"Zoe, lovely to see you again, explain to me why I had to pick you up?" Jesse asked, taking her luggage, wrapping an arm around her in the process.
"Would telling you that I missed you, please you?" She asked, hugging him.
"Please me? Very much so, settle my curiosity? Hell no! I am your best friend, shouldn't you tell me what's going on and not keep secrets?" He asked her.
"This is my secret to keep and reveal as I see fit," she remarked. "However, I will say that it makes no sense to rent a car this time around, when I have such a wonderful friend in you," she smiled. "The real reason will be revealed soon enough, but I need to tell a few other people first," she explained flashing him a smile.
He could guess all the way to Bluebell on what it was, but he had a fairly good idea what the news was and he wouldn't say a word about it, this was her news after all, and he wouldn't spoil it for her.
"We need to talk about a few things, Zoe. I feel like I should warn you since you did come down here to be my date," he was saying, when she stopped him.
"Whatever it is it can wait. I am sorry that I have been ignoring you, but I had to sort through things, and I already had your little voice in my head swaying things. It has been a long few weeks," she sighed. "I just want to go to my place and hide away from the prying eyes of this town before I lose the courage on what it is I need to do," she told him.
"I get it; no feelings were hurt," he assured her. "So I'm not taking you to your dad's house?" Zoe answered his question by shaking her head. The more he was told by Zoe the bigger his smile was growing on the inside as not to give away what he had put together. "Did Joel not want to come? He must be a pretty chill dude to let his girlfriend come states away and be another man's date for a wedding," he said, with a hint of a smirk. It was cruel to keep pretending that there was a wedding going on, but if she didn't know yet, he wasn't going to say anything besides in his defense, he tried to tell her, she didn't want to hear it. His plan would surely work now.
"We broke up," she told him leaving it at that. He waited for her to say more, but she remained quiet. "Two broken hearts don't always mend each other, not when your heart lies elsewhere."
"I am sorry for the part I played in that. The last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt you, and I feel bad that I have been shoving my little brother at you," he told her letting a puff of air out.
"You didn't hurt me; you showed me that I really wasn't ready for another major relationship. If anything I should be thanking you. We all need a shove, Jesse," she remarked, looking at him.
"Why do I have the feeling this is no longer about you and my brother but rather about me?" He questioned, pulling the car up to her house.
"Because it is, Jesse," she told him pushing the car door open. "You can't use me as your date forever. I know how hard it is to move on, hell, I haven't even done that, but trust me, it is not fun being hung up on an ex. Either you go to her and find a way to fix it, or you go home and find a way to move past it all, because being stuck will ruin you, Jesse. I wish I had someone who would've laid it out for me years ago," she told him slipping from his car, going to the back.
"I hear ya, Zo, but for the moment, I want to be single. I haven't just been single in such a long time. I will be fine; she wasn't my great love," he responded, joining her behind the car, to get her luggage out. It was easy to pretend, but with how easy it had been to let her go; he was coming around to the fact that maybe she wasn't his great love, that he still had yet to find the one. So pretending was easy when he actually thought about it. All breaks up could be as easy or as hard as you wanted to make them, and he wanted this one to be easy, because he did want to move on from her.
"As long as you my friend are happy," she smiled at him, walking to the front door to unlock it. "Wade buying this house for me was the sweetest thing any guy has ever done for me," she commented, holding the door open for him.
"That was quite the move on his part," Jesse smiled, sitting her luggage down, by the front door. "Do you mind?" He asked, gesturing to the rest of the house.
"Go ahead, just take your shoes off, I don't need you scuffing the floor up," she told him, pointing at his shoes. Her own already off and to the side neatly.
Jesse rolled his eyes but toed his shoes off; he went to look around as Zoe headed to the master room and put her things away. He was impressed with the work Wade had done on the house by himself; he would have helped his brother out if he had known what Wade had been up too. It was clear that he wanted his brother and Zoe together. He really hoped he wasn't wrong about the two of them, time changes people, and they had changed for the better, but under that change, they were still the same. He couldn't afford to be wrong for their sake.
"This is my favorite room," she said, feeling Jesse's presence behind her. "I wish he would've said something sooner," she sighed.
"We both do, but we can't change that, Zo," he replied joining her. "What are you going to do about Wade?"
"You'll find out later; I really think I need to talk to Wade before I tell you," she remarked with a smile.
"Zoe, I need to tell you something," he said, telling her was the right thing to do. "I really think you should know that…" he was in the process of saying, he was going to tell her about the wedding being canceled, it was the friendly thing to do. He had gotten the best of himself since deciding not to tell her on the way to town from the airport in Mobile, but now, he felt the need to tell her.
"Nothing you have to say is going to change what I am going to do, Jesse."
"I respect that I do, but have you talked to anyone from Bluebell in the short amount of time you have been gone?" He asked, changing his question mid sentence.
"I briefly talked to Lemon a few different times and AB as well, but they did not tell me anything about anyone other than themselves," she informed him.
He nodded happy to hear that she had talked to someone if not him, but he knew they wouldn't know about Tansy leaving. Wade had only told him, as far as the rest of the town believed the wedding was still on. Wade didn't want anyone else to slip up and tell Zoe before he was given a chance. And he didn't feel bad for deceiving anyone either; the town talked too much for its own good, and no one would get hurt by keeping it all under wraps.
"It was lovely to see you; we will have to do this again while you are in town, but I must be going; Wade is waiting for me," he replied, standing up.
"Thank you for the talk and for the ride," she told him, getting up to see him out.
"Sit and enjoy that lovely view, I know my way out," he told her with a smile walking away.
Zoe smiled looking out the window, curling up in her seat. She was happy to be home.
Jesse smiled backing out of the driveway. Now all he had to do was make sure Wade found his way out to the house where he would bump into Zoe. He wasn't sure if he wanted to be sneaky and tell his brother a little white lie or tell him straight out that Zoe was here a few days earlier than she had said she would be and that she was staying at her home. That all depended on Wade when he saw him.
He did for a split second feel bad for deceiving Zoe about the wedding, but how many times can you try to tell someone something before giving up because they don't want to hear it? There was no way he was going to yell it out and then take off, that would be worse than not telling her the truth.
"You are over an hour late," Wade pointed out, before Jesse had even sat down. "Where were you?"
"There are things that not even you need to know about," he smirked. "What is all of this?" He questioned, picking a small stack of papers up.
"I've been so focused on giving Zoe her dream home, that I put my plans on the back burner, and music has been there when drinking didn't work," he commented.
"A band? You're going to start a band?" Jesse questioned.
"That depends on a few different things, first I need to find people to join my band and see if we can make it, I don't know what I want to happen if I do start a band," he shrugged. "A music teacher, I can do that, I can help mold the minds of the younger generation and show them the power music has," he smiled.
"Forget the band, Wade. Music teacher it is for you. Just sitting here I can see you have more passion for teaching kids about music than you do about a lousy band," Jesse told him.
"I'm glad you say that, because I've enrolled in a few classes to get my degree."
"That is huge, Wade," Jesse grinned, hitting his brother's arm. "We need to celebrate, but first I think you need to go check on Zoe's house." Hearing his brothers' news, he knew exactly what he was going to do about making Wade and Zoe run into each other.
"Why?" Wade questioned, eyeing him up.
"She's going to be here in a few days and who knows if she wants to stay at her home or with her dad. Even so, either way you should check on it, make sure no one has been messing around there. You know that teens in this town like to have parties where their parents can't find them and with Zoe's house being far enough away from neighbors, and the house empty it makes for the perfect location."
"That actually makes sense," Wade nodded.
"You go do that and I will get everyone gathered up to celebrate you going after your dreams," Jesse told him. "Hey Wade," Jesse called after him, seeing Wade stop by the door; Jesse continued talking, "if I knew something about Zoe would you want me to tell you?"
"Depends on what," Wade replied. "Have you talked to her?"
"For a few minutes earlier in the day. It has to do with Joel," Jesse carefully told him. It wasn't his loyalty to his brother, but rather that if Zoe wasn't going to hear him out, Wade would and one of them needed to be filled in.
"What are they getting married?" Wade asked a fake laugh escaping. Jesse shook his head.
"The opposite actually," Jesse responded. "I tried to tell her about your wedding, but she wouldn't have it so as far as she knows you are still getting married. So if you want to walk away from her, you can do that, or after you check that house of hers, you can get your girl. However, you might want to change first, let me know if you will be making it for drinks," Jesse told him, getting up. "Do what makes you happy little brother," he said, leaving Wade alone with his thoughts.
Run to her or stay away. He didn't fully know the answer; however, the drive to Zoe's house should help clear his head. Or maybe he should have Jesse go check on the place, and he head straight to New York to get his woman. He was tired of living a life at a crossroad.