A/N: Who's ready for a happy Zade ending?

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 24

A knock on the door had kept Wade from answering Zoe's very important question, Earl sticking his head in to ask if everything was okay. Wade assured his father that everything was just fine, before going back out to say goodnight to everyone else. The dinner party was breaking up, Wade's parents both wanting to leave, given the lateness of the hour, and Joel hoping to walk Annabeth home, it seemed.

After giving Lemon and Lavon their warmest thanks for a pleasant evening, Wade and Zoe left too, heading in the general direction of both their homes, but not entirely having agreed upon whether they were going together or separately.

"Uh, you wanna come inside?" Wade asked Zoe as they neared the gatehouse. "I mean, we weren't exactly done talking..."

"Okay," she agreed, nodding her head.

Moments later, and here they were, the two of them at either end of the couch, just about as awkward as they'd ever been, which was interesting for people as close as they had become. That had shared the bed in both their houses at different times and not only for sleeping. That had been talking about love and long-term plans not so long ago.

"So, what you said before," said Wade eventually, rubbing the back of his neck, "when you asked me to stay here forever with you. Was that... a proposal?"

Zoe opened her mouth as if to answer, but no sound came out. She closed it again, looking sort of pained, then started over.

"Not entirely," she admitted, hands fidgeting in her lap. "I mean, I'm not sure how I feel about marriage, exactly. It's just that... that I love you, Wade, and things feel wrong when you're not around. So, if I'm proposing anything, it's not necessarily marriage, but it is a commitment. I can commit to you, I want to do that. I just need to know if you feel the same way. If you could maybe be in a place where you want to commit to me."

There was an easy answer to that, Wade knew. The problem was that the question was wrong. Did he want to commit to Zoe? Of course, he did, no doubt about that at all. The real question was could he commit to her? Was it practical and a smart choice to throw up his life in New York and move to Bluebell permanently to be with her?

"I know it's a lot to ask," she said then, almost as if she read the thoughts clean out of his head. "I mean, it's easier for me, I already live here. If you moved, you'd be giving up a lot, but you said yourself that you like being here. That maybe you could run your businesses from here, if you wanted to. Plus, Earl is here, and your mom, she was just saying how much she loved being back. I think there's a good chance she might stay, if you did-"

"What?" Wade gasped, that part catching him by surprise.

Seemed his momma had been talking to Zoe in more deep a way than she had been talking with him of late. While he knew she had been enjoying reconnecting with old friends, visiting old haunts, and getting to know Earl in a new way, Wade hadn't realised she might be in a place to want to stay permanently in Alabama. That would help him make a decision maybe, since his mother was a major factor in where he ended up.

"You do know that if it were possible for me to move to New York with you, I would do that," said Zoe then, "or I'd try anyway. It's just that... well, this is my home. I wasn't born here, not literally, but I was raised here and everyone and everything I know is in Alabama, pretty much entirely in Bluebell. Giving it up would be... it would be like losing a part of myself, a part I just started to find again."

"I wouldn't ask you to leave, Zoe," he told her fast. "I know you couldn't deal with that, though I appreciate you wish that you could."

"I do," she confirmed, nodding her head, "because the last thing I want to be right now is selfish, Wade. I swear, if I could bend on this, I really would, it's just that with one of your parents here, maybe even both, and the friends you've made, and..."

"And you," Wade said for her. "Sweetheart, if you don't think you're the main reason I want to stay here, then you're crazy."

Though she looked as if she might cry any second, Zoe actually laughed at what he said. It seemed maybe they were happy tears she was shedding. Wade knew how that went. He was dangerously close to getting emotional himself.

"I really want it to be this simple, Zoe," he told her honestly, moving a little closer across the couch. "I mean, you're not wrong, I did say I could run my businesses from here. Not all of them, maybe, but most. Prices being lower down here means I really wouldn't need to keep them all running, and there's nothing to stop me making a trip up north every once in a while, if I wanted or needed to."

"Exactly," Zoe agreed, shifting closer to him and sounding more than a little hopeful. "And if you didn't want to do that, I'm sure you could find work around here. Maybe even a place to run, like you were doing in the city."

"Seriously?" he checked, raising an eyebrow at her. "Zoe, you own the only bar in town."

"Yes, and you already proved you can run it real well when I'm not there," she told him easily. "If I started to take on more shifts at the practice, and you know I would love to do that, I'm not going to have so much time for the Rammer Jammer. You could run it for me, for a while. Maybe in time, I could even sell it to you."

Wade was a little stunned by that revelation and was sure it showed on his face. Either Zoe had really been thinking about this a lot or her brain moved like lightning when properly motivated. Knowing her the way he did, Wade would suspect it was a little of both.

He smiled when he thought of that. Knowing her the way he did. It had only been a few months and already he felt like he had known her forever, maybe even that he had loved her forever. Perhaps it was more that he had been waiting to meet her and love her all this time. Now, here they were, in the same place at the same time, and damn near perfectly matched somehow.

"Are you serious?" he checked, needing to be sure before he went diving in with both feet.

"About you?" she asked, nodding her head. "Yes, I am more than serious, Wade Kinsella. The question is still what about you? Are you serious about me? About us?" she asked him in earnest. "Serious enough to stay forever?"

The vulnerability beneath the strength of feeling she was showing him might not have been plain to anyone else, but Wade saw it. She wanted to be sure she could trust that he felt the same, but her heart was still so fragile, she was terrified he was about to break it. As if he could ever bear to do that.

"Zoe Wilkes, I am so serious about you," he promised, putting his arms around her. "So, yes, I will stay, forever, if you'll have me."

When she smiled bright enough to light up the whole Alabama sky and pushed forward to kiss him long and hard on the lips, Wade knew it was a done deal. He was staying in Bluebell, with Zoe, no matter what.


"You know, there are times when I wonder why I ever left Bluebell at all." Jackie sighed, staring into her empty coffee cup. "Times when I think I never should have left you," she added, glancing over at Earl beside her on the couch.

"Don't have any of them regrets, Jackie," he told her, shaking his head. "If you'da stayed, well, I mighta gone ahead and made an even worse mess o' things than I did anyhow." He sighed, putting his cup down on the table next to hers. "You were right to walk away from me. To take the boys and give 'em a better life and all. I only wish I never gave you a reason to, that's all."

It was what she wished too, of course, but Jackie knew there was no changing the past. They both knew there was no going back, but that didn't mean all hope was lost.

"Well, I'm here now," she said, her hand finding his on the cushion between them and clasping it tightly. "Whatever happened before, it doesn't matter. You know, Earl Kinsella, I never thought of you as a bad man. I fell in love with you and I never did fall out again. I couldn't, even if I wanted to... and I'm not so sure I ever even tried that hard," she confessed, lifting her eyes at the same moment he did, their gazes locking.

"Jackie, honey, you know I have always loved you. I always will, until my dying day."

She believed him, she simply had no reason not to. Earl had made mistakes in his life, he hadn't handled things well, and maybe Jackie hadn't either, but as they just agreed, that was all in the past now. There was no use worrying over it. Better to think of the present, maybe even the future. Those things were certainly foremost in Jackie's mind as she leaned forward then, allowing her lips to find Earl's own.

It was a brief moment, but so familiar and good. It seemed a shame when it was over, and yet, Jackie was sure it was better not to go diving in without thinking. That couldn't be a good idea, could it?

"Uh, I should probably get back to the Whippoorwill..."

"You don't have to," Earl told her, keeping her in place with his words and the look in his eyes more than the hand on her arm. "I mean, if you wanted to stay, even if it's just to talk some more..."

He meant what he said, she was sure on that, though if he was hoping to do more than talk, Jackie would have to admit, the same thoughts were certainly in her own head. She trusted Earl, she always had, she always would. Some things just didn't change so easily.

Slowly, she smiled. "Yes, I think I'd like to stay."


"Were you serious? About selling the Rammer Jammer to me, I mean?" Wade asked, lying in bed, holding Zoe close in his arms, his fingers entwining with her own.

"I was," she agreed easily. "After all you've done with your own business, you could probably run it blindfold with one hand tied behind your back. Of course, that might mean you get bored too easy..."

"Not necessarily," Wade considered. "Besides, I don't think I could ever be bored with you around," he teased her, kissing her neck.

"I meant business-wise, dummy," she insisted, socking him in the shoulder, even as she laughed.

"Come on, Zoe. You know work isn't everything. Staying in Bluebell will mean being with you, having a lot of good friends, being closer to my dad and still having my momma around, if you're right in your guess. Plus, fine weather, open spaces, all that good life stuff," he said, maybe at least half-joking, Zoe thought.

It was hard to tell. The smile on his face certainly looked genuine enough and the great long list of positives about staying in Bluebell all made total sense at least.

"Besides," Wade continued then, "this is where I was born, apparently, and where I belong. If nothing else proves that to me, you certainly do, Zoe Wilkes. I belong wherever you are, I do know that," he said softly, kissing her lips.

"So, it's definite? You're really going to stay here, forever?" she double-checked.

Wade smiled an easy smile and shrugged his shoulders a little. "Until you get tired of me, at the very least."

Zoe felt a grin pull her mouth what felt like a mile wide as her hand went to his cheek. "Forever it is," she said, moving in to kiss him one more time.

Epilogue to follow soon!