Zoe smiled leaving the hospital. It had been a week since returning home and she only had the two bouquets of Bluebells from Wade. She had talked to him plenty and he would send her texts that made her smile. The flowers were a nice touch but she just missed Wade and hearing his voice once or twice a day it was enough to get her by, but she was finding it was harder and harder to let him go. And Wade was feeling the same way about Zoe.
She hailed a cab her feet too sore to walk from the hospital to the subway station. She was exhausted beyond belief. All she really wanted to do was curl up with a warm cup of tea and wait until Wade called her on his break.
Upon arriving home she sighed knowing that what little plans she had for the night were not going to be happening seeing her mom waiting in her apartment for her. She really was too tired to fight with her mom about who knows what. Wade was right she needed to talk to her mom, she needed to get all this anger and resentment she still had at her mom out so they could work on rebuilding their relationship.
"That key is for emergencies only," Zoe bit out before she had the luxury of stopping it. Zoe closed her eyes, placing her purse and keys down. "Sorry," Zoe apologized.
"Zoe," Candice sighed. She didn't want to fight with her daughter, that wasn't what this visit was about. "I want us to be the adults that we truly are," she told her daughter.
"I want that too," Zoe said, walking into the kitchen to make that cup of tea she was craving. "Want some?" Zoe asked, digging the box down from the cupboard.
"That would be nice," Candice stated, filling the tea kettle up with water to place on the stove.
With the water on the stove, Zoe had excused herself to change out of the scrubs she was wearing. She took a few extra minutes longer than necessary so when she walked back to the kitchen the tea was done and her mom had poured the water over the tea bags in the mugs Zoe had taken down earlier.
"Why didn't you tell me? Why let me keep thinking that Ethan didn't love me?" Zoe asked softly, looking into her cup of tea.
"I wanted to tell you and it has nothing to do with you. I was embarrassed that I had let myself fall for some small town doctor older than I was when I had Ethan waiting back home. I wanted nothing more than to forget that cruise had ever happened and when you came along, it was easier to let Ethan believe he was your father."
"You shouldn't have been embarrassed about the person you love. I would have grown to understand that. You took my only chance of knowing who my biological father is and that's what I can't get over. You lied to protect yourself, I can get that," Zoe replied, pausing briefly to take a small sip of her still hot tea. "What were you so afraid of?" Zoe asked softly.
"Of losing you," Candice sighed with defeat letting her one fear out in the open for her daughter to know.
"What?" Zoe asked feeling ashamed that her mom would ever think that.
"If I would have told you about Harley, you would have wanted to meet him and you would have loved him, so much that you would have wanted to live with him" Candice explained.
"I can't say anything about that because I don't know him or what would have happened but I do know that I wouldn't want to live there permanently. Bluebell is wonderful but you'll always be my mom and I'm going to need you and I wouldn't have moved elsewhere back then," Zoe assured her. Candice smiled sipping at her tea.
Things were back to normal between mother and daughter. It was the ringing of Zoe's phone that interrupted them. Zoe gave her mom a sheepish look and hurried off to answer her phone.
"I can't talk long," came Wade's voice. Zoe smiled sitting down on her bed, letting Wade's voice wrapped her up in the embrace that she craved.
"I can't either," was Zoe's reply. "Working on things with my mom," she told him.
"How are things?" Wade asked resting against the side of the Rammer Jammer, relishing in the warm night air that surrounded him. He was playing a set with his band and the place was packed and mid way through the AC broke so being inside with that many people, the heat was starting to get to him.
"Things are getting better. Turns out she was just scared that I would leave her," Zoe told him. "And after thinking about it, I can't blame her for it. It'd be a waste to hold this over her head. I can't get over the lies she told me this minute, but with time I can," Zoe tacked on for him.
"I'm happy to hear that, Zo." She could hear the smile in his voice. "I really should be getting back in there," he told her, not really wanting to let her go.
"Same here," Zoe sighed lightly into the phone. "Three weeks," she told him.
"Three weeks, baby," he repeated. Love was sitting on the tip of his tongue but he wasn't about ready to confess his love to her over the phone, when he told her those three little words he was going to make sure that it was the perfect moment because she deserved that, but he would be adding his own little twist to it.
With a silent good-bye they hung up. Zoe was toying with her phone when she walked back to the kitchen to see her mom looking at the flowers that were slowly dying on her counter. "They're slowly becoming my favorite flowers," she told her mom softly.
"With notes like that, I can see why. I owe you an apology, Zoe. This Wade guy, I never gave him a fair chance. I was wrong to judge him and seeing just how much he cares for you, I'm sorry," she was saying glancing at the flowers once more. "I'll deal with Drew since it is my doing," Candice informed her daughter.
"Thank you and I care about Wade as much if not more than he does about me," Zoe stated with a smile on her face, her eyes shinning bright at the mere thought of Wade.
"I would love to meet him when he's in town again," Candice said putting the invite out on the table.
"I can make that work," Zoe told her mom, happy that she was at least trying.
"He actually called me," Candice told her. Zoe frowned wondering how Wade was able to get her mom's number and why he would be calling her for. It didn't take much to realize that he was giving them the push they needed to fix this thing between them. She couldn't find it in herself to be mad at him for doing that. "Just don't be too harsh on him when you talk to him again."
"I won't. Mom, if you don't have anywhere to be, I would really love for you to tell me everything you know about Harley," Zoe suggested. She wanted to know everything there was to know about the man that was her father.
"I can do that," Candice said with a smile plastered on her face. She could give up whatever it was her night called for to spend it with her daughter. "I'll make some more tea," Candice informed her daughter. Zoe nodded and perched herself on the couch quickly typing a message to send to Wade. 'I should be mad at you for calling my mom, but I'm not. Thank you. XOXO.'
Mother and daughter made themselves comfortable in the living room as Candice told her daughter everything she knew about the father she had selfishly kept away from her daughter.
To the guest reviewer and anyone else wanting to know about Wade's song, there will be a few more parts to it in the next chapter. Yes you will be seeing all of the song in a future chapter.
