Chapter 2.
Saturday
XxxxxxxX
The strong smell of food wafted through the apartment early in the morning. Zoe who was not used to anyone actually cooking in her house, was woken up by the amazing smell. She opened her eyes and wiped them followed by a low groan. Her head was throbbing a bit. She rubbed her temples as she tried to sit up a bit. Maybe hiding out in the kitchen from Wade by drinking wine last night wasn't such a great idea. She planned to only have the one wine, but as the events of the night kept playing in her head, confusing her even more, she had opted for more wine.
She let out a breath and contemplated hiding in the bedroom for the rest of the week in order to evade Wade even more. But she realised Lemon would never let that happen. Reluctantly she got up from the bed and took a long shower before she finally braved the kitchen where she knew she had to face Wade again.
As she walked in the kitchen, all heads turned towards her, but she only noticed one in particular, his face breaking into the widest grin when he saw her, making her face blush and a small smile crept on her face. She quickly averted her eyes and looked at George who had greeted her with a loud "Welcome sleepy head."
"Nice of you to finally join us." Lemon said.
"What's all this? She said as she walked up to the table that nearly collapsed under the amount of food, ignoring Lemons last comment in the process.
"Just trying to bring the South to your kitchen Zoe, as a thank you for having us" Annabeth said sweetly.
"You made all this by yourself? Zoe asked in awe as she noticed sausages, hash browns, eggs, bacon, pancakes, french toast, english muffins and a lot of other things that she didn't recognise.
"What is this?" She said, pointing to a few dishes she had never seen before and she couldn't identify.
"That is bisquits and gravy and that there is grits." Annabeth said while she pointed at the dishes.
"Do ya wanna try some?" Wade asked her, pointing to the grits on his plate.
Zoe looked from him to his plate and thanked him for the offer.
"Can't hurt to try, ya might find out that you have a thing for Southern deliciousness." Wade said whilst subtlety wagging his eyebrows at her and finished it off with a wink.
"I'll pass, thanks" She said through tight lips, trying her best to ignore the whoop in the pit of her stomach every time Wade spoke, smiled or even looked at her. She decided to bury the strange feelings with some of the more familiar breakfast foods that were on offer.
When they all sat down for breakfast Lemon came straight to the point and looked at some papers.
"According to the itinerary for today, we need to leave the apartment at 9.30 in order to visit Ellis island and…"
"Oh my Lemon, I thought you were kidding about that itinerary!" Zoe said with a chuckle.
Lemon looked at her in surprise, "why would I be kidding about that Zoe?" Lemon asked her, genuinely surprised.
"I just never thought you were serious about that, you can't plan a day like that, with an itinerary."
"I think you underestimate what Lemon can plan." George said in all seriousness whilst Lavon and Annabeth nodded.
"I'm not showing you guys around New York with an itinerary." Zoe said defensively, knowing Lemon would drive her up the wall to keep them all within the time schedule.
"But I want to make sure we all have a good time and show them, the sights."
"Have you written that in the itinerary as well? Having a good time, otherwise there won't be any time for that either." Zoe smarted off.
Lavon and Annabeth's eyebrows nearly raised into their hairline as they quietly watched the interaction between the two women whilst Wade let out a wolf whistle.
"Wow Lemon, I think you have found your match, I've never seen anyone say no to you and live to tell the tale." Wade laughed.
"Fine, you show us around Zoe, without itinerary, but however with a little guidance from me." She said in a sweet but dangerous voice, pointing at herself.
"I think I can live with that. Zoe said." Knowing she had to give in to Lemon a little bit in order to keep the peace.
Zoe however was not looking forward to spending the time going around the city and showing them the sights now Wade would not stop looking at her and even take any opportunity to be next to her and brush an arm against her. His closeness flustered Zoe and her head felt like it was full of cotton balls every time their eyes locked. She even found herself thinking about Wade whenever she was not trying to distract herself.
Maybe she should just tell them all she had an emergency call at the hospital and skip on the entire day? No, Lemon would know. Lemon already knew something was up, she was sure of it.
Lemon kept looking between her and Wade whenever he stared at her too long and Zoe either giggled, smiled or even worse, blushed.
Maybe a distraction would be better? Yes! A distraction was just what she needed.
XxxxxxxX
"George?" She called as she knocked on George's bedroom door, phone in her hand. "I just had a call from Karen, you know my coworker?" She said, walking into his bedroom.
"You're not needed at the hospital are you?" George asked slightly panicked.
"No, it's just, she is going through a lot since the divorce was finalized you know, and I was supposed to have lunch with her today. But I thought maybe she could join us for, you know as my plus one?"
George looked at her with a questioning look on his face. "Your plus one? That would kind of make Wade the 5th wheel of the group don't you think?"
"You mean with Lavon and Annabeth being a couple now?"
"Well no, but now that they are, I don't want him to feel completely left out."
"So? Did you count on me to entertain him?" Zoe was shocked at the way the words came out of her mouth, it sounded a bit more severe than she had meant.
"No of course I didn't, but I had the impression that you two hit it off?"
"What gave you that idea?" Zoe said, trying to sound innocent, but felt another flutter in the pit of her stomach as George spoke those words.
"Well, first of all, he had you giggling and stuttering in the restaurant the other day, I don't think I have ever seen giggle," he said while giving Zoe a weird look.
"I didn't giggle," Zoe said defensively.
George shot her another look, it took a few moments before the look was replaced by a look of complete glee.
"What?" Zoe said as she crossed her arms, she felt as if George was making fun of her which he had never done before.
"You like him!"He said loudly as he pointed at her.
"Sush, and could you not shout it please?! She said panicked, looking behind her to see if anyone heard, she quickly moved over to the door to close it. And no, I don't like him, he's not even my type."
"You are lying, your voice went all high when you said it." He said with a smirk that was very unlike George, or at least as far as Zoe ever had seen from him, he was usually very professional and correct. This was the first time he had ever made fun of Zoe and she was not enjoying it.
"You know, Lemon and Annabeth were talking about this, they said there was something going on between you two."
"What?!"
"Yeah, Lemon told me after dinner yesterday that there was definitely a spark between you two, he said, pointing his finger towards her and smiling knowingly. And this morning Annabeth told us that she went into your bedroom yesterday where Wade was taking a shower and you were all flustered when she came in. Did something happen?"
Zoe could feel her face heating up, but she was not going to give into George's lawyer speech. She tried to look innocent although her head was spinning at his words.
"What do you mean this morning? You were all talking about me?" She asked him, angry now she had been the object of their morning entertainment, carefully evading his question about what happened the night before.
"Bluebellians like to gossip Zoe."
"Well you better find something else to gossip about, because nothing is going on and nothing will, she wanted to cross her arms again, but thought better of it, she knew George would read it as a sign she was protecting herself from the conversation, besides, I'm still getting over Hank," she lied.
"Right, the one you went to "splitsville" with, he quoted the word with his fingers which annoyed Zoe.
"Yes well, I use humour to cloud my disappointment" she said.
"You know Zoe, he started, now in softer and genuine voice. There nothing wrong with liking someone, if you like him it's fine. He's a great guy, if you give it time to really get to know him, you'll find out he's truly great. And you know as well as I do, I would never be friends with someone who doesn't have his heart in the right place. Well, Lemon would not let me." He finished with a smile.
Wow, he's good, Zoe thought, he was lawyering her and it worked. She believed his words and nearly opened up to George, but she stopped herself in time. Thankfully he shared one too many of his tactics with her whenever he was preparing for a case to fall for this trap, even if he was being genuine.
"Thank you for that speech George, Zoe said unabashed, but like I said, there is nothing going on."
XxxxxxxX
They had seen many of the sights that Lemon had in her itinerary for today, she had opted for Ellis island and the statue of liberty for today. It had been a very long time ago Zoe had actually been there. She remembered she wanted to go and see the statue of liberty for her 8th birthday and her parents had taken her there. It was one of the few things they had done as a family on her actual birthday, her parents commonly rescheduled any plans for her birthday due to their busy schedules. It was one of the fondest memories of her childhood.
Although Zoe had not been looking forward to spend the day in close quarters with Wade, especially now she could feel George's eyes on her with every move she made, it had been more fun than she could have imagined. She was even surprised that Wade knew so much about Ellis island and the history of the place. She realised quickly she had underestimated Wade as a person and he was way more than the small town hick she imagined him to be.
She tried to stay clear from the constant charm offense he kept aiming at her with no inkling of backing down.
There was no need to complicate her life even further and she would never give George the satisfaction that he had been right about her and Wade.
His words kept circling in her head and she realised he had indeed been right. Today was the first time Zoe admitted to herself that yes, she felt something for Wade, whatever that something was, but she didn't plan on delving into it too much, he would be gone in a week.
The sway of the Ferry boat they were on, snapped her from her thoughts.
He was sitting right next to her on the boat back towards the shore, their bodies pressed tightly together because of the great amount of people on the boat from Ellis island. She could feel the heat from his body, his Wade like smell of musk and wood chips making her brain go fuzzy and the hard muscles of his arm making her thoughts wander to places she tried to steer away from, it made her remember the last time her hands ran over those muscles. She cursed herself now that she didn't make more effort to sit next to anyone but Wade.
"You're pretty quiet doc, everythin' okay?" He asked her.
"I'm good, I'm just not enjoying the swaying of the boat," she said as she could feel a nauseous feeling hit her. She had completely forgotten about that, the first and only time she had visited the statue of Liberty she had been seasick. But it wasn't like she had ever been on a boat again anyway.
On the way to Ellis island she had been on the deck, so she had been fine. But now she was below deck in the crowded space, she wasn't feeling so good.
"Doc, are ya goin' to be sick?" He asked her, looking at her concerned.
"I'll be fine, I just need to look out of a window for a bit." She said looking around her for one.
Wade looked around them, they were sitting in the middle of one of the long benches that were placed around the boat. He extended his hand towards her, motioning her to take it.
She looked at him in surprise, not moving.
"Zoe are you okay? Lavon said with a concerned look on his face, you look like you are going to be sick."
"I'm takin' Zoe upstairs to the deck, get her sum fresh air." Wade said as he he stood up, grabbed her hand and pulled her up. In her nauseous state she could feel everyone's eyes on her and Wade whilst he steered her to the back of the boat and upstairs. As soon as the fresh and cold air hit her face, she instantly felt much better. The deck was much less crowded compared to below, due to the greying sky and the sudden plummeting heat.
He guided her to the front of the boat where they found an entire empty bench to sit on, giving them great views of the city coming closer to them. She wrapped her arms around herself as goose bumps formed on her arms, she had forgotten her coat downstairs.
"Here ya go Zoe." Wade said, noticing her goosebumps, handing her his plaid shirt, leaving him a grey t shirt that didn't look too warm.
"No Wade, she said, pushing the plaid shirt back to him although it looked very comfortable, you'll be too cold, I don't want you getting sick."
"I'll be fine doc, jus' take it." He said.
He grabbed the shirt again and wrapped the shirt around her, leaving his arm on her shoulder as he did so and pulled her close to him, rubbing her arm softly.
"Better?" He asked her, still softly stroking her arm to keep her warm.
His smell surrounded her now she had his shirt around her, her face was pressed against his chest, the steady beating of his heart comforting her. The nauseous feeling from before evaporated rapidly as she wrapped her arm around his waist and relaxed in his warm embrace.
"Much better."
XxxxxxxX
Hi guys, thank you so much for the wait and the amazing reviews I have received. The hard drive of the computer broke so there was no way I could write. I tried writing on my phone but that just doesn't work for me.
Thank you again for reading. I enjoy your reviews!
