A/N: Thanks for the reviews, folks. Now, may I present, the first full chapter in Bluebell, Alabama ;)
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 23
Waking up slowly, finding herself sprawled on Wade's chest with his arm around her, Zoe didn't even wonder why the world looked different for a minute or two, and when she did notice, she smiled.
Honestly, she hadn't been so sure she could sleep in a place as quiet as Bluebell. Nice as it seemed at first glance, she was used to noise, the hustle and bustle of the big city, cars honking, planes flying overhead, the city that never sleeps. Alabama was like a whole other world, peaceful, pretty, all clear sky and open spaces. Not that Zoe had seen all that much yet. It was already dark by the time Lavon got them back to his plantation and there wasn't much to do but go right to bed.
Wade sure hadn't objected to Zoe wanting an early night, and though she had told him she meant to get some sleep, she hadn't exactly argued when he suggested an alternative plan. Then she actually had fallen asleep pretty fast, exhausted from the plane journey and the strain of the past few days and weeks, she supposed. She hadn't stirred once, not until now, with the sun streaming in the windows behind the bed, lighting up the view outside of the sparkling lake and the other little house across the way.
"That is a beautiful view," she said to herself with a contented sigh.
"Ain't so bad from here either," said Wade, startling her a little as she suddenly looked down and found him grinning at her. "Mornin', doc."
"Morning, cowboy," she replied, leaning down to kiss him.
He wasn't exactly into the idea of letting her go once he had a hold again and Zoe didn't mind at all. They were soon rolling around in the bed together, half way to someplace good, when suddenly she pulled away.
"Wade, it's not that this isn't great, but I really don't think I can until I eat something," she told him, making a face. "That unattractive noise you hear, that would be my stomach complaining that you didn't feed me last night."
"Well, excuse me, doc," he said, chuckling at the look on her face, "but food didn't exactly seem to be what you was hungry for when you dragged me into bed."
"Oh, right," she said, laughing even as she tried to be mad at him. "You were just kicking and screaming to get away, obviously."
"Like I'd even try to resist you," he said, stealing one more kiss before he hopped out of bed. "Come on now, get yourself some clothes on and I'll take you someplace for breakfast... or lunch maybe," he considered, picking his watch up from the nightstand and squinting at it. "Seems we really did sleep in," he told Zoe, showing her the time.
"Wow", she gasped at the realisation it was close to noon. "I don't think I realised how much I needed a good night's sleep. I never sleep that well back home, not even with you."
"Good country air, doc, plus all this peace and quiet we got down here. Who knows? Might make a new woman of ya."
"Are you suggesting I need to change, Wade Kinsella?" Zoe challenged him, standing before him in all her glory, not even blushing as he looked her up and down.
"Baby, I'd be a damn fool if I did," he said definitely.
Zoe smiled up at him. "Right answer."
She reached for her clothes to get dressed then and, tempted as he was to make another attempt at getting her back into bed, Wade did the same. Truth be told, he was starting to notice by then that he could use some sustenance himself, and he really was kind of eager to get into town and see some folks he had been parted from too long.
"I wouldn't say I'm exactly the sentimental type," he was telling Zoe a while later as he drove them towards the Rammer Jammer, "but it feels pretty good comin' home like this. Never thought I'd miss the old place or any of its crazy folks so much as I did when I actually left it behind."
"Home is where the heart is, at least, that's what they say," Zoe considered, eyes fixed on the view from the window as she took in the sights.
"Yeah, well, I don't deny I left a part of me here when I came up to New York and all," Wade admitted. "Still, that doesn't mean my heart wasn't in everything I was doin' up there."
Zoe turned to look at him then and Wade very deliberately kept his eyes on the road ahead. Even he wasn't sure exactly what he meant when he said that. Sure, he put his heart and soul into his music, but then there was Zoe and this relationship they had built in the past few months. He was pretty sure a whole lot of his heart was tied up in that, but saying so, that weren't exactly Wade Kinsella's style. Dating one woman and wanting nobody but her wasn't normal for him either, but he was doing it and he had no inlication to stop right now.
"Well, this is it," he said as the eatery came into view. "Welcome to the Rammer Jammer, Zoe," he told her, pulling up the truck out front and killing the engine.
"Wow," she said, staring up at the building. "This is where you worked? Before you were famous?"
Wade rolled his eyes at that. "Wouldn't exactly call me famous yet, doc, least not outside of Alabama or New York and such, but yeah, this is the place. I waited tables from the age of fourteen or so, then started tending bar just as soon as they'd let me. It's been a big part of my life, I guess, and so have all the folks in it."
"Then I would love to meet them all," Zoe told him, her hand suddenly on top of his own. "C'mon, Kinsella, buy me some fried chicken and grits," she urged him, in her best Southern accent that didn't fail to make him wince.
"Yeah, we gotta work on that some more," he advised as they both hopped out of the truck and headed into the Rammer Jammer.
Zoe tried not to be nervous as they went inside, but tough as New Yorkers were supposed to be, she couldn't help but be a little apprehensive. Wade had been the stranger in her world before, now the tables had turned, and as much as she trusted him to be her guide and her protector if she needed him to be, it still felt very far removed from her comfort zone. Besides, there was also a voice in the back of her mind reminding her that this wasn't just her boyfriend's home town. This was also where her natural father was from. Part of her own blood came from this place.
"Finally, the famous Zoe Hart."
She snapped back to reality very fast when she realised she was being introduced to a stranger who was smiling at her like a toothpaste commercial.
"You know, I was startin' to think maybe Wade just went ahead and made you up for a while there."
Zoe was sure she was blushing as the charming man before her kissed her hand and paid her compliments. He really was all kinds of handsome. Not as good-looking as Wade, and Zoe was absolutely sure she would never want to trade one for the other, but all the same, there was nothing bad about this George Tucker guy as far as she could tell.
"Now you know why we call him Golden Boy." Wade rolled his eyes at what he clearly saw as his friend's gag-worthy behaviour.
"Only you call me that," George reminded him with a look, "and I have asked you, repeatedly, to stop."
Zoe hid a snigger behind her hand as she and Wade joined George at the bar. Grabbing a menu, she was soon putting in an order of food that she knew she would want to eat, despite her jokes about Southern delicacies before they came in. That could all wait for another day. Right now, she was just hungry.
Wade ordered lunch too, plus a round of drinks, all the while being interrupted by many a friend and neighbour who wanted to welcome him home and meet Zoe too.
"I think I met half the town already," she said before they had barely started eating.
"Everybody who is anybody wants to meet the famous Zoe Hart who has tamed the town wild boy that is Wade Kinsella," George told her with a twinkle in his eye. "I swear, Wade, we were all startin' to think you would never settle down, and when you went off to New York to be a rockstar and all, well, the last thing anybody expected was for you to bring home an actual bonafide, serious girlfriend."
"Geez, Tucker, it's not like we're gettin' married or anythin'," Wade pointed out, rolling his eyes.
Zoe wasn't sure why that remark stung like it did, but she actually felt herself wince and hated that she had. What Wade said was perfectly true, they weren't getting married, they hadn't even told each other 'I love you' yet, and since they had only been dating a little while, that was perfectly fine. She shook it off fast and pressed forward with a different line of conversation.
"So, George, you lived in New York for a while, right?"
"Yes, ma'am," he agreed, nodding his head. "I have to admit, I did love a lot of things about that place, not least the job satisfaction and all, but at the end of the day, my heart belongs in Bluebell," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "I just had to come home. Doesn't mean I don't miss it sometimes. The museums, the art galleries, the atmosphere, oh, and the food. You know, there was this restaurant, it had the most amazing risotto..."
"Per Se!" Zoe found herself exclaiming, perhaps a little too loudly. "I love that place."
"I guess that was a good choice when I was making recommendations to Wade then, huh?"
"So good. Ooh, you know what else I really love? The buttercup cod at Bond Street."
Once they started there was no stopping them. Zoe couldn't help but get caught up in swapping restaurant names and favourite dishes with George, and he just lit up, having somebody to talk to about New York again. Never mind that they might have included Wade in their conversation. Sure, he wasn't so much the fancy eatery type as they were, but he went to those places too. Well, at least one of them that time with Zoe anyway.
Wade finished up his lunch and pushed the plate away a little harder than he needed too. He wasn't sure what it was about Zoe and Tucker getting along that ruffled his feathers, or maybe he knew exactly and that was the problem. It shouldn't bother him that they found something to talk about, he knew that damn well, and yet.
"So, how're things with you and Tansy, George?" he asked, the moment he found a gap in the conversation that seemed to have moved on to Woody Allen movie marathons and the such like. "You two still dating?"
"Uh, yes, we are." George nodded, looking just a little bashful somehow. "You know, Wade, I need to say again how much I appreciate you bein' so understanding about that whole situation."
"Come on, Tucker." Wade rolled his eyes. "You're talkin' about ancient history."
"Ancient history?" Zoe echoed, looking between the two guys sat either side of her. "Am I missing something?"
George opened his mouth as if to explain, when suddenly a pair of hands covered his eyes from behind.
"Guess who?" asked the pretty blonde with a giggle.
Zoe watched as George spun around and embraced what had to be the very woman Wade had asked about. Tansy, that was what Zoe thought they said, though the rest of the conversation had confused her a little, unless...
"Zoe Hart, Tansy Truitt," Wade introduced the two. "Your timing is amazing, by the way."
Tansy looked a little bemused by Wade's comment about her well-timed entrance, but recovered fast and extended a hand to Zoe.
She dutifully took hold, shaking politely. "Pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise." Tansy smiled widely. "So, you and Wade, huh?"
"Yep, me and Wade." Zoe nodded her agreement. "So, before you and George got together, you and Wade...?"
"Oh, right," said Tansy, looking not at all concerned about what she was saying, "but me and Wade, that's ancient history," she insisted, just as Wade had done himself. "Dumbest thing two people ever did on a fishing boat, far as I know," she added, laughing loudly.
Zoe frowned, looking from Tansy to Wade and wondering why he couldn't look at her. She didn't care too much if they used to date. After all, she had exes, Wade did too, and from the way he told it, the reputation he had, there had been a lot for him. Still, Tansy seemed more relevant somehow. Not just a one-night stand, not if George had been concerned Wade might mind him dating her.
"Wow, that was a long time ago," he said, shifting awkwardly on his stool.
"What was a long time ago?" Zoe pressed.
There was a look in her eyes when Wade glanced up then that he didn't much like. It occurred to him too late that maybe when a guy finally got to a place where he wanted to be serious about a woman, maybe then he ought to tell her about things like ex-wives and such. Of course, he was also pretty sure that the middle of the Rammer Jammer was no place for a confession. It also occurred to him, altogether too late, that he wasn't going to get the chance to explain this to Zoe properly, because Tansy, bless her heart, must have figured his new girlfriend already knew enough that sharing wasn't a problem.
"Oh, you know, when me and Wade got hitched and all." Tansy rolled her eyes. "I don't know what we was thinkin'."
Wade winced so hard he felt a headache coming on, hardly daring to look at Zoe because he already knew she was not going to have taken this well at all. As if she hadn't had enough shocks of late, what with him getting caught in a lip-lock with her momma, and then all the stuff about Harley and everything. Probably finding out he had an ex-wife was one shock too many. The look on her face sure made Wade think so.
"Zoe?" he said carefully. "Uh, you doin' okay?"
Swallowing visibly hard, she put on her best smile and nodded her head. "I'm just fine," she promised him. "And it has been great talking to you, George, and meeting you, Tansy, the ex-wife," she said pointedly, "but I really have to go now."
She had her purse on her shoulder and was hustling out the door so fast, Wade barely had a chance to throw some money on their bill before he had to literally run after her.
"Should I not have said...?" Tansy was asking as he breezed past her and George, apologising for the hasty exit.
"That could've gone better," he said to himself as he reached the door and realised Zoe had walked right by the truck, headed God only knew where. "Hey, Zoe!" he called behind her, running to catch up, which didn't take too much effort with her in her fancy heels and him having the longer legs and all. "Will you slow down already?" he said as he took a hold of her arm. "Damn it, girl, where'd you even think you were headed in a town you never been to before?"
"Oh, I don't know," Zoe yelled, rounding on him and pulling her arm from his grasp at the same time. "Is there anywhere around here where I won't run into another of your ex-wives?"
"Zoe, come on." Wade sighed, trying to play it off like no big deal, even though he knew it actually was. "Like we said back there, me and Tans, that's ancient history. Yes, we got married, but it's not like it sounds. We weren't that kind of married."
"There's only one kind of married, Wade!" Zoe told him crossly. "My God, what else do I not know about you?"
"Well, hell, Zoe, probably a whole bunch of stuff," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck, "but you don't have to take it all this way. Geez, you never made a mistake in your life?"
"You know, what? Yes, Wade. Yes, I have made mistakes in my life," she said, meeting his gaze with tears in her eyes that were so much worse than the anger and shock. "And right now, I'm pretty sure one of the biggest was getting mixed up with a guy like you."
Before he could even open his mouth to reply to that, Zoe had turned away and was on the move again, moving awful fast for a girl that short and in heels that high. Still, Wade could have caught up to her, he knew he could, he almost went ahead and did it, but Zoe had made it plenty clear she did not want his company right now. Probably best he let her calm down some before he tried again. Anyway, it wasn't as if she could get into too much trouble in Bluebell.
"Wade Kinsella?" someone suddenly called, an unmistakable voice that he well could have done without hearing right this minute.
"Lemon Breeland," he said, forcing a smile as she rushed over to hug him hello.
"Now, what are you trying to pull now?" she asked him with that big sister type, mock-angry tone she liked to use so much with him. "I go over to the plantation to welcome you home and you're already gone, so I drag myself all over town lookin', and when I finally find you here, you seem ready to set off again. Now, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were avoiding me."
"Ain't even like that, Lemon," Wade promised her, eyes fixed on the middle distance in the direction that Zoe had walked away a minute before. "I, uh... I'd love to get caught up, and even introduce you to my new girlfriend that I know you were so excited to meet, but the truth is... well, I ain't so sure she wants to be my girlfriend anymore."
The look on Lemon's face was a picture of shock and confusion. "You wanna talk about it?" she asked then.
Wade sighed. "Can't make it any worse," he decided, shrugging his shoulders and even managing a half a smile as Lemon put her arm around him and they took a walk together.
To Be Continued...