Hey, you guys don't know how wonderful it is to be on a bit of a roll with this story. As much as I want to keep going, I am going to shift my attention to my other stories, no worries as I won't leave this one for long, promise.
Enjoy the fluffiness.
"How long are you going to be closed for?" Zoe asked, slipping into bed, curling up to her boyfriend. He had just admitted that he had been thinking a lot about Lemon's suggestion for a stage for live bands. And while one could always use more business, and it wasn't such a horrible idea.
"I was aiming for two or three days," Wade told her, resting his cheek against the top of her head. "However, Joe informed me that it'll be like a week to a week and a half," he sighed. He wasn't entirely sure that he could be closed for that long without losing more profit; he was prepared for up to three days.
"Can't you close off the area for the stage and leave the bar open?" She asked, looking up at him, her brown eyes softly sparkling from the soft glow of his bedside lamp.
"Yeah, that would be a no," he said, tossing his head back. "I figured since that area is being redone that I could redo the rest of the Jammer and give it a bit of an update," he explained to her.
"Well, maybe Joe is wrong and things will get done faster and move quickly. You'll be there every step so no one can be lazy," she smiled. "Wade, it's Bluebell; they'll be there lining up after you reopen," she assured him.
"Bluebell is loyal," he chuckled.
"Want to know what I think?" She asked him, pressing a kiss to his Adams apple.
"I always want to know what you're thinking," he smiled at her, running his fingers through her hair. "And if I didn't you'd tell me any ways," he chuckled.
"You might be right," she giggled lightly. Wade cocked an eyebrow at her.
"Babe, there is no might about it," he pointed out.
"Right," she smiled. "Now back to my thoughts," she said. Wade nodded, wanting to know what she thought about. "Closing for a few days won't hurt you and with the way you've been working, you deserve to take a second and enjoy the process of sprucing the Jammer up. Business will bloom once you open again. You won't make the place go bankrupt over a week or two weeks of being closed. Everything is going to work out, and once you get back to work you'll see that stressing over this was nothing but silly," she stated.
"You might very well be right; I am not arguing that," he told her, pulling her so that she laid on top of him. "I hate not being open, and it's not in any way for the money," he sighed, rubbing his right hand over her back under the top she wore to bed. "It's because I have become accustomed to being a part of this town, and I hate taking a staple like the Jammer away from them for any amount of time; it makes me feel guilty," he sighed, closing his eyes, resting his forehead against his girlfriends.
"That's sweet of you," she smiled, cupping his jaw, the stubble from his beard tickling her palm. "This town adores you and they're not going to kick you out of town over closing down for a few days to a week or two; they know that what you're doing is to benefit them and the place they like to unwind at whatever hour of the day it happens to be. I find it adorable that you're worried about the townsfolk," she smiled, moving enough to brush her lips against his.
"Adorable?" He asked with a smirk. "When did I ever become adorable?" He questioned, with a soft chuckle.
"Let me see," she said, pretending to think about it like it was such a hard thing to do. "Your first day in Bluebell, when you walked by the practice, my very first thought of you just happened to be how freaking adorable you were," she teased.
"I doubt that," he chuckled.
"I did think you were good looking," she confessed like it was this big secret over two years later.
"Doc, I figured that much when you made the moves on me," he smirked, flipping them over.
"Excuse you?" She asked with a giggle at the move, her right hand going to his chest while her left hand went behind his neck, her fingers playing in his hair at the base of his neck. "You made on the moves on me first, faking disarray at needing a date to his brother's wedding," she smirked at him.
"Someone needed to bring you back into the life of your college friend," he smirked. "What else you got?" He asked, shifting to rest between her legs.
"Me?" She asked him. "What about you? What moves did I pull on you?" She asked him.
"Let's see shall we?" He winked at her. "You stood there that night looking pretty as ever in the moon light, and you looked rather breathtaking in the day light, cheeks all flushed when you thought I was a townie coming to talk about the sexy bartender from New York," he said, faking a southern accent, getting Zoe to laugh loudly.
"You, Wade Kinsella, are something else," she smiled fondly at him, her nails lightly scratching his scalp.
"You, Zoe Wilkes, are everything," he smiled cheesily.
"Everything, huh?" She asked, a smile to rival his cheesy one.
"To me you are everything that I could have ever dreamt of," he told her seriously.
"Hey now," she told him softly, cupping his face with both hands. "You may not have been the one I dreamt of growing up," she started to say, seeing a flick of hurt in his green eyes. "You're more than I could ever dream of, more than I ever let myself believe I could have," she told him.
"With everything you've been through, you deserve your dream guy, Zoe," he told her, pressing a kiss to the corner of her mouth.
"I don't want my dream guy, Wade; I want you and only you," she told him, running a hand through his hair, gripping his arm with her other hand, wrapping her legs around him. "I love you," she said softly.
"As I love you," he shared, slowly pressing his lips against hers. "You are all I need, Zoe," he repeated kissing down her jaw to her neck. "Let me show you how much," he remarked, pushing her shirt up to pull over her head, tossing it to the side, as he slowly kissed lower over newly uncovered flesh.
"Don't you think I could've stayed home instead?" He questioned as he looked at the house that belonged to Vivian.
"And here I thought you liked my family," she remarked, turning the car off, to look at her boyfriend, wondering what was going through his mind, quickly pushing the button to unbuckle her seat belt.
"I do like them, to an extent," he sighed, closing his eyes, resting his head against the head rest of the seat.
"Do you mind filling in the blanks for your clueless girlfriend?" She asked, resting her hand on his thigh.
Wade sighed, licking his lips. "I know this is for Lee, and I will go in there and have the best time possible at a kids birthday party just for Lee," he told her. He had hung out with little Harley more than he did the rest of Zoe's family, but that was because he understood rockets and things his dad had no interest in learning. "Brando is a cool dude," he nodded.
"Is this about Aunt Winifred?" Zoe asked, working things out in her head.
"Look Zoe, I can handle your family, crazy and all," he said. "But I have yet to win that woman over; I thought I had but nope, and I don't get it. What do I have to do to earn her respect?" He asked, blowing a breath of air out.
"Tough it out and prove to her that you're better than her exes can ever dream of being, prove to her that just because you're from New York that it doesn't make you a snob," Zoe told him. "I know that's not what you wanted to hear, but she needs proof that you're more a Bluebellian than a New Yorker," she shared.
"If I don't ever get her respect, it's not a problem because I have your respect and your love and that's all I need," he assured her, holding the hand she had rested on his leg. He has her father's approval, and that was enough of her family's approval, he needed to have, but something about Winifred having it out for him didn't sit right with him, and he wanted to fix it, if possible. And if he could face her to do so.
"Then come on, we don't want to disappoint the birthday boy, because he's going to love what we got him, all thanks to you," she said, leaning across the car to share a small kiss with him.
"That's because I listened to what he wanted," Wade teased, unbuckling.
"Since you think you're so hilarious; I'll let Vivian know that I've got the party's entertainer with me," Zoe quipped out, opening the car door to slip out.
"We wouldn't want to upstage whoever the entertainer is," he winked, joining Zoe on the sidewalk, having grabbed the present.
"You would do just that," Zoe laughed shaking her head, walking around the back of the house where the party is in full swing.
"I'm going to put this with the others and search for the birthday boy," Wade told her, kissing her cheek before going off in the direction where the present table sat.
Zoe looked around finding the host of the party and made her way over to her frazzled cousin. On the way across the yard, Zoe took in everyone who was there and realized they had been the last ones to show up.
"Everything okay over here?" Zoe questioned, giving her cousin a quick hug.
"What do you mean by okay?" Vivian asked, shaking her head. "It seems I can't catch a break today," she sighed. "Mind helping me out?" She asked with a slight hint of pleading in her voice.
"Not at all, tell me what you need me to do," Zoe told her.
"I need you to over look the party and make sure no one needs anything else, refill what you can when it needs it, I need to make a quick run to the bakery to get a new cake, because in my clumsy glory, I knocked it on the floor like ten minutes ago, I need to make a few calls, I shouldn't be gone long," she explained.
"Take a deep breath, Viv," Zoe instructed, her cousin doing just that. "I've got this." Vivian nodded, and walked into the house to get everything done as quickly as possible.
Zoe looked over the food table seeing everything was still good and walked off to mingle with her family. Looking around Zoe smiled seeing Wade laughing while talking with Brando.
"Still seeing him, are ya?" Aunt Winifred asked, coming up behind Zoe.
"Yes Aunt Winifred, I am still seeing him. I plan on seeing him for years to come," Zoe replied a bit on the harsh side. "What is it about Wade that you don't like?" She asked, softening her tone of voice up a little.
"He's a New Yorker and they're all the same," she spat out. Zoe shook her head.
"No they're not. I am sorry that you got a few bad ones from the city, but Wade's not like that, he wouldn't set out to hurt me, and I give up trying to make you see that," Zoe sighed.
"You'll find out the hard way, dear," she warned her niece. "If you don't believe my history with the city folk, why don't you take a look at what your mother did to your father," she snipped. "Now try telling me that he's worth it, when you can have anyone from Bluebell or the surrounding area," she said, raising an eyebrow.
"He is worth it, more-so than anyone I have ever dated from around here. Bad people don't exist in New York; they're right in this back yard in this family," Zoe snapped. "Wade is a good guy, and you're being the nasty one Aunt Winifred," Zoe pointedly told her walking off, leaving her Aunt standing there to think over what she had said.
She didn't care that she may have been out of line with what she said, but it is something that the old bat needed to hear. She loved her Aunt Winifred she did, but one could only take so much of a person bad mouthing a person they refuse to get to know because of where the hail from.
"You alright?" Wade asked, handing her a cup of punch. Zoe nodded taking a much-needed drink. "I saw things getting a bit heated between you and your Aunt," he commented.
"She needed to know that she's being the hypocrite in thinking that you're this big bad person set out to hurt me, when in reality, she's being that person," she sighed.
"Hey now," he said, pulling her into him, kissing her temple. "Don't let what your Aunt thinks of me ruin the relationship you have with her, I can deal," he told her.
"But you shouldn't have to deal," Zoe protested.
"No, but not all family gets along, and she can hate me all she wants; it won't make me fall out of love with you. The rest of your family loves me and that is more than enough, I only need your love," he sweetly whispered in her ear.
"You've got it," she smiled, leaning further into his embrace, soaking up his love, for as long as she could, before her temporary hosting duties kicked in.
For it being a child's birthday party, Zoe and Wade had a blast catching up with everyone, Vivian relaxing greatly after coming back from the bakery with a new cake, not as spectacular as the first one, but one that little Harley liked well enough.
As for Aunt Winifred, she stayed clear of Wade and Zoe, not wanting to upset her niece any more than she already had, but she wanted to save her from the heartache she's felt when she fell for someone from New York only for them to decide that living in a small country town wasn't for them as they're heart belonged in the big city. Or when she had one of them cheat on her; she wouldn't allow anyone to hurt her niece, not like it had been done to her. She was doing what she thought was best.
