New "Song to Sing" Chapter!!!
Title/Chapter: Song to Sing (06/??)
Author: amanda: jaclyn’s twin sister
Pairing: Zac / OFC: Olivia
Genre: Love / Romance / AU
Rating: PG
P.O.V.: first person, switches back and forth but is clearly marked.
Notes: This is written for the Hanfic Genre Challenge
Other Notes: Sequel to Collide
Word Count: 1,486
Warning: someone says “hell” and isn’t using it as a noun.
Previous Chapters
Summary: After The Walk Tour ‘08, Olivia and the rest of Late Night Romance move down to Tulsa so Olivia can be with Zac. After entering her second trimester, there’s a tragic loss that sends Olivia in to a devastating depression that puts a huge strain on her relationship with Zac. Will they be able to overcome this hardship or will it destroy them?
CHAPTER SIX
ZAC’S POV
3 Months Later…
I knock on Taylor’s and Natalie’s back door before opening it up and walking in. “Hey, guys, I’m here,” I call out. I hear a squeal and little feet slapping against the floor. Then Penny comes running around a corner and flings her little body at me. I laugh, scooping her up in to my arms.
“Uncle Zac!” she exclaims.
“Hey there, Sweet Girl,” I say rubbing noses with her in an Eskimo kiss.
“Aunty Kate’s here,” she tells me.
I quirk an eyebrow at her. “Who’s Aunty Kate?”
“She’s Mama’s best friend from Georgia. She’s here to be your new friend,” she says matter-of-factly.
“Oh?” I ask. Natalie walks in then.
“Hey, Zac, thought I heard you come in,” she greets me with a smile. I smile back, wanting so desperately to ask her about this Kate girl, but not in front of my niece. “C’mere you,” my sister-in-law says to her daughter, taking her from my arms. “Daddy says it’s your turn for a bath and then bed.”
“Do I hafta?” Penny asks.
“Yes, you do,” Natalie answers. “Now get.” She sets the little girl down on the floor and pats her on the bottom. Penny squeaks and goes running from the kitchen laughing.
“So uh, Penny tells me you’ve got a new friend for me?” I ask.
Natalie’s cheeks flush. “It’s been three months since you and Olivia broke up. I thought it’d be nice if you met someone.” She shrugs.
I sigh and lean against the counter with my forearms. “Nat, that’s really sweet of you, but I’m not ready to date just yet.”
“Zac, it’s been three months. You’ve been so depressed. You just need to meet someone,” she says. “I’m not saying go out and start some serious relationship but I think it’d be good if you met some new people. What if you’re missing out on happiness?”
I sigh again and scrub my face with my hands. “Natalie…” I chew on my lip for a moment. “Is she already here?” I ask. My sister-in-law nods with a grin. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. “So there’s no backing out of this now, is there?”
“Nope,” Natalie replies, her grin widening.
“Fine, I’ll stay and I’ll meet her and I’ll play nice,” I tell her. “But don’t you ever pull this on me again, got it?”
Natalie makes an ‘X’ over her heart. “I promise. No more hijacking.”
“Thank you.” I turn to make my way in to the other room when Natalie stops me.
“But, Zac?”
I turn back around to face her. “Yeah?”
“I think you’ll really like her,” she says, sounding so earnest.
I sigh and walk over to my sister-in-law, taking her hands in mine. “I know you’re just trying to be nice and make me feel better, but I’m not sure my heart can handle another woman at this point in time,” I tell her.
“She won’t hurt you like that,” Natalie replies. “She’s been cheated on before. She understands how hard it is.”
“Your heart’s in the right place, Nat, but mine isn’t,” I tell her.
There are footsteps behind us followed by a soft “oh.” I turn to see a beautiful brunette in a white sundress. “I was wondering what was taking you so long,” she says to Natalie. Then she moves closer to me, sticking out her hand. “Hi, I’m Kate. You must be Zac.”
I nod and shake her hand. “Yup, that’d be me.” I feel completely awkward right now and there’s also this nagging feeling of guilt in the pit of my stomach, like I’m doing something wrong by doing this little blind date. Like I’m cheating on Olivia, which is untrue, we’re not together anymore. But I can’t help but feel like I am. My heart still belongs to her even after what she did.
Natalie ushers us in to the living room with glasses of wine for both of us. Then she leaves to start dinner. An awkward silence settles over the room and I kind of hate Natalie for doing this to me. She could have at least stayed to help start a conversation.
After a few minutes of this awkwardness, Taylor thankfully comes in the room. “The kids are all bathed and in bed,” he announces, flopping down beside me on the couch. “Hey, bro, when’d you get here?”
“Not that long ago,” I answer.
“How ya doing?” he asks.
I shrug. “Fine.”
“You sure?” He studies my face with those bright blue eyes of his.
I knock my shoulder against his. “Yes, I’m fine. Now can you help Kate and I break this ice?”
Taylor laughs. “What? Natalie didn’t give you topics to discuss?” I shake my head. “Well, Kate’s up visiting from Georgia. Her and Nat go way back. Kindergarten and all that.”
“Oh? We were home-schooled,” I say.
“Really?” Kate asks. “Do you feel like you missed out on the whole socializing thing?”
I shake my head. “No, I mean, we lived in places where most of the kids were home-schooled and we always had a lot of kids running around the house. Plus, when we got signed to Mercury it made having a music career so much easier.” I shrug. “And in the end I graduated when I was sixteen so that was kind of nice, getting it over early like that.”
“I can imagine it would be,” Kate replies taking a sip of her wine. “No more school work to worry about. You could just concentrate on your music then.”
I nod. “Yeah, exactly. So what do you do?”
“Oh, um, I model,” she answers with a slight blush.
“Was that something you and Nat took up together?” I ask.
Kate nods. “Yeah, actually she kind of forced me in to it,” she says. “I wasn’t too keen on the idea, but once I got a few jobs under my belt…” She shrugs. “I don’t know, I just started to enjoy it. Dressing up and getting my hair and make-up done, it was like being a princess. What little girl hasn’t dreamed of growing up to be a princess?” Taylor and I chuckle lightly and Kate smiles. Now that I look at her a little more closely I notice how pretty she is.
“So how long are you in town for?” I ask, thinking I might want to spend a little more time with her.
“Just the weekend,” she answers. I nod. Our topics of discussion move on to music and then books, favorite artists and photographers. I find out that we have very similar tastes. Maybe this blind date wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
TAYLOR’S POV
After dinner and dessert, Zac and Kate decide to go to Starbucks together to get some coffee and talk some more. Once they’ve left I turn on my wife. “Natalie!” I hiss coming up behind her in the kitchen.
She looks over her shoulder at me. “What?” she asks.
“What the hell were you thinking?!” I exclaim.
“What are you talking about?” she asks screwing her face up in confusion.
“I’m talking about setting Zac up with Kate! You know he belongs with Olivia,” I tell her.
“Yeah, no, I don’t think so,” my wife replies placing a hand on her hip. “She cheated on him, Taylor. Why would you want him to be with her after that?”
“Because, they’re soul mates, Nat. You understand what that’s like, right?” I ask.
Natalie sighs and moves closer, putting her arms around my neck. “Of course I know what that’s like,” she answers. “You know that. But soul mates aren’t supposed to hurt each other. Especially not in that way.”
“But, Nat, she didn’t mean to do it,” I tell her. “She didn’t plan it and she knows what an awful mistake it was. But being apart makes them more miserable than the actual infidelity does.”
“You don’t know that, Tay,” she replies. “Besides, Kate and Zac totally hit it off tonight, don’t you think?” She’s smiling at me and coupled with what she just said, it makes me want to smack that smile right off her face.
I take her arms from around my neck and take a rather large step back, clenching my hands in to fists. “I don’t care if they hit it off,” I grind out through gritted teeth. “They don’t belong together, Natalie. Zac and Liv belong together, since the day they first met it was meant to be. I can’t believe you’re trying to ruin that!”
“Ruin it?!” she exclaims. “I’m not ruining anything! I’m fixing things! I’m making Zac happy again!”
“He’ll never be truly happy with her, Nat,” I tell her. “Not like when he was with Olivia. Trust me. Maybe you don’t see it now, but you will eventually. It won’t be the same.” I turn on my heel and stalk from the room.
Stay Tuned for Chapter Seven!