Neutral Zone

by Amber Lynn

  He was different. He wasn’t some lovesick puppy following her around, wanting to hump her leg. He was a Greek god who could really have anyone he wanted, and at least for the time being, he wanted her. She sighed as she thought about the day he’d decide she wasn’t that person anymore.

  “You’re in love with him.”

  Nina was deep in her easy to find depression when she thought about Brady casting her off. It usually put her in a mood that was not safe to be around other people in, and Hannah seemed to want to jab her with a hot poker.

  “No, I’m not in love with him.”

  Her stupid subconscious responded with the word liar. Nina didn’t understand the meaning of the word, so whatever inside of her that wanted to be in love with Brady and marry him had to be a confused child version of her.

  “I think thou dost protest a little too much. I can’t say I’m happy that it’s Brady your heart gets all pitter pattery for, but the fact that it’s making those little noises does make me happy.”

  “What’s wrong with Brady?”

  Nina really should’ve countered the heart shit, but she wanted to hear what Hannah had to say about Brady. She and Curtis had tried to get the two of them to hook up in the beginning, so it was a little late to be saying there was something wrong with him.

  “I can’t believe you just asked that.”

  Hannah looked over to check on the kids, who were probably both asleep. She did that kind of thing almost every thirty seconds. When she was sure neither of them needed her, she focused back on Nina.

  “Before you signed that contract with him, you told me he was the biggest pervert on earth and couldn’t fuck his way out of a blow-up doll.”

  The “fuck” was an interesting touch to what had been clean language out of Hannah’s mouth since the kids were born. Nina supposed that since it was a direct quote she somehow thought she got around the no cussing around the kids mandate. Since Nina hadn’t been that great about following it herself, she only teased Hannah by covering her mouth for a second and widening her eyes.

  “If I didn’t know better, I’d guess you two were talking about me.”

  Nina dropped the hand across her mouth, but her eyes only widened more when she heard Brady’s voice. Her brain scrambled to figure out exactly what he might have heard. None of the conversation was meant to hit his ears. She looked quickly over to the wall and saw that it was three o’clock.

  Hannah had said the guys were going to be out for hours doing some team activity. Brady had mentioned something in passing, but he hadn’t been specific on timing.

  “I bet your ears were burning,” Hannah said as she waved to the person behind Nina.

  She could hear him breathing, just hovering behind the couch. She was afraid to move, making her even more visible to what were sure to be searing eyes. He had to know she didn’t still consider him incapable of screwing a blow-up doll, but she was mortified that he may have heard she once said it. She’d never been mortified of anything she’d said before. It wasn’t a great time to start feeling at way. Even if he hadn’t heard Hannah, Brady could pick up on her unease.

  “Nah. I heard blow-up dolls mentioned, so I know I wasn’t involved in the conversation. In case Nina hasn’t mentioned it, I’m not much into masturbation, even with the help of a toy.”

  He leaned down and kissed the top of her head. Playing along soothed her a little.

  “There are children in the room, Brady. You can’t talk about masturbation.”

  Brady scoffed. “So it’s okay for you to talk about it, but Uncle Brady isn’t allowed. That’s fine. I know what I’m getting Ollie for his sixteenth birthday now.”

  Hannah threw one of the baby blankets next to her at Brady. Nina had to duck to the side to keep it from hitting her.

  “If you ever get one of my children a blow-up doll, I will cut your balls off, Brady McDonald.”

  At some point, those kids were going to be terrified to hear that tone in their mother’s voice. Against Brady, it probably just rolled right off him.

  “Since your best friend seems to really enjoy those balls, I’m guessing I’ll get a reprieve.”

  A growl and another towel thrown was Brady’s response. Nina had to laugh. Brady was right, though. She wouldn’t let Hannah get anywhere near his balls with a knife.

  “We’re talking about a sixteenth birthday. You telling me you see the two of you still playing this game in sixteen years?”

  Nina wished she had something to throw at Hannah. She hoped her squinted eyes and short motions with her hand across her neck got the point across. She was trying to keep Brady interested, not send him running as fast as he could.

  “That’s a long time down the road, but you never know. Maybe by then we’ll even have a couple of those things ourselves, and you can try to torture me by teaching them new things.”

  Brady pointed over to the couch, reaching his arm forward enough that Nina could see it and follow it to the babies. She quickly mouthed “no” when Hannah looked at her with a raised brow. She figured Brady had to be messing around with the new mom. She’d seen him holding the babies, but she hadn’t thought he all of a sudden started wanting one of his own.

  “Anyway, your husband got tied up when one of the guys on the team mentioned his parents raised horses. I think they were making introductions and seeing how soon they thought they’d have some new ponies.”

  Hannah’s eyes narrowed and laser beams practically shot out of them. There was a long-standing joke about Curtis threatening to buy the kids ponies. Hannah wanted nothing to do with the idea, but it never seemed to go away.

  “You better be joking.”

  She reached over and grabbed her phone off the table next to the couch. After a few stabbing motions towards the screen of the phone, she put it up to her ear.

  Nina smiled at how frustrated she was. After the quizzing she’d dished out, a little payback was nice, even if it wasn’t Nina delivering it.

  Brady leaned down and nudged her head with his, then kissed her temple. His arms hung down and squeezed around her chest for a sort of hug at the same time.

  “I imagine she’s going to be busy for a little while. You want to hang around or head home to check on our four-legged child?”

  Henry was a child she could take care of. He wasn’t a leech, he pooped outside and he didn’t whine. When either Ollie or Liv needed something, he or she would start crying, obviously, since that is how a baby communicates. But, as soon as one of them started, the other would follow, and then a sort of game would commence to see who could cry the loudest.

  Nina had managed to witness the phenomenon twice, and it was something she hoped to never have to deal with again. She’d started carrying ear plugs in her purse just in case it started up.

  “I would love to go home,” Nina said as she leaned forward and stood up.

  “Curtis Power, you better not be off on some farm looking at ponies. I’m telling you right now, if you come home with any kind of animal, you will be sleeping outside with it.”

  “That’s our cue,” Brady said as he held his hand out for Nina.

  She took it and walked around the couch so they could escape out the front door. Brady winked at her and hurried to drag her out of the room. She was curious whether the pony thing was real or not, but she didn’t want to stick around to see Hannah have a coronary. If Brady was lying to her, chances were she’d head to the kitchen to grab her sharpest knife.

  “And you wonder why she doesn’t like you much,” Nina said as he opened the car door for her.

  “She likes me enough for someone who’s married to my best friend. Curtis hates you, with a passion I didn’t think was possible from that guy, so I think it’s only fair if she has a mild dislike for yours truly.”

  He made sure she was tucked in the car and shut the door. Nina had been in the car enough that the seat seemed to mold to her butt.

  “I think he’s actually starting to warm up to me,” Nina
said after he got his door open and was sliding in.

  Brady looked at her out the corner of his eye and shook his head. She’d been told her voice didn’t change enough to be considered sarcastic, but that was how the words sounded in her head.

  “Not so much, but we can always hope there will be a day when he doesn’t grit his teeth every time you open your mouth.”

  After starting the car and getting them underway, Brady reached over and grabbed her hand. It was a normal gesture for him that sometimes made shifting fun.

  “So,” he started and then didn’t say anything for a second. “Since I’m so big on you giving me full disclosure, I should probably say I heard more of that conversation than you meant for my ears.”

  Nina bit her bottom lip, slightly terrified of what he had to say. Her brain fired through what she could remember. Hannah had really tried to back her into a corner, but Nina didn’t think she’d slipped up.

  “I don’t know what got up Hannah’s ass today, but I have to blame it on those kids sucking her dry. They’ve got to be syphoning off her brain cells.”

  “I don’t want you to be afraid to talk to me about things, Nina. I spend a good amount of time trying to guess what you need, but if there’s something you don’t like about what I say or do, or if there’s something more you want from me, tell me about it. I don’t want you bottling things up. That’s when scary Nina comes out, and we only like that to happen the third Sunday in February during a leap year.”

  She smiled at the thought. Nina liked to think she’d mellowed some in the last month or so particularly. She wasn’t the best judge of that, since she really didn’t believe there was a problem with the way she handled things in the first place, but she had noticed not everyone ran as soon as they saw her step off an elevator anymore. Most people still did, but some not so smart new employees weren’t quick enough on their feet.

  “I’m telling you, I don’t know where Hannah was coming from today. I swear, I didn’t say or do anything that set her off.”

  “So there’s nothing you’d like to talk about as far as how things are going?”

  Nina shook her head, but thought about it for a second. There was one thing she thought she could ask that wouldn’t push things too much.

  “I want to move in on a full-time basis.”

  Brady looked over at her and smiled. She was already there every day, but Brady sent her home some nights because he thought they needed time apart. They both had jobs they went to most days, so Nina didn’t understand the big deal with her staying over every night.

  “That is something I think we can definitely work on.”

  Nina let out the breath she’d held while she waited for his response. Asking him that was a much better decision than doing something stupid like blurting out she thought she was in love with him. She was afraid it was only a matter of time before she did the latter.

  Chapter 26

  “I’m going to ask Nina to marry me.”

  Making the statement right as Curtis took a sip of water wasn’t the smartest move. Brady’s friend started coughing and pounding on his chest. Brady waited for him to finish and take another sip of water before saying anything else.

  “I take it that comes as a surprise to you.”

  They’d just finished up practice and had stopped to grab something to eat. Hannah was at home working on her mother of the year trophy, and Nina was at work, more than likely trying to make someone cry.

  “Is she pregnant?”

  The question was almost logical. Brady conceded that if anyone tried to trap him in a marriage via a baby on the way, Nina would be the only one he’d consider, but a baby had nothing to do with his decision. It’d been one he’d been planning on for a while.

  “Highly doubtful. Your kids are three months now and I’m pretty sure she still hasn’t picked them up.”

  As much as it annoyed Hannah that Nina barely got within a foot of the kids, Brady thought it was cute. He’d never wanted kids of his own, and wasn’t jumping on the bandwagon because he’d been spending so much time with Ollie and Liv, but he could see himself with a kid or two. That was probably almost a decade down the road, but he could see it.

  He could also see that Nina paid a little more attention to the kids as their personalities came out more. She had a soft spot for Liv that no one else noticed. When the little girl started babbling, Nina’s head always perked up. He’d even overheard her trying to get her to say her name when Hannah had left the room to grab something. She did it from across the room instead of close by, but she still dropped her voice into one of those silly baby voices adults make and tried to convince a three-month-old to say her name.

  “Not true,” Curtis said, shaking his head quickly. “Hannah said the other day that she was busy with Ollie and Liv started crying. Nina almost jumped off the couch and ran over to comfort her.”

  Brady had to smile at the news. He could easily picture the scene. He’d asked Nina what it was about Liv that made her a little mushy, but she’d brushed it off, calling him crazy. She claimed she wasn’t mushy. She’d been protecting Liv’s mom for so long that the instincts seemed to carry over for some reason. Brady wasn’t sure that was it, but that was all she’d say.

  “Good, because eventually I think we’ll have a kid ourselves. I’m pretty sure I won’t get more than that out of her unless we’re lucky and have twins right out of the gate like you did.” Brady grabbed a fry off his plate to give Curtis a second to absorb that much. “As it is, I should probably start looking for a surrogate now. She hasn’t exactly been impressed that it’s taken Hannah three months to get her body back.”

  Curtis’ mouth dropped open, and he stared blankly across the table. Brady waved his hand in front of his friend’s face, laughing at the dumbfounded look.

  “I might as well get to the last point I’m sure is about to come up. I love her.”

  Shaking his head, Curtis snapped out of his stupor. The love part generally was implied with the whole marriage thing, but sometimes weddings happened because they were convenient. Nina had been living with him for just over a month, a very convenient situation to make sure all her needs were met.

  He’d started things out slow by not having her move back in full-time once they were back together. He wanted her there, but she wasn’t ready for it. He saw her pouts when he sent her home, but moving immediately back to playing house full-time wasn’t the smart move. She needed to want to be there with him, not just because it meant easy access to his body.

  After hearing her quickly announce she didn’t love him, something he was totally on Hannah’s side as far as a little too much protesting, and that the reason she wasn’t considering marriage was because of his issues with labels, he knew she was ready. She loved him, even if she was too afraid to say it.

  He hadn’t said it either, but he didn’t lie to himself about it being true. It had been since their night in St. Louis. Waking up next to her in the hotel, he’d looked down at her sleeping face and admitted that he’d fallen in love with the woman. He didn’t even know at the time how special that moment was.

  “Seriously? How is that even possible? She’s a monster.”

  Brady shrugged. He should’ve been offended about the monster part, but Nina was who she was. He wasn’t trying to change her, at least not for other people. When they were together, she could be a different person, but only behind closed doors. To the world, she was a ball-buster, and he loved her for it.

  “Well, people don’t exactly call me a peach either. Our relationship, such as it is, is private. Why it works isn’t anyone else’s business, it just does.”

  Curtis put his arms down on the table and leaned forward. For a few seconds, he kept tilting his head to the side, studying Brady from different angles. The two had been friends for years, so Brady didn’t question what he was doing.

  “Does she drug you or something? I’m trying to check out your pupils, but the light in here isn’t great.”r />
  Brady laughed and threw a fry across the table. It hit Curtis in the chest and fell to the floor.

  “No, she’s not drugging me.”

  “Are you sure? Because no amount of money, sex or good looks can counter the fact that she is a bitch. And here you are saying you love her and want to marry her. Have you even run that stuff by her yet? Because the Nina I know, is going to laugh in your face.”

  Again, he probably should have started out saying something about the bitch comment, but Brady let it slide. If she actually said yes and became Mrs. McDonald, Brady would take a stand on the name calling. Until then, he was fine letting Curtis get it all out of his system.

  “I said I’m going to ask her, so obviously I haven’t run it by her yet.”

  “So, there’s a good chance she’ll say no. What am I saying? Of course, she’ll say no.”

  Curtis took a deep breath and slumped back into his chair. The relief visible when he swiped his hand across his brow made Brady roll his eyes. He was trying to help his buddy out by giving him warning. As soon as he proposed, he was sure Nina would be on the phone with Hannah, so he wanted to save Curtis from the heart attack he would suffer from hearing it out of the blue.

  “She’s been looking at engagement rings, so I wouldn’t bet the farm on that.”

  “What?”

  The relaxed position was immediately forgotten as Curtis leaned forward again. This time, he was almost halfway across the table.

  “We live together, in case you forgot. I walked in the other day and she was on the bed looking at rings on her laptop. As soon as she heard me, she closed it, but I saw enough to know she’s thinking the same thing I am.”

  “No way,” Curtis said, shaking his head in pure disbelief. “There’s no way the two of you are actually thinking about this. You swore you would never get married, and she, well, you know, she.”

  His voice kind of trailed off as he tried to think of what statement best fit. Curtis had always been in love with one woman, sometimes it was just the idea of that woman. He didn’t give anyone else a fighting chance to win his heart.