I had plans of getting this up to you all on Wednesday, but things came up and Thursday I was busy so I tried on Friday but I wasn't feeling it and when Saturday rolled around I had about half of this written and I thought about putting that up for you all but decided against it and kept it the rest of the weekend and kept adding to it to make up for not getting up it when I wanted to have it up. I do hope you all like this chapter, enjoy!
"I got her, Doc," Wade told his wife, pulling his pants back up. He had just barely gotten home from closing the Rammer Jammer up. He really wanted to climb into bed with his wife and hold her while he slept. He was still into making that a reality when he was able to slip his shirt off and letting his pants fall to the floor so be could step out of them when Eliza started to cry. Since he was wide awake he didn't mind going to her and getting her back to sleep, he actually enjoyed the night time visits. It was just her and him and the world around them was at peace. He kissed her head softly after figuring out what it was she was crying for. "She's hungry, Mommy," Wade cooed walking into their room, seeing Zoe was still awake barely.
Zoe smiled sleepily sitting up and taking her daughter to feed her. Wade pulled his pants off, crawling into bed, watching his wife and daughter. He couldn't remember why he had been so embarrassed about it before, it was a wonderful sight to see, beautiful in so many ways. It was something special to witness and it made him love his wife even more.
A few minutes later once Eliza was full, burped and struggling to stay awake Zoe turned to her husband to ask him something, the words dying on her lips, seeing him knocked out with a grin on his face. "Say nighty night, Daddy," Zoe said with a smile carefully getting up.
"Night princess," Wade said eyes closed. Zoe shook her, putting her baby girl back to bed. She stood watching her little girl for a few moments to make sure that she was going to stay asleep. Quietly she left her little girl.
Wade pulled Zoe into his body when he felt her lay back down next to him; he kissed her shoulder burying his head into the crook of her neck as he drifted back to sleep.
Wade woke up to an empty bed, he laid there trying to hear life around him, there was no cries for his baby girl, no laughter for his two oldest ones, nothing from his wife and no excess noise from anything else, his house was dead silent. He got up grabbing a clean pair of jeans and slipped them on before venturing into the house, he had searched the whole house before spotting the note that was stuck to the fridge.
Wade, Braxton and Ariel are at a friend's house until tonight. I'm with your mom, be home later and Eliza sends her love.
Wade placed the note down on the counter, looking around trying to figure out something he could do until his family came home. The last time he had a day to himself was lost on him, if he didn't have Braxton he had work or he had issues that he needed to work out and didn't have time to do whatever it was he wanted. So today was different. Not feeling up to cooking food for just himself he grabbed out a box of cereal and made himself a bowl, taking it to the living room to find something on TV. He flicked through the channels stopping on ESPN to get caught up in the world of sports that he had been missing out on as of lately.
An hour later had him turning the TV off letting out a long and boring sigh, the house was cleaned and he was amazed at that, he didn't want Zoe to overwork herself now that their little girl was just shy of being a month old by 2 days. With nothing to do inside, he stepped outside looking around the yard, there wasn't much to do but enough to keep him busy for another hour if he worked slowly.
With the yard work being done and a thin layer of sweat covering his body, he walked into the house getting an ice cold drink of water. Taking his water with him he walked into the garage smiling when the coolness hit him. He looked over at the car wondering just when they had gave up on working on it for Braxton. He couldn't really remember when it happened, but by the look of the unopened boxes and the small layer of dust it had been a while and that was going to change now.
Hours later it was the sound of his stomach protesting against him that had him dropping the tools in hand, he walked inside the house heading straight to wash up, he wasn't about to make his wife freak out about the black marks he would leave all over the kitchen. He had just pulled the fridge open looking for what he would need to make a sandwich when he couldn't find what he was looking for. Letting the fridge door shut he grabbed a shirt and pulled it over his head as he looked for his wallet and headed out the door.
It had been nice to be left alone for a few hours, he forgot just how relaxing it could be and it was something he could get use to but he was missing his family. So once he spotted two of his kids playing outside, he took a minute to watch them as they ran around laughing, he smiled at the scene in front of him and continued on his walk to get food before his stomach decided it could no longer wait and start to eat him inside out.
"Hey guys," Wade greeted after he went to the kitchen and placed his own order of food, sitting down next to Lavon, George on the other side of the table.
"How'd you get away from your family?" George asked.
"They abandoned me this morning," Wade smiled, stealing a fry from his friend's plate.
"What the heck did you do?" Lavon asked with a laugh.
"I didn't do a thing," he protested. "When I woke up they were gone," he defended himself.
They dropped it after that and talked about guy things while they ate, tried to make plans to hang out like they use to when they were younger and didn't have the responsibility of family keeping them away, not that any of the three men would change it, Wade personally liked to be busy with his family. But he did miss hanging out with his friends but the only problem was they couldn't find a day let alone a night where they could hang out, if family wasn't in the way then work was, they had no nights off at the same time except Lavon who was always free whenever the other two were but they couldn't get anything to work out so they left it up in the air to figure out at a later date in time.
He finished his lunch getting a beer to enjoy what little time he had left with his friends when Jesse had joined them. He had pouted and wanted to know why they hadn't invited him.
"Because it's peaceful when you're not around whining," Wade joked, taking a long pull from his bottle of beer. "We haven't seen you in a few weeks; you finally found a way to escape huh?"
"Don't even joke about that," Jesse told him shaking his head. "It's the first chance I had to get away, she's been crazy these last few weeks, needing things to be done because everything needs to be perfect for when the baby comes, which is still like 3 months away," he sighed. He really wished that his little baby would be born already; he was ready to hold his little bundle in his arms. Taryn had found out what they were having but he didn't want to know until the baby was born, he wanted to be surprised in that way, but it left him not able to do much with the nursery since she knew and he didn't, he was allowed to put the crib together and things like that but the rest like the painting and decorating was something she was going to have her brother do and for him it sucked but he didn't want to fight with her about that, because he wasn't going to let the nursery theme reveal if he was going to have a boy or a girl.
"She's only excited," Wade told him with a soft laugh. "But I know first hand that anything can happen between now and the due date, dude, just try to make her relax and take as much stress off of her as you can," he informed his brother. "How'd you get away?" Wade asked him then, George and Lavon letting the brother's have there little conversation.
"I have been," he assured his brother. "She's out doing some baby shopping with your wife and our mother, so it's going to be awhile yet. Eliza has gotten so big since I've seen her last, you did good little bro," Jesse laughed but yet being completely serious at the same time.
"Yeah, I did, but you haven't done bad for yourself either, Jesse," Wade informed him with a massive grin on his face. "Eliza is still a little thing," he replied shaking his head.
They had easily gotten back into guy talk about sports and the upcoming high school games after Wade and Jesse finished up with their little talk and in no time at all they were laughing over another round of beer. Wade and Jesse not daring to drink too much, but a couple wouldn't hurt.
She wasn't too shocked to learn that Wade wasn't home when she had gotten in, learning from Taryn that he was hanging out with Jesse at the Rammer Jammer, she let them be and knew he'd be home before it got too late. She just went around the house and picked up after him from his morning of being home, she didn't touch anything in the garage because she had no idea where any of it went, she just switched the light off and shut the door, she'd let Wade deal with that mess when he got home or maybe he'd have to deal with it tomorrow. Either way he'd be the one to clean it up.
She had been home an hour before her two oldest ones came running through the door, both giving her a hug jumping into a story, they took turns telling her about how their day had been. Zoe laughed along with them as they told it letting herself get pulled into their story. Once it was finished they got up and headed upstairs after they let her know that they had already had dinner.
Ariel had only made it halfway up the stairs before turning around and coming back down to pick up her little sister and play with her. While Ariel was doing that, Zoe went into the kitchen to find something she could easily make for herself for dinner because she was starving.
Zoe was walking around with her little daughter in her arms gently rocking her trying to get her back to sleep. They day had been a fun one but a long one, she had enjoyed looking at baby things with Taryn and knowing what sex her and Jesse's little baby was. Taryn had walked out of the baby store with bags filled with things she needed when her little bundle of joy arrived which had been the plan when they walked into the store, however no matter how many times Zoe told them no on buying Eliza anything they refused to listen and Zoe walked out of the store with just as many bags as Taryn had. Finding room for the clothes and little toys had been easy, she just wasn't sure if Eliza would stay little long enough to wear all the clothes they had for her.
She had just gotten Eliza asleep when the music started to blare from the house across the street. She had thought about calling Bill at the police station but had to take care of her daughter first, the music didn't bother her, she was had grown accustomed to the loud noise living in the city for as long as she had and it was still something that really didn't cause much of a problem for her. So as long as it had no effect on her kids she wasn't going to worry about it. But now that it had disturbed Eliza she would have to make that call, if someone on the block hadn't done so yet.
"Has it been like that all night?" Wade asked, entering the bedroom, referring to the music that was still being played, it had been turned down but not by much.
"Bill's been over there more than once in the last hour, I really don't think he knows what to do, it's not like it's something he's had to deal with before, most the time it's teenagers and he can take them home," she quickly explained, "I just can't get Eliza to stay asleep with the music. Ariel and Braxton are both out and it doesn't seem to bother them.
Wade wanted to go over there and personally introduce himself to their new neighbors with a fist after unplugging the sound system. As fun as that would be it wouldn't do anyone any good if he was the one Bill took in for trespassing. He wasn't surprised that Braxton and Ariel could sleep through the noise; they could sleep through most anything.
It was well after 1 in the morning when the music died down, Wade was still awake but the rest of his family was sleeping. He really didn't want to deal with another night like the one he had just went through, he'd talk with some of the other homeowners on the block and with Bill to see what could be done, but in the meantime he was going to let his kids have some fun.
Waking up Braxton and Ariel to fill them in on what he wanted them to do was no easy feat, but when they were awake enough they were bouncing in their shoes, with eggs and toilet paper in hand he sent his kids on their way. He laughed watching it from the living room window the best he could in what little light he had from the moon.
"I really hope Earl didn't send you and Jesse out to egg people's houses." He turned to be met with a very amused Zoe. She wasn't mad they did deserve it.
"He didn't, but that didn't mean we didn't do it either," he chuckled, it just never happened in Bluebell. "They're having fun and Bill won't do anything if he finds out it was them, just don't punish them I made them do it," he told her.
"I'm not punishing anyone, they deserve worse than what our kids are dishing out," she informed him. "But that doesn't mean I'm okay with them doing this either, next time all three of you will be in trouble," she warned him.
"What if I had nothing to do with it?" He pouted, pulling her into his embrace, his chin resting on top of her head.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" She questioned with a small laugh. "I'm going back to bed make sure they get back safe and into bed," she told him.
"Will do," he let her know, pulling her back in for a lingering kiss.
It was a few days later when Braxton and Ariel recounted the story to Earl and Jackie, Earl and Jesse laughed, but Jackie was not pleased with her son.
"I can't believe you sent them out to do your dirty work," Jesse laughed. "I hope my child will do that if I tell them to," he said his laughter dying down some. "And you just let them?" He directed at Zoe.
"I don't know what I was thinking, but I couldn't get after them when it was their father's idea to start with," she easily explained. "Being mad at my husband seemed to be more trouble than it was worth," she tacked on.
"I told you a while ago that he was always going to be a child, I do believe that he was in the middle of a wrestling match with his brother," Earl brought up with a chuckle.
"When was this?" Wade questioned.
"It seems like a lifetime ago now," Zoe laughed.
"I have half a mind to ground you like I did when you and Jesse came home well into the night covered in egg shell and spray paint," Jackie hissed entering the room, placing dessert in front of everyone except her youngest son. She was making him get his own.
"Ma, it wouldn't work, I don't live here and I have my own family," he stated walking back out from the kitchen.
"You sure didn't act grown, Wade," Jackie hissed. "I'm going to go check on my little grandbaby and hopefully you won't make her do stupid things like your other two here," she said pushing her chair away from the table.
"You best go fix that," Earl warned.
Wade sighed but got up anyway, going after his mother. "I'm sorry, I didn't think it would cause this much trouble, no one got hurt and they felt so bad the next day they went over and helped clean the mess up, turns out the parents were gone for the night and the kids had a party, poor Bill was at a loss on what to do. But I shouldn't have sent them over there," he told her.
"You're right about that," she told him with a hard edge to her voice. "At least they were feeling guilty enough to go over and help clean their mess up. I'm upset because they're good kids and I don't want anything to be taken away from them for pulling stupid pranks."
"I won't let that happen and Zoe would never let it fly. Nothing will be taken away from them, the world is theirs to take, that will never change, I promise ya on that Ma," Wade told her.
"It best stay that way," she warned.
"And risking making you pissed, I think not," he smiled, pulling his mom in for a hug. "Love ya, Ma," he said softly, dripping a kiss to her cheek.