Zac sat in the back of his truck with Natalie after they had drove to some field not far from her house. It was Taylor's weekend with the kids and it had been three days since he had confronted Taylor and things were still tense between them even if both had apologized on some level to each other.
"Do you think I was in the wrong?" Zac asked as he eyed Natalie. "For accusing Taylor of what I did?" he asked knowing he had just bared everything to Natalie or well everything that had happened the morning after the bar. He left out the details of hitting on Avery at the restaurant or Avery doing the same at the bar.
"I think you were both in the wrong," Natalie answered as she reached out to brush some hair out of Zac's eyes. "You shouldn't have said what you did but he shouldn't have thrown up the bastard card."
Nodding as he listened to Natalie, Zac knew she was right but he wanted to feel sorry for himself at the moment. "He always throws up the bastard card after I strike at him on something," he shrugged as he kicked his feet in the air.
"That's because Taylor is a master at holding grudges," Natalie reasoned as she leaned in to kiss Zac's cheek softly. "You should have seen how pissed he got when he found out about us. But I told him he had no reason to be pissy as he stole me from you and that he is the one that fucked things up between us."
Zac snarled his lip up as Natalie told him how Taylor had reacted to finding out about them. It was something he still hadn't brought up with Zac but then again maybe Natalie's words had struck a cord. "Where you still fucking him before I showed up?"
Natalie shook her head no at that, "No, I'm engaged for god's sake," she muttered out but then stopped as if she had realized what she revealed and when Zac studied her face he saw genuine concern and fear on it.
"You're what?" Zac asked almost stunned at her words because he had never seen a ring on her finger or even heard her or the kids mention anyone else.
Watching as Natalie looked away from him, Zac sighed loudly but he didn't speak wanting her to explain herself.
"H...he's gone a lot," Natalie finally started keeping her gaze off Zac. "He's a trucker and he's gone a lot and I get lonely and..."
"And you decided to use me to pass your time?" Zac asked feeling a bit angry now. "You decided to let me help you be less lonely while he was away?" he asked his tone getting harsher. "Is that why you don't wear your ring? So that men will sleep with you easier?"
At his questions Natalie remained silent and looking away from him. Shaking his head Zac got out of the back of the truck and looked at Natalie briefly, "I'm taking you home," he told her before walking to the driver's side and getting in.
When Natalie got in as well Zac started his truck and drove off, heading to her house in a silence he didn't like but it was enough of a silence that it let him think. Let him know that no one wanted him. His mother hadn't or she wouldn't have gave him up. Natalie never did or she wouldn't keep hurting him. Nikki hadn't wanted him or even wanted his child. No one wanted him and fucking hell he just needed to go and get drunk, he needed something to numb the pain he felt inside.
Making it back to Natalie's house, Zac pulled his truck into her driveway and just looked at her as she sat there, making no move to get out.
"I'm sorry," Natalie said as she looked at him and frowned. "I'm so so sorry Zac," she muttered as she unbuckled before moving closer trying to reach out to touch him but Zac grabbed her hand to stop her.
"Don't," Zac warned her letting her hand drop. "Just get out of my truck and go inside because I really don't want to see you right now."
Natalie nodded her head before obeying Zac's words and the moment she was gone from his truck, Zac stayed in the driveway until she went inside.
After she was inside he started his truck back up and pulled out, deciding to head for the bar where he had been days before. He needed to get trashed and just forget everything.
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Avery rolled her eyes as she looked at Taylor who had been walking back and forth in the room for the better part of an hour, ranting and raving on and on about the same damn thing.
"I don't see what the issue is Taylor?" Avery asked as she spoke finally making Taylor stop in his steps. "Yeah I watch porn when you're gone."
"The issue here Avery is the porn you watched has my brother in it," Taylor screeched as he held out the DVD case to her. A case in which Penny had accidentally knocked down tonight and then had proceeded to ask why her Uncle Zac was on it. "You got off to my brother!"
Avery looked down and blushed as she shook her head, "I didn't know he was your brother at the time," she sighed before looking back up at Taylor. "Trust me if I knew I wouldn't have even watched the series to begin with."
"But you still kept them even after you knew. You could have just trashed them," Taylor sighed as he continued to pace back and forth in their room. "I can't believe you would even keep this from me once you knew! But at least that explains why you were throwing yourself on him like some whore when you were drunk. Because you wanted the man you had fantasized too."
Flinching when Taylor called her a whore, Avery stood from the bed as she crossed her arms, "I wasn't throwing myself on him like some whore," she said her voice going up now. "I was drunk and my mind wasn't all there. If it had been you I would have done the same thing. Hell if it had been the mail man I would have done it too," she argued as she kept her gaze on him. "It had nothing to do with the fact that I've gotten off on watching your brother have sex with women."
Taylor laughed bitterly at that, "Sure it didn't," he spoke as he glared at her and walked closer to where she stood. "You know since you kept that from me how about I tell you some things I've been keeping from you, huh?" he asked but before she could respond he kept on going. "I don't want another baby," he confessed which made Avery look down as if she had been hit in the gut. "I have two kids and I'm thirty-two I don't really want to raise another right now. That's why I had a vasectomy a few months ago."
Hearing his admission Avery looked away from him and she stood there in silence though it seemed Taylor also now was rendered speechless because he didn't say anything either.
"You had a vasectomy without telling me?" Avery asked once she could finally speak. "You had one knowing we had sat down last year and discussed having a baby and that we had decided to try for a baby?"
Taylor nodded his head though it seemed he was unable to look at Avery, as if now suddenly he regretted the words he had said, "I...I got scared when thinking of having to raise another kid from the start and fuck I never even really raised Ezra from the start and he's only half way decent from the one year Zac spent trying to father him."
"Zac fathered Ezra?" Avery questioned not sure if Taylor was making sense or maybe she was just in some awful dream. Maybe this was a nightmare because it sure felt like one.
It was at her question that Taylor finally looked up at her and Avery stayed silent as Taylor began to speak, telling her about what had happened with Natalie. How she had been Zac's girlfriend first and that he had wormed his way into her bed and then he revealed how for all of her pregnancy and the first year of Ezra's life they hadn't known who his real father was up until Natalie's mom suggested a DNA test.
"And when the test came back that he was mine I stepped up and raised him and Natalie and I got married," Taylor shrugged as he looked down. "So I wasn't there much for Ezra's up bringing and with Penny I was too busy making my first album so I missed a lot."
"You're just scared," Avery muttered feeling tears stinging at her eyes. "Scared to step up to the plate and be a dad when it matters, when the kids are young and impressionable. You'd rather just raise them after all the hard years, right?" she asked feeling angry at Taylor. "That's the real reason you had a vasectomy."
When Taylor didn't deny her claims Avery shook her head, "You're an asshole," she spoke as she felt the tears start to go down her cheeks. "You could have told me and we could have figured something out but you lied to me...just like you kept the truth about Ezra from me too and I don't even get why you kept that from me but you did."
"Because I didn't want to look horrible for ruining my brother's life," Taylor whispered as he ran a hand through his hair. "And I wanted you to think I was perfect."
"But no one's perfect," Avery sighed as she slowly walked towards the bedroom door, needing to get away from Taylor. "You certainly aren't and if I didn't know that before I know it now, don't I?"
Taylor once again looked down as he went silent for a bit, "W..where are you going?"
"I think I need to sleep downstairs tonight. Get away from you because the sight of you right now well it makes me sick," Avery spoke before opening the door and leaving the bedroom.
Going downstairs instead of heading into the living room she headed into the kitchen in search of a bottle of wine because she wanted to get drunk and numb. She wanted to forget for awhile that her husband had just delivered her a low blow in the form of telling her that he had gotten a vasectomy while knowing they were supposed to be trying for a baby.
That felt like the worst thing he could have done to her and knowing he hadn't even had the nerve to tell her that hurt even more. He had kept that from her and she was sure that secret hurt more than the one about Ezra. That one was trivial compared to her husband having a vasectomy.
After finding the wine and opening the bottle, Avery carried the bottle into the living room and then went in search of her Game of Thrones Season Three DVD. It was the season she needed to start next since she was trying to catch up with the show.
Once she had found it Avery quickly put it in the DVD player and hit play before sitting down with her bottle of wine which she began to drink from every so often as the show began to start playing.
Avery wasn't sure how long she had been watching Game of Thrones and drinking her wine when she heard the front door open and she heard someone walk inside rather unsteady.
She didn't have to turn around and see who it was though, she knew it was Zac and she thought for sure he would head upstairs since it had to be late but when she heard his footsteps come in the living room before she heard and felt him plop down beside her, she was surprised.
Turning her head to look at him briefly in the dark, she could barely make him out though thanks to the TV's light she was able to at least see that he looked like she felt, like shit and that someone had basically chewed him up and spit him back out.
"You watch Game of Thrones?" Zac asked her though he didn't turn to face her at all.
Avery nodded catching the fact that Zac had slurred slightly, "Trying to catch up," she answered as she chewed her lip and turned back to the tv just in time to watch as Jon followed Ygritte into the cave and the moment he did she sat there silently as before her eyes a love scene unfolded.
One in which Avery had found herself slightly turned on because she kind of liked the fact that Jon had went down on the woman and also because she was kind of a Jon fangirl.
"You know you kind of look like Jon Snow," Avery mused as she turned back to Zac. "Is that why you named yourself Jack Snow?" she asked him as she raised an eyebrow before taking a drink from the wine bottle and then setting it down on the table.
Zac laughed at that and when he turned to look at her she couldn't help but notice that he looked like he had been crying too. "Partly," he admitted as he moved a bit closer to her. "Not to mention I'm also a bastard like him," he sighed before locking eyes with Avery. "Jack is because one girl who was obsessed with me in high school wrote a song about me titled Jack. We never dated but she was crazy over me...but the Snow part does come from Jon Snow. A bastard who no one really wants."
Frowning at his words Avery wasn't sure what compelled her to move closer to Zac and close the distance between them by pulling him into a kiss, maybe it was the way he had sounded so sad or maybe it was the alcohol in her system but she had done it none the less and she didn't care that it was such a risky move because her husband and his kids were right upstairs.
None of that seemed to make her want to pull away, instead she deepened the kiss, even sighing a little into Zac's mouth when she felt him sliding an arm around her as he began to respond to the kiss as well now.
It was only when she heard the sound of the Game of Thrones theme song did she pull away and as she turned her head to see that the episode had ended she seemed to come back to her senses, realizing that what had just happened was wrong even if she had liked it.
"Do you think I was in the wrong?" Zac asked as he eyed Natalie. "For accusing Taylor of what I did?" he asked knowing he had just bared everything to Natalie or well everything that had happened the morning after the bar. He left out the details of hitting on Avery at the restaurant or Avery doing the same at the bar.
"I think you were both in the wrong," Natalie answered as she reached out to brush some hair out of Zac's eyes. "You shouldn't have said what you did but he shouldn't have thrown up the bastard card."
Nodding as he listened to Natalie, Zac knew she was right but he wanted to feel sorry for himself at the moment. "He always throws up the bastard card after I strike at him on something," he shrugged as he kicked his feet in the air.
"That's because Taylor is a master at holding grudges," Natalie reasoned as she leaned in to kiss Zac's cheek softly. "You should have seen how pissed he got when he found out about us. But I told him he had no reason to be pissy as he stole me from you and that he is the one that fucked things up between us."
Zac snarled his lip up as Natalie told him how Taylor had reacted to finding out about them. It was something he still hadn't brought up with Zac but then again maybe Natalie's words had struck a cord. "Where you still fucking him before I showed up?"
Natalie shook her head no at that, "No, I'm engaged for god's sake," she muttered out but then stopped as if she had realized what she revealed and when Zac studied her face he saw genuine concern and fear on it.
"You're what?" Zac asked almost stunned at her words because he had never seen a ring on her finger or even heard her or the kids mention anyone else.
Watching as Natalie looked away from him, Zac sighed loudly but he didn't speak wanting her to explain herself.
"H...he's gone a lot," Natalie finally started keeping her gaze off Zac. "He's a trucker and he's gone a lot and I get lonely and..."
"And you decided to use me to pass your time?" Zac asked feeling a bit angry now. "You decided to let me help you be less lonely while he was away?" he asked his tone getting harsher. "Is that why you don't wear your ring? So that men will sleep with you easier?"
At his questions Natalie remained silent and looking away from him. Shaking his head Zac got out of the back of the truck and looked at Natalie briefly, "I'm taking you home," he told her before walking to the driver's side and getting in.
When Natalie got in as well Zac started his truck and drove off, heading to her house in a silence he didn't like but it was enough of a silence that it let him think. Let him know that no one wanted him. His mother hadn't or she wouldn't have gave him up. Natalie never did or she wouldn't keep hurting him. Nikki hadn't wanted him or even wanted his child. No one wanted him and fucking hell he just needed to go and get drunk, he needed something to numb the pain he felt inside.
Making it back to Natalie's house, Zac pulled his truck into her driveway and just looked at her as she sat there, making no move to get out.
"I'm sorry," Natalie said as she looked at him and frowned. "I'm so so sorry Zac," she muttered as she unbuckled before moving closer trying to reach out to touch him but Zac grabbed her hand to stop her.
"Don't," Zac warned her letting her hand drop. "Just get out of my truck and go inside because I really don't want to see you right now."
Natalie nodded her head before obeying Zac's words and the moment she was gone from his truck, Zac stayed in the driveway until she went inside.
After she was inside he started his truck back up and pulled out, deciding to head for the bar where he had been days before. He needed to get trashed and just forget everything.
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Avery rolled her eyes as she looked at Taylor who had been walking back and forth in the room for the better part of an hour, ranting and raving on and on about the same damn thing.
"I don't see what the issue is Taylor?" Avery asked as she spoke finally making Taylor stop in his steps. "Yeah I watch porn when you're gone."
"The issue here Avery is the porn you watched has my brother in it," Taylor screeched as he held out the DVD case to her. A case in which Penny had accidentally knocked down tonight and then had proceeded to ask why her Uncle Zac was on it. "You got off to my brother!"
Avery looked down and blushed as she shook her head, "I didn't know he was your brother at the time," she sighed before looking back up at Taylor. "Trust me if I knew I wouldn't have even watched the series to begin with."
"But you still kept them even after you knew. You could have just trashed them," Taylor sighed as he continued to pace back and forth in their room. "I can't believe you would even keep this from me once you knew! But at least that explains why you were throwing yourself on him like some whore when you were drunk. Because you wanted the man you had fantasized too."
Flinching when Taylor called her a whore, Avery stood from the bed as she crossed her arms, "I wasn't throwing myself on him like some whore," she said her voice going up now. "I was drunk and my mind wasn't all there. If it had been you I would have done the same thing. Hell if it had been the mail man I would have done it too," she argued as she kept her gaze on him. "It had nothing to do with the fact that I've gotten off on watching your brother have sex with women."
Taylor laughed bitterly at that, "Sure it didn't," he spoke as he glared at her and walked closer to where she stood. "You know since you kept that from me how about I tell you some things I've been keeping from you, huh?" he asked but before she could respond he kept on going. "I don't want another baby," he confessed which made Avery look down as if she had been hit in the gut. "I have two kids and I'm thirty-two I don't really want to raise another right now. That's why I had a vasectomy a few months ago."
Hearing his admission Avery looked away from him and she stood there in silence though it seemed Taylor also now was rendered speechless because he didn't say anything either.
"You had a vasectomy without telling me?" Avery asked once she could finally speak. "You had one knowing we had sat down last year and discussed having a baby and that we had decided to try for a baby?"
Taylor nodded his head though it seemed he was unable to look at Avery, as if now suddenly he regretted the words he had said, "I...I got scared when thinking of having to raise another kid from the start and fuck I never even really raised Ezra from the start and he's only half way decent from the one year Zac spent trying to father him."
"Zac fathered Ezra?" Avery questioned not sure if Taylor was making sense or maybe she was just in some awful dream. Maybe this was a nightmare because it sure felt like one.
It was at her question that Taylor finally looked up at her and Avery stayed silent as Taylor began to speak, telling her about what had happened with Natalie. How she had been Zac's girlfriend first and that he had wormed his way into her bed and then he revealed how for all of her pregnancy and the first year of Ezra's life they hadn't known who his real father was up until Natalie's mom suggested a DNA test.
"And when the test came back that he was mine I stepped up and raised him and Natalie and I got married," Taylor shrugged as he looked down. "So I wasn't there much for Ezra's up bringing and with Penny I was too busy making my first album so I missed a lot."
"You're just scared," Avery muttered feeling tears stinging at her eyes. "Scared to step up to the plate and be a dad when it matters, when the kids are young and impressionable. You'd rather just raise them after all the hard years, right?" she asked feeling angry at Taylor. "That's the real reason you had a vasectomy."
When Taylor didn't deny her claims Avery shook her head, "You're an asshole," she spoke as she felt the tears start to go down her cheeks. "You could have told me and we could have figured something out but you lied to me...just like you kept the truth about Ezra from me too and I don't even get why you kept that from me but you did."
"Because I didn't want to look horrible for ruining my brother's life," Taylor whispered as he ran a hand through his hair. "And I wanted you to think I was perfect."
"But no one's perfect," Avery sighed as she slowly walked towards the bedroom door, needing to get away from Taylor. "You certainly aren't and if I didn't know that before I know it now, don't I?"
Taylor once again looked down as he went silent for a bit, "W..where are you going?"
"I think I need to sleep downstairs tonight. Get away from you because the sight of you right now well it makes me sick," Avery spoke before opening the door and leaving the bedroom.
Going downstairs instead of heading into the living room she headed into the kitchen in search of a bottle of wine because she wanted to get drunk and numb. She wanted to forget for awhile that her husband had just delivered her a low blow in the form of telling her that he had gotten a vasectomy while knowing they were supposed to be trying for a baby.
That felt like the worst thing he could have done to her and knowing he hadn't even had the nerve to tell her that hurt even more. He had kept that from her and she was sure that secret hurt more than the one about Ezra. That one was trivial compared to her husband having a vasectomy.
After finding the wine and opening the bottle, Avery carried the bottle into the living room and then went in search of her Game of Thrones Season Three DVD. It was the season she needed to start next since she was trying to catch up with the show.
Once she had found it Avery quickly put it in the DVD player and hit play before sitting down with her bottle of wine which she began to drink from every so often as the show began to start playing.
Avery wasn't sure how long she had been watching Game of Thrones and drinking her wine when she heard the front door open and she heard someone walk inside rather unsteady.
She didn't have to turn around and see who it was though, she knew it was Zac and she thought for sure he would head upstairs since it had to be late but when she heard his footsteps come in the living room before she heard and felt him plop down beside her, she was surprised.
Turning her head to look at him briefly in the dark, she could barely make him out though thanks to the TV's light she was able to at least see that he looked like she felt, like shit and that someone had basically chewed him up and spit him back out.
"You watch Game of Thrones?" Zac asked her though he didn't turn to face her at all.
Avery nodded catching the fact that Zac had slurred slightly, "Trying to catch up," she answered as she chewed her lip and turned back to the tv just in time to watch as Jon followed Ygritte into the cave and the moment he did she sat there silently as before her eyes a love scene unfolded.
One in which Avery had found herself slightly turned on because she kind of liked the fact that Jon had went down on the woman and also because she was kind of a Jon fangirl.
"You know you kind of look like Jon Snow," Avery mused as she turned back to Zac. "Is that why you named yourself Jack Snow?" she asked him as she raised an eyebrow before taking a drink from the wine bottle and then setting it down on the table.
Zac laughed at that and when he turned to look at her she couldn't help but notice that he looked like he had been crying too. "Partly," he admitted as he moved a bit closer to her. "Not to mention I'm also a bastard like him," he sighed before locking eyes with Avery. "Jack is because one girl who was obsessed with me in high school wrote a song about me titled Jack. We never dated but she was crazy over me...but the Snow part does come from Jon Snow. A bastard who no one really wants."
Frowning at his words Avery wasn't sure what compelled her to move closer to Zac and close the distance between them by pulling him into a kiss, maybe it was the way he had sounded so sad or maybe it was the alcohol in her system but she had done it none the less and she didn't care that it was such a risky move because her husband and his kids were right upstairs.
None of that seemed to make her want to pull away, instead she deepened the kiss, even sighing a little into Zac's mouth when she felt him sliding an arm around her as he began to respond to the kiss as well now.
It was only when she heard the sound of the Game of Thrones theme song did she pull away and as she turned her head to see that the episode had ended she seemed to come back to her senses, realizing that what had just happened was wrong even if she had liked it.