Hey all, with nothing better to do with my morning, I went through my old files and found a few stories that are nearly done so I figured I would post the first chapter of this story. There is only going to be about three chapters in total. The final chapter will be posted on Monday.
Disclaimer: Hart of Dixie and the characters used on the show being to their rightful owners and the ones that aren't recognisable being to me and have been created for this story.
Enjoy!
"Why?" Wade asked, fussing with his tie. In return he got an amused look. "Making me wear this damn penguin suit is one thing but why did you drag me all the way to hell?" He questioned looking over at his brother.
"I would rather be in Bluebell but when my soon to be wife pouted and gave me puppy eyes, I couldn't refuse her request," Jesse sighed. "New York is not that bad," he chuckled.
"Rude people; going a few miles takes hours, people never sleep, and the stars, you sure they even exist around here?" He asked his brother in a huff.
After losing their mom to cancer when they were kids and their father to the bottle, Jesse had plans of moving away and joining the military, but one look at his helpless little brother as he was pulling out of the yard made him question what he was doing. With a sigh he found a job, a place in Bluebell where Wade stayed more nights than not and he went to school in Mobile a few days out of the week.
When Wade turned 18 and got his own place, Jesse moved to New York to finish his schooling. The brother's remained close even with the distance between them.
"It's not that bad," Jesse told his little brother, his best friend and his best man.
"Whatever you say," Wade grumbled. "Let's go get you married." Wade was happy that his brother had found that special someone. Even though he hated the overcrowdedness of the city there was no way he'd let that stop him from sharing this day with the one guy that set his life aside for him.
Jesse only wanted his brother standing next to him as he merged his life with the woman that held his heart in her soft hands.
"You look stunning, Lee," Zoe whispered, fixing the bride's golden locks as she placed the veil in place, green eyes with a hint of blue mixed in shined bright in the mirror, the white satin of the wedding dress making her olive skin pop. "Jesse is one lucky guy."
"I'm freaking out, Zo," Lee confessed.
"Jesse loves you," Zoe told her. "Marriage is a huge step but there's no doubt that this is meant to be," she told her friend.
After Ethan left to Europe avoiding all contact with Zoe and her mom throwing herself into work Zoe had been shipped off to Bluebell to live with Harley Wilkes, her actual father. She loved it but she had hated it, she had been forced to leave her best friend behind. None of the friendships that she had made while in Bluebell were like the one she had with Hailee. They had tried to stay in contact over the years but they had lost touch.
One thing has remained the same, they both wanted to be doctors. Zoe had been shocked when she walked into her dorm room and saw she was bunking with her long lost best friend. Spending their college years together made them grow close like sisters.
When Zoe and Hailee got jobs at two different hospitals in New York, Zoe introduced Jesse and Hailee and they hit it off instantly.
So for Zoe to be the maid of honor and the only one standing up there with Hailee was only natural.
"Let's do this," Hailee said taking a deep breath, she was only being silly.
A light blush tinted Zoe's cheeks as she walked down the aisle, all eyes on her from a mix of people she knew and people she didn't know, that didn't bother her, but she could feel the lustful gaze from Wade right down to her bones. She shared a small smile with Jesse as she took her place, her attention going to the bride as she walked in on her father's arm looking like an angel.
Promises of forever had been made, love sealed with a kiss making them husband and wife.
Zoe slipped her arm through Wade's. Old feelings fled to the surface. As awkward as things could be between the former high school sweethearts, both were relieved that things so far were good.
"You look beautiful, Doc," Wade whispered in her ear as they posed for pictures. He smirked watching her blood rush to color her cheeks a light pink.
"You always did know how to clean up really nice," she retorted back as her reply.
"Dirty is the only way, Doc," he winked. She rolled her eyes, smacking his chest as her laughter fell from her lips.
With pictures out of the way they moved on to have the reception, first dance and speeches done left everyone to have a good time. Wade was pleased with the open bar. He mingled and flirted, his eyes always on Zoe a tightness in the pit of his stomach watching guys flirt with her.
"I hear that it's mandatory that we sneak away and get our freak on," he husked into Zoe's ear, from behind.
"I think I skipped over that chapter while reading the ins and outs of being the maid of honor," she replied, taking a drink of her wine.
"I'll fill you in with what you missed out on by skipping the most important chapter on the dance floor," he said, entwining his hand with hers, leading her to the dance floor just as REO Speedwagon's Can't Fight this Feeling started to play.
Zoe smiled resting her head against his shoulder, memories of their senior prom coming to mind as they had danced to this very song.
"What are we doing here, Wade?" She asked, her eyes closed as they danced.
"Last I checked, we were dancing," he replied, resting his head against hers.
"We've never been that good at being friends. It's always been one extreme or the other," she told him, ignoring his little comment and leaving out that everything about being in his arms felt right.
"After tonight, what is the chance we'll be seeing each other again?" He asked her. Bringing up their feelings was the last thing he wanted to do. He wanted one final night with her, to get the closure he refused to get the first time around. She had been his first love and vice versa but now he was older and realized that things couldn't work with Zoe, and that was the worst realization of his life.
"I am moving back home," she confessed, making everything around them stop. "With Dad getting sick, I need to be there for him," she said with a sigh. The idea of losing her father frightened her, she wasn't ready for that, but going home to spend what time she could with him was the only option.
"I didn't know if you'd be coming back or if he'd be moving here," he told her. That was a lie, he knew Harley would never leave Bluebell, that was his home and he'd spend his last days there. "I am sorry that you're going through this."
Zoe nodded her head. "I hate it," she whispered. Here she was on the verge of tears, ones of sorrow and not the happy ones.
Wade took her hand in his, pulled her from the dance floor, snagging a bottle of tequila. She didn't question him once on where they were going.
"You never did answer my question about us," Zoe said, looking over the city she would no longer call home from the roof of the hotel they were at.
"You moving home, that changes everything. I finally let myself believe that you wouldn't come back home, that this," he said gesturing to the world going on around them, "was where your heart decided to call home."
"So what? You wanted one last night together?" She questioned, her anger at this situation building up.
"Something like that," he sighed. "But, now that I know that we can have a chance again, that you moving home is a reality, I want to be with you, if that is what you want, Zoe."
"I never stopped loving you, Wade," she said softly, like it was a big secret that no one needed to hear. "I want to jump back into a relationship with you but that's crazy because after these years we're different people and we no longer know each other," she told him.
"Then we jump in and learn what's changed with each other, but under everything you're still that same girl I fell in love with, the one that could spend the day at the creek doing nothing, but yet it was something and everything."
"Okay," she smiled shyly, stepping closer to him.
He wasted no time pulling her closer by the hips, his lips reacquainting themselves with hers.
The journey to his hotel room was lost on them both, too busy getting lost in each other, getting familiar with each touch.
"Maybe you should demonstrate that chapter I skipped," she moaned, gently tugging on his earlobe, as he lavished the sensitive parts of her neck.
His response was pulling her tighter against him as he ground his hips into her, letting her feel how ready he is on showing her everything that she had missed.