It seems that I'm good at forgetting holidays when it comes to this story. I've somehow skipped over Christmas and New Years again, sorry about that. The next chapter is going to be a little Valentines chapter.
To address the guest reviewer on the previous chapter, I personally don't have kids, just my niece and nephew's that I spend a good portion of each day with, and all my friends that do have kids are stay at home moms but looking it up I've came up with different lengths of time before a mother goes back to work but I read that it's normally 6 weeks when the doctor will clear you to go back to work some sooner and some do wait 3 months and some wait a bit longer. If I happen to have any of that wrong, I'm really sorry and please feel free to correct me on it.
And for Zoe she's only going in a few days out of the week and just for a couple hours in the morning and I'm sure she's able to do most anything while she's there, but I do know how father's can be at times and I have Harley just a bit more overprotective of her even if he knows nothing is going to happen, make sense? And nothing that I can think of, just more of them being father's more than anything else. And no worries about Henry and Ruby wanting to kidnap Ariel, that will not happen in this story, but it did however give me a great idea for a new story in which I already have some written for it.
Enjoy!
"One of these days, I will get you back for that little teasing act you pulled last night," Wade smirked, walking into the bedroom holding his very wide awake little girl in his arms as she looked around taking everything in.
"We'll see about that, baby," Zoe smiled, holding her hands out for her baby girl.
Wade had been ready to have a night in with his wife, but even he would miss his baby girl and Zoe felt the same way, she didn't want to spend the night away from her little girl. Teasing Wade was fun but when it came down to it she needed to have her baby at home with her, she just wasn't ready to be away from her 10 week old baby girl for a whole night quite yet.
"How sure are you that they'll show up with Ariel?" Wade asked, walking into the bathroom to start a shower.
"I don't think they're stupid enough to pull a no show with Ariel. They're smart people and they're going to do what's best. Ariel adores them and they've helped out a bit with everything and I want to believe that they'll be there," she said loud enough for Wade to hear her.
"I will hunt them down if they don't show up with Ariel. I don't care if they're blood related, they harm my daughter, I'll hurt them," he practically growled.
"I know, but calm down, we'll worry about it if they don't show up," she replied. "Oh Eliza," she cooed, pressing a tender kiss to her daughter's head. "Let's go get you dressed, baby girl," she smiled, looking down at her baby girl who had settled on looking up at her.
Zoe pulled a little outfit out of the dresser. She spent more time playing with her little girl, tickling her little tummy then she did on getting her dressed and ready for the day, when Eliza was all dressed, she sat in the rocking chair.
"I was wondering where you two vanished to," Wade smiled, entering the nursery to see his wife slowly rocking their little baby girl, who was babbling about something.
"Someone had to warn her on how crazy her father can be towards boys when she gets old enough," she giggled seeing the horror on her husband's face.
"Don't even joke about that, Miss Eliza will never date while she lives here, will you baby girl," he cooed, placing his pointer finger in her little palm, letting her wrap her little fingers around his.
"It's funny that you think that," Zoe smirked.
"Tell Mommy to hush it, we have an understanding, don't we, Eliza?" Zoe held her giggles in, her amusement written on her face. "Yeah, Mommy," Wade said in a small baby voice that made Zoe laugh.
"Alright," Zoe said, "let's go before you have her being a nun before her birthday," she told him getting up. "Want to get her stroller?" Zoe asked, walking out of the room.
"Of course," he called following behind his wife.
It was a beautiful day to walk the short distance to the Rammer Jammer, as long as they made sure Eliza had enough blankets to keep her warm as they walked. Wade had them walk past Billy's house to check on Braxton, but when they got to the house the boys were still sleeping, Billy's father was in the front yard picking up the mess from the boys.
Entering the Rammer Jammer it took them a few minutes to get from the door to any table as everyone that was in there wanted a chance to see how big Eliza had gotten. Eliza loved the attention babbling and cooing as each person talked and played with her. It was Wade that finally had enough and took his daughter and walked away without saying a word. He had looked around the place while everyone was paying attention to Eliza and he hadn't seen the three people that he was looking for and he was starting to worry and if he had Eliza in his arms then he would have a reason to stay calm and relaxed.
Zoe was the one that told them sorry as she pushed the stroller to where Wade was at. She looked at him wanting to know what it was about, but she could see that needing to wait on Ruby and Henry to bring Ariel back was starting to wear thin on him, so when he had a question of what in his eyes Zoe shook her head, understanding what her husband was going through.
"Guess what?" Ariel asked with an excited smile on her face as she ran up to her parents minutes later. "Grandpa and Grandma are moving here to Bluebell!" She exclaimed not giving her parents time to actually guess at what was going on.
"Say what?" Wade asked stunned at what his oldest daughter was telling them.
"They're moving here, they have a house and everything," she said, her eyes big with excitement. "They showed me on the way here this morning, its great isn't it?" she concluded with a question, the smile never once leaving her face.
"Uh yeah," Zoe said with a smile, conflicted on how she felt about his new development.
They had told her and Wade that they wanted to be better grandparents than they had been before, but she never thought they would move from the city to be closer to her. She liked the idea of it for Ariel since Candice had easily written them out of her life, but with something so huge like this it would have been nice to be told ahead of time. She knew that they didn't have to talk to her about moving there because she wasn't their child but it still would have been nice to be kept in the loop of things and not be blindsided with it all.
Ariel was the one to keep the conversation going as they ate breakfast, talking about everything that came to mind confusing the adults more than once about the things she was saying. When she finished her food she asked if she could and play with Braxton and a few others that were now outside up to something. Wade and Zoe let her go; she hugged everyone and took off out the door.
"You're really moving here?" Zoe asked, placing her glass of water down on the table.
"We are," Ruby told them. "We've missed out on so much because of our own stupidity, we just want to be given the chance to know our granddaughter," she easily explained.
"No ulterior motives about moving here?" Wade questioned, picking his little squirming baby back up. He wanted to believe that they meant no harm when it came to Henry and Ruby, but after hearing everything from his wife regarding them, he was finding it hard to fully trust them.
"No," Henry said shaking his head. "We want to be in her life. We made mistakes, but when you trust what your child tells you, you don't ever think that they are the one telling you these lies, you listen to what they're saying and that's what you go with, we didn't know Zoe or what kind of mother she was and now we know that she's an all around amazing mother," he told them sincerely. "And Wade you're an amazing father and everything you've done for Ariel proves just how great of a person you really are and how lucky all three of your kids are to have you both as parents."
"We're not trying to overstep our boundaries, but we want what everyone else has with Ariel. We want her to love and admire us as much as she does everyone else. We screwed up time and time again and we're truly sorry for that and we will make it up to all of you," Ruby said cutting her husband's words off. "We want to be in her life for us but more importantly for her, we don't want her to think we're some big disappointment, that we don't love her because we do. Moving here it's best for everyone and we won't ask you to change anything because of it. We will stick to the rules you laid out, until we've proven that we can be trusted and prove that we're not going anywhere," Ruby told them.
"Okay," Zoe says taking a deep breath. "One day at a time. I can't promise more than that," she told them. She could see that what they were doing was coming from the heart and it was something that they felt like they needed to do and she wasn't going to take away the bond they wanted with their only grandchild, she wasn't ready to fully trust them yet, though, that was something they would need to earn. "When do you move here officially?"
"The middle of next month," Ruby told them with a smile, the atmosphere around them turning from one filled with tension to a very relaxed one.
After that they were able to move onto more comfortable topics and enjoy the company they were given.
"Do we really trust them on the reason they're moving here?" Wade asked his wife as they were lying in bed later that night. His fingers strumming along her arm with her head resting on his bare chest.
"I want to and I don't think for a second that they would just move here to gain our trust just to steal her away from us," she mussed out loud. "Think about it, it could take years for us to even think about trusting them enough to keep her for a night again, she could be an adult before we ever fully trust them and by then it wouldn't really matter. Like they said nothing has to change," she sighed, letting her eyes close.
"It's not going to change, nothing is going to change. We both need to trust them before any of the rules we set are ever changed," he said lowly, not liking the thought of them coming into town just to swoop away his oldest daughter.
"I know, baby," Zoe mumbled, fighting the urge of sleep. "They're good people with a good heart that much I do know. I never agreed with what they did after Ariel was born, but it's in the past now and I've learned how to move on from that. Things are going to be okay, Wade."
"Maybe," he muttered under his breath. He wanted to believe what his wife was saying but he barely knew the two people in question, just heard the stories he's been told by his wife, he wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt but he was having trouble making that happen in his mind. He liked them, the few times they had spent together, he got to know them and it was good, but that didn't mean he had to trust them when it came to Ariel, he didn't know if he'd ever be able to trust them.