his ass.”

  “No need to kick his ass, he hasn’t done anything wrong at all.”

  “It’s like pulling teeth,” Charlie said to Layla. “C’mon now, are we your best friends or what? Why do you look like your favorite pet was just run over? Is it your mom?”

  “Not at the moment. Okay, there is something, but I need to talk to Tripp about it first. I promise as soon as I do, I’ll explain.”

  “Cryptic,” Layla said.

  “Agreed. But if you aren’t ready to talk about it, you know we’ll be here whenever you need us. It’s not anything else about your mom, right?”

  “No, I haven’t heard from her since she took the twins. DCF came by to start a report and take a tour of the apartment. They said they’ll be in touch, though.”

  They really were the best friends anyone could have, and I knew they’d be there for me if and when I was ready to talk about it all. Like they had been there for me when Chris and my parents left. And again when I had called them about what my mom had done.

  “I’m sure it will turn out fine,” Layla offered.

  “Damn right it will,” Charlie said.

  “Thanks, guys. For now, I want to forget about it for a little while, if that’s okay.”

  Layla gave me a sidearm hug. “Of course, it’s okay. We’ll look at hot guys in tight pant
s with you any day.”

  They spent the rest of the practice game huddled close to me on either side, and I felt their concern and love wrapped around me like a hug. It helped dull the panic and shock to a bearable amount—at least until the game ended, and I was faced with telling Tripp about the baby. It had been a couple of weeks since my mom had taken the girls. Enough time for them to settle back into a routine. Now there was no more putting off telling him the truth.

  I could tell he was excited about their win, but it was bittersweet for me. A pregnancy would ruin all of his plans. Those dreams to play pro ball? Up in smoke. Sure, people would say we could make it work, but I’d already been there. Not that I regretted taking care of the twins, but children change lives, and although they’re precious, it wasn’t always for the better.

  They require sacrifice, and I would never want Tripp to have to sacrifice the dream he’d worked so hard to achieve. He’d already nearly lost it once. I couldn’t make him face that possibility again.

  Tripp wasn’t the type to run from his problems, though. No, he was responsible, dependable. He’d want to do the right thing. Because of that, it was tempting not to tell him.

  But he deserved to know, and I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t. I was used to shouldering my burdens alone, but this one was too heavy for me to carry.

  We pulled to a stop in the parking garage, and Tripp got out of the car, still humming happily. Meanwhile, dread began to pool in my stomach, causing the hot dog and soda I’d had at the game to churn unpleasantly. Tripp took my hand, and that was it.

  The doors to the elevator closed behind us, and the dam broke. I began to cry, silently at first, then full-out sobbing.

  Tripp, who’d been in such a cheerful mood, froze, then wrapped his arms around me. The comforting scent of his cologne filled my nose, and even though everything else seemed to make me nauseous, I was thankful this didn’t.

  “Hey, what the hell?” He was so bemused that it only made me cry harder. “Okay, angel, I won’t make you go to any more of my games, I promise, but you don’t have to cry.”

  “That—that—that’s not it!” I wailed. Keening sounds emitted from my chest, and I tried to stifle them, which only made me cry harder.

  “Okay, baby. Let’s get you inside, and then we can talk about it. We have some time before my parents are supposed to bring the twins back home.”

  Oh, God. How was I supposed to support three kids? This was madness. I was barely keeping the twins and me afloat. How would we survive with another life thrown into the mix? I’d have to take off school. I wouldn’t be able to work for a while. Tripp was supposed to have his big break this year. He couldn’t do that with the weight of me and the girls around his neck. And now a baby. What in the hell had I been thinking?

  Sex was never simple.

  Relationships were never simple.

  Life as a whole was complicated and messy and unexpected. Nothing about mine had ever gone to plan, no matter how much I tried to make it fit. I had wanted to go to college after high school but had only done my EMT certification. I had wanted to get married and have a family the normal way, but Chris had dumped all over that. I had wanted to make a good life for the girls and me, and now I’d ruined that.

  I didn’t want to ruin my friendship with Tripp, too, but I wasn’t sure it would survive this.

  The thought only made me cry harder. It didn’t faze him, though. Apparently, these months with us had made him immune to female tears. Poor guy. I was sure this wasn’t what he had signed up for.

  Friends with benefits…that was the arrangement.

  Sex without complications.

  It was now a whole lot more complicated than either of us could have imagined.

  While I freaked out internally, Tripp led me to my apartment, unlocked it, and shuffled me to the couch. It only made my cry harder. He was too nice to me. Too understanding. He was going to take this so well, and it would only make me feel worse.

  I wanted him to scream and rage at me. Treat me like crap. Because that’s what I felt I deserved. A baby would take away his choices and his future because he wouldn’t see it any other way. He was a good guy, as evidenced by how amazing he’d been throughout everything.

  He brought me a glass of tea, and I gulped it down to soothe my raw throat. When I was done, he passed me a handful of crumpled tissues. Not caring how I looked—or maybe I was just comfortable with him after everything—I blew my nose and dried my face.

  “Feel better?” he asked.

  Not at all. I made a noncommittal noise, wiped my nose again, and pulled up my big girl panties. I wasn’t going to cry anymore, and I wasn’t going to continue with the woe-is-me bullshit. I had made the choice to have sex, and this was one of the potential eventualities. I was an adult. I would have to deal with it like one.

  “Tripp,” my voice petered out, and I took another sip of tea to steady myself and come up with the words to say. How did one go about potentially changing someone’s life forever? “Tripp, I don’t know how to tell you this, and I just want you to know before I go on how much you mean to me. I couldn’t have been through this without you. I hope you understand that.”

  He nodded and relaxed into the couch, making sure to tuck me into his side. It was a casual movement. One I wasn’t really sure he even realized he did. “You don’t owe me anything, babe. I’ve been happy to help.”

  “I don’t only mean with the twins and everything. I mean, after Chris left me, I don’t think I’d ever been so low, and I’m not the type who gives a damn what a man thinks about me.”

  “Especially not a chump like him.”

  “We never talked about us, like where we were going to go after the benefits ended.”

  At my words, he straightened, his concerned gaze sharpening. “You want to end things?” he asked. Was I imagining things, or was there hurt in his words?

  My tongue tied itself into knots. “No, I mean, if you want to, but—”

  “What would make you think I want to?” His brows pushed together, and his full, kissable lips folded into a frown. I was going to miss those lips.

  Things were so much easier when the focus was on sex. I should have never agreed to this. I knew when I met him, when the twins were little, that taking this too far would be a bad idea. Maybe I was more like my mom than I thought.

  Selfish. Reckless. Careless.

  Doomed to repeat her mistakes.

  My hand pressed against my stomach. I didn’t know if it was all the crying or the hormones, but I felt sick.

  “Ember?” he prompted.

  “I’m pregnant,” I blurted. Or I think I did. The ringing was so loud in my ears that I couldn’t be sure.

  The hand he had resting on the back of the couch dropped to his lap. His face went lax in surprise.

  “You’re pregnant?” I heard over the ringing in my ears. I nodded, but it made me dizzy, so I clutched the back of the couch to ground me.

  “I’m so sorry. I know this isn’t what you had planned. I thought maybe it was from stress, but I took a test, well, I took several, and they were all positive. I can’t believe I’m doing this to you when you’re about to start your senior year of ball and you’ve got so much going on. I thought about not telling you, but that didn’t seem—”

  His big arms wrapped around me, squeezing so tight he cut off the rest of my apology. Maybe I was selfish because I soaked up the comfort he provided without hesitation. My tears dried, my thundering heart slowed, and by the time he pulled away, I was somehow in his lap and much more steady.

  “You don’t have anything to apologize for, angel. Nothing at all. You hear me?”

  “I thought you’d be upset.” His measured reaction had my brows pulling together.

  “I don’t know what I am, but it’s as much my responsibility as it is yours, Em.” Which is exactly what I had expected him to say.

  My voice was tiny when I responded. “I’m scared. This is going to change eve
rything. Your career…the twins.”

  He pulled me close and kissed the top of my hair. “I know you are, baby. This wasn’t exactly part of the plan, but you know I’ll be here for you. Whatever you decide. And whatever it is, we’ll face it. Together.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Tripp

  There was one qualifying game left in the season. One last chance to prove to myself, to Coach Taylor, to my advisors, and to the world at large that this was what I was meant to do. When I wasn’t at Ember’s apartment, I was training. I ran three miles a day, lifted weights until all my muscles shook, and pitched until my arm went numb. I was ready.

  It should have been the only thing on my mind, but it wasn’t. I was at the last practice before our last game, and all I could think about was Ember. The baby. Our baby. We were going to be parents.

  It wasn’t exactly how I’d planned for things to go down, but I wasn’t upset. Far from it. Now that I’d had a little while to wrap my head around the idea, I liked the thought of Ember having my baby. I fucking loved it. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. In fact, I was pretty sure it was going to be damn hard. But it would be a piece of the two of us, and I couldn’t imagine a better mom for my child.

  “Yo! Are you paying attention? I said a fastball, not a curveball!” Alex shouted from home plate where he was practicing with me. He jogged to where I was standing at the pitcher’s mound and tossed the ball. “You’ve been off all afternoon. You doin’ okay, man? The pressure getting to you?”

  It would have on any other day, but for the first time in my life, I had bigger things to worry about than baseball. “I’m alright.”

  “You don’t seem alright. You better get it off your chest before Coach comes over here and tears you a new one. It’s that chick, isn’t it? Man, how many times do I have to tell you, women are fun to play with, but during the season, you should put a moratorium on pussy.”