It's finally, finally date time! I consider this 'Part 1' of this story. So far, it's been leading here. Now, it'll take on another direction. :)
I think I finally got back to most of you at least once who have been so wonderful as to leave reviews. I'm always just so blown away by how many people read this story and favorite it, put it on alerts... You're just wonderful. :)
Jason Aldean's "Country Boy's World" inspired this update.
THINGS I OWN: A new found obsession with Temple Run. You just don't know how bad I have it... THINGS I DON'T OWN: Hart of Dixie
"You realize you have to pick all of this up, right?" Rose asked as she watched Zoe take one article of clothing after another out of her closet, hold it up, examine herself in the mirror, and then toss it aside, deeming it not appropriate for her date.
"I'll worry about that later," Zoe said. She held up an olive green long sleeve dress she'd forgotten she owned, took one glimpse at herself, and discarded it. "This would be a lot easier if Wade would give me something to work with. What does 'just wear what you usually wear' even mean, anyway?"
"I'm gonna guess it means wear what you wear on any other day," Rose said with a shrug. Zoe glared at her for a moment before turning back to her closet.
"Do you have any idea where he's taking me?" she asked Rose. "Any at all?"
"Like Wade is gonna ask a teenage girl for help," Rose retorted. She stood and started going through the growing pile of clothes on Zoe's bedroom floor. "Wear these," she said, passing Zoe a pair of dark skinny jeans. "And this top. Pair it with that orange scarf you bought while you were in New York and wear those really amazing brown riding boots you had on the other day." Zoe surveyed the outfit Rose had picked out.
"You know, that's not half bad," she said. Then a thought struck her. "But what if we're going somewhere where I need to be a little more dressed up than that? Like, somewhere I should wear a dress to? I'd rather be overdressed than underdressed. I think, anyway." Rose sighed.
"Zoe, just trust me. Wear this." Zoe eyed her suspiciously.
"You do know where he's taking me," she accused.
"No…"
"Rose…"
"Maybe I do know something," Rose confessed. "But I also promised, crossed my heart, and swore to die that I would not tell you should you ask. But you can rest assured that what I picked out is appropriate first date with Wade attire."
"Not even a hint?" Zoe asked. Rose shook her head and checked her watch.
"Not even a hint," she confirmed. "I've got to get going. I'm babysitting the Saunders kids tonight."
"Thanks for your help," Zoe told her, hugging her goodbye. "Or lack thereof."
"Please, you're worrying about nothing. Wade's all kinds of crazy about you. And he's put a lot of thought into this date. You'll have a blast," Rose told her, hugging her back. "And you know, you really need to learn to drive. Then you could drive me home instead of my having to walk."
"I'm working on it," Zoe replied. Rose gave her a look. "I'm going to start working on it," Zoe amended. Rose rolled her eyes.
"Bye, Zoe," she said. She left, humming a tune on her way out. Zoe looked around the room and sighed. It would take her twice as long to put everything away as it did to pull it all out. She went to work, fetching hangers and reorganizing her closet as she went.
She was nervous. She hadn't been out on a date in more than six years. Her ex-boyfriend had started off as a hookup after a late night study session and it turned into six years of more or less the same. They didn't have dinner dates or romantic evenings. They had cafeteria food and slept together between seeing patients, usually in one of the on call rooms. It didn't matter that this was Wade, the man she'd become so familiar with in the last few months. She was terrified.
She didn't know how to date. She didn't know how to hold a conversation or how to be charming or any of that other dating crap she was apparently supposed to know. Out of desperation, she had spent a lot of the week Googling, reading old Cosmos, and asking Addie for tips. The best Addie could do was offer her a 'just be yourself' and Zoe had deemed that not good enough. She'd nearly given in and asked Lemon Breeland for advice when she'd dropped by the clinic to see her father, but had come to her senses just in time.
She wanted their date to go well. Usually, when a couple went on a first date, they'd recently met and had decided they liked one another enough to share a meal or maybe some laughs and see what happened from there. But she and Wade were different. They'd already had their first kiss, had even shared a bed on a couple of occasions. It was almost like they were already in a relationship and were just going on a date as a prerequisite.
It didn't help that she had no idea where he was taking her, what they were doing. She'd tried to get it out of him all week, had even tried prying it out of Lavon who had claimed Mayor-Resident confidentiality, something she was sure he'd made up, to get out of giving her any hints. She was sure that even the knowledge of where they were going would have given her some peace.
Her bedroom relatively back to normal, she changed into pajamas and slipped under the covers. It was a little early for her to be turning in, but she figured if nothing else, she'd be well-rested for the next night when she would inevitably lay awake and fret over her and Wade's date the following day. More tired than she thought, she drifted off to sleep thinking through the handful of restaurants in Bluebell to see if there was a reason to suspect any of them as the likely sight of their first date.
"In the name of all things holy, would you please sit down?" Addie snapped, putting her magazine down and glaring at Zoe. "The sound of your high heels pacing back and forth on this hardwood floor is like nails on a chalkboard."
"I'm sorry," Zoe said, coming to stand at Addie's counter. "I'm just… I'm waiting for 5:00," she said.
"Any reason in particular?"
"Not really. It'll just be nice to go home and pace without being interrupted." She was growing more anxious as the clock ticked down. It had been a slow day at the clinic for both Brick and herself and he had beaten her to leaving early, sticking her to be the one who remained in the office until the doors locked for the night in case anyone showed up. She'd spent most of the afternoon getting more and more anxious about her date the next day, so much so that even Brick had complained that she was more annoying than usual.
"You're not still fretting over your date with Wade, are you?" Addie asked suspiciously.
"It's my first date in six years. I get to be nervous," Zoe informed her. "I have no idea where he's taking me. Rose helped me pick my outfit out yesterday, but now I'm second guessing it and I don't have time to go buy anything new seeing as I'd have to catch a bus to Mobile and it's already Friday evening. And did you know that Rose knows where Wade is taking me and won't tell me? What kind of friend is she? A bad one, that's one kind.
Addie sighed and closed her magazine. She stood and walked around the counter. "Come on, sit down," she said, steering Zoe into one of the waiting room chairs. She sat down across from her. "Now why, Zoe, are you so nervous about being alone with that boy? Ain't like you've never been alone with him before."
"I've never been on a date with him before," Zoe pointed out. "Or anyone else. In six years!" They were all missing the point.
"Dr. Hart, I know there is more to it than that." Zoe sighed.
"I just want it to go well," she admitted, wishing Gigi was around for her to talk to. She'd called her friend a dozen times in just the last two days, but she was coordinating a big party later that night and not able to talk Zoe off her latest ledge as she supervised set up. "Wade… He's been such a great friend, one of the only friends I have here. I don't want to mess that up."
"Wade has never thought of you as a friend," Addie informed her. "At first, you were fresh meat. But sometime between the gumbo cook off and the heat wave, he started looking at you different. That boy is so crazy about you it should be certifiable. You can't see it because you're in it, but it's the talk of the town, Wade Kinsella actually falling for a girl. Like I told you the other day, all you have to do is just be you – the same thing you've been doing since you wound up on Bluebell's doorstep fresh from the big city."
"But what if I mess it up?" Zoe asked, voicing her fears. "What if I do something or I say something and Wade ends up hating me?" There. She'd said it. She'd confessed her biggest fear about dating Wade.
"I think that'll be hard for you to do," Addie said. "If Wade ain't run for the hills by now, it's going to take a lot more than one bad date to get him to stop chasing after you." Zoe smiled, thinking Addie was right. She'd been downright rude to Wade more than once and showed herself to be incompetent at small town living on a regular basis and yet he was still there, asking her to go on a date with him and building makeshift New Year's Eve balls for her. He'd even seen her first thing in the morning with no makeup on and wearing her oldest sweats. If that didn't scare him off, Zoe didn't know what it would take.
"You're right," she said, feeling her confidence renew. "I can do this. It's Wade. Wade and I talk all the time. We're together all the time. I can totally do this." Addie laughed and shook her head. Zoe might have been a fast talking New Yorker who put on a tough front, but at the end of the day, she had her insecurities just like the next person.
"You gonna eat that cereal or just push it around your bowl until it dissolves in your milk?" Lavon asked, watching Wade play with his breakfast. Wade looked up at him.
"Just thinkin,'" he said.
"About?"
"Nothin.'"
"Zoe Hart," Lavon countered. Wade sighed.
"It's got to go right, Lavon," he confessed. He'd been playing it cool all week, especially when Zoe was around, but inside, he'd been panicked since he woke up New Year's Day and remembered Zoe had agreed to a date. "This whole datin' thing? I ain't no good at it. I've got about six more hours to figure out how to be good at it."
"Won't you the one giving me dating advice when I was trying to ask out Didi?" Lavon reminded him.
"Yeah. And your first date didn't go so well, did it?"
"But that was Lemon's fault, not yours."
"Still. My track record ain't good." Lavon shook his head.
"Boy, you done dated just about every girl in this town and you're sitting there telling me you ain't no good at dating?"
"No, see, I ain't dated every girl in town. I've taken most of 'em out to dinner or drinks then brought 'em back to my place and, well, you can figure out what happened next. I ain't went on a date with a girl I care about since high school and seein' as that was high school, I reckon it don't really count."
"You have a point," Lavon admitted, even as he recalled Wade's high school girlfriend and how very different Zoe was from her. "But this is Zoe. If you ain't working, you're with her. Just refrain from suggesting anything provocative and y'all will be just fine." Wade sighed.
"I just want it to go well," he said again. "I've put a lot of thought into it. I know she ain't been out on a date in a while and I just want her to have fun and maybe, if I'm lucky, agree to go out with me again." Lavon chuckled.
"You've got it so bad," he stated, standing to fix himself another cup of coffee.
"I know," Wade said. He gave up eating his cereal and dumped it down the garbage disposal. "I'm gonna go see if I can't waste a few hours fishin.' Might calm my nerves."
"Let me know how it goes," Lavon said. "The date, not the fishing." Wade nodded and left through the kitchen door. "He's got it so bad," Lavon said to the empty room.
Somehow, some way, she was having the best hair day she'd had in a while. The outfit Rose had suggested turned out to be perfect for the weather, the high in the low 50s, sunny and clear. Her talk with Addie the day before had managed to calm her down. She'd managed a good night's sleep despite her prediction that she'd lay awake and had spent the day reading a book and taking a long walk around Bluebell to occupy her time until it was time to start getting ready. She had just capped her lip gloss when she heard a light tap on the door.
"You knock now?" she said, opening the door for Wade to come inside. He was wearing his outfit from Thanksgiving, the dark jeans, boots, and blue button down.
"It's not polite to just barge into your date's house," he told her with a grin. He took in her appearance. "You look amazing," he said, watching the faint shade of pink colored her cheeks as she smiled.
"Thank you," she said sincerely. "You don't look so bad yourself." Wade nodded his appreciation.
"You ready?" he asked. Zoe nodded. He reached for her hand. "Let's go then," he said, leading her outside and shutting the door behind her. His nerves subsided as he felt her fingers link with his. He could do this. Zoe took in the old plantation truck parked by her house.
"Where's your car?" she asked.
"Well, Doc, I hope you don't mind, but the truck is gonna to have to be your carriage. It's more appropriate than my car is for today's adventures," Wade answered.
"Where, exactly, are we going?" Zoe asked, trying to think of a place around Bluebell where the beat up old work truck was more appropriate than Wade's well-cared for muscle car. She lifted herself into the truck once Wade opened the door.
"You'll see," he answered.
"That's all I get?" Wade's answer was to shut her door, walk around the truck, and slide behind the wheel. "You're seriously not going to tell me where we're going?" she pressed.
"Zoe, you ever just go with it?" Wade asked, guiding the truck towards the main road.
"Go with what?" Wade grinned, his question answered, but he decided to humor her.
"You ever just roll with it? Just go with the flow, take whatever comes along? Or do you always have to know exactly what you're gonna do next?"
"I can be spontaneous," Zoe stated.
"Oh yeah?" Wade asked. It was clear he didn't believe her. "What was the last spontaneous thing you did?"
"Move to Bluebell," Zoe answered easily. "If leaving New York City for here isn't spontaneous, I don't know what is."
"Okay. I'll give you that. Desperate times, desperate measures. But seriously, when is the last time you were sittin' around and decided to go do somethin' crazy?" Zoe looked at Wade.
"Are we about to do something crazy?" she asked. "Because I told you, I don't do crazy." She was completely serious. Wade chuckled.
"The only thing crazy about what we're about to do is that a guy like me somehow ended up with a girl like you ridin' shotgun," he said. Zoe smiled. "Just sit over there and take in the scenery. And trust me." Zoe decided to do just that, knowing there was no way Wade was going to crack.
They made small talk as the scenery passing by her window quickly grew wilder, taking her outside of the carefully manicured streets around the plantation and into Bluebell's even more rural parts. She'd only been this far outside the heart of Bluebell once and then it was at night, Lavon driving her to deliver a baby. Wade signaled although it wasn't necessary as they hadn't met a car one since leaving the planation and turned off the road onto a dirt road that was so overgrown Zoe wouldn't have known it was there if she were just driving past.
"Are you taking me somewhere to kill me?" she asked as tree limbs passed dangerously close to the old truck on the narrow road. "Because this looks like it would be a good place to hide a body." Wade looked over at her and grinned, obviously amused.
"We're just about there, Doc," he answered. The bumpy road opened up just slightly and the truck pulled to a stop in front of an old, rusty gate. "Sit tight," he told Zoe. "Be right back." He left the truck idling and pulled a key ring out of his pocket. He worked the rusted lock and with some effort, pried it open and pushed the gate free from the weeds. He got back in the truck and continued driving.
"Okay, Wade, I know I'm supposed to trust you, but the further we go into the woods, the more I'm starting to think that's a bad idea," Zoe said, just as the woods opened up into a field that stretched out further than she could see.
"We're here," Wade said, still driving. Zoe raised her eyebrows. She didn't know what she was expecting, but it certainly wasn't a field that was even more in the middle of nowhere than Bluebell itself. Wade laughed at her expression. When he was a good distance from the wood line, he stopped the truck.
"So where are we, exactly?" Zoe asked, looking around for a sign post or landmark that might give her an idea of where they were.
"This is part of my daddy's place," Wade answered as he exited the truck. He walked around the hood and opened Zoe's door. "Slide over," he told her. Zoe gave him a confused look, but slid over into the middle of the old truck's bench seat. Wade climbed in. "All the way over," he instructed.
"Behind the steering wheel?" Zoe asked. Wade nodded and Zoe moved over, Wade taking her spot in the middle. "And?"
"And, Zoe Hart, I'm gonna teach you how to drive," Wade answered. He chuckled at the astonished look on her face.
"You're going to try to teach me how to drive?" she repeated. Wade nodded.
"You need to learn," he told her. "And if you can learn on this 'ol thing, you can drive anything."
"But… I don't…"
"No protestin,'" Wade cut her off. "Ain't nothin' out here you can hit so long as you keep it away from the trees and ain't much you can do to hurt this old Ford. I'll have you drivin' yourself around Bluebell in no time." Zoe had her doubts, but she put her hands on the wheel.
"So what do I do?" she asked.
"First, you start the truck," Wade answered.
"Smart ass," Zoe mumbled. She turned the key. Nothing happened. She tried again, trying to force it to turn further than it would. "It's broke or something," she announced. Wade was looking at her in disbelief.
"You really don't have a clue about drivin,' do you?"
"I told you, I never needed to drive in New York." Wade shook his head. He'd thought for sure that Zoe had at least been behind the wheel of a car before. This was going to take some work.
"Okay. Here's what you do. Put your left foot on the clutch and your right foot on the brake," he instructed. Zoe looked in the floorboard and saw three pedals. She looked back at him with a raised eyebrow. "The one all the way to left is the clutch. The one in the middle is the brake," he said patiently. Zoe did as told. "Now turn the key." The engine roared to life. And promptly shut off.
"What happened?" Zoe asked.
"You took your foot off the clutch," Wade answered. "Try it again, but keep the clutch pressed in." Zoe pushed in the clutch and started the old truck.
"Okay. Truck is on. What's next?"
"Put it in neutral." Wade walked her through how to move the gear shift into neutral. "Now listen. You're gonna ease up off the clutch real slow while giving it just a little gas with your other foot. You'll feel it sort of catch and then we'll start movin.' You can ease off the clutch then."
"Clutch, gas, push in, push down…," Zoe mumbled as she went through the motions. The truck started moving forward, taking her by surprise. She gasped and jumped, her foot slipping of the clutch in the process. The truck stalled out. Wade had expected that.
"Just start it back up and try again," Wade said.
Nearly an hour later, Zoe was crawling through the field, a death grip on the steering wheel as she sat stiff as a board peering out of the windshield. It had taken the better part of 30 minutes for her to get the hang of starting the truck and getting it into motion. Once she'd mastered what should have been a simple step in the process, they'd made a few laps around the sprawling field.
"Go ahead and give it some gas," Wade told her. His arm was draped across the seat behind her and he had slid so close their legs were touching so he could grab the wheel if he needed to. Or at least that was the guise he was operating under.
"No, no gas," Zoe replied, a trill of nervousness in her voice. "This is good. Slow is good. Really, really good."
"You gotta learn to shift gears, Doc. Give it some gas." Zoe bit her lip, but pushed down on the gas. "Hear that?" Zoe nodded, all of concentration on the trees up ahead growing steadily closer. "That means it's time to shift up to the next gear. Push down on the clutch…" The truck stalled.
"Not again!" Zoe shrieked. Every time she thought she had the hang of it, Wade added some detail or next step and she felt like she went back to square one.
"It's okay," Wade reassured her. "What do you say we take a break?" Zoe nodded. She could use a break. They got out of the truck and Wade took her hand. They started walking towards the tree line. Wade's nerves returned full force as he started worrying about whether Zoe was having a good time.
"You said this was your dad's place?" Zoe asked, remembering the comment he'd made earlier.
"Yeah, this is his," Wade confirmed. "I guess technically it's mine and Meredith's, but as long as he's alive and drinkin' it's his."
"It's beautiful," Zoe said, finally taking the time to appreciate the way the land spread out before her as the sun started its descent from the sky into bands of darkening pink and orange. "Was he a farmer?"
"Cotton and peanuts mostly," Wade confirmed. "A little corn and some soy beans some years. But he let it go after Momma died, started workin' the shrimp boats. I doubt this land could grow much more than weeds these days." They reached the woods and Zoe was surprised to see a creek flowing just a couple hundred yards in. Wade led her towards a cluster of rocks and helped her climb up before following her.
"So be honest. How bad of a driver am I?" Zoe asked.
"You're pretty awful," Wade told her. Zoe scoffed. "You asked," he reminded her.
"You know, Lavon's Navigator doesn't have one of those stick things in the floor," she said, wondering what the difference was.
"That's 'cause it's an automatic. You pretty much crank it up and drive." Zoe looked at him.
"Why can't I learn to drive on that?" she asked. It sounded so much easier than shifting gears and pushing down clutches while simultaneously trying to keep the truck on and away from anything she could hit.
"Like Lavon's gonna let you behind the wheel of that thing," Wade said. "'Sides, it's best if you learn on a stick – makes drivin' an automatic a lot easier."
"For most people," Zoe commented. Wade put an arm around her and pulled her close. She surprised him by slipping between his legs and leaning back against his chest. He encircled her with his arms and held her close.
"You'll get it," he told her. He pointed to something on the opposite river bank. "See that?" he asked. Zoe looked and saw the remains of what looked like it used to be a tree house. "Me and George Tucker spent a whole summer buildin' that thing when we was about ten. Hauled all the materials out here on our bikes with wagons attached to 'em. Probably took us half the summer just to do that. But we had high times out here once we got it done, sittin' up there, shootin' BB guns, fightin' off zombies, hidin' from our parents…"
"It's kind of sad that you two aren't as close as you used to be," Zoe commented, thinking of how she and Gigi had known each other just as long as Wade and George had known one another and how despite their ups and downs and the miles between them, had managed to remain close. "Why did you grow apart?"
"Life," Wade answered. Zoe had noticed that was his answer to a lot of things. "We graduated high school, he went off to college, I stayed here. I reckon I still count him as a good friend, but we ain't gonna be havin' no sleepovers any time soon." Zoe smiled and snuggled deeper into his embrace. They lapsed into silence for several long minutes, both soaking in the moment as the creek's babbling provided their soundtrack.
"Thank you," Zoe told him, breaking the silence as she turned her head to look up at him. He furrowed his brow.
"For what?" he asked. Their date hadn't really even started yet.
"This," Zoe answered. "Everything." Wade was still confused. "You're always there, helping me, protecting me, doing little things for me that I either don't notice or you keep to yourself. I can't believe it's taken me this long to say thank you." Wade hugged her to him. He was certain his heart skipped a beat, just because of her proximity though her words didn't hurt.
"I care about you," he answered. "I ain't gonna let you show up at a cookoff with no gumbo or poke at a fuse box with a stick. I certainly ain't gonna let some drug dealer with a chip on his shoulder hurt you." Zoe smiled at him and leaned up to kiss his cheek. It never failed to take her by surprise, just how simple Wade could make things. He cared about so he did things like make her a pot of gumbo or put plastic over her windows to show it. It was so different than anything she'd experienced.
"You know, this is shaping up to be the best first date I've ever been on," Zoe said.
"Well, it ain't close to over," he said. He stood and jumped down from the rock then helped Zoe down.
"What are we doing now?" she asked.
"Did you really think I won't gonna feed you?" Wade asked. There was a twinkle in his eye and Zoe knew the driving lesson was just a precursor to their real date. Wade kept her hand in his as they made their way back to the truck.
"You should probably drive," Zoe said when they reached the old Ford. Wade opened the passenger door for her.
"Probably a good idea," he agreed.
They were at the lake. She'd heard plenty about the lake, knew it was the place to hangout for Bluebell's teenage population, but she hadn't had the chance to experience it herself yet, both because she didn't have a reason to head out there and because of the whole inability to drive thing.
It was beautiful. The water stretched out in all directions and likely joined up with the Gulf at its end. A handful of homes dotted the banks and boats bobbed along the docks of a small marina. Some of the boats looked to be commercial fishing boats, confirming Zoe's suspicions that the lake was really a tributary to the Gulf. There was a small bath house and sandy beach which Zoe imagined was full of teenagers in the warmest months. But, she couldn't help but notice, there didn't seem to be a restaurant.
"You're tryin' hard to figure out where we're eatin,' ain't you?" Wade asked as he opened her door. Zoe wondered if she'd ever have to open a door again in his presence.
"Call it more of a curious pondering," Zoe answered. Wade laughed and offered Zoe his arm.
"I thought I'd show you a little of what Bluebell truly has to offer," he stated. He led her down a set of stairs and along a planked sidewalk that wrapped around the lake. They were alone except for two people walking towards them from the opposite direction.
"The sunset is incredible," Zoe said, taking in the way the oranges and pinks reflected off the water as the sun slowly disappeared from view. It was like a watercolor painting. She had never seen anything like it in New York.
"That's one of the best shows Bluebell has to offer," Wade told her. He had purposefully planned to take her to the lake at sunset, but nature was putting on a far better show than he'd hoped for. He wasn't the praying type, but he'd have to thank the man upstairs later that night for both the sunset and for Zoe agreeing to go out with him. The people walking in their direction grew steadily closer. Zoe frowned when she recognized them.
"That's Rose and Shelly," she said. "What are they doing here?" Wade grinned at her.
"You didn't think I could pull this off all by myself, did you?" Shelly and Rose passed them, both giggling. Shelly gave them an animated wink and Rose caught Zoe's eye and gave her a huge smile. Wade nodded at the two in thanks and they disappeared down the sidewalk, leaving Zoe and Wade alone.
"That little liar," Zoe said, looking over her shoulder at Rose's retreating form. "She knew exactly where you were taking me and wouldn't breathe a word."
"Let's just say I had to have a man to man talk with Fredrick Dean on the merits of Rose versus Magnolia Breeland in exchange for her silence," Wade answered. Zoe laughed, wishing she could have been a fly on the wall for that conversation. They came to a bend in the path and Wade stopped. "Close your eyes," he said. Zoe looked wary. "Zoe, close your eyes," he said again. Zoe nodded and let her eye lids fall shut. She felt Wade take her hand once more. "Keep 'em closed," he advised, leading her down the path once more. Zoe did as she was told, her remaining senses heightened as she listened to the sound of their footsteps echoing off the planks and the sound of water lapping at the shore nearby. Soon, Wade stopped them. Zoe heard him take a deep breath.
"Okay," he said. "Open your eyes."
Zoe blinked her eyes open and gasped, her hand covering her mouth. They were standing at the end of one of the docks, a table for two set up, complete with candles and two covered plates, a bottle of wine chilling in an ice bucket. White Christmas lights had been strung up around the table to give them a soft glow as night fell.
"Wow," was all Zoe could muster. "You did all of this?"
"With a little help," Wade said, always modest. "I just… Well, I know you said you ain't been on a date in a while and I just… I wanted to make it special for you." He fell over his words, letting his nerves show for the first time since he'd picked her up. Zoe nodded.
"Special is a word," she said, looking around again. "This is amazing." She turned to Wade and put her arms around his neck. "Come here," she said, standing on tiptoes to kiss him. Wade was all too happy to oblige. He kissed her one more time before he let her go.
"Have a seat," he said, pulling out her chair. Wade sat down across from her. "Hope you're hungry," he said, taking the cover off her plate. It was a full southern meal – pulled pork barbecue, creamy macaroni and cheese, seasoned green beans and cornbread. Zoe's mouth watered just looking at it.
"This looks incredible," she said. Wade uncovered his own plate then poured them each a glass of wine. "Who cooked everything?"
"The barbecue's mine," he said. "Smoked it overnight. Shelly took care of everything else but it's my momma's recipes – same ones we use at the Rammer Jammer." Zoe speared the barbecue with her fork and put it in her mouth. She caught herself before she moaned out loud.
"This is delicious," she confirmed. Wade smiled at her.
"Glad you like it," he said before digging into his own meal.
Zoe knew she was done for. As she'd put it to Gigi, she'd been stumbling over her heels for Wade. Now, there was no denying that she was head over heels. He'd pulled out all the stops to impress her. She could hardly believe someone really cared enough about her to go through so much trouble. She wasn't good at this relationship thing, but she was willing to give it a shot if Wade was. He was worth it.
The food long gone, including slices of chocolate cake from Agnes' Bakery, Zoe laughed as Wade finished telling her another one of his more obnoxious high school stories involving several of his friends and a practical joke on the cheerleading squad that had left them with blue hair just before Homecoming. She stood and wandered to the rail, looking out over the water, her smile seemingly permanent on her face. She heard Wade's chair scrape and then his footsteps. Soon, his arms wrapped around her.
"Thank you for agreeing to this," he said, his lips near her ear.
"For agreeing to what?" Zoe asked, turning so she was facing Wade, pinned between him and the railing.
"To go out with me," Wade answered. "I know I ain't your usual cup of tea."
"The thing is, I think you might be just the exact cup of tea I've been looking for," Zoe answered. It was one of the most truthful statements she'd ever made. Wade rested his head against her forehead.
"Does this mean I get a second date?" he asked. Zoe laughed. She could hear the hope in his voice.
"Yeah, I reckon it does." Wade chuckled at her attempt to use a southern phrase. Zoe shivered a little, the night hair much cooler than the warmer daytime temperatures. Wade noticed.
"It's getting' cold out," he said. "Let's head back to the truck." Zoe didn't want the night to end but she couldn't deny that she was getting cold. Wade let her go and blew out the candles which had melted down to mere stubs over the time they'd sat at their table.
"Don't we need to clean some of this up or something?" Zoe asked.
"That second date? It won't happen this week. I'm covering all of Shelly's shifts as a return favor," Wade answered. Zoe grinned.
"So Rose, Shelly… Who else did you bribe to make this night happen?" Zoe slipped her hand around his elbow as they made their way back up the sidewalk.
"Lavon," Wade admitted. "But more so that he wouldn't tell you anything about our date. I'm fixin' him and Didi dinner Wednesday night." Zoe laughed. They reached the truck and Wade opened the door for Zoe again. But instead of getting in, she turned to Wade and hugged him.
"Tonight – today – has been amazing," she told him. "Thank you for doing all of this for me."
"I'd do anything for you, Zoe," Wade muttered before leaning in to kiss her. Once she was safely inside the truck, Wade walked around to the driver's side. He grinned as he absentmindedly fingered his necklace. He was, hands down, the luckiest guy in Alabama.
Like Jason Aldean's song, I wanted Zoe to sort of experience Bluebell like Wade or Lavon or George or even Lemon know it. Wade was showing her what the town has to offer. And so far, Zoe likes it. :) I hope you liked it too!
Thanks for reading and reviewing!