The Crash Zone (The Zone Series Book 2)

by Tarrah Anders

  “Max, your cocky is showing.” I smile. He briefly looks down to his lap, which causes me to laugh as well.

  “Don’t get me wrong, I am totally freaked out, and I’ve had a few of holy shit moments, but I’m okay with this, I’m excited. And then seeing and hearing the baby, solidified it. Made it even more awesome. I’ll say this, before rehab, I would have really freaked out. Now, I’m cool!” He sounds like he means it, there’s no reason for me to suspect it.

  “So, how do we do this?” I ask getting to the point.

  “What is the this that you are referring to?” He asks.

  “Well, I suggest that we get to actually know each other. I would have monthly appointments it seems, do you want to come to them all?” I start.

  “Yes and yes. I want to be as involved as you will let me. I want to be the person who takes you to the doctors and the first person you call if you need help, if that’s okay.”

  “Okay, that seems reasonable.”

  “As you know, I will have a spare room soon. I’m sure that Davis told you. I would really like it if you moved in?” He asks.

  I think my eyes just came out of their sockets. “Max, I don’t know about that.”

  “I’m not saying right now. I’m saying that maybe eventually that would be smart. Living alone, while pregnant, I can totally go pick you up pickles and ice cream in the middle of the night. Just think about it. Davis moves out at the end of the month, I’m just trying to think of how I could help.”

  I’m speechless. I don’t want to say something in the moment, and I’m honestly not sure how I feel about his proposal. It’s a little too soon, plus I don’t even know the guy. Except, you’re totally knocked up with his baby!

  “I’ll think about it.” I say. Too soon, too soon!

  He smiles. “Good.”

  Chapter 20 – Max

  It’s been 3 weeks since I’ve found out that I was going to be a father. I’m terrified, because what if I won’t be a good father? I’m excited, because I can be a good father, I’m nervous, because I may fuck it up and I’m happy for a new opportunity, and maybe a new direction in my previously fucked up life. Maybe this baby is what needed to happen at this point in my life to wake me up and slap me around a bit.

  I’m trying my best to get to know Tatum as well, we’ll be co-parenting together, so we might as well right? I think getting to know her scares me more than the baby does. This experience was something that I was supposed to experience with Betsy. Parts of me are feeling guilty for that, while the other part is reminding me to not dwell on the “what could have beens.”

  Since I’ve known about the baby, I’ve gone to two meetings a week, as well as maintaining my support with Leo. He almost went back to the bottle, when his fiancé started freaking out over seating, arrangements which subsequently had him freaking out, thankfully he came over to my house and we talked through it. I think Leo keeps waiting for me to break down as well, since a kid is a whole lot bigger than seating arrangements but I’m staying level headed.

  I’m standing in my bedroom, looking at the drab colors. When I moved back into the house, I removed most of the color from it. Betsy threw color throughout the house as what she would call a splash with my masculine blacks and grays. I turned from my room and walked into the 2nd bedroom. Davis moved out earlier than what I expected, but since he was my brother and not an actual tenant, there was no big deal about it. The room in there, also very boring. I went through each room of my house and mentally added a list of items I would need to purchase to change things up a bit.

  When I was walking from the hallway bathroom to my office, the doorbell rang. I half jogged to the front door and opened it.

  Nikki stood there, in purple velour sweats and a ball cap. She looks casual, like she just came from studying. She smiles as I move aside and allow her in. A mist of apples follows her as she walks through my house and into the kitchen. She’s been here enough that she apparently helps herself, I take note. She’s quite comfortable here, in my house, with my stuff.

  “So Max, what’s crackin? I haven’t heard from you in awhile.” She says as she grabs a glass of water.

  “Been busy. Work, life… you?” I say sitting down on the barstool.

  “Well, working my ass off in school and stressing on finals.” She says like we usually have this conversation.

  She needs to let off some stream, I see what she’s doing now. I stand up and walk around the counter and corner her. I place both of my hands on either side of her after I removed the glass from her hands.

  I lean into her and slightly press myself against her. I can do this.

  “Is this what you want Nik?” I whisper against her neck as I trail my lips down slowly. This doesn’t feel right. I feel like I’m doing something wrong.

  She lets out a breathy hum and slowly nods.

  “Did you need to relax?” I whisper as I dart out my tongue and run it the length, feeling her shiver against me.

  “I thought it might be a good idea.” She mumbles as her nails dig into my shoulders.

  I press against her to try to excite myself, but nothing is happening. I continue kissing her neck and then start moving my hands to cup her breasts. I notice that her nipples are on point and I reach under her shirt and tug on her right nipple. She lets out a moan and wiggles against me practically riding my thigh. I pull off her shirt and un-do her bra and pull her nipple into my mouth. This usually gets me going. But nothing is happening with my dick, I’m flaccid and showing no signs whatsoever of the desire to fuck. What the hell, my big head is not communicating with my little head.

  I pull my lips away from Nikki’s breasts and I take her lips with mine and plunge my tongue inside, I’m slightly frenzied but fuck it! She keeps up and is pulling my shirt over my head. In the second that we separated, I rubbed myself against her, and then immediately went back to my savage attack on her lips.

  Still nothing is happening in my southern regions and now I’m frustrated. I pull back from her and breathe heavily against her shoulder; she is still grinding slightly on my thigh making small noises of excitement. I allow her to ride my thigh as I catch my breath. My eyes are squeezed closed and instantly Tatum comes into my vision, and I’m all of a sudden hard as a rock. What the fuck?

  I start kissing Nikki again, I grasp her ass and pull her into me more. My eyes are still closed and I’m picturing Nikki is Tatum, grinding against my thigh, making those sounds, and I pull back. Suddenly, I put some distance in between Nikki and myself and pull myself together. With the loss of my thigh and whatever else it was that Nikki was doing, getting off most likely, she whimpers.

  “I’m sorry Nik.” I breathe out once I have gained a steady breath.

  “What happened?” She asks, stepping closer to me.

  I move out of her reach and put the counter between us, in case she reached out to touch me.

  “I can’t do this.” I admit.

  She grabs her bra and shirt off the kitchen floor and puts them on.

  “I’m sorry.” I say with my face in my hands.

  She pulls the barstool next to me out to sit on and faces me.

  “Are you okay?” She asks.

  “I should be asking you that, I didn’t let you finish.” I say to her through my fingers.

  “Meh, I can take care of that later. I just thought you would be more fun than Bob.”

  “Bob?”

  “Battery operated boyfriend.” She explains.

  “Ahh, yes. Sorry though. I’ve got some things going on.”

  “I could tell, usually you’re ready to go right away. You weren’t this time.”

  “We’re friends, right?” I start and wait for her to confirm or deny. I know that we are, because we’ve had actual consistent conversations and I’ve never kicked her out or ditched her immediately after sex.

  She nods and I take a deep breath.

  “I’m going to be a father.”

  “Holy shit! Well now I ge
t it. Wait, you’re always careful…” She trails off, probably mentally checking on when we last slept together.

  “Yeah, don’t worry, it’s not yours. I was black out drunk, we both were actually. And now, in like 8 months, I’ll be a daddy.” I admit.

  “Um, congrats? Are you okay with it?” She asks. “You know especially with your sobriety?”

  “Actually, I am. I’m surprised at that, thinking that maybe I should be freaking out a little more. Should I be?” I ask, lowering my hands fully and looking at her.

  She still has the sultry look, her lips are red and swollen from my attack on her just minutes ago.

  “To be honest, I have no idea. I remember my brother in law freaked the fuck out when he first found out that he and my sister were having a baby. But he’s good now. I think that everyone is different. What about the mother, what’s going on there?” She asks.

  “That’s the funny thing. She works with my brother. Totally not intentional though, I didn’t know until a month ago, right before I found out I was going to… you know. She’s cool, I actually asked her to move into Davis’s room since he moved out.”

  “Did she accept?” Nikki looks at me hesitantly.

  “She hasn’t yet. I’m still working on it.”

  “So, you’re broken now. No more playtime.” She pretends to pout. “I guess, we can just be friends.”

  “Hey! I’m not broken!” I protest, “But it might be for the best. Maybe I should grow up and I don’t know, become the father-type. What would a father do?” I ask.

  “Um, I picture Al Bundy.” She laughs.

  I sit up and put my hand in the front of my pants. “Nope, not happening.” We laugh.

  “While I’m bummed that I lost my number one buddy, I’m excited for you.” She smiles.

  “How many buddies do you have Nikki?” I ask, cautiously. Not in the bit interested, but I don’t want to come off like I don’t care.

  “Just you and one other. Matt, he and I don’t talk much though, you and I actually talk. We’re kinda pals too.” She smiles.

  “Weirdest chick I’ve ever met.”

  “What? Because I own up to wanting and having sex? Other females wish they could speak so openly, hell there would be less cat fights. All that pent up sexual frustrations, that’s why I’m so easy going… I get laid on the regular!” She brushes her hand on her shoulders.

  “I appreciate your friendship, and well you know our sexual times.” I say to her smiling. “Sorry, I couldn’t go through with it today though, you know to help ease your mind over finals and all.”

  “While I did come over to get laid, I did want to check in with you. You’ve been quiet, and I know you aren’t hitting up the bar anymore, so I just wanted to make sure I kept in touch.” She smiles.

  “Thanks, that means a lot. Do you want something to eat? Milkshake maybe?”

  “Mmmm a milkshake please.” She says as my doorbell rings again.

  Aren’t I’m just mister popular today. Nikki quirks her eyebrow.

  “Get out the ice cream, milk and strawberries, I’ll be right back.” I say rounding the counter and switching places with her to go get the door.

  I put my shirt back on while I approach the door, and I open it to a smiling Tatum.

  Chapter 21 – Tatum

  Max opens the door and his jaw falls practically to the ground. He recovers quickly and then runs his hand through his hair. He steps aside and motions for me to come in. We don’t disconnect from our eyes as I enter.

  “We’re making milkshakes, would you like one?” He asks, he seems nervous.

  We? “Um, sure. If you have some pineapple…?” I trail off. Who is ‘we’? I set my bag on his table and shrug off my coat. We round the corner and I see a slim blonde arranging the ingredients to milkshakes and maneuvering through drawers in the kitchen as if she’s been in it a million times. She doesn’t notice that I’ve entered the house yet, as I’m cemented to the ground. I look at Max, who smiles.

  “Tatum, I want you to meet my friend Nikki. Nik, this is Tatum.” He says interrupting her. I note that there’s no change in his voice. Chill Tatum, he’s got friends, some of them will be females!

  His friend practically squeals as she drops the measuring cup on the counter.

  “We were seriously just talking about you!” She is quite excited. “Hi, I’m Nikki. So so so nice to meet you!”

  Okay, so Max has told her about me. I think that should be a good thing, right?

  “Yeah, nice to meet you.” I say. Max pulls out the barstool for me to sit on and then returns to the main kitchen area and reaches into a cupboard and pulls out a can of pineapples. He forgets to close the cupboard and I notice the shelf is line with cans of pineapple and instantly my heart swells.

  “Pineapples?” Nikki asks him as he sets the can down beside the strawberry basket.

  “For Tatum.” He says smiling. “The baby wants pineapples and so the baby gets pineapples.”

  This time my jaw hit the floor. Max goes about adding everything into the blender, and Nikki looks up at me and smiles. Her smile is sincere and I decide that I don’t hate her. Why would I hate her, Max and I aren’t together.

  “So Tatum, Max says that you work with Davis. What grade do you teach?” Nikki asks pulling up the barstool next to me.

  Okay, so she knows Davis too, she’s perfectly harmless, completely and perfectly harmless.

  “Davis and I teach at different ends of the school, but we’re friends. I’m in kindergarten and he’s in 5th.” I explain.

  “I knew I should have majored in education.” She huffs. “Why didn’t I major in education Max?” She laughs.

  “Because you would rather fuck with people’s minds than mold them?” He offers with a smile looking up from pouring the milkshakes.

  “I’m a psych major.” She explains.

  Max hands me my milkshake and Nikki hers and we are all silent as we take our sips.

  This tastes delicious! I think as I take a second and third sip.

  “I should get back to the grind. Thanks for the break Max, and Tatum, it was really great meeting you. I hope to see you soon.” She smiles. She takes the glass with her and as she opens the door she yells back, “I’ll bring the cup back.”

  A minute goes by before either Max or I say anything. He has now taken the seat his friend Nikki was sitting on.

  “Sorry, I didn’t know you were coming over, otherwise…” He started.

  “No, I was around the neighborhood. I shouldn’t have come over unannounced.”

  “I’m glad you came over though. Funny though, Nik and I were just talking about you.”

  “She seems nice. Girlfriend?” I had to ask.

  He stops drinking from his glass and sets it down in front of him and turns to completely face me.

  “No, just a friend. If she was my girlfriend, that all would have been a lot different.” I guess he’s right about that.

  “True. Thank you for adding pineapples by the way, it tastes real good.” I smile.

  “How’s peanut?” He asks looking down to my stomach. I’m not showing by any means, but he still looks.

  “She’s great. Giving me quite a lot of indigestion, but she’s great.”

  “She?” He asks.

  “I don’t like the sound of it. I alternate, today is she.” I smile.

  “I like that. Hopefully though, that doesn’t give her a complex.” He smiles.

  I laugh and take a deep breath. Time for me to pull out the big guns.

  “So, I put in a notice at my apartment complex.” I spill.

  “What? Really? When?” He almost choked on the last bit of his shake.

  “Two weeks ago.”

  “And you’re just now telling me? I’ve been stressing for two weeks about how I was going to get you to change your mind.” He’s not angry, but he almost looks frustrated that I kept the information to myself. I immediately feel guilty of robbing him of the excitement of the new
s.

  “Listen, I’m sorry. I needed to be 100% sure before I told you. I didn’t want to tell you and then pull back and not do it.”

  “Okay then, what changed your mind?”

  There was a gunshot that I had heard, it sounded like it was close. Then I was doing my laundry and I noticed that the machine had bullet holes in it. Along with the neighbors and their every other night parties, I figured that moving would be a smart move. And then when I started thinking of it, I had to do a pros and cons list of moving in with you.” I explain. Damnit, why did I need to mention my list.

  “Pros and Cons list?” He asks.

  “Well, since we don’t know one another too well, I thought that that outweighed everything and if we’re going to have a baby that would come in handy. You know, actually knowing the father, on a more ‘I’ve seen him naked’ level.” I smirk.

  “I can see where that would be a beneficial thing. So, when can you move in?” He looks like a happy puppy now.

  “Anytime, really. You’ve seen my apartment, I don’t have a lot of furniture, but I think that I don’t want to get rid of everything, but most can go, especially if it’s a double of something that you have. Maybe I should get storage, ugh I didn’t think this through all the way.” I scratch the top of my head.

  “I have a shed out back. I bought it when I bought this place, thinking that I would put like tools or something manly out in it. It’s only got a rake, broom and maybe a box or two in it. It’s pretty big, you can put whatever back there, if you want to store anything. No need to rent a storage unit, when we have all the space here.”

  He said we. My stomach just got a whole bunch of butterflies fluttering in it.

  “Okay.”

  “We can move you in today?” He looks like he’s going to start wagging his imaginary tail.

  “I would need to pack and probably go through things some more, I already kinda started but I’ve got a lot to go through.”

  Max jumps up and heads down to hallway and disappears into one of the bedrooms. He comes out wearing a hoodie and shoes.