"Uh, Wade, what are you doing?" Zoe asked walking into her bedroom with the bags she had collected over the few hours she had been shopping with her mom and not so surprisingly with Jackie after the first hour. She really wasn't expecting to see Wade shifting through clothes and shoes in the bottom of her closet.
"Lookin' for somethin'," came his muffled reply. Placing the bags on her bed, she turned to look at Wade.
"Why yes I can see that, captain obvious, but what is it you are looking for?" Zoe asked, sitting down.
"An old shirt," he called back tossing a few articles of clothing out of his way.
"That doesn't help me much, Wade," Zoe told him, finding this whole thing amusing. Wade rolled his eyes, moving to the other end of the closet.
"It's just an old shirt. A black band shirt, that's been faded. It wasn't at my parent's place, it's not at my place so the only place left is for it to be here, maybe you've seen it," he remarked with a smirk turning to look at Zoe, seeing what it was his girlfriend was wearing.
"Why must you need it?" Zoe asked grinning at her boyfriend. "I'm surprised you can find anything at your place. I'm afraid I'm going to catch something every time I step into your place. Don't you or Meatball know how to pick up after yourselves?"
"I was gonna help Jesse this afternoon, but on second thought it looks better on you than it ever did on me," he stated, moving to stand in front of Zoe. "Yes we do, but it's just too much of a hassle," he shrugged.
"Trust me in this heat, you'll be wearing very little out there helping him," Zoe told him, placing her hands on his hips. "When do you have to go help him?"
"Whenever," Wade replied, running a hand through her hair. "When do you need to be at work?"
"I've got a few hours to kill," she informed him, pulling him down for a kiss.
It hadn't taken them very long to ditch their clothes and being lost in the sensations they brought out in each other. They laid in each others arm. Zoe's head was perched on his shoulder, her hand drawing random shapes on his chest, one of her legs tossed over his. Wade had a hand behind his head, his other arm wrapped around Zoe, playing with the ends of her hair.
"I take it shopping was fun?" Wade chuckled seeing the shopping bags now on the floor.
"No," she groaned. "Did you know that our Mothers' have our wedding all planned out, have since we were little?" Zoe asked him.
"They do not," Wade replied with an amused chuckle.
"Oh yes, they're just waiting for you to propose and then they can finally set the date. It's going to be either a spring wedding or a winter wedding; they're not sure on that because it all depends. Middle of town square, whole town is invited; you're wearing this darkish green color with your black tux. They are going to let me pick out the dress I want, but the invites, the food, the music and everything else they have picked out, I believe they're going to let us pick our first dance song out," she informed him in the way of a small rant.
"You're being serious right now? We haven't even been dating that long!" Wade replied in horror, closing his eyes. He loved Zoe and maybe one day they would think about getting married, but that wasn't for a while yet. They had their own things to deal with right now.
"They've been planning this since we've been in diapers and could only babble. Maybe sooner than that, I'm not sure. Yes I'm being serious; I spent a good 45 minutes trying to escape the bridal shop."
"Why would you let them drag you into a bridal shop for?" Wade asked holding his laughter back.
"I didn't have a choice, I tried to refuse, but they pulled me in. And if you ask them they will tell you there is no harm in looking," she told him. "Never again," she sighed.
"I get it, we're not there yet and we won't be for a while and ya know what?" Wade asked, moving so he could look at her. "That's okay," he finished, gently pulling her in for a kiss.
"I know that, but wedding talk I find it silly this early in our relationship. I swear our parents are off their rockers or worse. I don't think I can take them pushing us into things we're not ready for and they won't listen to reason either. I'm sick of it." She loved her parents and she loved Wade's parents, but them meddling in her relationship with Wade was way out of control. They couldn't just push them to do whatever it was they wanted. They weren't dolls in this little game of theirs, they were real people who had feelings and people who couldn't be rushed because they thought it was the right thing to do.
"So what are you saying?" Wade asked, voicing his concern. He knew that Zoe wouldn't just break up with him, to prove a point to both of their parents. But he did need to know what was going on in that pretty little head of hers.
"I'm saying that we need to sit down and talk to them and nicely tell them to butt out of your relationship and when we're ready for the next step we'll inform them. The only people in this relationship is us and not them and they need to understand that, they need to get a new hobby. Why can't they fuss about finding Jesse the perfect girl?" Zoe asked.
"That's probably a little harder to," Wade replied. "Zo, I get where you're coming from and when we have dinner together later in the week we will bring this up to them, we don't need them putting pressure on us." Zoe smiled.
"Dinner tonight?" She asked, moving to sit up.
"How can I refuse that offer?" Wade smirked. Blushing Zoe got up and made her way to the bathroom to shower before she had to leave. With Zoe in the shower Wade got up and redressed, he tossed the shirt he had been looking for on the bed and pulled his white tee over his head. He sat at the kitchen table pulling his boots on. "Same time as normal?" Wade asked once Zoe joined him.
"Yeah, I might close a little early if nothing is going on," Zoe informed him, making sure she had everything.
"Alright, I'll be here waiting for ya to return," he replied, pulling her on his lap as she walked by him. Zoe giggled, pressing her lips against his cheek.
"I'll let you know when I'll be around," Zoe informed him, trying to move from his lap. Wade smirked, cupping her face taking her lips with his own.
Wade had walked Zoe to the practice talking about the events that had happened during the day where their mom's weren't ambushing her about marriage. She had thought that Wade would have thrown a bigger fit about it all. She was pleasantly surprised when he hadn't made a bigger deal about it. It was one of those things that she didn't want to fight with him about. She knew that one of the bigger things they had to move past before they could even think about getting married was her and what she had been through with Joel. There were plenty of other things that factored in as well.
With a kiss bye Zoe headed into the practice. She headed straight to her dad's office. "You can go now, Dad," Zoe told him. He shook his head.
"Actually I have a lot of paper work here to finish up; the place was busy this afternoon. I know you're supposed to work tonight but you don't have to stay," Harley informed her.
"I have nothing better to do, I'll stay for a few hours, need any help?" Zoe asked.
"I've got it Sweetie, but thanks for offering." Zoe smiled, turning to head out of his office.
"Dad," Zoe said trying to gain his attention turning to look at him. "When was the last time you ate?"
"Around 11," Harley replied back, not even looking up from the papers in front of him. Zoe nodded and headed out to get her dad something to eat and she would make sure that he took a break while he ate his food. She hated watching him work himself so hard without ever taking a break.
"You're like 2 hours late," Jesse chuckled, watching his brother walk up. Wade rolled his eyes.
"Give me a break," he mumbled, sitting next to him. "Not my fault that I have a hot girlfriend and easily loose track of time whenever she's around. You should try finding yourself a girlfriend," Wade remarked.
"Yeah about that," Jesse sighed, getting up to grab a couple bottles of beer.
"Why do I get the feeling I ain't gonna like what comes from your mouth next?" Wade asked, taking the beer.
"'Cause I messed up royally," Jesse stated, leaning against the wall refusing to sit back down. Wade didn't say anything just looked at his brother waiting for him to elaborate more about the situation he found himself in. "I got someone knocked up." Hearing that confession Wade was happy that he didn't have any beer in his mouth or it would be all over the place.
"Dude you're screwed," Wade chuckled. Part of him felt bad for his brother, but another part felt relief that the heat was now going to placed on Jesse and Zoe and himself would be left alone about well everything.
"Yeah thanks for reminding me," Jesse sighed.
"I do get to be your best man, right?" Wade asked not able to hold back his laughter at his brothers now pale face.
"I can't marry her," Jesse whispered.
"Dude, they're gonna make you marry her, you know this," Wade told him.
"I know," he stated, walking out. Wade sat his half empty beer down and followed his brother outside. "How do you marry someone you don't even love?"
"I don't know man,' Wade sighed, feeling for his brother. "I'll try to help ya out the best I can when it comes to Ma and Pa but I can't make any promises. I really don't know how I can take the heat off of you. Ma's gonna flip out and Dad's gonna flip out on ya."
"Don't remind me." Wade nodded, toeing at the dirt with his shoe. He really didn't know what else he could say about it all. "Do ya think you and Zoe can meet me in Mobile tomorrow for lunch to meet her?" Jesse asked.
"Does she have a name?" Wade asked.
"Jaelynn," Jesse told him.
"That's kinda cute, you gonna give your baby a name that starts with a J as well?" Wade teased, earning a growl. "I'll have to run it past Zoe; I'm not sure if she's free or not and let ya know. But seriously man, I'm here for ya."
"I know and thanks man. Just let me know, alright?" Jesse asked. Wade nodded watching his brother leave. Wade shrugged realizing that they wouldn't be working on the house. With more time then he had been anticipating he headed back to Zoe's to see what she had in her house so he could make her a nice dinner at home.
"It smells lovely in here," Zoe smiled, spotting Wade in her kitchen. "What are you making?" She asked, trying to peer over his shoulder.
"Food," he replied, shooing her out of the kitchen. Zoe laughed, sitting at the counter. "Jesse kinda needs our help with something and it does help us out as well," he told her, pulling two glasses from the cupboard and a bottle of wine from the fridge.
"What did he do now?" Zoe asked, taking the glass of wine that Wade was offering her. He waited until she swallowed the red liquid before saying anything.
"He's going to be a father and he wants us to meet her tomorrow for lunch in Mobile." She found that she wasn't all that shocked to hear that he had gotten some woman pregnant. It was going to be matter of time, it wasn't anything against Jesse he just never did like having a relationship, she couldn't recall the last time he even had girlfriend. She knew that no matter what Jesse would step up and do what was right by his child.
"Does she have a name?" Zoe asked, making Wade laugh. "What?" She asked not finding anything funny about this situation.
"I asked that same question. Jaelynn," Wade responded. That did make her smile a little.
"When's the wedding? We both know how your parents are going to be about this. I can't believe he was stupid enough to do something so irresponsible," Zoe said shaking her head. "But you're right it does get them off our back at least where your parents are considered anyway." Not that she wanted to get them off her case about Wade and their future together with something like this.
"He says he doesn't love her and I can't see him marrying this chick, Zo. I feel bad for him, but this is his mess to clear up and I'll stand by him."
"As will I. I just have to wonder if your brother is even capable of loving someone other than family. When was the last time he was even in a relationship?" Zoe asked.
"His high school sweetheart, she left him and he really thought she was it for him, but she walked away and when she had walked back into his life, she was happily married and that was when Jesse vowed that he wasn't going to set himself up for pain like that ever again. It was horrible Zoe."
"Maybe Jaelynn can open his heart up to love once more," Zoe told him thoughtfully chewing her lip, just like Wade was doing for her.
"Yeah, maybe, but enough about my brother," Wade smirked, leaning across the counter to kiss her. "Hey," he replied softly pulling away.
"Hi," she replied back in the same soft tone. "Dinner really does smell good."