Chapter 1 of 5
"I swear if they were any cuter, I'd throw up in my mouth."
Annabeth startled at the sound of a nearby voice, almost choking on her drink as she tried not to laugh at what was said too. Though she was probably the last person who would be suspected of thinking such a thing herself, she had to admit, if only inside her own head, that she thoroughly agreed with Wade Kinsella's remark.
"You doin' okay there, AB?" he checked, clearly as amused as he was concerned by her graceless coughing fit.
"Just dandy," she told him, chipper tone turned up as high as it would go, something that was just a little easier to maintain now she was three drinks in. "I mean, who wouldn't be happy for two good friends getting married and two more getting engaged on the exact same day?!" she said, arms raised in the air as if she were cheering.
Inside, her heart was breaking, but Annabeth had got real good at hiding it. She had to, because in amongst all the joy of successful relationships, why on earth would she want to be the one to admit her own marriage was over? It was a confession she never planned to make, today of all days, until Wade came and leaned over the bar real close to her, one of those rare looks of sincere concern on his face as he asked what was going on.
"Come on now, AB, this ain't like you at all," he said, searching her face. "Seemsto me you oughta be pleased as the rest of us to see George Tucker married, even if it is to some high-falutin' New York doctor instead of Lemon Breeland, like we always thought. On top o' that, Lemon herself has got herself engaged to the mayor, and I ain't ever seen her or Lavon look so happy as they do right now. All this happy stuff goin' on, something you would usually be right in the middle of, and here you are at the end of the bar, seconds away from cryin' into your drink. What happened?"
His kindness was going to break her, she just knew it. Anybody being so nice when she was trying so hard not to think about her own tragic love life was bound to be too much to bear, but Wade in particular, a man much better known for luring women into his bed than into his confidence, it was just too much.
"You know you can have as much of a reputation as you want, Wade Kinsella," she told him, sniffling back a few tears that were bound and determined to escape, "but deep down, you are too good a person. I know. I recall how you were when we were all that much younger. How sweet you could be sometimes."
"Well, I don't know about that," he told her, almost looking embarrassed that she would say as much, "but I know that from back then all the way to now, you have never been anything but a good, kind, generous person. Sometimes even to people who don't much deserve it," he said with a look. "So, whatever or whoever it is that made you look so sad, today of all days, I'd like to think you'd tell me so I can help put it right."
Swiping away a stray tear, Annabeth managed to find him a shaky smile.
"Around the time George came back to Bluebell with his new fiancee, my husband Jake, he, uh... he started doing these long-haul trips more often. Honestly, I barely missed him to start off with. I was so worried how Lemon was going to react to George's return. I mean, of course, she was with Lavon by then, so meeting Zoe should have been no big deal, but you know how those two were once. Lemon and George were the golden couple, for thirteen years, until he decided to head off to New York. Yes, they parted on good terms and all, but Lemon wasn't quite so tough behind closed doors. I thought it was going to break her, I truly did."
"But it didn't," Wade reminded her. "While George was gone, she fell for Lavon, he fell for her, and by the time Tucker swung back into town with Dr Zoe on his arm... well, alls well that ends well, right?"
"Right." Annabeth nodded once. "And I was happy, so happy, for all of them, I truly was. I truly am," she corrected, "but this past year, with the wedding plans and everybody finding their place in what amounts to a crazy love square, I've kind of felt a little out on the edge of it all, with nobody to really talk to. Jake was away more and more, and then, around three months ago now - the very day that George and Zoe announced this wedding and their plans to stay in Bluebell for good - he told me he met somebody else. Jake Nass, my husband, had been seeing another woman in Baton Rouge, and he left me, for her."
Wade's eyes were so wide, Annabeth was surprised they didn't roll clean out of his head. "Jake left? Three months' ago?" he double-checked.
"Mm-hmm," Annabeth confirmed, hiding herself in her glass as she downed the rest of her drink - it ought to have made her feel better, but it didn't, not really. "Upped and left without so much as a by-your-leave. I wanted to talk to Lemon about it, but she was feeling a little mixed up about George, since he and Zoe were staying and all, and what with the revelation about Zoe being Harley Wilkes' daughter... I don't know, there was never a good time to share. Besides, who wants to be the one to bring down the mood when everybody else in town is so happy?"
She smiled the fakest smile in the world and looked to her glass for further help. Not one drop was left to assist her and that was when the tears really came in full-force. She felt so stupid. The last thing Annabeth wanted to do was break down here, now, when she had been trying so hard and for so long to keep it together. No sooner had she begun trying to hide her face than she felt an arm around her shoulders, reacting with surprise as she realised Wade was no longer on the other side of the bar, but by her side.
"Come on, this way," he urged her, pulling her with him out back of the bar and taking her to the store room where they hid from sight. "Nobody'll think to look back here," he assured her, closing the door behind them.
Annabeth stopped and stared at him a moment, let her eyes drift around the shelf-lined walls before they returned to meet Wade's gaze. That was when the laughter came. It felt good, to laugh rather than cry, but when Wade looked as if he wasn't sure whether to join in or not and asked what was so funny, she immediately felt bad.
"I'm so sorry," she said, through giggles that would not quite cease altogether. "I really am. I don't mean to..." she trailed away, waving one hand in a random gesture as the other covered her mouth for a few seconds and fought for composure. "I'm so sorry, Wade," she repeated then. "I just never thought I'd see the day when I was the girl you wanted to get alone in a private space," she said pointedly.
Wade leaned back heavily against the door and ran one hand down his face.
"Yeah, I guess this does come off a little like that, huh?" he said awkwardly. "You know, AB, I never meant-"
"Oh, I know that you didn't," she told him fast, waving away his concerns as she sat down as primly as a semi-drunk person could on a packing crate. "Trust me, I do know. Like I said, never thought I'd see the day. I mean, of all the girls in Bluebell, right?"
That particular choice of words seemed to confuse Wade, though Annabeth wondered why it should. She never got around to asking, because he seemed quick enough to tell her anyway.
"You talk like no man would ever want you. Don't you remember high school at all? 'Cause I know for sure Jake Nass was not the first guy to take notice o' you, not by a long stretch."
"Sure, in high school." Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Boys used to hit on me then. Even you once or twice, as I recall," she said, wondering why her cheeks warmed up just at the admission of it, "but that was more than ten years ago, Wade Kinsella."
"And you didn't change all that much, Annabeth Thibodeaux," he told her, clearly using her former last name on purpose, since they were talking about their school days, or maybe just because she had made it plain her marriage was over at this point anyway. "Truth be told, I think you might actually be prettier now than you was then."
"Ha ha," she said, turning her face away, knowing she absolutely was blushing now. "You really will say anythin' to a woman just to see what'll happen, won't you?"
If she had kept on looking at him, she might have known he had moved again. Either the drink had slowed her brain down to a crawl or Wade moved like lighting (maybe both were true) but suddenly, he was standing in front of her, leaning right over, so that when she turned to look his face was right there above her own.
"I may pay a lot of compliments to a lot o' women, Annabeth, but that doesn't mean any of 'em are any less than true. You are beautiful and smart and funny, not to mention one of the kindest, most decent women I have ever known, my whole life. Truth is, if that decent part weren't true, I'd've probably told you all this a whole lot sooner, but with you bein' a married woman and the faithful type and all..."
When he trailed off then, Annabeth realised she was hardly breathing at all, just staring up, open-mouthed and amazed at what she was hearing. Maybe it was true, maybe he did find her attractive. Honestly, she was pretty sure Wade Kinsella found most women attractive, and good Lord, given half the chance, her single self would be all over him.
He was right, of course. She was the faithful type. Unlike Jake, she took her wedding vows real seriously, but that was over now. Though they weren't divorced yet and on paper their marriage endured, in the eyes of God, it was all over. He broke his vow, making hers null and void. That seemed to open up a lot of possibilities, now that Annabeth thought on it. Possibilities she hadn't known she was ready for until they came spilling out of her mouth unchecked.
"Well, I'm not married anymore. Not really. I sure as hell am not gonna be faithful to that rat that cheated on me and left me behind all of three months' ago. I don't owe him anythin' at all," she said firmly, rising to her feet and immediately feeling unsteady.
"Easy there," said Wade, his hands gently but firmly taking hold of her by the waist. "I'm glad to hear you're not gonna let that asshole get you down, AB, but don't go runnin' before you can walk, okay?
"Oh, I don't plan on runnin'," she assured him, somehow so much bolder than she ever had been before.
Maybe it was the alcohol, or the compliments, or the realisation of her own freedom and just how she could use it if she had a mind to. Perhaps it was a combination of all three of those things and more that led to her looping her arms around Wade's neck, pushing herself up on her toes, and crushing her lips against his own.
It wasn't as if she never thought about it before. Even faithful, married women had fantasies. Sometimes it was all they had if their husbands were absent, and Jake had seemed pretty far away, even when he was laying right beside her in bed some nights. Annabeth had her little daydreams, and actual dreams too, about being free and single. About being the kind of person Wade Kinsella was, just to see what it would be like.
He showed up more than a few times in those dreams, and actually, as she kissed him and he very definitely kissed her back, Annabeth couldn't say she was at all disappointed. In fact, when they started heading in something like a second base direction, she was positively thrilled at the prospect of what she was doing and with whom. Annabeth had no reason to stop. She was a little surprised to realise that maybe Wade did.
"Okay, this is not..." he said, shaking his head as he pulled away from her, hands now at her upper arms, thankfully holding her up when she was sure her knees were about to buckle. "AB, I don't think this is what you want to be doin'. Can't believe I'm saying this actually, but you and me? What we were headed for right there? That's probably not a good idea."
"Why not?" she asked, surprising herself just a little but going with it all the same. "You just said yourself, Wade Kinsella, you don't pay compliments you don't mean. You like me well enough, don't you?"
He smiled at her fondly, one hand coming up to push her hair back neatly behind her ear, after his having mussed it up so well just moments before. "Course I do," he assured her.
"And you just never said anything or... or did anything about it because I was a faithful wife. Well, I just told you, that's not the case anymore," she reminded him, perhaps just a little too loudly. "I am a woman, Wade. I think Jake stopped noticing. In fact, I think a lot of people have, but it's still true. I am a woman and, damn it, I want to feel like one. Are you really gonna deny me that?"
She sounded more desperate than the strong she was aiming for, Annabeth was well aware, but she couldn't help it. Maybe she was feeling reckless and frantic tonight, maybe all this was a really bad idea that she would regret in the morning, but somehow, she doubted it. After all, asking Wade to take her to bed wasn't exactly proposing marriage or getting into anything even remotely long-term. He was the good time guy, a person who was happy enough to spend the night with a woman and forget her name by sunrise. Annabeth could live with that. In a lot of ways, she would actually prefer it. She just wished she could make him see that.
"You serious right now?" asked Wade, eyes searching her face.
Annabeth stepped in closer, so close her chest was pressed up against his own and his eyes were hard to focus on when she did her best to meet his gaze.
"Wade Kinsella, I have never been more serious in my whole life," she told him straight. "All I'm looking for you to do right now is take me home, take me to bed, and make me forget any time I spent there with that waste-of-breath husband I held onto for too long. Will you do that for me?"
If he said no, Annabeth really thought she might die, of embarrassment or shame or disappointment, probably all those and more combined. Not that he actually gave her an answer in words, because Wade Kinsella rarely needed such things. With fingers tangled in her hair and his other arm tight around her waist, he pulled her in ever closer and kissed her breathless, promising her everything she ever wanted was about to happen. Annabeth couldn't have been happier if she tried.
