"Hey Zo, I thought we could order in and have a little uncensored fun, " Wade suggested, "or not," he said, walking into the bedroom to see his girlfriend, in a dress with a little white sweater over it. "You are looking smokin' Doc, did I miss the memo about having plans for the night?" He asked, sitting on the bed, his eyes trained on his girlfriend. "If it is a girls' night can you cancel; your boyfriend is feeling a little needy tonight," he whined, reaching out for her.
"No memo," she told him, sitting on his lap. A girls' night out would be made for a later date, she did need a night out to really catch up with her girl friends. "No girls' night out, you are needy quite a lot," she retorted, pushing his shirt up, promoting him to lift his arms up, so she could pull the garment off. "We do have dinner plans with your brother and this girlfriend of his," she said against his lips.
"Do we have to go?" He pouted, making quick works of the little white sweater she was wearing, letting it drop to the floor. "After all the stress as of late all I really want to do is stay in and enjoy you," he husked out, tugging on her bottom lip with his teeth.
"We do," she managed to get out. "I have got the weekend off; we can lock ourselves in all weekend and never once get dressed," she suggested in a sultry voice, her tongue lapping at his neck.
"That is a much more brilliant idea than the one I had," he moaned out. "Give me a few extra minutes."
She smiled, kissing his nose, leaving him alone to get ready for the night. His suggestion of staying in did sound appealing, they had been through so much that staying in as a couple was heaven to her. The nights following the talk between father and son, they were busy, falling into bed and cuddling the most they are up for doing. So staying home was very appealing to her, she was, however, curious on who Jesse's girlfriend was. As the best friend, it was her duty to make sure that Willow's intentions were good. She felt that after everything, she wasn't being a very good best friend to him and now that they lived in the same town once more, it was time to start acting like a best friend should.
"Where are we going?" Wade asked, buttoning his shirt up as he came downstairs. "I do look okay right?" He asked with a spin.
"Good enough to eat," she purred, fixing the collar of his shirt. "A little seaside restaurant in Mobile," she told him, smoothing out his shirt.
A guy could only take so much teasing from his girlfriend before he was forced to do something about that, and his brother could wait a few extra minutes; his brother was the least of his worries, hoisting his girlfriend up on the kitchen counter.
"I would be sorry we are late if I actually meant it," Wade said in a way of greeting, pulling a chair out for his girlfriend.
"Excuse my brother, there are times where he doesn't have a filter," Jesse told his girlfriend. It had only been official for a few nights now. She wanted to meet his family and for him that started with Wade and Zoe. He already explained the situation to her with his father. "My brother Wade and his girlfriend, Zoe," he introduced. "And this is my girlfriend, Willow."
"Hi, I've actually heard more about the best friend than the stubborn younger brother. For a while, I thought I had every reason to be jealous and envy of his best friend, kept me from really committing to him until I learned you were dating his little brother who bought you a house," she rambled off.
"He did and as romantic as it really is, when he gave it to me, things weren't good between us. I lived in New York, and at the time I had no intentions of moving back here. Things worked out for the best, and I wouldn't change that. It is his home as much as it is mine," she explained, interlacing her fingers with his atop of the table, taking a look at the menu, Wade looking over her shoulder, pointing things out.
"I was in the same boat as you, jealous and envious of the friendship these two have," he said, looking up from the menu, to look at the red-head with deep-blue eyes.
"Don't forget pissed, that I stole your ex-girlfriend and your best friend," Jesse laughed.
Their conversation came to a halt when the waiter came and took their order.
"That too," he admitted openly, after the waiter left. "You knew how I felt about her, and it was like you didn't care." It was a small part in the already bad part of his life. He wouldn't deny it. "At the time, I didn't think just assumed that you were after her, I didn't have much faith left at that point."
"I know but it took her a year to trust that I only wanted to be friends and to know that it wasn't about you," Jesse shared.
"I believe I punched you once too," she laughed.
"I need to hear that story," Wade piped in, looking between his brother and his girlfriend.
"Not much to tell, I was studying, and he found me, startled me, and I punched him," Zoe shrugged, leaning into Wade. He placed a lingering kiss to her temple.
"Black eye for a week," he chuckled, touching his left eye. "Stung a few days after."
"You deserved it after telling your girl lies about me," Wade smirked, wishing he would have been able to witness that or even hear about it. He saw his brother in person when his black eye was fading, never did get the truth out of him about it though, and now he knew why.
"What lies?" Zoe questioned with a smirk. "Enough about us, we want to know how you two met," Zoe said.
"It was at a little bakery in Fairhope. I was undecided on what I wanted and Jesse as impatient as he can be, offered his expertise to hurry me along," Willow laughed, taking his hand in hers. "The following week it happened again but with a different selection, I thanked him, and he took it upon himself to join me, it took off from there."
"I needed a reason to talk to her," Jesse admitted. "I had nowhere to be; I actually waited each day at the bakery until she came back in a week later," he shyly said.
"You were whipped before you even really knew her," Wade laughed.
"It is sweet if you look past the stalkerish tendency there," Zoe responded with a giggle. "Is that how you get all your friends and girlfriends by stalking them?"
"I wasn't stalking you; I was following you to make sure you were okay because you refused to talk to me," he defended himself. "And no, I don't stalk anyone," he huffed out.
"Dude, that is considered stalking," Wade informed him with a chuckle.
"Whatever they were for good reasons," Jesse said with an eye roll.
"I have to admit something," Willow said speaking up, after their food was brought out to them. "Like I've said before I heard a lot about Zoe, and I really thought I was going to have a chat with you about backing off from Jesse, so I could be with him, it didn't even matter that you were with Wade; from an outside standpoint, it was like you were using one to get the other, the other in this case being, Jesse," she quickly got out, feeling bad about her judgment now that she has met Zoe. "I was wrong; I see now just how in love you two are with each other."
"We are engaged to be engaged in the near future," Wade stated.
"I've never heard of that before," Willow stated. It didn't make much sense to her.
"We have talked about it, with everything we have been through, and we will be getting married in the future, just not quite yet; he has even talked to my dad about it asking for permission so when the time does come he only has to ask. I don't know when if will happen so I'll still be surprised," she explained the best she could without going into great detail about their past and what they had overcome, she didn't want to be there all night talking about Wade and herself.
"Trust me, it makes perfect sense for those two," Jesse tossed in. He got it and as best friend and brother, he didn't want them to rush into anything, especially marriage if they weren't ready for it.
"Tell us about you Willow. What do you do? How big is your family? We want to know about you," Wade said, stealing a bite of Zoe's food. He in return offered her a bite of his food.
"You two are just so cute it's disgusting," Willow commented with a smile. "I was raised by my father. My mom died of breast cancer. My dad never remarried. I'm the oldest of four kids, the only girl too; I was 10 when my mom passed away. I am working on opening my own little ice cream shop in Bluebell," she rattled off. "Oh and I was born in Oklahoma but raised in Georgia, went to school in California and moved to Fairhope two years ago," she tacked on as an afterthought.
From there they talked and joked about different things having a good night out making new friends. Zoe and Willow made plans to hang out the following week; she even invited her new friend out for the girls' night she was planning on having in the upcoming week or two. It was a fun night to have. For Wade and Zoe, the night only got better when they got home, enjoying each other.