"What is this?" Zoe asked, hiding her bright smile behind the bouquet of Sunflowers she was holding, looking around at their backyard. Fairy lights were strung up; a table cloth was placed over the table, candles lit in the center of the table, giving off a soft glow, it was stunning.
"We've been so busy with work, kids and everything else that we haven't had time for each other," Wade told her, lacing his fingers with hers to gently pull her over to the table. They've been working two very different shifts for the last two months. Wade had to take over working nights, not able to find anyone that could fill in the spot that had been left open when his nighttime bartender had moved away so he could be closer to his family and by the time he got home Zoe was already in bed sleeping. Zoe would work during the day leaving him home to take care of their little girl, not that he minded since it gave him some quality daddy/daughter time, he was learning that raising a baby girl was totally different than raising a baby boy, but he wouldn't change it, he loved both his girls and his son. However he was missing time with his wife, so he closed up early and finished getting everything in their backyard set up for a romantic dinner, just because they couldn't go out didn't mean he couldn't do something nice for Zoe.
"It's perfect, Wade," she told him, walking over to the table, watching as he placed the baby monitor off to the side before he pulled out the chair for Zoe. "Did you have the kids apart of this as well?" Zoe asked laying the sunflowers on the side of the table.
"I needed to find away for you to get out of the house so I could set this up and they did need the supplies for their school project they're doing," he confessed with a smirk, placing a plate of food in front of Zoe. It wasn't much, but it was short notice and he didn't have a lot of time to make anything fancy so pizza it was. "And calling you was the only way to assure that you wouldn't eat with the kids because I couldn't surprise you with all of this if you had ate already," he tacked on, sitting down across from his wife. "Hi," he told her with a smile.
"Hi," she told him with her ever growing smile. "Thank you for all of this but now I feel guilty that I haven't done nothing special for you," she confessed, looking down.
"Hey now, Zo, look at me," he said, getting her attention to be on him and not on the table in front of her. "You've done plenty for me. You gave me a family, you gave me a little girl that I absolutely adore, and I don't need for you to do anything special for me because you do plenty of things for me daily. I'd be lost if it wasn't for you," he confessed, getting his wife to crack the beautiful and stunning smile he loved to see cross her soft and plump lips.
"If you say so," she replied, licking her lips. She still felt bad and was thinking of ways that she could make it up to him without him ever knowing that she was doing such a thing. He had just given her a date night without ever having to leave their own home and it was sweet and thoughtful of him to do such a thing for her.
"I do say so," he smirked, pouring some wine into her glass. "I love you," he told her holding his glass up.
"I love you," she repeated his words her love growing even more for him, clinking her glass against his. "To us," she told him.
"Forever," he added on, taking a drink of his own wine.
Their night had been filled with laughs and lingering gazes as the night wore on and more wine had been consumed, it had been the first time since she found out that she was pregnant with Eliza that she had anything to drink and the alcohol had easily made her on the tipsy side of things. At some point after they had finished eating they had found themselves wrapped up in each other on a blanket on the ground looking up at the stars, other than a few giggles from Zoe when Wade would brush against her tickle spots the only noise that could be heard was the sounds of night time.
"We should do this more often," Zoe told him with a content sigh, her head resting against his bare chest after they had found their way inside to their room, consumed with each other.
"I wouldn't complain about adding more sex into our lives," he smirked, burying his hand into her soft brown locks, laughing when she smacked his chest.
"I didn't just mean the sex," she huffed. She couldn't fault him there though. She had missed feeling so connected to him, to be one with him. "I meant that we should make time out once a week for date night," she told him, her fingers lightly caressing the spot she had smacked him at.
"I like that idea babe, we need time for us," he said. "With the kids once again going away to summer camp we'll only have Eliza and it will be easier to have date nights this summer, but until then we can sit aside a day of the week for just us."
"I love our kids, I do but we need to have time for us or we won't last and our kids will be back to living in a broken home and I don't want any of that, especially losing you, Wade," she confessed, turning her head to look up at him. "I don't want us to be all about the kids that when they move out we have nothing because we lost each other throughout the years, that scares me, so much," she added on.
"We won't let them, Zo. I promise you that. I could never lose you, I wouldn't let that happen. We're more than just our kids Zoe," he assured her, pulling her up some to let his lips assure her of the things that he couldn't figure out how to say but wanted her to know. There was so much more between them then the kids. He loved all three of their kids but nothing was going to tear the bond of love that he and Zoe shared. They would last till the end, he would make sure of it because he would always keep fighting for her.
"Mmm, Wade," Zoe moaned breaking the kiss. "As much as I would love to have another round, it's late and we're only going to get a few hours of sleep as it is, we really need to sleep now," she told him, laying her head on his shoulder, her leg wrapping around one of his.
"Night Doc," Wade told her softly, pressing a kiss to her head, letting his own eyes shut. She was right and it was going to be hard enough to get up once morning did come.
It had taken quite a few cups of coffee for Wade and Zoe to be on full alert, but they were looking normal sitting around the table having breakfast with their kids before they had to leave for school, Wade eating his own food and trying to feed Eliza her baby cereal, it wasn't something that he got to do most days and he was more than happy when Zoe offered.
"Have you decided if I can go or not this Saturday?" Ariel asked between bites of her toast. "We're only going to the movie they're sitting up in town square, it's a group thing, Braxton is going to be there and everyone can see us, so it's not like we're going to be doing things we shouldn't be doing," she quickly explained.
"Besides Dad, you've never had a problem with Ryker," Braxton tossed in. He didn't really like that his best friend was crushing on his sister or vice versa but he had warned Ryker on what would happen if he hurt Ariel and he could tell that Ryker actually cared about Ariel. He just didn't want things to get awkward with his best friend when things didn't work out with Ariel, because he knew at some point things would end between the two of them for one reason or another.
"I like him because he's an alright kid," Wade said, wiping some cereal from Eliza's chin. "But when my little girl is involved," he started to say looking over at Ariel. "I'm cautious of all boys, even Ryker," he corrected.
"Please Dad, let me have this," Ariel begged.
"Why don't they come into the Rammer Jammer and eat so that way you can see before the movie that nothing is going on," Zoe suggested to her husband, picking Eliza up from her high chair to go give her a bath, now that she was done eating. "And we're going to be at the movie anyways so we can still keep a close eye on them keeping a safe distance," she added on.
"That's fine with me," Ariel quickly blurted out.
"And you're going to be with them the whole time?" Wade asked looking at his son.
"Yes and a bunch of our other friends," he assured his father once again.
"Okay you can go but I'll be watching," he told the both of them. He wasn't going to let Braxton off easy just because he was a boy. He didn't like that either one of them were starting to take an interest in the opposite sex.
"Thanks Dad," they called rushing out of the house so they could make it to school and talk to their friends before class started.
"I don't know if the kids or the parents have it harder with them growing up," Wade complained walking into the bathroom to see that Zoe was finishing up with Eliza. He held the towel open, wrapping his little baby girl up and carrying her into her bed room to dry her off as Zoe got the clothes and other little things that she needed to get Eliza ready for the day.
"It is new for all of us," Zoe said, grabbing the baby lotion, standing next to Wade. "It should get easier."
"I'll remember you said that," Wade chuckled. "I'll see you for lunch?" He questioned.
"We'll be there," she smiled, leaning into her husband to share a small kiss. She got busy getting Eliza dressed as Wade headed out to work. "What do you say about going to visit Uncle Lavon?" Zoe asked, lightly ticking her daughter making her laugh.
"Now isn't this just a surprise," Lavon smiled, taking Eliza from Zoe, making faces at the little girl making her laugh and swat at his face, going as far as pulling on Lavon's tongue, making Lavon laugh.
"Figured it's been a while since we've been around and Miss Eliza has been missing her Uncle Lavon," Zoe told him with a smile, walking into his house.
"Lavon can put off what he was doing to spend some time with his favorite little girl of Bluebell," he gushed, tickling Eliza's tummy.
Zoe went to ask Lavon how he had been doing when her phone started to ring. She frowned when she saw that Wade was calling her. She didn't know what could have possibly gone wrong between the time he had left the house and gotten to work. Answering the call and hearing Wade was in such a panic because Jesse had been in a panic when he called to inform his brother that Taryn had gone into labor. After getting Wade calmed down from his little panic attack that Jesse had put him in, she informed her husband that she would meet him at home and they would go to the hospital together.
"She's fine here with me," Lavon told Zoe, overhearing what was going on. He didn't mind spending the day with the little girl in his arms. He too had missed her over the last few days.
"You wouldn't mind?" She asked him.
"I wouldn't have suggested it if I minded," he laughed. "I'll be just fine and if you're not back by the time school gets out, we'll go in and get Ariel and Braxton and I'll have them come back here and do their school work," he told her, practically pushing her out of his house.
"Okay, if you need anything you know where it's at," she told him, walking to her car and getting Eliza's car seat out for him just in case he needed it.
"Where's Eliza?" Wade asked, once he saw his wife but not his youngest kid.
Zoe quickly filled him in on that Lavon was watching her and that he would get the other two from school if they needed him too, on the ride to the hospital. Wade filled Zoe in on the fact that it shouldn't be too long before their little niece was going to be born because Jesse and Taryn had been at the hospital since late yesterday afternoon and Taryn didn't want to disturb anyone until she was about ready to start pushing her baby out. She didn't want everyone to be waiting at the hospital on her and the only person that she needed was Jesse and he was there with her.
They only had to wait around a half hour when they had got to the hospital; Jackie and Earl along with Taryn's parents, who had flown in from Oklahoma two weeks ago, were there when they had showed up. There wait seemed to drag on making it feel like they had been waiting all day instead of the 30 minutes it had truly been.
"Who'd like to meet the newest addition to the family?" Jesse asked, stepping into the waiting room. "Taryn's doing good, but she's sleeping at the moment, but if you follow me I'll show y'all the new precious bundle of pink," he grinned, hugging everyone as they told him congratulations. They followed him down the hallway to where the nursery was at. "I'd like for all of you to meet Kara Jane Kinsella," he said proudly, all eyes on the one lone pink bundle of a baby in the nursery at the moment.
"She's so cute," Zoe cooed, leaning into Wade.
"I do hope she grows out of looking like you," Wade teased, smacking his brother's arm lightly with his hand that wasn't holding his wife to him.
"Be nice," Jackie told her youngest son. "She is just so adorable," she gushed over her granddaughter. She couldn't have been happier, she had always wanted a daughter and never got one, but now she was blessed with three wonder and beautiful granddaughter's. "Now which one of you is going to give me another grandson?" She asked in a playful but serious voice.
"Give them time, Ma," Earl told his wife with a chuckle. "You did good, son," Earl told Jesse talking about Kara.
"Yeah, but it was all Taryn," Jesse said, smiling in at his daughter. "Wade and Zoe will have another one before I do, Ma," Jesse smirked, shoving his brother lightly.
"Is there something we need to know?" Jackie asked looking at Wade and Zoe.
"No because we're not pregnant or even thinking about having another baby, Eliza is only 5 months, can we at least wait until she's a year and then maybe we'll talk about adding another baby to the mix," Wade told his parents and his brother. Zoe nodded her head agreeing with Wade. She wasn't ready to add another baby into the mix yet, she wasn't sure if she wanted another one. They did have three kids as it was, she was just fine with the kids they did have, but she wasn't going to rule out the possibility of having one more kid, it was something they needed to talk about when the time came, but like Wade said, they were going to wait until Eliza was a year old to do so and she was just fine with waiting that long.
"She's beautiful but now when are you going to ask my daughter to marry you?" Taryn's father asked a playful smirk on his face, taking his attention off his only grandchild to look at Jesse.
"Harry now isn't the time for that," his wife scolded him. "She looks like her mother, but I can see Jesse in her as well," she stated.
Jesse visibly relaxed after the mention of him marrying Taryn was dropped, it wasn't like he didn't plan on asking her to marry him, he wanted to marry her but with her being pregnant with his daughter, he never found the right to time to ask her. He had bought a ring, before they knew she was pregnant, but he didn't want to ask after they found out because he didn't want it to seem like he was only asking because of Kara. He'd ask her in his own time when he felt like it would be the perfect time to make it special for her.
Wade and Zoe left with the promise that they would be back later so Braxton, Ariel and even Eliza could meet their baby cousin.
"I am sorry about my mom," Wade told Zoe on the car ride home.
"It's fine but I'm not ready to discuss having kids because right now I don't want another one, but in the future that could change" she told him.
"I feel the same way, Zo," he told her, squeezing her knee. He loved having his hand resting on her leg as he drove.
