A/N: Nice to see y'all are sticking with me on this story - I'm pretty sure the Zade helped, right? ;) Thanks for all those lovely reviews, folks. Now, the morning after the night before...
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 11
"Well, well, look what the cat dragged in," said Lemon from her spot on the couch, hands curled around a mug of steaming coffee. "Zoe Hart, I do believe you spent the night with Wade Kinsella... again."
"Hey, Lemon," said Zoe herself, smiling widely as she leaned her back against the apartment door. "Isn't it a beautiful morning? I think it's just a great time to be alive."
"I'm certain that's true." Lemon rolled her eyes. "I would also like to think that you gave a lot of serious thought to your actions before you did anything foolish last night. I know I have no right to say so, Lord knows I'm not your momma or anything, but in the circumstances-"
"Lemon, please, stop worrying," Zoe cut in fast, still grinning as she came to sit beside her room-mate on the couch. "Wade and I talked last night over dinner. We understand each other so much better now, and yes, I know that you've known him a lot longer than I have and, trust me, I am well aware of his reputation with women, but weren't you the one telling me that you were sure he felt more for me than any other girl?"
"That is true." Lemon nodded, sipping at her coffee. "Without question, Wade has changed since you first blew into town a year or more ago. It's also true that I have never known him really want to go out on a date with a woman after he already had his way with her."
"Well, now he does." Zoe smiled widely. "Just this morning, he was asking me when he could have our next date, and that was most definitely after the event," she said pointedly. "In fact, it was after more than one event-"
"Oh, Lord, no!" Lemon declared then, putting her mug down and covering both ears with her hands, plus closing her eyes for good measure. "Zoe Hart, I can be happy for you in your relationship with Wade Kinsella. I can even stand knowing that the two of you are having sex, but Heaven help me, I cannot bear to know any kind of details. Are we clear on that?"
Zoe laughed but she didn't disagree. In fact, when Lemon popped one eye open, she realised her room-mate was nodding her head, as well as urging Lemon to take her hands down from her ears.
"I promise, no details," she said firmly, "but thank you, Lemon, for at least being happy for me."
"Well, of course," she said, rolling her eyes. "If you and me aren't friends by now, then I don't know who is. That means I only want you to be happy, just as you wanna see me happy, don't you?"
"Without question," Zoe agreed easily. "Did you have a good night with Annabeth?" she asked then, seeming to only have just recalled that the two were planning on hanging out the night before.
"We had a very pleasant evening." Lemon nodded. "And I have to say, AB was very understanding when I told her everything about Lavon. Truth be told, I don't know how I could ever have thought she would be anything else. That girl is just the sweetest."
"Yes, she is," said Zoe with a smile, "and you told her everything everything?"
"Absolutely everything. Including one little thing that you don't know yourself yet," Lemon confessed, looking sideways at her friend. "I, uh... well, I think it's about time that I took the bull by the horns and figured out the romantic side of my life," she explained. "I have this apartment and a job, been striking out on my own so well, or at least, getting out from under the coddling ways of my daddy and the shadow of George Tucker."
"I haven't done that much." Zoe shrugged, even though they both knew that was patently untrue.
"Well, we'll discuss your modesty issues later," said Lemon with a smirk, "but seriously for a moment, I have been harbouring all these feelings for far too long, tryin' to pretend I don't have them and failing to make it stick at every turn. Now, George is moving on, dating other women and doing just fine. You have tamed the town wild man, for Heaven's sake, and it truly is a banner day when Wade Kinsella realises he can be faithful to just one woman. Even Annabeth is figuring out a way forward since that heel Jake Nass left her behind. That just leaves me."
"Oh my God!" Zoe suddenly gasped, her hand taking a death grip of Lemon's arm. "You... you're going to talk to Lavon. You're going to see if he still feels the same. Lemon, that's huge!"
It made her so very nervous about her decision to confess when Zoe put it quite like that. After all, there was every chance that when she put her heart on the line, Lavon would tell her what she could do with it. It would be no less than she deserved in the circumstances, Lemon was well aware, after the way she had treated him in the past, but she prayed to God that Lavon would be understanding.
"I know I don't really deserve him," she said softly, hardly knowing what had happened to her voice as she went on. "Lavon Hayes is, without question, one of the kindest, most decent men I have ever known, and when we were together... well, it was something real special that we had."
Zoe said nothing then. It was plain as day that she wanted to when Lemon looked at her, but she was holding her tongue so far, and that was something to be grateful for.
"When George came home from New York, all full of regrets and promises for the future... I know it was foolish to just make pretend everything was how it used to be, but that's what I did. I told Lavon it was over, that what we had, everything we did, it was a mistake. I can't think about it now without feelin' so ashamed of myself.
"He was the kindest, most patient person in the world when I needed someone, and Lords knows, I never expected to fall in love with him. I thought me and George Tucker were for life, or I never would've even considered agreeing to marry him."
"Everybody makes mistakes, Lemon," Zoe told her softly. "Sometimes, you think you know what you want and then, well, it turns out, you were wrong" she said, shrugging her shoulders.
Lemon smiled at her. "Now, why do I think we just stopped talking about me and started talking about you again?"
"It applies both ways, right?" Zoe shrugged. "We both thought we were in love with George, and maybe you actually were once, but now..."
"We both realise our mistake," said Lemon, smiling at first though the expression soon faded to a frown. "Poor George Tucker. Losing out on first me and then you, it's gotta be one heck of a crushing blow for a man."
"Amen, sister-friend," said Zoe, nodding her agreement, "but he'll get over us, somehow. I think he's going to have to. I mean, I do like him, I care about him and everything, it's just me and Wade..."
"You and Wade are so strangely well-suited."
"You know, I think probably you and Lavon are too."
The two women shared one more smile before Zoe finally got up from the couch and headed for her bedroom.
"I need to shower and change before my shift at the practice. Don't want your dad yelling at me for dereliction of duty!"
"If my daddy gives you any trouble, you send him right to me," Lemon told her firmly. "You're a good friend, Zoe Hart. I never saw that coming, but it is true."
Zoe smiled from her bedroom doorway. "You're not so bad yourself, Lemon Breeland."
"So, a good time was had by all, right?"
"You could say that," Wade agreed with his friend as they both stared straight forward at the screen. "Thing is, Lavon, this ain't like all the other good times I had before. I don't know what it is about Zoe Hart, she's just..." he trailed off.
It wasn't because he had to concentrate so hard on getting his avatar to attack Lavon's own on-screen character, but because he really just did not have the words when it came to Zoe.
"I know exactly what you mean, Wade, m'boy," Lavon assured in, pausing the game and turning a little in his seat to look at his buddy. "You know, there's prob'ly something we should talk about when it comes to... well, romance."
Wade frowned some at that remark and then tried to suppress the smirk that so wanted to come to his lips as he made his next comment.
"If you're about to give me the birds and bees, Lavon, I think you oughta know by now that I really don't need 'em," he said, completely deadpan.
Lavon rolled his eyes. "Ha, ha," he said, equally as straight-faced. "This ain't even about you, or it is, but... well, the thing is, you and Zoe, you guys are more serious than either of you has ever been about anybody else, right?"
"Right." Wade nodded. "Which I don't mind admitting was scaring the ever-living crap outta me for a while there, but since I'm pretty sure Zoe feels just about the same for me as I do for her right now, I gotta admit, it's a little less terrifyin' that I thought."
"Lavon Hayes is not exactly sorry to hear that," his friend told him with a wide smile. "See, the thing of it is, there was a woman in my life a while back that I had these strong feelin's for. She, uh... she's the reason things didn't exactly work out with me and Didi, and even though I was pretty sure it was all over with us, well, circumstances have changed lately and-"
"Lavon?" Wade cut in, getting his buddy's full attention. "Are you talkin' about Lemon right now?"
The wide-eyed expression that question caused was almost too amusing and Wade bust up laughing in a second. It would've been impossible to do anything else.
"Wow, you really do think I'm dumb, don'tcha? I mean, sure, you'll have me fix your electrics and your car and all, you know I have those smarts, but the rest part of the time, you really think I walk around this place with my eyes closed, huh?"
Lavon still looked shocked at first and then just confused, shaking his head as his mouth opened and closed with no sounds coming out.
"Man, I have known Lemon Breeland longer than you have, and I have lived on this plantation with you long enough too. You seriously think that a guy like me, who knows all there is to know about dating women he's not supposed to, didn't realise you and Lemon were seeing each other while Golden Boy was in New York? Trust me, I knew."
Wade turned back to the TV screen then, hoping to unpause the game and carry on, but the second he tried, Lavon stopped him.
"Hold on now. You knew? This whole time, you knew?"
"I knew when it was happenin'." Wade shrugged his shoulders. "Also knew when it stopped too, once good ol' George rolled back into town and started tryin' to make an honest woman outta Lemon. 'Course, I figured once the weddin' went south, maybe you two would start things up again. Just wasn't sure how long it'd take to happen, that's all."
"You never said a damn word!" Lavon exploded then. "How come you never told me you knew? How come you never told George or... or Lemon or Zoe?"
"Why would I do that?" asked Wade, shaking his head. "None of my business who you share your bed with. So long as it's not Zoe, and since you two have that whole brother-sister thing going on, I don't have to worry about that... right?"
"No, no, no," Lavon told him firmly, making a face for good measure. "Like you said, Zoe's like my lil' sister or somethin'. I never looked at her that way."
"Well, good." Wade nodded once. "As for you and Lemon, that was your business, and none o' mine. Enough gossips in this town without me helpin' 'em out. I figured George left Lemon to her own devices, he shouldn't care what she got up to while he was gone. When he got back and they patched things up, for all I knew she went ahead and told him anyway. Either which way, still nothin' to do with me."
The look of shock that persisted on Lavon's face either meant he was amazed Wade knew the secret this whole time or was less than impressed that his friend was the type to keep that kind of secret from another friend. Either way, Wade didn't care much. He was used to people thinking he was none too bright and even played it to his own advantage a few times. As for loyalty to his friends, sometimes he figured some people were better off not knowing certain things. He read somewhere once that ignorance was bliss. Made a lot of sense to him.
"Hey, are we havin' this fight to the death or what?" he said then, nodding towards the computer game still frozen on the TV screen.
Lavon shook his head slightly, looking like he was trying to clear the cobwebs, then he unpaused the game and the battle resumed. It was all of thirty seconds later that a knocking on the back door had him hitting pause again, just as Wade was about to land a perfect combo move on his opponent that might just have won him the whole damn game.
"Are you frickin' kidding me?" he asked loudly, looking over to see Lavon dive up from his seat and rush to the door. "Lavon, can't you just-"
Wade stopped short of finishing the question when he saw a familiar figure with blonde hair hovering in the doorway. Putting the game controller aside, he got to his feet and headed out the front way for a change. He figured his absence wouldn't be noticed for quite a while now Lemon was there, especially after the things Lavon had been saying just minutes before.
No doubt things were about to be rekindled between a certain ex-football player and a certain Southern Belle. Much as Wade would like to deny that he cared all that much, he wasn't exactly sad in thinking those two might make each other real happy.
To Be Continued...